A long-running effort to turn a stretch of Harlem Avenue on the Far Northwest Side into a walkable showcase for Italian American businesses and culture like Little Italy’s Taylor Street is inching forward. City planners told the 2-mile stretch between Grand Avenue and Irving Park Road can become a destination neighborhood with improvements to the streetscape that can help attract visitors and new residents.

That section of Harlem is the future home of the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame, and already hosts many Italian restaurants and shops, but isn’t well-known to tourists or outsiders, said Carmen Martinez of the Chicago Department of Planning and Development.