Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Thank you for the Sun-Times editorial pointing out that the 70 acres of parking lots surrounding Sox Park remain a lost opportunity for redevelopment. The White Sox would also benefit from their development, since White Sox fans would no longer face the prospect of every game being book-ended by traffic jams on the Dan Ryan. Sox fans could linger in the neighborhood to shop, eat and play, just as Cub fans do in Wrigleyville.
Let’s be honest: The difference in attendance between our two teams has more to do with their neighborhoods than with baseball.
Soon after the Chicago Journal, a now-defunct paper covering the Near West and South Sides, suggested in 2005 this vision for a “Comiskeyville” or “Soxville” on these vacant lots, the White Sox revealed plans to develop a portion of the parking lot north of 35th Street. That plan was started, and that’s when the Chisox Bar & Grill and Chicago Sports Depot were built. Those businesses were to serve as a bridge between the development and the ballpark, but then the 2008 recession hit and construction stopped.