With the help of some grant money, Galewood Neighbors is focusing some extra attention these days on tree planting, just one more way to promote a healthier environment in the West Side community.
“The benefits of trees are endless,” said Sarah Cunningham, vice chairperson of the Galewood Neighbors, a group of about 300 neighbors, businesses, board members and businesses that works for the betterment of the community.
“They [trees] hold rainwater, they lower heating and air conditioning costs, they mitigate flood waters and increase your property value. So far, 130 trees have been planted,” she said.
The tree planting initiative has its roots (pun intended) two years ago when two Galewood board members applied for a grant through the Chicago Tree Ambassador Program through the Morton Arboretum and the Chicago Regional Tree Initiative (CRTI).
“A big part of the grant is working to plant over 100 trees in your community,” Cunningham explained. “We also have to do events related to trees. We go door to door and talk to neighbors about planting parkway trees. The trees are free. If they agree, we have a special entry into Chicago’s 311 system to request the trees.”
An arborist was also hired to do tree walks, educating residents about trees.
Though Galewood is not as industrial as it once was, an active train line still runs through the neighborhood, Cunningham noted. North Avenue, she said, is a major east-west street along with Harlem Avenue being a major north-south street so any amount of trees will help mitigate exhaust pollutants.
The Galewood community on Chicago’s West Side is the most diverse part of Austin, with Harlem Avenue to the west, Austin Avenue to the east, the Milwaukee District West Rail line to the South and North Avenue to the north.
“With everything that’s happened demographically over the last few decades, Galewood is a very unique community with 30 percent white, 30 percent Black and 30 percent Hispanic, and we’re very proud of our diversity in our neighborhood,” said Steve Green, founding member and chairperson of Galewood Neighbors.
The Mars site plans
The tree planting is just one example of the kinds of projects the Galewood group has undertaken. One of the biggest projects is its role along with other groups to ensure the community’s wishes are honored in terms of what happens to the Mars Wrigley’s candy factory site built in 1929.
Mars announced in 2022 its intention to close the Galewood factory, 2019 N. Oak Park Ave., pledging to donate the Spanish Renaissance architecture style property to whichever developer or organization the community chose.
“It’s a very unique situation where Mars wanted to donate the 20-acre parcel to the community,” Green told the Austin Weekly News. “Mars chose [Chicago-based] McCaffery Interests Inc., because they were the ones that were very well experienced in redeveloping historic buildings and also their proposal came closest to what the community wanted.”
Desires of the Galewood community were represented in a Local Initiatives Support Corp. report and local community groups, including Austin Coming Together, Galewood Neighbors and Northwest Center, as well as other community members. Participants advocates for a mixed-use site, which included community areas, green spaces, housing, businesses and a small business park.
Though originally intended as a donation, it is now going to be a sale to McCaffery which will develop the site based on the plan the groups put together.
“The sale was supposed to take place at the end of last year, but delays have stalled it to likely the end of this year,” Green said. “What’s happened is the factory is so outdated and has been retrofitted a couple of different times. Mars is building a new factory in Pennsylvania and that factory has had some delays as far as being up and running and fully operational, so Mars is still making chocolate at the [Galewood] site.”
Another important component of the process was the community’s desire to maintain the facade of the old Mars factory as a historical landmark. Last October, the city designated the Mars office building as an official Chicago landmark, protecting significant features of the building along Oak Park Avenue.
Rezoning for the reuse also took some time but was approved in May.
“McCaffery is still working with the Department of Planning to go over the details of what was approved,” Green said. “We’ve met with McCaffery twice with Mars and because of the Department of Planning and Rezoning and the fact that the plant is not fully closed, we’ve had a pause in meetings. I’m sure we’ll resume those meetings with McCaffery and Mars.”
McCaffery will likely make some tweaks to the plan based on what McCaffery needs to do to the site versus what the community plan laid out, Green said, adding that the group realizes that.
Still, the sale cannot move forward until Mars fully vacates the premises.
“We’re just going to have to wait until Mars is completely moved out of the site and then the sale happens, and things will speed up pretty quickly,” Green said. “Mars is not sure, but they could be out by the end of this year.”
More about Galewood Neighbors
The Galewood Neighbors hold community engagements and have membership meetings seeking input on priorities. A 2025 Community Plan is posted on their website at Galewoodneighbors.org.
Rush Hospital is moving into Galewood. A ribbon cutting for their new facility is set for June 17 at Harlem and Wabansia, the site of the old Sears store.
“We’ve been engaging with them since they started building,” Green said.
The Fifth Annual Galewoodstock, the community’s music and arts festival takes place every August. This year the free event will take place on Aug. 23 from noon to 8 p.m. at Bloomington and Sayre Avenues.
One of the things that is lacking, is that Galewood is the only neighborhood in the city without its own library. The one that was there closed 10 or 11 years ago, Green said.
Galewood residents use both the Oak Park and the Austin Library depending on where they live.
Possible location sites fell through. Green said that Ald. Chris Taliaferro is working to try to find a new location, He added, the unfortunate thing about Galewood is that there are not a lot of suitable parcels of land where you could put a library.
Discussions about putting the new library in the landmark building of the Mars plant has been considered, Green said.