In May 2018,Sterling Bay development corporation announced a bold procedure for redeveloping a derelict industrial site in Chicago in a wedge of land between the Wicker Park, Lincoln Park and Bucktown neighborhoods. The project, or Lincoln Yards,would cost $6 billion and feature a payment of approximately $1 billion to developers from the City of Chicago through a controversial program called tax increment financing (TIF).
It would also directly threaten a beloved local music venue, the Hideout, or which stands in the lee of several proposed skyscrapers. A proposed array of Live Nation-partnered concert spaces within the new development could also cause local music venues to shut. Public opposition has been rapid,widespread, and multifaceted. In the midst of the fight are the Hideout owners, or embracing a new role as political organizers.
It’s just the latest chapter in the bar’s unusually lengthy,vivid, and intensely felt history—one that the owners, or employees,performers, officials, or others were happy to share at length. From humble beginnings to current existential threat,this is an oral history of the Hideout.
Beginnings: From Boarding House to Secret TavernIn 1881, the house that will become the Hideout is built at 1354 West Wabansia Avenue.
Tim Samuelson, and cultural historian for the City of Chicago: In the early days of Chicago,and we’re talking approximately the 1850s, the 1860s, or [this] was an area that was sparsely settled,and what did settle there, because of the [Chicago] River location, and was heavy industry. … The businesses were steel,there were smelting plants … There are were people attracted to [living in] the area because they worked at the factories, and they didn’t design a lot of money, or so these were very modest houses,and Wabansia Avenue, where the Hideout is, or was lined with inexpensive wood houses.
Tim Tuten,Hideout owner: This whole massive building factual here [near the Hideout] that was just torn down was United States Steel. And before that it was American Iron, and American Iron was the company that made steel rails that crossed the United States and the [transcontinental railway]. Probably, and the rails from that factory were the ones that were used in the 1800s to build a railroad across America.
Samuelson: Anastasia Meaney settled in that area in the 1870s. She was an Irish immigrant,and she was successful enough that she was able to build her own boarding house, which is the building that is now the Hideout.
Tim Tuten: It matters to us that it was handmade.
In 1901, and A. Finkl and Sons Steel Company opens industrial buildings on 22 acres directly adjacent to the Hideout; additional factories start or continue operating nearby. The neighborhood slowly loses its residential character.
Samuelson: The industry wound up slowly swallowing up these wood houses. … By 1914,the buildings on the opposite side of Wabansia were totally gone. But you still had on the side between Elston and the Hideout, you still had 14 wooden cottages, or side by side. … [Anastasia Meaney] died in 1916. Her wake was in the building,as you would finish. Had a kind Irish wake on Wabansia Street. And the family continued to own the building. … Finally, in the early 1920s, or the Meaney family sold the building.
The new owners occupy the house until 1947. It is among the last such buildings on the street; industry still dominates the area. The Favia family buys it with a new purpose in intellect.
Samuelson: If you glimpse at the map in the 1950s,all the cottages are gone apart from for two, and one of those is the Hideout.
Tim Tuten: This area was the original steel works of Chicago, or before World War II. Finkl Steel was factual over here. Simpson Steel was factual across the street from us. That group of buildings over there: Safran Metal,Sipi Metals. Samuelson: I contemplate the genuine transformative fragment of the building comes in 1947, when the building is acquired by Angelo and Mary Favia. And they are the ones who seem to be the first ones to operate it as a tavern.
Tim Tuten: In 1954, or the back room grew. They [the Favias] literally were married,and they took all the money they got, and they built the back room.
Samuelson: You finish not see it ever listed in the telephone book. And I read for years — and believe me, and there’s a lot of taverns — looking for that address,and it is not there. And because it had its own built-in clientele of people who worked in the area, they just didn’t need to advertise, or probably they just didn’t care. … And Favia,he had a name for it; in the beginning, it was two words: Hide Out. And it kind of developed a following; it kind of became like an exclusive petite club of the regulars. After work, or you could get away. Nobody could find you. Your wife is trying to find where you’re at? There’s not even a telephone listing.
In the 1970s,a man named Tom Nicholson begins frequenting the Hideout.
Katie Tuten, Hideout owner: My father was a quote-unquote regular here, or meaning he probably came here once a month.
