Abstract
The Chicago River has been a central component of the surrounding land and inhabitants for as long as people have been in the area. Its history has been one of care, neglect, and revitalization, but this last point varies by the location and its demographics. The developments along the South Branch of the river have differed significantly compared to the Main and North Branches in terms of timelines, zoning changes, and sense of importance. Wealthier and whiter areas of the river, which surround the Main and North Branches, have benefited from clean-ups, mixed-use developments, and plans to prompt positive changes. In contrast, the South Branch’s land, water, and people have not been prioritized. The South Branch flows through the Southwest Side of the city. Latino, Asian, and lower-income communities primarily live in this area; the divestment here conveys environmental injustice due to the marginalized composition of the neighborhoods. At best, the environmental racism is an unintentional consequence and reminder of the different values ascribed to different people, dependent on their racial and ethnic backgrounds. At worst, Chicago’s river developments have purposefully neglected the communities most vulnerable to environmental harm to focus its efforts on areas with people deemed more worthy. This will be exemplified through the development frameworks the city has created for all branches. The makeup of certain ethnic and socioeconomic groups along the South Branch is not necessarily indicative of a sinister plot to actively neglect these communities. However, attention should be paid to these patterns as an indication of who the city’s developments favor over others.
Figure 1. These maps illustrate the Chicago River’s course in blue. Chicago city boundaries are indicated in gray (Image credit: Friends of the Chicago River / Explore Chicago River System Map). A) View of the entire city, its suburbs, and other river systems. B) Modified image to distinguish the three branches. The red star is indicative of the confluence point.
Historical Context: Chicago River Development
Pre-Colonial
The history of the Chicago River’s development starts with the pre-colonial settlements of Indigenous nations. The Anishinaabeg have inhabited the Great Lakes area for centuries. This group is made up of over 100 nations in North America, but in particular, the Potawatomi, Ojibwe, and Odawa people have lived around the area known today as Chicago (Indigenous Chicago, 2025). Dating back to at least the 1600s, these nations and many others used the configuration of the Checagou River for trade and transportation (Al-Kodmany, 2021; Nelson, 2023). The river’s North and South Branches combine at their confluence point that lead into the Main Branch, which originally flowed into Lake Michigan. It almost directly connected Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River, with canoes needing to be carried a short distance (Nelson, 2023). Consequently, the river connected the people along this vast stretch of water as well (Indigenous Chicago, 2025). It also contained various important resources: fish, migrating birds, and wild rice for eating, and mammals like beaver, otters, and raccoons were hunted for their fur. Additionally, Anishinaabeg creation stories place great importance on areas where land and water meet (Nelson, 2023). The Chicago River, as a connection point and food source, gave it cultural significance for the Indigenous nations.
Indigenous people started creating permanent settlements around 1740 as a strategic way to keep control of the resources as Europeans began encroaching on the area (Nelson, 2023). They, too, were interested in the area’s connection to the Mississippi River and the wealth-generating potential of the fur trade. During this time, there were frequent violent clashes over who controlled the waterways, including the Chicago River. These conflicts were between different Indigenous nations, but also between French explorers and traders around the land. While some nations allied themselves with the French and their political systems, others wanted to maintain their sovereignty (Nelson, 2023). These interactions transferred over to the British once they moved into the area after forcing the French out, then the Americans after the Revolution.
