The 1000 block of North Wood Street in Chicago's East Village historic district. A decision could be reached in the coming months in a long-running lawsuit that links Chicago landmark districts to racial segregation and a lack of affordable housing. Photo: E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/TNS
The lawsuit highlights the tension between housing advocates and historic preservationists. Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago, said historic districts can protect the built environment, provide stability and serve as neighbourhood anchors. Lauren Buitta, who manages the lawsuit on behalf of one of the residents who filed it, Albert Hanna, who died in 2020, said landmarking and historic preservation wield a significant amount of power over how communities develop.
Hanna and Mrowka initially challenged both Chicago’s landmarks ordinance as a whole and the creation of the two historic districts where they lived. The challenge to the landmarks ordinance was closely watched by preservationists around the country and was believed to hold significance for efforts to save historic buildings nationwide.
In an updated version of their lawsuit filed in 2010, Hanna and Mrowka said the city had no basis to apply the landmark designation to their neighbourhoods, and the creation of the two districts “not only delegitimises valid historic preservation efforts, but is the product of deception and misinformation”.
They cited a former assistant historic preservation commissioner who was once named in the case, who “testified that the city believed that preserving important and distinctive neighbourhoods that have historic architectural and cultural character was important to make Chicago and its neighbourhoods unique”.
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