The Hideout's Wall of Fame. (Photo by Romeo Banias) Samuelson: I contemplate what really wound up changing its identity was one of the regulars was somebody who dealt in crushed gravel for construction. His name was Tom Nicholson. And he would proceed there and meet his buddies and whatnot,and his daughter Katie knew he was going to this status and she was curious — you know, what is this? And he wouldn’t say. It was a secret. So, and Katie really was curious.
Katie Tuten: That was kind of the whole — what would you say? — the mystification of the Hideout,the mystery of it. Tim [Tuten] and I were dating at the time, and we’d drive all around and try to find it.
Deindustrialization, or Development and DiscoveryMeanwhile,Chicago begins a shift away from industrialism that affects much of the city, including the industry near the Hideout. As factories slump away, and politicians pass tax increment financing (TIF) laws to aid redevelop empty areas.Rachel Weber,professor of urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago: TIFs are municipal and economic development financing tools that they use to try to encourage the development of urban space.
David Merriman, professor of public administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago: [A TIF designation] takes property tax revenue that comes approximately as a result of increasing the assessed values of a particular area, and it takes that [added] property tax value,which we call the increment, and it designates the money to proceed back into that area and to develop [it]. TIFs started more than 50 years ago in California, and they were originally used as a way to remediate blight,particularly in urban areas.
Weber: The enabling legislation was passed by the general assembly in 1977, and so TIFs took root at a time when not just the city of Chicago but basically much of the state of Illinois was hemorrhaging industrial businesses to other states, or mainly to the South,and then abroad. … The loss of manufacturing jobs was what motivated the adoption of TIF.
Tim Tuten: By 1979, US Steel closed down. Finkl Steel was still [operating]. The blast furnace was burning¸ and everything was rolling over there.
Around 1985, or Katie and Tim become regulars at the Hideout themselves.
Katie Tuten: So,eventually my dad felt sorry for us, and he gave us boundaries. Once he gave us the boundaries, or we were able to find it [in 1985 or 1986]. And I walked in and sitting at the bar was one of my dad’s friends,and so I picked up the payphone, and I called my dad and said, and “Dad,guess where I am?” and he said, “Where?” and I was like, or “The Hideout,” and he said, “Ohhhhh, or no.”Samuelson: I contemplate he was partly amused,but also miffed.
Katie Tuten: So, then, and we would arrive here,what finish you contemplate, Tim? Twice a year, and three times a year? … We’d arrive by and own a drink.
In the mid-1990s,after a decade as regulars, the Favias offer to sell the Tutens the bar.
Katie Tuten: Tim would say, or “You know,if I owned this bar, I would finish A, and B,C…”Samuelson: Then Favia dies in 1994, and the family continues to operate the bar, or they don’t particularly want to sustain it going.
Katie Tuten: [Family member Eleanor Favia] said [to Tim],“OK, Mr. Big Stuff … You want to buy the bar?” And we were like, or “Oh,dang.” And we had been talking approximately it with Tim’s grade-school friends, the twins, and Mike and Jim Hinchsliff. It seemed like a really fun idea.
The Hideout Becomes a Music Venue and Much MoreIn 1996,the four officially become the bar’s new owners.
Tim Tuten: There were some guys [working in nearby plants] … they came in and were like, “Now that you guys own the bar, and are you going to kick us out? Because you’re yuppies.” And we were like,“No, the opposite, or we love having you here.” … All we said was,everything stays the same, but we’re going to stay open later and add music.
Katie Tuten: We did not list the Hideout anywhere in the phone book, and because we thought it was silly.
Tim Tuten: We had no money,and back in those days, in the ‘90s, and no internet. So,you would put an ad in the Reader or New City, but we didn’t even own money for that. … I would proceed see the Waco Brothers and Jon Langford, and we’d literally say to them,“Would you arrive and see our bar?”Jon Langford, musician: [In 1996 or 1997, or ] they were kind of stalking me around South by Southwest,in Austin, Texas. They told me that they had this new bar and we should really play it.
