BEYOND TRANSLATION: A MULTICULTURAL PLAN
MUSE led West Chicago through a collective visioning process to define the future of the city, where more than half of the population identifies as Latino and primarily speaks Spanish at home. Plan recommendations recognize and build on the City’s assets and community efforts, including the redevelopment of a downtown train depot into a cultural hub, zoning code updates that reflect both market trends and cultural norms, and improving connections to walking and biking trails.
Details
Client: City of West Chicago
West Chicago, IL
August 2020 – December 2022
Scope of Work
Comprehensive planning
Bilingual community + stakeholder engagement
Graphic design
MUSE Method
This award-winning comprehensive plan is designed to be accessible and approachable for all West Chicagoans, not just City officials. Through the use of graphics, putting the plan’s biggest ideas at the front of the plan, and including “spotlights” that celebrate community efforts and inspire ideas for implementation, this plan is for everyone.
The plan highlights stakeholders’ and boosters’ efforts, not just to leverage their great ideas and projects, but also to increase accountability for the plan’s implementation among all parties. For example, a local organization has been working for years to redevelop an abandoned train depot into a dynamic arts and performance space. By amplifying the community’s work, the plan highlights a project that can benefit all residents of West Chicago and helps the City focus resources and attention.
The planning process built on the City’s successful 2020 Census outreach, and MUSE connected with stakeholders who had reached as many underrepresented West Chicagoans as possible. Likewise, the team heard from other “hard to reach” people: Spanish-speaking elders, immigrants who feel left out of civic affairs, young families without resources to attend meetings, and teens reluctant to share their voices. To understand how the plan could benefit young people, we met with school social workers who spoke frankly about challenges facing kids and families.
One of the plan’s Big Ideas envisions West Chicago with a better connected downtown. Recognizing how improved active transportation options support public health goals outlined in the recent Healthy West Chicago Plan, mobility recommendations build on existing assets to connect residents to schools, job opportunities, and outdoor recreation.
WINNER OF THE 2022 APA-IL DANIEL BURNHAM AWARD FOR A COMPREHENSIVE PLAN
BOLSTERING THE LOCAL ECONOMY
Maintaining a vibrant local economy and supporting entrepreneurs was an important goal for City leaders. Recommendations included community partnerships to incubate small businesses and prioritizing underrepresented populations in workforce development efforts. A review of the zoning code paired with community feedback resulted in a recommendation to broaden where mobile food vendors are permitted—a cultural and economic win.
COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVES
Here’s what we heard from community members during West Chicago Forward/Adelante engagement.
West Chicago es un pueblo muy unido.
The people of West Chicago are very united.
Me gustaria ver que esta ciudad tenga buenos cambios para mesurar el futuro de nuestros hijos y se sientan orgullos de vivir en una comunidad de immigrantes.
I’d like to see positive changes for this City to help the future of our children, so they feel proud to live in a community of immigrants.
I like living here a lot. I’ve lived in many states and cities, and here we have the best of the best. We are people who are very hardworking, humble, and close-knit, and the schoolteachers are very dedicated.
I enjoy the history of West Chicago mixed with the fact that my family anchored here decades ago.
We need to bring shops and restaurants that represent the majority of the community, more Hispanic-owned businesses while also incorporating a nice downtown feel. We need to make West Chicago be seen for the great community that it is.
A BILINGUAL PROCESS
Social media posts, community flyers, and surveys were all translated into Spanish for this project. Our bilingual planning staff ensured that Spanish translations accommodated local dialects and vernacular.
Use the orange buttons below to swap the graphic between English and Spanish labels.
