'Black Wall Street' hit hard by sewer project

Facebook helps sustain bakery, but other businesses stagger

When Stephanie Hart was frustrated that a massive construction project outside her Brown Sugar Bakery was devastating to her business, her fans on Facebook turned out to be saviors for her South Side store.

"I told the Facebook fans my plight, and they responded," Hart said of her shop at 328 E. 75th, which is famous for its caramel cakes. "When I would say, 'This construction project is killing me,' many of the fans would come in. It was encouraging."

That extra business drummed up through the social media Web site, in part, helped Hart endure during the $1.5 million sewer-line replacement project that is scheduled to wrap up Friday.

But those businesses on 75th Street -- between State and Cottage Grove in the Grand Crossing neighborhood -- were hit extremely hard by the sewer-line prep work, which started in late July. Street parking was eliminated during the project, and even water service was cut off at one point, business owners said.

Hart said her bakery lost 30 percent of its revenues the first week after the city closed 75th. Business dropped 75 percent by the third week of the project. She is only now seeing business come back -- but slowly.

"We had businesses on this block who had zero income on some days," she said. "The construction was right up to the curb. There were no fences or barriers between our businesses and the construction. My building would be shaking."

Those hardships made several initiatives already under way even more important.

Some business owners are seeking to have the area declared Chicago's "Black Wall Street" because it is one of the few business districts in the country where the percentage of African-American-owned businesses reflects the surrounding population's demographics: 85 percent of the more than 110 businesses in the neighborhood are black-owned.

Black Wall Street (blackwall street.org) is a national organization devoted to sustaining and increasing the number of black-owned businesses, as well as lobbying for greater African-American representation in municipal contracts and business opportunities.

In addition, a local group, the Business and Economic Revitalization Association (BERA) worked with local Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th) and professional artists and marketers to set up a MySpace Web site, renaissance row.com, to highlight the uniqueness of the stores and to help owners with marketing and business workshops.

"The shopping district includes white-tablecloth, fine-dining restaurants, excellent lounges where jazz giants performed, designer-fashion store Rosebud Creations, and Wood Shop the Art Gallery with artworks from all over the world," said Jeanette Foreman, an attorney with small-business-loan experience who volunteers with BERA.

BY SANDRA GUY