Amazon overcomes critics in West Humboldt Park, puts down community roots

In West Humboldt Park, Amazon is on its way — “primed,” it might say — to heed demand for holiday gifts plus the year-round drumbeat of impulse buying.

Workers scurry to pack, code and route orders drawing on the inventory of 500,000 smaller items — think of toys, pet food, electronics, beauty products and holiday décor. With a supporting cast of robots, the operation at 1260 N. Kostner Ave. hums and rolls for 23 hours a day.

“We spend the entire year preparing for the holiday season,” Operations Manager Taeshia Hall said.

For Amazon, it’s a season of triumph. But getting there at a location built to satisfy the same-day delivery appetite from the Chicago area had its glitches.

The center has been open for a year and made its first deliveries in October 2023. The pandemic delayed the project around a year and groups from and close to West Humboldt Park staged protests tied to Amazon, although sometimes with contradictory aims.

Some wanted to block Amazon’s arrival entirely, citing truck traffic and noise and accusing the company of providing low-quality jobs. Others demanded that Amazon agree to hire mostly nearby residents.

The protests are long gone and Amazon has met its own hiring projections, employing 500 people. Hall said most are full-time and that she has taken on 200 people since late October.

Some were hired for the seasonal rush, a company spokeswoman said, but those assignments can stretch for months and become permanent.

Hall said associates at the facility can make up to $23 an hour with benefits that take effect the first day of employment. In September, the company increased starting pay nationwide and gave free Prime memberships to hourly employees. Prime is the retailer’s loyalty program for free deliveries.

Critics such as Howard Ray Jr., president of the West Humboldt Park Community Coalition, contend Amazon has not hired sufficiently from within the community and has accepted few referrals for job candidates from local groups.

“Anytime somebody can be employed there it’s a good thing, but this could have been done a whole lot better,” Ray said. He said Amazon has worsened traffic congestion, and its trucks on two occasions knocked over city streetlights.

Others, such as the West Humboldt Park Development Council and Ald. Emma Mitts (37th), welcomed Amazon and continue to champion it. Mitts worked with city officials to negotiate zoning terms that allowed Amazon to open on land that used to have a metal manufacturer and a junkyard. Amazon agreed that its ubiquitous trucks would access the docks only from busy Division Street and not from Kostner Avenue, which separates the building from homes.

“They’ve been good partners,” said Ray King, a community outreach worker for the West Humboldt Park Development Council. “They’ve been real attentive, and we just haven’t heard a lot of complaints.”

Mitts, who last year told the Sun-Times the critics never had a clear goal in fighting a jobs project, heaped praise on Amazon's philanthropy in a statement Wednesday.

"Interestingly, since the Amazon Distribution Facility opened, they have solidified their urban credibility as an important West Side business asset — and therefore their reception by the community has been welcoming," Mitt said in an email. She said her office has received "not a single complaint, only accolades" about Amazon.

Sarah Glavin, Amazon’s head of community affairs for Chicago, said the company has emphasized neighborhood partnerships. It donated $200,000 to Project Exploration for grants going to 10 schools before the building opened.

On Saturday, the property hosted a giveaway of 400 frozen turkeys and sides for prescreened families in an event sponsored with Black Men United and Rush University Medical Center. Produce bags came from 40 Acres Fresh Market in Austin, an example of Amazon’s support of local businesses, Glavin said.

“We’re finding that the community is seeing we can bring a lot to the table,” she said. “It’s important for being a good neighbor.”

Glavin said Amazon has “monthly check-ins” with residents to make sure no issues have come up. She said the ongoing dialogue led the city to install a stop sign at Kostner and Potomac avenues on the property’s east side, where workers access the building.

The site is called SIL4 in Amazon’s lingo. S is for same-day delivery and the rest signifies it as the fourth such center in Illinois. The other three are in Winfield, Country Club Hills and Skokie. Amazon's footprint also includes 22 larger fulfillment and sortation centers in the Chicago area.

Amazon has continued to face pressure to organize by the Teamsters union at various centers around the country, including among drivers tied to Skokie. No such labor activism has emerged in West Humboldt Park.

The company reports having 40,000 full- and part-time workers in Illinois.