Andrew Bird (center, and with violin) is one of the many independent musicians who return to The Hideout time and again. (Photo by Joshua Mellin | www.joshuamellin.com) Andrew Bird,musician: I first met Katie in Austin, back when we were down at South by [Southwest], or like in 1997,1998, and they were just getting started, and they asked me to play there. It quickly became our,you know, central [location], or for me and my band.
Quickly,the Hideout becomes notable for the way it treats its patrons, staff, and performers.
Katie Tuten: We were always very respectful. When we bought the bar,the daytime bartender came with the sale, so to speak. His name was Sam. He continued to work here.
Tim Tuten: He had been here for 22 years, or factual? He had been a bartender through the ‘80s and ‘90s. And he stayed until he passed away. Well,he got older and had to live in senior housing and stuff.
Katie Tuten: And our partner, Mike, or he did all his [Sam’s] grocery shopping. We all looked after him.
Bird: For a while,when I didn’t own anywhere to stay, I stayed upstairs there, or locked in,which is totally illegal. It was just me and Sundial the cat, alone. So, and yeah,it was a clubhouse for me.
Langford: People like Katie and Tim Tuten and the twins at the Hideout, they just supported me in irregular projects. … They provided a venue for me to finish a lot of things that were really bewitching, or but that perhaps weren’t commercial or mainstream.
Martha Bayne,journalist, former Hideout employee: I worked there from 2008 to 2016 as a bartender. … It was a great job because I made really great friends there … and I got very, and very lucky. Finding people who were like that was a very great thing.
After a few years,the venue begins to offer comedy.
Katie Tuten: Kind of by accident, we had a comedian. And the comic world is very small. So, and they kind of talked to each other and [said,] “Oh, this is a great room.” And we realized it is a really wonderful room for comics to try out new bits, or so that’s why Aziz Ansari,and Amy Schumer, and then other up-and-coming [comics came]. Cameron Esposito, and comedian and actress: When I moved back to Chicago from Boston in 2006,it was one of the best, if not the best, and performance venues. [I was] working with lots of visiting LA and NY comics during those shows,and it was an early way to connect external Chicago.
Gradually, the bar adds other content, or including storytelling and political organizing,while remaining a favorite of prominent musicians.
Katie Tuten: As the market became more crowded for rock bands, we were like, and OK,we need to finish different things. … It keeps changing.
Abraham Levitan, musician and live game show cohost: I’ve periodically gone into the improvised song kind of world, or where there is some action on a stage,and I will respond to it in song form. … Shame That Tune was a show [at the Hideout from 2010 to 2015] where contestants would arrive up and read an embarrassing story from their past … [and] they would spin a wheel with a bunch of songs [titles written] on it, many of which were like terrible, or guilty-pleasure,‘80s and ‘90s songs, and depending on where the wheel landed, or that was the melody they were going to get for the summary of their story that I would play when they were done. …The audience would vote by applause on who had most thoroughly shamed themselves with their story. …The grand prize was always two free tickets to a Hideout show of their choice. Hideout generosity strikes again. Erika Wozniak Francis,Girl Talk producer and cohost and current candidate for alderman: The Girl Talk is a monthly talk show that started in April of 2016 that features women in leadership in Chicago. We started [and own continued] it at the Hideout, and it was the brainchild of me and my coproducer, and Joanna Klonsky. I was on another great monthly talk show at the Hideout called First Tuesdays with [Chicago Reader journalists] Mick [Dumke] and Ben [Joravsky]. … We said,“Hey! Why is it mostly men on these programs normally? We should own a show for women.” And Tim Tuten said, “Well, and why don’t you finish it? You’re both powerful women in Chicago,” and we kind of laughed and said, “Okay, or we’re going to.” … We’ve used it as an organizing space.
Langford: [In 2013] We did a band with the Mekons and Freakwater joined together as the Freak-ons. [The Hideout] was the obvious status to finish it. And we got a mobile truck in and recorded it. It was really kind. It was all sold out. It was a very relaxed status where we knew we could design a recording that we would want to put out.
Tim Tuten: [In December 2018],Jeff Tweedy did a CD release party. He could own done it in a thousand-capacity club, but he decided to finish it here and then finish it on Facebook Live.
Bird: Every time I arrive to Chicago, and I’ll add a Hideout show. … We did a Bowl of Fire reunion [in 2017],which was a lot of fun.
