Another 46th Ward Town Hall Meeting

From Ald. Cappleman's latest newsletter:

"46th Ward Town Hall Meeting.  I want to hear your thoughts and ideas. Please join me for the next 46th Ward Town Hall Meeting to discuss final results from the Ward Master Plan and next steps moving forward.

When: Monday, December 5 at 7:30 pm
Where: Temple Sholom, 3480 North Lake Shore Drive"

If you haven't been keeping up with the Ward Master Plan as it's been released, there's some interesting stuff in there. You can read it here.

For example, the Uptown part of the ward is saturated with only category of business (and it's not what you think).* That means that Uptown has the means and retail power to support many other diverse businesses.  Furthermore, "consumer retail expenditures by area residents were about $825 million, with approximately half of that expenditure spent outside the Uptown community area. This survey clearly shows that there are opportunities for successful retail businesses to open in Uptown."

Another thing we didn't know:  "The 46th Ward far exceeds the City of Chicago’s guideline of two acres of green space per 1,000 residents. [...]  All areas of the 46th Ward exceed the city guideline of having open space within a half mile of a resident’s home."  We also didn't realize there are five nature areas in the ward, or that Montrose Beach is the largest beach in the city.

There are also sections concentrating on social services, TIFs, Safety... and more.  We suggest taking a look; it's interesting stuff if you're interested in Uptown and how it's put together.

48th Ward residents, don't feel left out.  According to Ald. Osterman, the 48th Ward will release its own Master Plan in December 2011.

* The retail category that Uptown is saturated with: Electronics/Appliance stores. We assume that refers to the cell phone sales empire we host.