Following the great depression, the housing stock in Lincoln Park, like many neighborhoods, began to slip into decline. Some reasons for this decline included the conversion of larger buildings to rooming houses, which in turn caused overcrowding. Deferred maintenance, and the use of inferior building materials were some other problems. The first community organization, of seven that would eventually form in the area, was the Old Town Triangle Association (OTTA), organized in 1948. Its formation marks the official beginning of urban renewal in Lincoln Park.

Aerial view of Ogden Avenue in Lincoln Park, facing southwest. Ogden is the larger street to the left in the image. This photo was found in a city-published pamphlet, and probably was taken in the late 50's or early 60's.

The purpose of these organizations was to combat something called "blight", a catch-all for everything residents found undesirable. It is a vague term for general deterioration, thrown around in the urban renewal literature of the day. "Urban renewal" itself is a phrase that is ambiguous, and has gained a negative, almost ironic connotation over time. Its meaning differs from city to city and neighborhood to neighborhood. Urban renewal in Lincoln Park consisted of selecting outmoded or code-violating buildings for demolition, eliminating mixed uses, creating more open space, and closing off and/or eliminating streets.

The Lincoln Park Conservation Association (LPCA) was formed in 1954 in order to oversee organizations like OTTA and others that followed. Their main goal was to improve the quality of residential structures and livability in Lincoln Park. In the Lincoln Park General Neighborhood Renewal Plan (GNRP), the LPCA goes into detail regarding elements that needed to be added or eliminated. The first part of the plan, Project One, calls for the removal of Ogden Avenue north of North Avenue. It was a flawed plan.

The ultimate goal in improving and emphasizing residential structures was the retention of residents. In many other areas of the city residents were moving out to suburbs, in turn causing further physical and psychological deterioration of neighborhoods. All measures taken by the LPCA were done in order to avoid the same thing happening in Lincoln Park. Key policies of the GNRP included the separation of vehicular and pedestrian traffic, and separation of residential, commercial, and industrial zones. One correspondence advocated the elimination of "harmful mixed uses." Other policies included the removal of outmoded structures, building more open space and parks, and widening preferred (major) streets.

William Friedlander, then executive director of the LPCA, was quoted as stating: "Ogden Avenue is a wide street carrying very light traffic. It cuts up the area and is a waste of land”. There is no simpler way to explain the party line and popular sentiment at the time regarding Ogden Avenue. With a 108 foot wide right of way, Ogden was by far the widest street in the area, the one most suited to carrying heavy traffic. It had very little traffic, for which the GNRP offers five reasons.

1) Lincoln Park has too many retail areas for a community so close to the Loop. 2) Michigan Avenue brought loop retail shopping and business offices even closer to the Lincoln Park area. 3) The electrification of the surface lines made access to the Loop easier. 4) The use along the streets (sic) frontage were not carefully planned. 5) The expected traffic never materialized; possibly because the area already possessed too many main traffic arteries.

Project One claims that traffic volume on Ogden was far below designed capacity, and that only a small percentage of traffic in Lincoln Park was oriented towards distant points west. Because of this, the street could be vacated and traffic could easily be diverted on to other large streets, especially those to be widened. Let us address the five numbered arguments individually.

1) How many retail areas are too many? Virtually every neighborhood in Chicago has a retail strip, some large, some small. The idea of actually turning away potential business development occurred in no other area aside from Lincoln Park. It makes sense only if the residents are trying to create something akin to a suburban subdivision, which it seems was the goal. 2) Michigan Avenue, at best, is at least a mile from Lincoln Park. It, like the Loop, differed in character from Lincoln Park, as did the nature of businesses in each community. 3) Street railways had been operating in the City since the 1860's. They made access everywhere easier, and their electrification is irrelevant. Also, nothing is closer or more convenient than walking to work or to shop. If the desire of the LPCA was to generate more pedestrian traffic, local businesses would have to be accessible to local residents by foot. 4) As was stated earlier, when Ogden was extended, it was cut through the grid with little thought, and no planning. Very few buildings fronted onto Ogden; mostly it was a mess of pavement, shorn buildings, and garages. The street was never developed to its full potential. However, this argument is a reason to invest in and improve the street, rather than remove it. 5) The expected traffic never materialized for more reasons than one, especially this one. It has less to do with the existence of an abundance of other streets as it does to the way Ogden linked to other high-capacity roads. The terminus of the street at Armitage and Clark is a perfect example. When Lake Shore Drive was extended in 1933, north from Fullerton Avenue as a limited-access highway, Ogden was not linked to it. Lake Shore Drive has exits at North Avenue and Fullerton Avenue, one mile apart. Armitage/Clark/Ogden is half way between the two aforementioned exits. Fullerton, though it is a "mile street", was a two lane residential road. In fact it was kept this way between Clark and Lincoln as part of the GNRP, as it remains to this day. Between Lake Shore Drive and Clark Street, Fullerton is slightly less narrow, and is often congested. If an exit from Lake Shore Drive had been built at Ogden instead of one or both of the North and Fullerton exits, traffic could have been funneled to the higher-capacity Ogden. A similar preference by the city for narrow, traffic-clogged mile streets over the wider Ogden occurs again later in this paper.

Another reason for Ogden's under-use was the increased use of limited access expressways and freeways, but only because Ogden was poorly connected to these routes. Of the three major expressways/freeways that Ogden intersected or came near, Lake Shore Drive, the Eisenhower Expressway, and the Kennedy Expressway, only one northbound ramp onto the Kennedy connected Ogden with the system. With only one connection, it is easy to see why the street was under used. For example, Goose Island is very close to the Kennedy Expressway. Division Street is the shortest link between Goose Island and the Kennedy, and Division has on-ramps and off-ramps going in both directions. It is the obvious choice for northbound and southbound truck traffic to and from Goose Island. If Ogden had full on and off-ramps from the Kennedy, it would make sense that most southbound trucks from the Island would have used Ogden rather than Division.

That is just one example, not to mention the complete lack of on and off-ramps to the Eisenhower. The Ogden improvement predated modern Lake Shore Drive by one year, and the Eisenhower by twenty-six. Why the connections were never made is an interesting question. The use of Ogden as a carrier of long range traffic southwest of the city diminished with the opening of two expressways, the Stevenson and the East-West toll-way, pushing Ogden further towards obsolescence.

In Lincoln Park, there were claims that the street was something of an eyesore, as it was a massive swath of concrete with no trees or greenery. . It was also felt that it separated the community, however, not everyone in the community was in favor of closing the street. The most active opposition came from the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce. The LPCA's plan made little provision for displaced merchants, planning only for a small shopping area at the corner of Larrabee and North Avenue. The closing of Ogden also necessitated the widening of North Avenue to accommodate increased traffic . North Avenue was a dense commercial district, and its widening would displace even more business owners in addition to those on Ogden. It was also proposed to close a portion of Lincoln Avenue and give it the same treatment as Ogden. The LPCC took action and commissioned the architectural firm of Holabird and Root to provide an alternate design plan that would retain Ogden and Lincoln while improving them.

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