Control of the waterways for their transportation and trade capabilities continued to be a primary factor in the settlements and conflicts. The first non-Indigenous settler of the area, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, demonstrated this through his establishment of a trading post at the confluence point of the river in 1770 (Ortega Zapata, 2022). While the United States was focused on other issues post-independence, the economic potential around the Chicago River would not be ignored for long. As the US pushed westward, disputes and bloodshed continued under this new power. The Battle of Fort Dearborn in 1812 resulted in Native American victory over colonists moving into the area, but later on helped the argument for Indigenous removal. Removal was increasingly seen as necessary so that settlers could start to create a built environment and infrastructure that better suited their own needs (Nelson, 2023). This mentality coupled with the 1830 Indian Removal Act solidified the US government’s displacement of the remaining Indigenous nations. In 1821 and 1833, two different Treaties of Chicago were signed by the Anishinaabeg and US government, seceding the land to the US and requiring the Native Americans to move west of the Mississippi River (Ortega Zapata, 2022). This displacement allowed Chicago’s population and industries to grow, now that white settlers had full control of the land. Infrastructures like roads were quickly developed, and land was sold in great amounts. Importantly, the river was a focus of the infrastructure improvements, like having a better harbor and canal system for transportation of goods (Nelson, 2023). The Chicago River has always been a central point for the people living around it and important for the development of the land.
The Chicago River as a Settlement
There were around 30,000 settlers in Chicago by the 1850s (Ortega Zapata, 2022). With the growing population came an increase in pollution and waste production. The city’s sewage and the waste products of the stockyards, steel mills, and meat packing industries were dumped into the river. The river flowed into Lake Michigan, heavily contaminating the main source of drinking water. To solve this, the city came up with a plan that would also directly connect them to the commerce of the Mississippi River. Through engineering efforts that involved connecting the Chicago River directly with the Mississippi River via digging out a new canal, the flow of the river reversed. Since the project’s completion in 1900, the river flows from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River, greatly decreasing the pollution and water-borne illness epidemics (Al-Kodmany, 2021; Nelson, 2023; Ortega Zapata, 2022). Communities down the Mississippi were concerned that the pollution had become a burden to them (Kron, 2023), but Chicago claimed the water would become clean naturally as it flowed. This problem is addressed today through proper sanitation systems (Ortega Zapata, 2022). This tumultuous history of the river demonstrates the contrasting treatments and ideologies towards the river, the original inhabitants valuing the natural worth of the river, and the newly developed society using it as waste disposal.
The contaminated Chicago River now flowed away from the drinking source of residents, but it remained polluted throughout the majority of the 1900s. The population and their impact on the waterway, meanwhile, only continued to grow, reaching 3 million by the 1930s. This was 100 times greater than the population in 1850, and to address the contamination through better means, various sewage treatment plants were created around this time. Almost 100 years later, in the 1960s, public perception of the polluted river began to change as the water quality had been continuously improving (Ortega Zapata, 2022). Further pushing the cleanup was the newly established Environmental Protection Agency, which pressured the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago to control and clean the sewage and industrial wastes that were an unwanted staple of the river (Al-Kodmany, 2021; Ortega Zapata, 2022). After the Clean Water Act was signed into law in 1972 and dumping contaminants into the river became illegal, the city designed and began construction on the Tunnel and Reservoir Plan in 1975. This system is meant to hold wastewater until it can be treated, and although the full project is not complete, it is operational today (Al-Kodmany, 2021).
Additionally, environmental organizations like the Friends of the Chicago River were created (1979) by citizens so they could directly combat the historical neglect of the river. Partnerships arose with said organizations to work on the sustainable development of the river and its shores. They have continued to help develop local policies like the zoning ordinance in 1999 to further improve the river system (Ortega Zapata, 2022). These projects, laws, and activism improved the Chicago River and the land around it, but the implementation of specific developments in each branch differed. Because its central location to the downtown area increases its economic value, the Main Branch of the river was prioritized. Here, for the first time in over a century, the river was considered a desirable place to live. The aspect of the resources had changed, the native animals and plants replaced by jobs and recreational opportunities like boat tours (Ortega Zapata, 2022). While the North and South Branches remained industrial and neglected through the 90s and early 2000s, these areas would also eventually get development plans (City of Chicago [CoC] Department of Planning and Development [DPD] & Chicago Department of Transportation [CDOT], 2017; CoC DPD, 2025).
