Every neighborhood center gets a frunchroom (Chicago slang for the front room): a free public gathering place built around a public artwork, designed by the neighborhood, that also makes clean power for the area around it. Each one sits at a transit hub or retail corridor where a real center already wants to exist. Among the sites that qualify, neighborhoods that have been starved of investment are guaranteed to go first. Each frunchroom zone, the area around the gathering place, is rebuilt in one round of construction, from the pipes under the street up, so the city digs up each street only once.
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PART OF THE NEW BURNHAM PLAN
CONSTRUCT · ROOMS
Complete Neighborhoods: The Frunchroom
Your neighborhood gets its own downtown, with a free plaza and a main street you can walk.
Think of the last place you didn't want to leave: a square in Italy, a ski town, Disney World with your kids. These neighborhood downtowns, called frunchrooms, open at a pace of about four a year starting in Year 3, with at least 30 by Year 10, and they keep coming until every part of the city is in one. Among the sites that qualify, the most disinvested go first.
Nobody plans a vacation around a six-lane road. We pay good money to spend a week somewhere walkable, then come home to streets built for driving through. Chicagoans already show what we want: the places we love, like Navy Pier, the Riverwalk and The 606, are where the grid breaks and the traffic stops.
Frunchroom is old Chicago talk for the front room, the one you keep nice and take company to. Each neighborhood's frunchroom is its own downtown: a free public plaza, streets that put people first, real trees, lighting and benches, businesses facing in, a transit connection and room for markets and events. At the center is a public artwork, designed by the neighborhood, that also makes clean power for the area around it. Even Lincoln Park doesn't have one. Applications are open to all 77 community areas.
It's built so the city spends the money once. The road, water, sewer and sidewalk work the city already planned for the corridor happens in the same dig, so there is one trench, one contractor and one timeline. People who don't live in Chicago pay first, through the River Crossing Fee, a toll they pay to drive across the Chicago River. The Chicago Remodel Fund, a voter-approved line on the property tax, covers the rest. Each site gets a cheap trial first, with the street closed to through-traffic, furniture out and food trucks in, so we know it works before any concrete is poured.
WHAT IT WON'T DO
It won't price out the people who live there now. Keep Chicago Chicago, the plan's protections for people who already live there, goes first: land trusts are funded, a first right to buy is set up, and property tax protections are in place. If those aren't running, construction doesn't start.
It doesn't shut the neighborhood to cars. The car-free and pedestrian-first streets are at the center of each frunchroom, and neighbors see how it works in a street trial before anything is built.
It isn't a summer-only place. Every frunchroom is designed for January: it breaks the wind, catches the sun, lights the early dark and gives you warm places to sit, with heat only where the heat is free.
It isn't handed out by clout. Sites are scored on transit and existing shops, the most disinvested sites that qualify go first and get at least five first-round spots, and the final picks are made half by public vote and half by the City Council.
It won't leave the shops on the block to eat the construction. Storefronts on blocks under construction get help from the small-business construction fund in Paved Paradise, the plan to rebuild whole streets from the pipes up.
It isn't a blank check on your tax bill. The pipe and road work the city was going to do anyway is paid back by the water and sewer funds and the city's transportation department.
How it connects
Nothing in this plan works alone. These are the questions people ask next, and the policies that answer them.
Who's going to live close enough to keep that cafe open? Contextual Zoning lets you build what already stands on your block without a hearing, and Housing Abundance lets more homes get built again, so there are more neighbors to keep local shops open.
Contextual Zoning →
Housing Abundance →
What stops my rent going up the minute my block gets nice? Keep Chicago Chicago puts renter protections, community land trusts and property tax protections for longtime owners in place before a plaza is announced, and if they aren't running, construction doesn't start.
Keep Chicago Chicago →
Who's paying for this? People who don't live in Chicago pay first, through the River Crossing Fee, a toll to drive across the Chicago River that Chicago residents never pay. The Chicago Remodel Fund, a voter-approved line on the property tax, covers the rest, at about $1.75 a day, or $53 a month, for the median homeowner.
River Crossing Fee →
Chicago Remodel Fund →
What happens to my street and the shops on it during construction? Paved Paradise keeps every home and storefront open to deliveries, emergencies and people with disabilities, and every storefront on a block under construction gets $1,500 automatically.
