Sometimes, gradual changes in neighborhoods can go unnoticed, until a specific event crystallizes the transformation for observers. One Halloween, Pete Schmugge came face-to-face with the change in Hermosa as he watched tiny ghosts and goblins march into neighborhood stores.
“On Halloween, the kids trick-or-treat primarily at area businesses,” said Schmugge, executive director of the North-Pulaski-Armitage Chamber of Commerce. “That’s when you know there’s a lot of kids in the neighborhood.”
The increasing presence of families with younger children is just one of the changes in an area that has seen enormous evolution in recent decades.
At one time a Swedish enclave, Hermosa later welcomed waves of German, Polish and Italian settlers. More recently, it’s been home to many Puerto Ricans, and in the last few years has seen a dramatic influx of Mexican-American families, Schmugge said.
Ethnic and demographic shifts, however, tell only part of the story in this neighborhood shaped like an asymmetric bottle. Wide on the southern end and narrow on its northern border, Hermosa is bordered by Belmont Avenue on the north, Metra’s Milwaukee District West Line and North Line tracks east and south and Kolmar Avenue to the west.
In the early and mid-1990s, Hermosa was plagued by street gangs, prostitution and drugs. While those woes are still present, they seem to be waning, said Schmugge, whose organization covers parts of Hermosa and three other northwest Chicago neighborhoods.
“The thing we’ve been working on for the past four years is crime,” he said. “We’re seeing some results. Gangs have less of a presence. Generally, it’s better; we still have pockets of trouble, but things are on the improving side. When I first started working with the chamber [in 1995], they were out there all the time.”
Part of the reason for the brighter picture is a decline in single-family home foreclosures, which seemed to peak in the mid-1990s, Schmugge said. The numerous abandoned houses served as hideouts for gang members and gathering spots for prostitutes.
Also helping foster change is the Hermosa Community Organization, based at 1833 N. Kedvale Ave. in the St. Philomena School.
One of its most active participants is Betty Kendziera, a board member and past president, and a resident of Hermosa for almost a half century. The organization convenes committees of volunteers who work with the city to clean up the neighborhoods, Kendziera said. Volunteers walk from yard to yard to check for garbage that hasn’t been adequately stored in trash receptacles.
” . . . .We are in a 60-block area, and these volunteers have gone through just about every block. We’re doing everything we can to cut down crime, clean up the neighborhoods and make it a healthy place to live,” Kendziera said.
The business climate in the neighborhood seems healthier. A streetscape project completed in 2001 brought antique street lighting, new sewers, sidewalk replacement and freshly planted trees to Armitage Avenue between Central Park to Cicero Avenues. That’s helped quicken the pace of new business arrivals along the avenue. Schmugge estimates the last four years have brought more than 20 new businesses to Armitage, including restaurants, service businesses like insurance agencies and furniture stores.
Residential developers are also taking note of an area that hasn’t seen much new housing in at least 50 years. Schmugge reports increasing interest among condominium builders in vacant properties in southern Hermosa. And on the neighborhood’s northern border at Belmont, Chicago developer Dubin Residential plans to build 116 two- to three-bedroom townhouses with two-car garages on a site formerly housing a candy factory. Prices will start around $230,000.
As for existing housing, Hermosa’s residential stock consists primarily of frame bungalows and brick ranches on residential streets, with brick two- and three-flats on corners.
Prices range from $175,000 to $230,000 for single-family homes, and $240,000 to $350,000 for two-flats, said Ventura Nevarez, agent at Ventura Realty Group. The prices represent a big step up in value from the mid-1990s, when houses in Hermosa fetched as little as $100,000 to $125,000.
Despite the transformation in Hermosa, one thing’s never likely to change, Kendziera believes.
“They’re trying to gentrify, but I don’t think that’s going to happen,” she said. “It never was a gentrified neighborhood. It was always a working-class neighborhood. And I think it will stay a nice working-class area. People are taking care of their property, and it’s looking good.”
Hermosa
Population 2000, 26,904, up 16.3 percent from 1990
Demographics
White, 11.5 percent
Black, 2.4 percent
Hispanic, 83.9 percent
Asian, 1.2 percent
Median income, $38,159
Median home price, $205,000 (July-September)
Average commute, 35 minutes
Sources: U.S. Census, Record Information Services
