These buildings are at the core of a proposed Maxwell Street National Historic District which has been building support from around the world. Luminaries such as Bo Diddley, Charlie Musslewhite, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, New York Times columnist Ira Berkow, actor Dan Aykroyd, Congressman Danny K. Davis, Congressman Bobby L. Rush, Congressman John Conyers Jr., City of Chicago Commissioner of Cultural Affairs Lois Weisberg, and William Ferris, head of the National Endowment for the Humanities, all support such a historic district. If these buildings are demolished, it then becomes extremely difficult for a Maxwell Street Historic District to be created. It becomes difficult to continue to seek support from around the world for a Maxwell Street Historic District if there is nothing or little left on Maxwell Street. These buildings were built to last.
People do it all the time in the city.
Private developers can make money rehabbing old buildings like these. Only the City of Chicago and the UIC tear town buildings like these when they can be rehabbed and reused. To the extent these buildings are in disrepair, it is because of the way UIC has treated them, kicking out tenants, leaving them vacant, and not boarding them up. The Coalition feels the recent arsons on Maxwell Street are especially suspicious in its timing to UIC's desire to demolish. Nothing could alter and harm the complexion of the neighborhood more than the latter.