[emathias]

Looking at the vicinity of Cermak, what's with the empty blocks southwest of the station?

How hard would it be to extend 23rd into Chinatown? It seems like if the city did that, Chinatown would easily spread into those blocks. Also, it looks like a bike and/or pedestrian path could be woven along the north side of the Stevenson connecting those empty lots into the south end of the main Chinatown-Wentworth strip. Not enough room for a road without a lot of work, but it looks like a bike/pedestrian path could be managed with only a little excavation under some of the ramps. Doing both 23rd and a bike/pedestrian path seems like it could much more strongly tie Chinatown to those parcels and improve interest in development of them, especially after Cermak Green gets built. I just hope those lots aren't slated for SFH type development. A nice, highly urban development of that area seems like it would do wonders for the area. Sold blocks of 4-5 story mixed-use buildings with maybe a couple midrises flanking the corner of State and Cermak. If you did that, you'd have local, organic support for the Motor Row establishments to bolster destination customers, and excellent ridership support for the station and eventually if it went well it could spill over and get something going around 26th and State and further south toward IIT. Getting the South Loop to be commercially connected to that part of the South Side would be a great accomplishment.

Eventually it could support another station at 31st, and Lakeview-level density all the way to the Lakefront. That whole area has the potential to become Lakeview South with some smart investment.