Lightfoot promises 'transformative' changes

Last month, Mayor Lori Lightfoot wrapped up a listening tour of Chicago neighborhoods by promising "transformative" investments in long-neglected South and West Side neighborhoods.

She reiterated that promise earlier this week after a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the 1919 Chicago race riots, a "bitter and shameful chapter" that, she claimed, represents not only Chicago's past, but its present.

Now, Lightfoot is putting some more meat on the bone - by promising to launch her "Marshall Plan" by investing heavily over the next two years in, what she called "high-priority commercial corridors."

The mayor didn't disclose the corridors in her speech at the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's Signature Breakfast. That will happen in the coming weeks, she said.

But the commercial strips already have been identified by her staff - working hand-in-glove with community groups - as "prime corridors for development due to available retail, a concentration of existing businesses, vehicular traffic, high public transit ridership, commercial zoning and existing business licenses."

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