Decrying “corporate discrimination,” the Chicago City Council on Wednesday authorized Mayor Lori Lightfoot to spend $700,000 to acquire the shuttered site of an Aldi’s grocery store in West Garfield Park that made a food desert even bigger.
Lightfoot said Aldi’s mid-October closing of the 30-year-old store at 3835 W. Madison St. created a “dire situation” that forced the city to take an extraordinary step: using funds generated by the surrounding tax increment financing district to acquire the site before having secured a new grocery tenant or developer that can attract a new full-service grocery.
