At a July 29, 1969 meeting of the Lincoln Park Community Conservation Council, a disruption occurred when audience members voiced frustrations with the urban renewal efforts of the Council.  The audience members, including members of the Black Panthers, Young Lords, and Concerned Citizens Survival Front, took over the meeting in an effort to make known their concerns about the displacement of people throughout the community.  The protesters proposed the creation of an advisory committee to the LPCCC that would be "representative of the community."  Violence erupted when a motion to create the advisory committee failed to pass.  Later, the same coalitions that interrupted the meeting  claimed urban renewal Site 19 (Halsted Street between Dickens and Armitage) as "Peoples Park" in objection to the LPCCC's proposal that a tennis club be constructed on the land.

 
 
Similar actions against urban renewal efforts occurred throughout the 1960s and 1970s as more individuals were displaced by demolitions and increased rents.  While a significant number of Puerto Ricans, African Americans, and poor Appalachian whites resided in the Old Town Triangle area prior to the implementation of the GNRP and Project 1, the neighborhood's renewal resulted in the continued loss of low income housing and the gentrification of the neighborhood despite resistance from several community groups.

 
 
 
 

A detailed account of the July 29 LPCCC meeting disruption  from the LPCA Newsletter, 1969
(Click on images to read)