Social Equity and the River
Understanding this history is vital to comprehending the different developmental tactics of the Chicago River, which date back to the first interaction between humans and this river landscape. Equally important, however, is understanding the social dynamics that led to disparities the city is still grappling with. The largest social factors that affect the quality of life in Chicago are race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (Joshi, 2023). This is reflected within the timelines of the different framework plans. The modern development of the Main Branch began in the 1990s and was completed in 2019; its framework plan was 72 pages long (Al-Kodmany, 2021; CoC DZP & CDOT, 2009; Ortega Zapata, 2022). The North Branch framework (136 pages long) was published in 2017, and although some of the developments it set out to implement have changed, the city is moving forward with its revitalization (CoC DPD & CDOT, 2017; Kron, 2023; Ortega Zapata, 2022). Most recently, the South Branch framework was published by the city in 2025 and consisted of six presentation slides (CoC DPD, 2025a). The contrast in development timelines and scale of the framework plans is striking.
While redevelopment projects around the Chicago River are mixed between being successful and not, which will be discussed in the following sections, the underlying issue remains that sustainable developments cannot exist without equity. Like a vast amount of US cities, de facto segregation dominated development policies in Chicago, starting from the onset of the Great Migration and before the Great Depression. The United States Housing Authority reinforced segregation and refused to develop integrated housing developments (Rothstein, 2018). As demonstrated by Figure 2, the legacy of redlining lives on through clear demarcations of racial neighborhoods. The fact that industrialization has taken priority in the South Branch is symptomatic of the environmental injustice and racism the city faces. These are well-known polluting industries, and in Chicago, poor air quality affects 44% of Latinos, 25% of Black communities, and 21% of white communities (Joshi, 2023). Because Chicago remains segregated to this day through the legacy of redlining, development of the Chicago River has typically favored white and wealthy demographic areas. There is an instance of Asian people having differential access to social and environmental resources and distinctly experiencing the American diaspora because of their nationality. Some have more upward mobility and wealth than others (Bowdler & Harris, 2022), and this may account for the different experiences of this population in Chinatown when compared to downtown (to be further discussed).
Figure 2. Demographic composition of Chicago and its neighboring suburbs in 2020 mapped out based on the US Census categories. The patches of solid colors demonstrate the segregated nature of the city (Image credit: Census Dots).
Simultaneously, the developments have ignored this vital city space when low-income, minority groups are the ones who live in the area (Kron, 2023). This mirrors the unsustainable, discriminatory development practices throughout the city, but equity needs to become a top priority for the city, and a starting point would be the river. The river has the possibility to improve the lives of all residents around it by promoting community spaces, increasing how physically active people are, and decreasing the urban heat island effect (White et al., 2020). However, these impacts can only materialize and include traditionally marginalized groups if the Chicago River’s current and future developments keep equity at the forefront. The North and South Branches are lined with industrial corridors, with some land zoned specifically as Planned Manufacturing Districts (PMDs). These spaces fully prohibit residential land uses and various commercial uses compared to the less strict Manufacturing (M) use. This zoning was created in 1988 to prevent non-industrial land usage in the area to avoid complaints and arguments about the heavy industries (CoC DPD & CDOT, 2017). A large issue with zoning to be discussed is the lack of zoning changes in the South Branch’s PMDs, while the North Branches have been rezoned to allow different developments. At the moment, there is a lack of investment in Chicago River developments when the river runs through minority and low-income neighborhoods, hinting at environmental injustices affecting these communities.
Figure 3. Map of Chicago showing the Planned Manufacturing Districts (PMDs) and Industrial Corridors in the city. Many are along the Chicago River (Image credit: City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development & Chicago Department of Transportation).
Literature Review
Methodology
Two analytical approaches will be used to define the “successful development” of the branches. The triple bottom line sustainability framework is a way to academically and practically assess the success of the three branches' redevelopment. This concentrates on the impacts developments have on people (equality), profit (economics), and planet (ecology). The focus on people aims to make spaces accessible, equitable, and livable for everyone, while also centering on community health. Profit seeks positive business growth through increased wages, employment, and revenue. And planet tackles the environmental aspects of development, like whether it fosters a healthy ecosystem for people and nature. (Al-Kodmany, 2021). Additionally, pulling from the development goals of Chicago’s framework plans for each branch will illuminate if the city met its own set goals.
