Curving from the downtown junction at Wolf Point, this branch hosts glassy condominiums and exclusive clubs on its banks. Soon enough, tire shops, bus lots and concrete factories appear alongside urban amenities. The North Branch’s Goose Island remembers eras of heavy industry in its polluted soils even as Lincoln Yards, a publicly-funded playground for the privileged, sprouts from them. Upstream at Lathrop Homes, the Related Corporation has reduced available public housing by rehabbing brick buildings as affordable, as well as upmarket units. Quoted in the Chicago Reader, longtime Lathrop Homes resident J.L. Gross describes his community as eviscerated by structures like a boathouse designed “for white people.” In its upper reaches, the North Branch opens into leafy parks and private docks offering homeowners an urban oasis. That is, until combined sewers overflow into the river.
Character of the North Branch
The North Branch represents a member of the old guard who has been in the neighborhood for decades and has stayed put through gentrification. They are an elder shopkeeper who was a fixture in the community in the “before times.” Their shop was a focal point and served as a de facto community center for many families in the area. People would leave a spare key to their apartment with them for safekeeping in case one of the kids got locked out or a visitor was arriving during their work shift.
They watched their neighborhood transform as developers bought up parcels of land around their shop. But they refused to sell and just hung on while their community was priced out without any control or say in the matter. All their old neighbors are gone and they are working through a sense of loss. Sometimes, their old customers come back to the shop just to visit them and say hi. They look down on the new customers because they do not understand the history or value of what came before them.
