By Ben Joravsky
In many ways, Einhorn’s story symbolizes the conflict. He moved to the area (roughly bounded by Kedzie, Halsted, Grand, and Lake) about 11 years ago, a 23-year-old college grad looking for cheap space to start a photography business. He found what he wanted on the sixth floor of a run-down warehouse. “I got 4,000 square feet for $700 a month,” says Einhorn. “What a dump. The elevator didn’t work, there were transients in the hallway. I sunk about $50,000 into fixing that place up. I wasn’t complaining–I was close to the Loop and I had my start.”
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“People like me don’t want the white picket fence of suburbia–we want to be downtown,” he says. “I grew up in [south-suburban] Flossmoor, but I would never want to live there. It’s not country, it’s not rural, it’s not urban, there’s no cultural diversity. It’s nothing. I’m not just picking on Flossmoor. Naperville, Highland Park, whatever–they’re all pretty much the same thing.
All told, he says he’s spent more than $400,000 turning the first floor into a photo studio and renovating nine other units so he can rent them to artists and designers. He and his brother Cliff have also purchased two other properties in the area: they operate the Twisted Spoke, a restaurant at 501 N. Ogden, and they plan to open a nearby nightclub.
“A lot of industries came to me looking for help; they said it was too difficult to operate with all the residents,” says the area’s alderman, Walter Burnett. “I know a lot of folks who work in those factories. I know a lot of folks who need those jobs. I decided something had to be done.”
“Not even zoning. Get rid of it.”
Some developers have quietly warned Burnett they’ll put their money behind another candidate if he doesn’t flip on the issue. “I can’t worry about that–my integrity’s not for sale,” says Burnett. “They still need me for approval on their projects, so I have some leverage. I learned a few things growing up in Cabrini.”
