West Humboldt Park Just Got Its Own Community Plaza — and Mayor Johnson Was There for the Groundbreaking

By Socialhood News · Il/Chicago/Humboldt Park · May 13, 2026

West Humboldt Park hit a major milestone today as Mayor Brandon Johnson joined local organizers and community members to officially break ground on the Blocks Together Community Plaza — a permanent, community-controlled public space coming to 3713–17 W. Chicago Ave.

The plaza is the vision of Blocks Together, a longtime West Side organizing group that has used the adjacent vacant parcels for food distributions, youth celebrations, and healing-centered programming in recent years. Upon completion, the new space will serve as a permanent home for those wraparound services and more, expanding the organization's capacity to reach residents across the neighborhood and beyond. The project was made possible through the City's ChiBlockBuilder Open Space Program, which allows eligible nonprofits to purchase City-owned vacant land at just 10% of its assessed market value — and also received funding support from Chicago Public Schools' Sustainable Community Schools program.

"West Humboldt Park is rising," Mayor Johnson declared at the groundbreaking, pointing to affordable housing projects and streetscape improvements alongside the plaza as proof that "change is happening here because community members have come together and organized to make it real." Blocks Together's Organizing Director Antonio Ward put it plainly: this plaza is "community-controlled development that invests in the collective well-being of our neighbors." Stop by Chicago Avenue and celebrate this win — it belongs to the whole neighborhood.

Sources:
1. https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/mayor/press_room/press_releases/2026/may/blocks-together-groundbreaking.html