Metropolitan Planning Council

Understanding the North Branch/Goose Island (Reach 2)

Carolyn
River Reach 2 illustration

About the Project

The Chicago River System has evolved since the launch of the Our Great Rivers initiative. To determine if Chicago is reducing barriers to the good life and fostering shared prosperity for its residents and business all along the river system, this evaluation notes how the system and its surrounding communities have changed over time. Consistent with the project structure, the findings are organized into the themes of inviting, productive, and living.

About the Approach

The Our Great Rivers project considers the Chicago River System as six distinct areas, or ‘reaches.’ The following analysis shares demographic, socioeconomic, community development, and ecological data and trends between approximately 2015 and 2025 to detail transformations along or near the river system.

In the Current

Want to get to know a catalytic project and leader bringing the vision of Our Great Rivers to life in Reach 2? To learn more about an initiative creating lasting benefits for local communities and the river system, explore a story of transformation: The Wild Mile.

A Glimpse Into Reach 2: the North Branch/Goose Island

Where is this reach located?

The North Branch/Goose Island Branch includes the North Branch of the Chicago River, Goose Island, and North Branch Canal. Bounded by Ontario Street to the south and Gunnison to the north, the overall length is 4.5 miles. It touches the community areas of Lincoln Square, Albany Park, North Center, Irving Park, Avondale, Lincoln Park, Logan Square, West Town, and Near North Side.

What are the main characteristics of this reach?

The southern portion of the reach that includes Goose Island is characterized by its industrial legacy, with a more industrial and commercial landscape than the northern end. Goose Island itself is wrapped by the North Branch Canal (constructed in the 1850s) on the eastern side and the natural curve of the North Branch on the western side. The canal is home to Urban Rivers’ Wild Mile. Further north in this reach has a more residential character, and is home to Clark Park and Horner Park.

What’s rising to the surface in this reach? 

The key findings and trends of this reach show a nuanced story about this reach – and our river system as a whole. The North Branch/Goose Island reach has seen investment and planning that has restored ecological sites and expanded river access and housing. However, household incomes, home values, and rental costs are increasing along the river in this reach and in the surrounding community, and the number of Latinx residents is decreasing at a notable rate. The average sale price per square foot of commercial, industrial, and multifamily development is higher in this reach than any other river reach, showing increasing value but also a higher barrier to entry for purchasing these properties. The reach may be in a stage of transition as more properties have been left vacant, industrial land uses have declined, and housing and open space have increased. The future of this reach must pair new development and public access with affordability, community stability, creative reuse of vacant and industrial land, and continued investment in natural spaces and mitigation of stormwater runoff so that the river reach becomes more inviting, productive, and living for everyone.

MPC developed data points to characterize changes along Chicago’s River System between approximately 2015-2025. This page gives a general overview of the ways the area surrounding this reach has, or has not, transformed. For more in-depth data, further analysis, and the sources used for this research, view the complete data sets at the link below.

View River Reach 2 Data Sets

Increasing

Decreasing

Same or similar

Good

Fair

Poor

How has the area changed over time?

2014-2022
Demographics

The population in the North Branch/Goose Island reach has remained relatively steady. Population growth was greatest among Asian and white residents. The Asian population saw a 53% increase with 1,975 Asian residents. The white population grew by 1,815 residents, which was a 5% increase from the population of white residents in 2014.

There were significant losses of Latinx residents both in river and adjacent tracts – a decrease of roughly 4,100 (23%) and 6,900 (19%) respectively. While this was a trend across citywide river tracts, the rates of Latinx population loss in this reach was about three to four times greater than citywide river tracts, indicating this was a significantly more salient trend in this reach.

Socioeconomics

The median household income, home value, and rent are all higher and increasing at a greater rate in this reach than along the river citywide. This trend largely mirrors the trends in the river adjacent tracts, indicating it may be part of an overall neighborhood increase in household incomes and costs.

Inviting Rivers Data

How has the reach become more, or less, inviting?