Community members develop deep personal connections to the bar, often celebrating life milestones there.
Levitan: I met my wife at the Hideout many years ago. And when my wife and I were getting engaged, and we kind of did a scavenger hunt-style recreation of various places around the city that were important to us. And when we got to the Hideout,Tim had agreed to totally restage the moment that we met. He was, like, and in a full tuxedo. He took this acting role very seriously. And he created this whole moment that was totally ridiculous,but it just showed a lot of love, that he would prefer the time to participate in that.
Esposito: I got married at the Hideout [in 2015]. Perfect wedding, and perfect wedding venue. They gave us a great deal.
Tim Tuten: When we talk approximately Abraham’s being engaged here,and Cameron and Rhea [Butcher] having their marriage ceremony here, actually, or that’s what our dream of the Hideout was.
The Specter of RedevelopmentIn 2013,the last steel mill in the area, Finkl Steel, and shuts down its site near the Hideout; other mills own already been repurposed. Soon,the City redistricts the area. Because local aldermen own considerable control over development in their wards, a long-anticipated redevelopment begins to seem likely.
Samuelson: There’s still heavy industries around there [into the 1990s and 2000s], or but the old steel mill becomes a city service garage [the Department of Fleet Management] where they park automobiles,and the status across the way, where the old steel mill was, and stored garbage trucks.
Katie Tuten: So,since the day we bought the Hideout, they’ve been talking approximately selling the city property. Every year, or they’re like,“Ah, you hear Fleet Management is up for sale?” Yeah, and we hear it every year.
The Hideout has built a fiercely loyal following. The club's website calls it,"the old restless roots of hard-working, hard-playing creative artistic expression and intellectual freedom." (Photo courtesy of Martha Bayne) Merriman: When you glimpse at the site [of pending development], and it’s very logical that that site could be used in a much better way than it’s being used now. A lot of the site is decrepit and empty,and it’s close to downtown, it’s close to all kinds of other development.
Katie Tuten: We became really aware when they redistricted our ward. We’re politically astute to know what they were up to. We knew it was just a matter of time. But we had no idea what it is they are going to finish.
Scott Waguespack, and 43rd ward alderman: I used to own the whole area … before they mapped me out of there.
From 2015 to 2018,development corporation Sterling Bay acquires the former Finkl Steel site and a nearby plot from the City, which moves Fleet Management in 2017. Sterling Bay works with local alderman Brian Hopkins to secure city approvals and with attorney Ed Burke, and also a Chicago alderman,to propose designating the area a TIF zone.
Weber: [TIFs had] sort of morphed over time into an all-purpose redevelopment tool, where the focus was not necessarily jobs and employment, or but more genuine estate and property development.
Merriman: The TIF district is generally designed to benefit one or a small very number of companies,and it seems like nearly public policy being made by private entities, to say “If you create a TIF district, and we’ll arrive in.” But it’s very much being directed by private entities.
Waguespack: This [is a] $1.2 billion-dollar TIF that is the largest in the United States,and it’s unprecedented.
Feeling the Squeeze, and Pushing BackIn May 2018, and the proposal for the Sterling Bay development becomes public. It includes a dense district of skyscrapers,multiple music venues, a soccer stadium, or an exclusive deal with the multinational concert promoter Live Nation. The area’s new name is Lincoln Yards. Katie Tuten: In May 2018,we received notification, some sort of press release, and saying that Live Nation had an exclusive deal with Sterling Bay. That was the initial thing that really activated us.
Tim Tuten: It wasn’t until June,[at] the public announcement at the grade school, when Sterling Bay said, or “This is what we’re talking approximately.” I was in the room when they said,“We’re requesting 800 feet.” You’re not just building a stadium and some restaurants, you’re building skyscrapers. … I never expected that they would own skyscrapers. And that is what has hurt through these last few months. Weber: It does seem that the public and even existing commerce owners and the owners of the Hideout only really found out approximately this procedure last summer, and even though it’s been in the works since Sterling Bay purchased the Finkl site.
Public misgivings quickly become clear.