Main Branch
This was the first branch to have a concentrated effort by the city and residents to revitalize it. Being downtown and straddled by the affluent neighborhoods of River North, the Loop, and Streeterville, this section of the river already had plenty of tourist attractions and green infrastructure around it. There was a vision for its improvement, however (CoC DZP & CDOT, 2009), and in the 1990s, the planning and conceptualization for the 1.25-mile-long Riverwalk began. Studies commenced to determine the feasibility of the proposed project, which included turning the entirety of the Main Branch’s south shore into a walkable, bikeable stretch of land filled with green space and lined with retail opportunities. The construction of this space was completed in phases, focusing on four different areas, concluding after 20 years in 2019. It is a popular tourist destination, and various boat tour companies give tours on the river’s history and the buildings around it. Central to this was making the river healthy again, and as of 2025, it is clean enough to swim in. Native plants and animals have returned to inhabit the space and pollution as an issue has decreased, especially compared to a few years ago when kayakers were advised not to touch the water (Al-Kodmany, 2021).
The Main Branch of the Chicago River has had the most successful redevelopment in terms of urban sustainability and the city’s own goals. The “Chicago Riverwalk: Main Branch Framework Plan” describes six principles that simultaneously match the qualities of the triple bottom line (CoC DZP & CDOT, 2009). The main priority was to attract people to the waterfront through several methods. This focus on people was demonstrated through making the riverwalk accessible to people with disabilities by including ramps and weather-protected elevators. Attracting people was necessary for the economic goals of transforming the river into a commercial destination and expanding its financial capabilities. Al-Kodmany (2021) mentions one of the design firms in the project, Sasaki, estimated that eight billion dollars were generated by developing the riverwalk. While water quality improvements are not mentioned, there was a desire to expand green space and enhance the environment by restoring natural habitats at the confluence point, away from commerce of the riverwalk (CoC DZP & CDOT, 2009).
Examining the developments further in terms of equity is important in fully dissecting if/what environmental injustices exist along the river. The area around the Main Branch has been affluent since the 1960 clean-ups, when luxury apartments were built (Ortega Zapata, 2022). The average income of residents in all the surrounding neighborhoods is estimated at over $100,000, which is greater than the $77,902 Chicago average (Metopio, n.d.). Besides being wealthy, Census Dots (n.d.) shows the majority of residents here are white and Asian, highlighting barriers to integrating a central and attractive part of the city. It would be disingenuous to suggest that the concentration of resources for the Main Branch’s development was only motivated by the area’s high-income white and Asian population. After all, this is a centralized part of the city and part of its downtown area, which would naturally be a priority to develop. Affluence and racial demographics are inherently linked in the United States, with white and Asian identifying people typically being wealthier and having better economic opportunities (Bowdler & Harris, 2022). This is also linked to the social injustices these groups face less, for example, by living in better areas that they then help develop through property taxes. However, this selective development strategy is not an isolated incident, indicating neglect in improvements when areas have marginalized populations, and the Chicago River is unfortunately a great example.
