79th Street and the storefront comeback
The blocks of 79th between Halsted and Ashland have been getting new life, with health clinics, retail and a renovated corner building or two under construction at any given time. Storefront jobs there have no rear yard to speak of, so a unit goes in the alley behind the building or, with a CDOT public-way permit pulled by the contractor, in a parking space out front inside the barricades. Our driver delivers before the bus traffic on 79th thickens, usually by seven, and services those units on the same early window each week.
Contractors on the corridor typically start with one standard unit and add a handwashing station once food-service tenants and health inspectors become part of the picture.
Bungalows, porches and the Vincennes diagonal
South and west of 79th, Auburn Gresham is nearly all brick bungalows and Chicago-style raised ranches, and the rentals there are for porch rebuilds, roof tear-offs and full interior rehabs. The unit goes at the rear, reached from the alley, on the concrete beside the garage. Vincennes Avenue cuts diagonally along the Rock Island tracks and creates some odd triangular lots and short blocks near 83rd and 87th, where the driver has to work out which alley actually reaches the property before the truck pulls in.
Church lots, Foster Park and youth sports
Churches are the biggest institutions in this neighborhood, and their parking lots host revivals, back-to-school giveaways and summer festivals that draw hundreds. A typical setup is two standard units, one ADA accessible unit and a handwashing station along the lot fence, delivered Friday and collected Monday. Youth football and baseball at Foster Park and the smaller parks along Loomis run on Park District ground, which needs the district's permit before we can place anything, so leagues generally arrange that in the spring.
Weekend demand peaks between the end of school and Labor Day, and the driver who runs Chatham and Gresham the same day handles most of these drops.