The design of the original station house and platform canopy were similar to those that still exist at the neighboring Francisco Station. Rockwell opened Decemas part of Northwestern Elevated Railroad's Ravenswood branch. The area surrounding the station consists of mostly residential single family homes or two-flats, with a small neighborhood shopping district flanking the station entrance on Rockwell Street. Rockwell is a surface level station with a single entrance/exit situated at 4648 North Rockwell Street between Leland Avenue and Eastwood Avenue in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Chicago. Rockwell is the last station on the surface section of the Brown Line between Rockwell and Western the line ascends and runs on elevated tracks for the rest of the route. The adjacent stations are Francisco, which is located across the Chicago River about 3⁄ 8-mile (0.60 km) to the west, and Western, located about 1⁄ 4-mile (0.40 km) to the east. It is an at-grade station with a single island platform, located in Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood. “It’s a business model that’s unsustainable in this location, that’s what it comes down to,” Noonan said.Rockwell is an 'L' station on the CTA's Brown Line. Suber said neighboring businesses also cause parking issues.įor many neighbors, no amount of finesse can solve the problem. “If that is not successful, we’d have to consider what nuisance-related actions we can bring against the business,” Martin said.Īt the meeting, Suber said Cloud Kitchens was committed to working out issues despite believing the business was facing a double standard. The city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection acted as mediator.Ĭloud Kitchens was tasked with coming up with solutions to neighbors’ issues before another meeting Feb. 26 with neighbors and a representative of Cloud Kitchens. They found a crack, a loophole, in the system and they’re exploiting it,” Holdampf said. “I feel that our code was not set up to deal with uses like this,” the alderman said. Martin said there was opposition to Cloud Kitchens moving in, but the way zoning is set up there wasn’t much that could be done. The city’s zoning laws have not evolved in a way that takes into account Cloud Kitchens’ business model, neighbors and Ald. “We light incense.”īrian Holdampf, 52, who’s mostly retired from running a business that set up call centers, lives in one of the homes built on the former boatyard. “The smell is gross,” she said, noting the odor makes it hard to hold recording sessions. Julia Miller runs Delmark Records next door. Other complaints include encounters with rude delivery drivers, garbage being left on the ground and the smell of greasy food, Martin said. On Tuesday, one of them asked a delivery driver who briefly double parked: “You picking up? Is it ready? One hundred percent ready? I’ve got to have you circle the block then.” “I have a 9-year-old son, and I’m worried about what could happen if he chases a ball in the street,” she said.Ĭloud Kitchens has put out “Slow! Children at Play” signs and hired two former Chicago cops to act as security officers and traffic aides. Neighbors on surrounding blocks are affected, too, said Cynthia Chernoff, who lives a block east and has noticed an increase in speeding cars. Several neighbors near the Cloud Kitchens on Rockwell recounted near collisions between pedestrians and hurried delivery drivers who often appear to be glancing at their phones. None of four locations has single-family homes on the block. have had few or no issues, according to aldermen from each of those wards. “It’s utter chaos,” he said, adding he’s lost business because of it.Ĭloud Kitchens accused Heltzer of using threatening language with its staff and improperly blocking public parking spaces with signs claiming the spots were for his business.įour other Cloud Kitchens locations - at 3517 N. Michael Heltzer, who owns Stay, a dog hotel across the street from Cloud Kitchens, said he’s begun to escort customers to their cars to ensure their safety. About half of the facility’s kitchen space is occupied. Many believe things are bound to get worse as more restaurants rent space and churn out more food orders. “Other industries on the block don’t rely on high volumes of inattentive delivery drivers,” said Kristi Noonan, a nearby homeowner. The other businesses include a brewery, a dog training facility, a furniture maker, a day care and a company that stages furniture for properties up sale. Several area residents said nearby homeowners and businesses on Rockwell have existed in relative harmony for years, and they say comparing Cloud Kitchens to other industrially zoned businesses on the corridor is an apples-and-oranges endeavor. Nine homes are on the block, including seven that were developed in the early 2000s on what was previously a boatyard along the North Branch of the Chicago River.
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