North Branch
Once the Main Branch’s developments were wrapping up, the city turned its attention to other parts of the river. The North Branch spans northwest through the city and into the suburbs, and like the rest of the river was previously heavily industrialized. Kron (2023) demonstrates that while not all portions of the branch have been deindustrialized, there has been a decline in this portion of the economy. Similar to the North Side in general, North Branch adjacent neighborhoods have a majority white population with an average income above $100k (Census Dots, n.d.; Metopio, n.d.). “Mayor Emanuel’s Industrial Corridor Modernization North Branch Framework” in 2017 focused on the river area closer to the confluence (CoC DPD & CDOT, 2017). Neighborhoods here include River North, West Town, Lincoln Park, and Goose Island, which were all highly industrialized zones around the river, housing steel mill plants, vehicle maintenance facilities, and other manufacturing sites (“Lincoln Yards Master Plan”, 2019). A primary reason behind the developments along this part of the North Branch is the proximity to the waterfront and the access to green amenities. Revitalizing the space around the river is seen as a great economic opportunity (CoC DPD & CDOT, 2017; “Lincoln Yards Master Plan”, 2019). The developmental goals here included a transition towards research, modern manufacturing, and technology and management jobs to uphold the local economy, since there was already a shift from industry as the primary economic driver (CoC DPD & CDOT, 2017). Better access for all transportation methods and enhancing the natural environment were also goals the city wanted to implement. This led to the conceptualization of two major projects mobilized in 2019: the Lincoln Yards and the Wild Mile.
The Lincoln Yards were a proposed mixed-use development project that would have included housing, retail locations, and plenty of offices to attract the new tech economy into the Goose Island area (Kron, 2023; Ortega Zapata, 2022; “Lincoln Yards Master Plan”, 2019). This site previously housed the Finkl Steel plant, which harbored negative health effects for the environment and surrounding residents through river, air, and soil contamination (“Lincoln Yards Master Plan”, 2019). The success of the Lincoln Yards project is debatable because it was canceled. While the project ultimately collapsed due to the developers' financial losses, it did manage to remove over 25,000 tons of contaminated soil (“Lincoln Yards Master Plan”, 2019). Chicago has since reclaimed the land and sold it to another developer. This newer project has been scaled down significantly, but the plan for Foundry Park is getting along better than its predecessor as of 2025 (CoC DPD, 2025b). The focus emphasizes mixed-use residential units, improving all transportation options, coupled with having plenty of parks and other green spaces. The plan is to build different forms of housing with commercial and retail use. The implementation of these ambitious goals is being supported by the city through zoning changes. The corridor was designated as a Planned Manufacturing District, but much of the area is being changed to different Manufacturing classifications and Downtown Services to allow for different developments to be built. (CoC DPD & CDOT, 2017). Transportation would also be improved by building more bridges over the river to connect more places and decrease the current traffic congestion. The natural spaces onsite are planned to connect to the existing 606 Trail (CoC DPD, 2025b). Named after the first three digits in every Chicago zip code, the 606 Trail is an abandoned rail converted to a 2.7-mile-long elevated trail and park. Overall, the new area would provide residents with various environmental and health benefits by promoting clean air and water, providing outdoor recreation spaces to exercise, and the associated mental health benefits of living in a “nice” space (White et al., 2020). If controls are put in place to prevent gentrification and for affordable housing, this could become a welcoming neighborhood for anyone to live in and enjoy this space. Whether this will happen, or if Foundry Park will become a highly affluent, majority-white area like its surroundings, remains to be seen.
Around the same area, the Wild Mile has been established as of 2019 and has continued to expand. The non-profit group Urban Rivers is the main driver behind the idea. In collaboration with other entities, including the city of Chicago, floating green spaces and walkways have been constructed. The top priority of the Wild Mile is to create more natural habitats to best support wildlife. These “wetland rafts” are composed of native species, again emphasizing the environment-first approach of this community-led development (“The Wild Mile Chicago”, n.d.; CoC DPD, 2019). While parts of the area are still industrial zones, the reclamation and resilience of the community work that has brought about this development are commendable. The need for such green spaces was recognized, for the health and economic benefits of humans (Kron, 2023), but also for the wildlife and the environments they live in. These two major river projects represent the city’s plans for the development of the Chicago River’s North Branch. Both are signs of positive, sustainable developments, but the social aspects should not be dismissed. Community work and private developers have contributed to the North Branch's transformation into a more ecologically sound area, benefiting both current/future residents, the environment, and economic interests. This is a step forward for promoting the ecological services and urban resiliency in terms of the social value reattributed to the area.
