 In 1985 Randall H. Langer , a young real estate developer active in apartment rehabilitation in the neighborhood , aided the creation of a local historic district , the Sheridan Park Historic District , which critics charged was of dubious historical value and created to facilitate gentrification . Nineteen tax delinquent properties in Uptown were offered for sale by auction by Cook County in Fall , 1987 . Since 1983 Cook County had a program to afford local governments the opportunity to acquire tax delinquent properties for almost nothing , prior to the county 's scavenger sale to the public , if the local government had a specific development plan . On October 28 , 1987 , Shiller urged the Tax Delinquency Subcommittee of the Cook County Board to accept a no @-@ cash bid from the City for the 19 tax @-@ delinquent parcels in Uptown . A decision was deferred when Commissioner Rosemarie Love requested a delay on grounds that the Washington administration had not provided a development plan . Subcommittee chairman Commissioner Richard Siebel said the County 's no @-@ cash sales program was " designed to place property back on the tax rolls as quickly as possible – not for land @-@ banking . It 's not appropriate for us to pass this until the city tells us , parcel by parcel , what they intend to do and how they plan to pay for it . " Another commissioner noted that the City already owned 7 @,@ 000 tax @-@ delinquent properties , and another added , " Properties we gave to the city 12 years ago are still war zones . I don 't want the same thing to happen here . " 
