The boarded-up storefront on the northwest corner of Chicago and Drake not long ago looked like many of Chicago’s other 18,000 abandoned buildings. The plywood sheets covering its sidewalk-facing windows were a reminder of the commercial blight in this stretch of Humboldt Park. Today, the place remains vacant, but as vacant buildings go, it’s indisputably more pleasant looking. The exterior greets passersby with a cheery trompe-l’œil bakery scene that seems like an artist’s rough rendering of a Parisian cafe complete with tables topped by baguette loaves, pastries, and flowers.
Toepfer believes the painted boards have the power to curb the epidemic effect of broken windows on an area. “If you have one vacant building it tends to spread,” he says. “So if you can put your finger in the dike, so to speak, you can save an entire block.”