South Branch
Chicago, “hog butcher for the world”, concentrated its various industries like stockyards, meat packing plants, and coal power plants along the South Branch in the 19th and 20th centuries (CoC DPD, 2005). It follows that the river on the Southwest side would be heavily contaminated by the industries, especially before the 1960s, when clean-up efforts really began. This is exemplified by its offshoot, Bubbly Creek, named so in the early 1900s because the expulsion of decomposition gases from rotting animal carcasses at the bottom of the river made it look like it was boiling constantly. The Clean Water Act helped address this by decreasing the allowed amount of industrial dumping. In 2022, Urban Rivers installed floating gardens and plants that were native to the area to help with filtration and provide habitat for wildlife (Urban Rivers, n.d.). Even with these efforts, the creek is currently categorized as an area of potential ecological improvement, but the city itself has not solidified plans to combat its issues (CoC DPD, 2005). In terms of environmental injustice and unequal development, it is striking that the last area of the river to receive has been the one populated with minorities: first Eastern Europeans from the 1800s to the 1990s, then Chinese and Mexican communities as the century progressed (Kern & Kovesi, 2018). For example, the Crawford and Fisk coal power plants were the last two coal-based plants to be shut down in the city after extensive activism from the predominantly Latino communities surrounding them (Kern & Kovesi, 2018). While the biggest complaint here was with the air pollution, the plants being next to the river meant the space could not be used for recreation like it currently can in the Main and North Branches without worrying about contamination. The South Branch is at a crossroads that will either modernize its industrial legacy or spur changes that will revitalize a neglected corridor with community interests in mind. This is all dependent on the development plans of the city.
In comparison to the 2017 release of the North Branch Framework, the South Branch Framework has been initiated as of 2025 (CoC DPD, 2025a). The revitalization hopes to focus on the river adjacent areas of Ping Tom Memorial Park in Chinatown to the McKinley Park neighborhood. This aims to concentrate on the area two miles downstream of the confluence and continue for a total of three miles. Additionally, the current extent of the South Branch Framework involves only research and analysis of the area; there is no big project planned like Foundry Park up north. Fundamentally speaking, the South Branch’s framework and criteria for its success do not exist yet because a full development plan also does not exist. In contrast to the demographics in the areas surrounding the Main and North Branch developments, the majority of people around the South Branch neighborhoods are Latino and Asian (Census Dots, n.d.). The Asian population here is in a lower socioeconomic standing compared to those who live around the Main Branch, which could be due to the different Asian diasporas in the US (Bowdler & Harris, 2022). The average income is estimated to range from $35k-90k here and is lower compared to the other two river redevelopment areas; a family of four is considered to be in poverty if they earn less than $33k (Joshi, 2023; Metopio, n.d.). This unequal economic opportunity distribution again is tied to race and the historical devaluation of marginalized people (Bowdler & Harris, 2022). Noting who is seen as deserving of ecological and economic services related to improving the environment is important in rectifying any injustices and in producing equitable, sustainable developments.
This issue comes to the forefront in Chicago when considering the lack of deindustrialization in the South Branch, especially in comparison to the North Branch. While the older manufacturing industries that Chicago became known for have left the area, more modern ones have taken over. Many of the majority Latino neighborhoods have industrial corridors lining their riverfront. Asphalt and concrete production plants, Amazon, Target, and FedEx shipping centers, among various other distributors, are some examples of the industries dominating the South Branch’s shorelines, polluting the land and people nearby (Kron, 2023). The area is currently zoned as a Planned Manufacturing District (PMD), which does not allow anything other than industrial developments. Unlike the North Branch’s PMD zoning changes into M zones, updating the zoning here is not being discussed by the city, despite many residents advocating for new developments to include multi-use buildings and green spaces. Prime spots for such developments based on the proximity to the river and public transport instead get turned into warehouses (Kron, 2023). And in cases where community activism led to substantial changes, like the closing of the last two coal power plants in the entire city, the demolition of one gets botched, contamination spreads throughout the neighborhoods, and the other sits abandoned (Kern & Kovesi, 2018; Joshi, 2023; “Former Crawford Power Plant Site”, 2024). Notwithstanding that both the Crawford and Fisk coal plants were situated on the South Branch, the continual industrial classification prevents meaningful changes. The North and Main Branches have experienced positive social, economic, and environmental redevelopments, demonstrating what areas get to look towards the future, and which harbor the negative impacts of living next to industrial facilities.
