Worried about being priced out of their community, a group is exploring how to buy a building together and live there: “I don’t want to leave,” one person says. “There are many people who love Little Village but had to leave.”
The dozens of vendors remaining at the retail center say business has declined up to 80% since half the businesses were forced to move out. Those left behind fear that out-of-state shoppers may think the entire mall closed.
Several in the group of about 40 vendors have tried different means of remaining in business after their half of the mall shuttered, but business isn’t the same and they feel isolated without one another.
Jennifer Aguilar, who was born and raised in La Villita, takes the helm of the local chamber of commerce, which not only advocates for businesses but runs the Mexican Independence Day parade.