Chicago Alderman Roberto Maldonado listed his Humboldt Park home for $2.4 million, after years of efforts to slow gentrification of the area.
Maldonado’s home sits just a block from the 606 trail, a project that helped push up home prices and new construction in the area. Since the trail opened seven years ago, Maldonado has fought to keep home prices low and limit gentrification in the area.
Maldonado, who represents the 26th Ward, and his late wife, Nancy Franco Maldonado, built the six-bedroom home in 2009, six years before the trail opened. Public records don’t show when they bought the larger-than-average lot or what they paid for it, according to Crain’s Chicago.
Officially known as the Bloomingdale trail, the project took an abandoned railway on Chicago’s west side and converted it into a 2.7-mile elevated greenway trail that forms the backbone of the 606 trail network. The trail opened in 2015, and pushed up housing costs in nearby neighborhoods. Maldonado worked to slow gentrification in the heavily Latino stretch of the trail.
Two years ago, Maldonado told Crain’s that “we want to slow down market-rate development to give some time to stop the rampant gentrification we’ve been experiencing in this area. We have a sense of urgency because people who look like me are being displaced.”
Neither Maldonado nor his listing agent responded to requests for comment, according to Crain’s.
Maldonado, 70, has represented the 26th Ward since 2009. Prior to that he was a mortgage broker and a Cook County Commissioner. He is also an investor in properties in the Humboldt Park area. When he was elected in 2009, he was the biggest property owner on the council, according to the Chicago Reader.
[Crain’s Chicago] — Miranda Davis
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