Land Use

The area saw a slight decline in commercial land use between 2010 and 2020 (about 32 acres of commercial land use were lost, or 1.2 percentage points), though a significant proportion (about 30%) of the tracts along the river are commercial uses still. Industrial uses are also a large portion of the reach’s land use at 14%.

There is less open space in the reach than in citywide river tracts overall, but the share of open space has increased along the river (about 31 acres were added between 2010 and 2020, a 1.1 percentage point increase).

Single family residential homes have increased and industrial uses have decreased in share in tracts directly along the river and in adjacent tracts, reflecting a wider neighborhood trend. These land use trends may have been influenced by the North Branch Framework plan, which was approved in 2017 as part of the city’s Industrial Corridor Modernization initiative. The plan led to rezoning much of the area to allow for mixed use, commercial, open space, and residential land uses. The plan maintained some industrial uses, but encouraged “business expansion and relocation to elsewhere within Chicago’s Industrial Corridor system.”

Physical improvements

North Branch/Goose Island is relatively well connected. Around 40% of this reach’s river edge has a trail, and this reach has by far the greatest number of places to access these trails compared to other reaches with 186 trail access points. Trail access expanded in the region when Urban Rivers established the Wild Mile in 2021.

Ongoing redevelopment of Lathrop Homes along a half-mile stretch of the North Branch added more than 400 new and rehabbed apartments in 2019 and a public riverwalk with a new kayak launch. In a project funded by the Our Great Rivers grant, Lathrop Community Partners and Friends of the Chicago River hosted events to connect community members to the river through kayaking and river advocacy. Read about the project in the MPC blog Design, Nature, and Affordable Housing on the North Branch.

Productive Rivers Data

How has the reach become more, or less, productive?

Office, Industrial, and Multifamily Development

The average sale price per square foot for office, industrial, and multifamily property within 2 blocks of the river in this reach is higher than in any other reach at $340.

The sale price has also increased at a higher rate than other river reach properties around the city. The same trend is true for the number of these kinds of properties up for sale—the North Branch/Goose Island Reach is the only reach with an increase in properties for sale over the last decade. However, vacancy rates in office, industrial, and multifamily properties (meaning units in existing buildings that are not occupied) increased by 19 percentage points in the last decade, and sit at 24% in 2025. This increase in vacancy may be due in part to the North Branch Industrial Framework Plan released during this time period, which resulted in changes to land uses and zoning that could have resulted in increasing vacancies as older businesses left the area.

The share of vacant lots without any building overall in river tracts on the North Branch/ Goose Island is just 4%, but this is an increase of 66 new vacant parcels from 2014 to 2022. This is distinct from river adjacent tracts that saw 41 vacant parcels become developed, indicating the area near the river in particular saw an uptick in vacancies.

Jobs and Businesses

Jobs increased in this reach by 11%, more than in river adjacent parcels, which only saw a 2% increase.

The number of businesses decreased, following the citywide trend.

Living Rivers Data

How has this reach become more, or less, living?

Water Quality

Chicago has a combined sewer system, meaning that sewage and stormwater from rainfall and melting snow enters the same pipe system. When this system is overwhelmed, the combined sewage and stormwater is emptied directly into our river system, polluting the river and increasing the risk of flooding. This emptying of sewage and stormwater into the river system is called a combined sewer overflow (CSO). The North Branch/Goose Island reach had the greatest number of combined sewer overflows (CSOs) between 2016 and 2021 compared to the other river reaches, reaching nearly 2,000 CSO events. The number of CSO events, however, has declined over time with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District’s (MWRD) efforts in the Tunnel and Reservoir Plan (TARP), that built large, deep tunnels and reservoirs that store stormwater and sewage until it can be treated, mitigating CSO events. The TARP reservoir that affects this reach is the McCook Reservoir. The first stage of the McCook Reservoir began operations in 2017. It is located between the Des Plaines River and Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in Bedford Park, and captures stormwater along the Des Plaines River, Salt Creek, Addison Creek, and the Chicago River from the North Branch and North Shore Channel, through the Main Steam, South Branch, Bubbly Creek, to the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. This first stage of the McCook reservoir was designed to contain up to 3.5 billion gallons. The second stage, set to be completed in 2032, has capacity for an additional 6.5 billion gallons. The tunnels and reservoirs built under TARP have played a major role in reducing CSOs in Chicago’s water system. The number of CSOs notably declined across all Chicago river reaches and the Des Plaines reach after the McCook Reservoir became operational in 2017.