Paved Paradise →
What happens to the parking? Dibs On Our Streets challenges the 2008 parking meter lease, which makes the city pay private investors whenever it takes a metered space out of service.
Dibs On Our Streets →
Who takes care of it after the ribbon cutting? The Chicago Service Corps gives teens paid jobs and gives neighbors a way to take care of their own blocks, parks and plazas.
Chicago Service Corps →
How do I get to the one in the next neighborhood? Yellow Brick Road corridors are streets where people walking and biking come first and cars can't cut through. The Spine Line is a new subway under Western Avenue and 95th Street with a transfer to every L line.
Yellow Brick Road Corridors →
Spine Line →
FISCAL IMPACT
Investment Cost
RENOVATION STEP
Construct · Rooms
SHOW THE FULL POLICY DETAILS
01
Where it ranks
OUR PRIORITIES
#4 of 33
TOP PRIORITY
76.3 / 100
Daily life
Long-term future
Reach
Unlocks
PROMISING It gives every neighborhood its own downtown, a center worth walking to: a free public plaza with streets that put people first, trees, lighting, seating, shops facing in and a transit connection. The area around it is where the new pipes, streets, energy and programs come together first.
When you'd feel it: Years 3–5.
See all the priorities
How I set them
02
How it works
What the word means
Frunchroom is old Chicago talk for the front room: the room where company sits and the good furniture lives. A frunchroom zone is that room for a whole neighborhood: its own downtown, with a free public plaza at the center.
What gets built
Each zone covers two main streets, about 4 miles in all, with one center. The center has a free public plaza, car-free or pedestrian-first streets, real pavers, mature trees, good lighting and seating, businesses facing inward, a transit connection, and room for markets and events.
An energy installation at the center
Each zone gets a commissioned public artwork that also generates power, designed by the neighborhood with an artist it picks. Any clean energy method qualifies. It feeds a 2–3 megawatt local power grid for the corridor, next to a shared geothermal loop for heating and cooling. Nearby building owners can get grants of up to $25,000 to connect. The goal is for the corridor to run on its own installation by the end of its second year.
One build instead of five
The road, water main, sewer and sidewalk work the city already planned for the corridor happens in the same sequence as the new work, with one open trench, one contractor and one timeline. Because everything goes in together, the city knows when each piece was installed and can schedule maintenance twenty years out.
Who pays for what
The Chicago Remodel Fund, the voter-approved neighborhood fund on the property tax, builds each zone in full, including the water mains, sewers, road and sidewalks inside it, so a zone never stalls if the city cuts its own capital budget. The water and sewer funds and the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) pay the Remodel Fund back for what they would have spent there anyway, about 28–32% of a zone's cost, so water customers, not property taxpayers, still pay for water pipes. The River Crossing Fee, formerly called the Bridge Fee, is a toll that non-residents pay to drive across the Chicago River; Chicago residents are not charged. For the new work, the River Crossing Fee pays first, after setting aside its 20% share for bridge restoration. The Remodel Fund covers the rest. If an agency doesn't pay its share back, the zone still gets built, and the citywide rebuild slows down instead.
How sites are picked
Sites are scored on transit access and existing shops, the bones of a real center. Applications are open to all 77 community areas. Twenty finalists are chosen, and the final picks are made half by public vote and half by a vote of aldermen. Among sites that qualify, the neighborhoods that have seen the least investment go first, with at least five first-round spots guaranteed to them.
Test it first
Within weeks of selection, each site gets a Phase One trial: the street is closed to through-traffic, furniture and planters go out, and food trucks are invited. It costs almost nothing and shows whether the site works before any concrete is poured.
Built for winter
Every zone is designed to be used from November to March. The plaza breaks the wind, catches the sun, lights the early dark and has warm places to sit. Heat goes only where it's free, from the zone's geothermal loop and waste heat. The first winter at each zone is part of its trial, with string lights, wind screens and weekend events, before anything permanent is built for the cold. Winter markets, movies, light displays, try-it sports and hot food give people a reason to come; they're free to attend and run by operators and sponsors, with the city providing the space and permits. Parks get snow-play areas, skating, ski trails and warming huts, built with the Park District. The bigger winter attractions get no city money. The design model is Edmonton's WinterCity Strategy.