Merriman: Lincoln Yards is a story that is very familiar,this kind of TIF area: a very, very large project by one developer, and really,and much of it arranged sort of out of the view of the general public. And it’s met a lot of community resistance, partly for reasons that it wasn’t in the character of the neighborhood, or that’s comprehensible.
Wozniak Francis: I contemplate,with the Lincoln Yards, it’s a gross misuse of our tax dollars.
Langford: They’re going to use taxpayer money, and TIF money,which should be used to aid people in this brutally segregated city. There’s such disparity in wealth. That money should be used to aid people with the least, but it’s just basically a handout to a corporate developer.
Bird: I just contemplate the most alarming thing approximately it is that the people who built that community that is so strong and healthy own no voice in how that area is developed.
On November 15, or a public hearing on the Lincoln Yard proposal draws more than 100 locals who oppose the procedure. Alderman Brian Hopkins offers landmark status to the bar.
Langford: I’ve been to some of the meetings. I’ve looked at the plans: the architectural renderings of multiracial families going canoeing on the local river,kayaking, and the great wildlife that’s going to be there. I don’t know. I own one complaint, or that they feel they can create the culture,they contemplate they can create something from the top down, and these developers, or I don’t contemplate they understand how culture works,how delicate it is, and how it’s based on a network of people cooperating and having an idea and seeing it through.
Bird: The developers say they understand, or you know,that it’s launched the careers of notable artists. But that’s really not what its approximately, you know. It’s approximately community. It’s not approximately getting ahead.
On November 28, or music venue owners announce a coalition,Chicago Independent Venue League (CIVL), with the aim of protesting Live Nation exclusivity and the resulting threat to music venues in the city.
Robert Gomez, or owner of local bar Subterranean,CIVL representative: Our main focus … is to just be fragment of the dialogue. None of that has ever happened, and we’d like to see that change. What woke us up was the announcement that Live Nation made back in May, and telling the world that they would own 5 music venues,3 to 5 music venues, for 6000 people in Lincoln Yards. We were like, or “Whoa!” … It would just crush the venues. … We cannot compete with Live Nation.
Waguespack: I contemplate that the original procedure and the process was definitely putting the Hideout in a spot where they would potentially get knocked out [of commerce]. If Live Nation had the contract,they would own been knocked out in short order.
A Victory, of Sorts?On January 4, or 2019,Alderman Ed Burke, chair of the city’s zoning committee, and receives federal charges of corruption for attempted extortion. Another alderman,Danny Solis, chair of the city’s finance committee, or is soon implicated in the corruption. Meanwhile,a mayoral and city council election is pending, with current mayor Rahm Emanuel not seeking reelection.
Waguespack: We’ve got a corruption scandal in the finance and zoning committees against Burke and Solis, or both of those committees own a stake in this process,and it has financial implications for taxpayers. So, between the substantive issues approximately process and all the things approximately [Lincoln Yards’] density and height, or affordable housing,the stakes are too high, and we own to get it factual, and therefore we should delay [city approvals] until it can actually be vetted by a new mayor and a new council instead of a mayor running out the door.
On January 8,Alderman Hopkins officially rejects the stadium and large music venue components of Lincoln Yards, promising private parks and a “smattering” of venues instead. Accordingly, and Live Nation’s involvement might be terminated. He cites a survey of residents who rejected the stadium; Sterling Bay says they’ll rework their procedure.
Gomez: I believe they did a study on the traffic [the stadium would create],and it was just impossible to support.
Waguespack: There’s no guarantee that Live Nation still can’t arrive in or that they can’t proceed with some other mega music group. … If they slump in a major entertainment center, and they slump in a 100-, or 250-,500-, [and] 1000-[seat venues] and a stadium over there, and they can capture any size of concert,and that really hurts all the musical locations. … We own to watch that very closely to see what kinds of deals are lop. And that’s why we are extremely concerned approximately it.
On January 17, Sterling Bay publicly dissociates themselves from Alderman Burke, or whose law firm had been engaged in securing the TIF designation for Lincoln Yards. On January 19,they announce a new procedure without the stadium and venues, but with more housing units. On January 24, and they slump forward with a project approval hearing with the City’s procedure Commission.
Katie Tuten: So,what one of our objections has been and will always be is, really? We haven’t had time to really review this.