CSO events are complex: the severity of each event depends on the location, amount of impervious surfaces that exacerbate runoff, weather conditions, and other factors. Our region has not seen a complete elimination of CSO events, and some years continue to see more severe CSOs than others. It is important to continue to make ongoing efforts to reduce stormwater runoff and mitigate CSO events, as the effects of climate change, such as the heavy rainfall events we saw in the summer of 2026, continue to pose pollution and flooding challenges to the Chicago region.

The biodiversity of the Chicago river system’s fish population has come a long way. In the 1970s, there were fewer than 10 species of fish in our river system. Today, thanks to decades of habitat restoration and advocacy from organizations highlighted throughout this website and beyond, there are more than 80 recorded species. Fish move throughout the river system, and the number of recorded species in a given reach provide only a snapshot in time based on when the data was collected. Though there are these limitations to collecting fish species counts, MWRD monitoring station data averages over time show that this reach sustains a diverse fish population. Between 2016 and 2021, the two North Branch/Goose Island reach MWRD monitoring stations, Diversey Parkway and Wilson Avenue, saw an average annual count of 14 and 19 fish species respectively.

The Chicago Park District and the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) have made improvements to the ecology of this reach through the USEPA’s Great Lakes Fisheries and Ecosystem Restoration program. In 2013, the partnership restored a stretch of the North Branch river edge in Horner Park, removing invasive trees and fencing, and creating a naturalized edge with native plants and mulch walking paths.

Open Space

Just 5% of the North Branch/ Goose Island reach is dedicated to open space, which is lower than the 10% of river tract area that is dedicated to open space across the city overall. The share of open space increased slightly in the reach between 2010 and 2020.

Explore the research on other reaches in the Chicago River System below.

Visit river reach pages:
View the complete data sets for each of the river reaches:

Learn more about Our Great Rivers and this Understanding Our Rivers evaluation project.

Methodology

Research Approach

This project examined how areas (census tracts) along the river changed over time, from approximately 2015 to 2025. Data related to demographic, socioeconomic, development, and ecological changes, were compiled to understand how areas along the river transformed over the decade. Trends/variables included:

  • Population changes by racial and ethnic group
  • Rent and home value changes
  • Job, business, and vacancy rate changes
  • Land uses
  • Trails and access points
  • Community projects and activations
  • Fish diversity

In addition to breaking down the river geography at the citywide and “reach”-level scale, we examined data by census tracts based on their proximity to the river:

  • River tracts: Census tracts that touch a river in the city of Chicago
  • River adjacent tracts: Tracts that touch the “river tracts.” Data in these tracts act as a proxy to the nearby neighborhood in order to differentiate general neighborhood trends from findings that are unique to tracts that directly abut the river.
Research Questions

For each data area, we asked the following questions, which allow for a nuanced look at how river areas have developed, when compared to other parts of the city:

  • How do trends/changes compare across specific river areas (aka “reaches”)?
  • How do trends/changes along the river (aka “river tracts”) compare to changes in areas immediately adjacent to river census tracts (aka “river adjacent tracts”, which are the comparison groups)?
  • How do trends/changes along the river compare to changes across the city as a whole (all city census tracts)?

Sources

All sources for this research are listed on the Data Set Factsheets available on each reach page.

Authors

This evaluation project was produced by the MPC staff listed below. It was also developed and supported by Christina Harris, Alec Singer, and Kate Mackie. 

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