Successful or Unsuccessful Urban Sustainability?
When considering the sustainable development criteria of the triple bottom line (TBL) and the framework plan of each branch, the success of the Chicago River’s Branch developments varies from not enough to extremely. The Main Branch’s development is extremely successful by the TBL criteria and the city’s own framework standards. The riverwalk becoming accessible shows a central focus on people and inclusivity. It is exemplary of how the river can be revitalized to best make use of the space, while cleaning up the environment and preventing further deterioration. By concentrating on altering the previous existing spaces to be more unique and inviting, excessive surface parking lots were removed, the amount of green space increased, and today people overwhelmingly visit the area; residents and tourists alike help generate economic growth (Al-Kodmany, 2021; CoC DZP & CDOT, 2009). Throughout Chicago’s history, the North Branch was full of industrial factories that contributed to pollution detrimental to the health of people and wildlife. However, these industries leaving and the North Branch developments in 2017 made living near the river more appealing. The two projects discussed earlier are prime examples of successful sustainable development implementation. There is a combined focus on the livability (access to green space, air quality, transportation options) of the region for people, but also rejuvenating the native wildlife and state of the river; besides its own intrinsic worth, it helps the people living there too (CoC DPD, 2019; CoC DPD, 2025b). Zoning changes are also opening the door to economic growth through the transition of fading industries to more modern jobs. Again, by the criteria of its framework plan, these projects epitomize what successful implementation of the goals looks like—developing a modern economic sector, increasing transportation, and enhancing the natural space (CoC DPD & CDOT, 2017). However, with the developments being ongoing, it is unknown how inclusive and equitable the new neighborhood will be for all people. And ultimately, the South Branch cannot be called either successful or unsuccessful based on its framework plan of the TBL, given that it has not been developed up to the point of having goals (CoC DPD, 2025a). Even if the South Branch gets a framework plan as thorough as the other two branches, comparing the timelines of the plans and the work done so far reveals a lack of progress and care.
Once the entirety of the Chicago River’s development is considered, especially the implications unequal project developments have for different kinds of people, it becomes difficult to call the applications successful. Chicago was built on segregation; its redlining policies have left lasting social injustices that still plague the city and determine what ethnicities get access to resources (Census Dots, n.d.). This is no different when discussing the river as a form of disparity that keeps the legacies of racist policies alive. Precolonization, the river was used and abused by wealthy individuals and their companies to extract as much profit with no regard for the consequences on the environment. Over time, this mentality has shifted, and many residents, like the ones living in close proximity to the river, want to see the environmental issues with it get fixed (Kern & Kovesi, 2018). Not only would it improve their physical and mental health, air quality, community engagement, and the river itself, but also restore the ecological area and diminish the urban heat island effect. Getting rid of polluting industries near the river is the first step towards making these improvements. The differences here show where and to whom the burden of a bad environment gets unequally distributed. The way income and race/ethnicity are related is very much seen through the high income of the majority white neighborhoods around the North and Main Branches, while the South Branch and Southwest Side, in general, are lower-income areas. It demonstrates that some lives are worth more effort to protect and improve. Chicago has chosen to focus on the downtown and North Side areas while leaving the largely Latino, low-income residents on the South to not enjoy the same benefits that come with a cleaner, accessible river (Kron, 2023). Because of this, it is impossible to call the overall redevelopment of the Chicago River sustainable; it is missing the key piece of being equitable for all residents, no matter their identities.
Kaylee Gonzalez is a current Master of Science student in the Department of Geography & Environmental Science.