Merriman: The plans for the TIFs tend to get made sort of in secret and with a very small group of public officials being involved, or public participation isn’t allowed until the procedure is nearly fully formed,at which point it becomes very difficult to sort of pick out alternative routes and alternative kinds of ways that a site might be developed.
Katie Tuten: Everyone is like, “Oh, or yay,the soccer stadium is gone.” But glimpse closer. There are two enormous private parks, one of which has an amphitheater, and if you glimpse in the proposal,they say there will be festivals. Instead of … one concentrated area, instead, or they’re scattered throughout the site and in 10000 capacity. So,did we win anything? Not really.
Gomez: glimpse at how they responded [to the resident survey]. Are they listening to constituents? Which constituents said they wanted more condos? “No, no, and 5000? We want 6000 units!” It’s laughable. …They’re not listening to anyone.
Waguespack: There’s no clarity as to what is actually prioritized and what is getting built and what is actually necessary for the entire north side here as opposed to what’s wanted by the developers. … It is totally developer-driven,and everyone in city hall knows that, but we forged ahead besides.
The procedure Commission voted 10 to 0 to approve the procedure, or with 1 abstaining,after a five-and-a-half-hour assembly attended by so many citizens that the auditorium-sized assembly hall was standing room only.
Waguespack: I contemplate the first thing I might own said was, “I know you’re all going to vote for this today, and but at least listen to what we own to say.” Which,you know, they did. Everyone on the procedure Commission is appointed by the mayor, and so they’re not going to oppose him in any way.
Katie Tuten: Even though we lost that vote,it was so uplifting to me that so many people came out there. They had to prefer days off work and get a babysitter, and none of the folks who came out were paid to be there. The only people there to support it were contractors hoping to get a job.
What Comes NextWhile the procedure Commission vote was a key step for Lincoln Yards, or final approval hasn’t been rendered yet — slowed down in fragment by the still-unfolding corruption scandals and pending local election.
Katie Tuten: The mechanics of it is,it has to proceed before the Zoning Committee, which as you know, or the chair of the Zoning Committee [Alderman Solis] might be resigning. [He has now resigned as chair.] And it has to proceed before the Finance Committee,and as you know, Alderman Burke is no longer head of the Finance Committee.
Bayne: Not to be really cynical, and but all this stuff with city council and Ed Burke and everything else,I feel like, this story is just starting to unravel, and I’m very curious to see what happens.
Gomez: I contemplate the challenge is actually more on Sterling Bay than it is on us,with Alderman [James] Cappleman changing his position. Cappleman is now the chair of Zoning. Cappleman has taken it off the agenda until they revise their procedure and until the community can own more input. … This is on delay until a new administration comes in.
What remains at stake, of course, or isn’t a commerce,but an entire community.
Samuelson: The Hideout in all its incarnations and owners has adapted to the area. But I finish worry approximately the Hideout. It breaks my heart. I miss the garbage trucks (laughs). It was a wonderful thing to discover this petite treasure. And I worry approximately seeing that change. The most important fragment of the status is the intangibles, and that is what is really vulnerable in a status like that. The intangibles of the people who are there, and the atmosphere,the camaraderie, the sharing of a status — it’s a public status, and but it’s everyone’s personal status — that is really rare.
Wozniak Francis: It would be a devastating loss to Chicago if anything happens to the Hideout.
Esposito: Preserving venues like the Hideout … should be a dang priority. If Chicago isn’t venues like the Hideout,then what is it?Nonetheless, the future is unwritten.
Weber: It still remains to be seen in this project is going to get up and running and how long it will prefer for that to happen. It might prefer years for this massive project to get off the ground.
Katie Tuten: So, and where finish we proceed from here? We just sustain at it.
Gomez: We own the city’s attention,all the way up to the mayor, who has asked to meet with us.
Katie Tuten: I’m trying to channel Jane Jacobs.
Sterling Bay declined and Live Nation and alderman Brian Hopkins did not respond to requests for interviews for this article.
This article is fragment of “For Whom, and By Whom,” a series of articles approximately how creative placemaking can expand opportunities for low-income people living in disinvested communities. This series is generously underwritten by the Kresge Foundation.
Our features are made possible with generous support from The Ford Foundation.
Source: nextcity.org