Protections before groundbreaking
Keep Chicago Chicago, the plan's protections for people who already live there, goes first: land trusts are funded, a first right to buy is set up, and property tax protections are in place before the announcement. If those aren't running, the zone doesn't break ground.
The zone's firehouses
Each zone has a car-free or pedestrian-priority center and tighter streets, so the firehouses that serve each new zone get compact fire trucks and ambulances first. There's no citywide switch: the rest of the fleet changes as its vehicles come due. The Fire Department writes the specifications and every vehicle meets the same national safety standard as today's fleet. Every plaza and pedestrian street is designed with the Fire Department from the start, so emergency vehicles can always get through, and response times from the zone firehouses are published.
Help for the shops during construction
Zones are built under Paved Paradise, the plan for the whole street from the pipes up. Its small-business construction fund, about $12 million a year from the rebuild budget, gives every storefront on an active construction block $1,500 automatically, and businesses that document losses can get up to $25,000 a year.
The zone is where the plan lands first
The zone, the box the next major streets make about a mile out from the center on every side, is where faster permits, the new zoning, Chicago Guardians crisis response (civilian crisis responders sent to mental health calls instead of police), Corner Store Revival (which makes corner stores, cafes and childcare legal again in areas zoned for homes) and vacant-lot greening arrive first. From there the Remodel Fund rebuilds blocks outward, one at a time: a street that needs a new water main or sewer gets its pipes, street, curbs and sidewalks done in the same dig, and the Year 1 assessment decides which streets those are.
Pace
The city builds about four zones a year, paid in cash. Year 1 is design only. The first zones finish in Year 3. By Year 10 the minimum is 30 to 32 zones. From Year 4, the city can build faster by borrowing against the River Crossing Fee, once its collections have a proven record. We never borrow to pay bills; we borrow only to build things that last. If costs run high, the citywide rebuild slows down first and the zones are protected.
03
What it costs
Total cost per zone
$92–148M (midpoint about $120M)
Road, water, sewer and sidewalk work the city was already going to do (built by the Remodel Fund, paid back by the water and sewer funds and CDOT)
$30–42M (about 28–32% of the total)
New cost per zone, beyond work already planned
$62–106M
Largest new item: geothermal loop, 4 miles
$30–50M
Streetscape: lighting, pavers, trees, seating
$9.4–15.8M
New construction spending at about 4 zones a year
About $336M a year (range $248–424M)
River Crossing Fee, all revenue
$230–285M a year (midpoint about $257M)
River Crossing Fee share for bridge restoration (20%)
About $51M a year at the midpoint
River Crossing Fee money for zones, Years 4–10
About $206M a year
Remodel Fund share of new zone construction
About $130M a year at the midpoint (range $42–218M)
The Remodel Fund builds each zone in full and is paid back by the water and sewer funds and CDOT for their share. For the new work, the River Crossing Fee (the toll non-residents pay to drive across the Chicago River; Chicago residents are not charged) pays first, after its 20% share for the bridges, and the Remodel Fund covers the rest. In Year 1 the River Crossing Fee money left for zones is about $74 million after the bridge share and the one-time start-up money for Chicago Ride, while zones are still in design. After the Remodel Fund pays for its programs that keep families in their neighborhoods, the zones come first in its rebuild spending. Federal energy tax credits aren't counted until a legal review confirms they apply.
04
What it takes to make it happen
CITY COUNCIL
Pass the River Crossing Fee, the first source for the new work. Approve the street closures and plazas in each zone, and the Keep Chicago Chicago protections that must be running first. Aldermen cast half the votes in the final site selection. Removing any metered parking requires the city to make payments under the 2008 parking meter lease.
MAYOR AND DELIVERY UNIT
Issue a Day One executive order creating a Complete Neighborhoods Office inside the Mayor's Delivery Unit, the small team in the mayor's office that tracks every commitment. Score sites, run the applications and Phase One trials, and line up the Transportation and Water Management departments' existing capital work on the same schedule.
WATER AND SEWER FUNDS AND CDOT
Pay the Remodel Fund back for their share of each zone's pipes, road and sidewalks, about 28–32% of a zone's cost. If an agency doesn't pay, the zone still gets built and the citywide rebuild slows down.