Near the North Branch of the Chicago River between Lincoln Park and Bucktown, at the southwest corner of North and Elston Avenues, Stanley’s Fresh Fruits & Vegetables, family-owned since 1967, did yeoman work on two fronts: each morning buying up produce rejected by chain groceries for cosmetic and other reasons, then bundling bulk quantities to be sold at low, low prices to eager customers in the vicinity (or who came off the Kennedy from farther afield). Modest amenities like Stanley’s disappear suddenly in twenty-first century Chicago, especially when the property is cheek-by-jowl with developers with billions and billions in their banked pockets like Sterling Bay and their corporate vision to wreak billions more via the $5-billion plus Lincoln Yards mega-project, its stadiums and its thousands and thousands of upscale and luxury housing units. Some small business could remain nearby: the Hideout may be allowed to survive as a genteel nod to local ownership, and Exit may still bang unto the dawn, but there is no place for modesty when a plot like Stanley’s 45,877-square-foot property is just sitting there. Stanley’s land will be auctioned on November 19, unless a buyer emerges first. (Ray Pride)
On Vacation: Guns and Butter in the Land Up North Driving back from Green Bay, on a brilliantly sunny morning, I was in a mist of nostalgia for Wisconsin, with its green fields coming alive in early summer, roadside fruit stands and small little towns…
