Of Last 40 Years, What Are Chicago's Best Improvements? (Lincoln, Washington: section 8, homes)

[tompope]

Originally Posted by Manigault

In the last 40 years:

1. The political process was opened to all segments of the population. 40 years ago (pre-Shakman) you could forget about a city job without sponsorship.

2. The Loop was changed into a 24 hour college/residential/business/financial district instead just a business district which shut at 5 pm.

3. Wisconsin Steel stopped polluting the air, water and soil on the south side.

4. The Chicago River became much more alive.

5. There was no 'Sari City' or Russian Jewish community on the north side 40 years ago.

6. Chicago's housing market has become far less segregated in the last 40 years.

7. Forty years ago Midway had about 20 people working there, no rental cars and five flights a day. The only public transportation to O'Hare was a slow CTA bus or an expensive shuttle.

8. Forty years ago the land area between the Prudential building northeast to the S curve was abandoned rail yards. North Pier was an unused warehouse and Navy Pier was vacant.

9. Forty years ago there were topless bars on Rush street with large neon signs and the same on south Wabash behind the Hilton.

10. Forty years ago Maxwell street was a collection of cheap clothing stores, dirty eateries, an old police station and strolling prostitutes.

11. Forty years ago 47th street between Lake Park and Woodlawn was an ugly collection of sleazy bars, tire repair joints, car repair warehouses, a funeral parlor and a drive up liquor store.

12. Forty years ago the el between MLK and Stoney Island (built for the Columbian Exposition) was an ugly, noisy wheezing detractor from businesses on the street.

13. Forty years ago Robert Taylor homes was on its long slide toward becoming the poorest neighborhood in America, with drugs and crime at epidemic proportions.

14. Forty years ago Northwestern's football team was a joke.

Bravo! Excellent list. Well done.

[sunnyandcloudydays]

great post

[Irishtom29]

Manigault makes some good points but....

The Shakman Decision had the consequence of making favors almost impossible for the little guy while the big shots still get them. Corruption goes on but is now hidden and Byzantine in nature. If we're gonna have corruption I liked the old kind from which a regular guy like me could (and did) benefit. "Honest" corruption so to speak. Note too that just when it was Black people's turn at the plate to benefit from the old system the bourgeois white social liberals brought the system down. To the benefit of an educated governing class, an elte which no longer has to compete with the population at large. I LIKE the spoils system, I think it's democracy in action.

I liked Maxwell St. the way it was.

The steel industry in South Chicago, South Deering and the East Side supplied thousands of people with good paying jobs and supplied Christ knows how much in taxes to the city, I can't see losing all that as a good thing. I was installing anti-pollution equipment at Wisconsin Steel when it was shut down; steel mills are much cleaner than they were in the 1960s, a look across the Lake from my balcony to the mills in Indiana makes that apparent.

[williepotatoes]

Originally Posted by It'sAutomatic

You have a point, but what you describe is only a small fraction of the city. There are still many places available for middle class people, and I'm sure most of them have improved since 1971 as far as crime and quality of life is concerned.

Actually, the improved neighborhoods could be described as only a small fraction of the city. For every Bucktown that went in a positive direction, there is a Hermosa that declined. Huge swaths of this city that made up the SW and NW sides in 1971 were viable middle class family oriented hoods. Chicago's bungalow belt was as a model for middle class urban living.

There is a good reason why this city is losing population at an alarming rate. More and more parts of this city are becoming unlivable. 180,000 people don't leave a city that is a good place to live. Chicago is a big, big town and the majority of it is and has been economically sick for a long time.

[Manigault]

Originally Posted by Irishtom29

Note too that just when it was Black people's turn at the plate to benefit from the old system the bourgeois white social liberals brought the system down.

Black people did not come to power in Chicago screaming "Throw the whites out!" so they were not in a position to impose a black 'machine'. Its impossible to do that when you are claiming that everyone is equal. The critical mass in black politics included white folks. When Jesse yelled "It's our turn!" at McCormick place in 1983, there were many cheering white folks in the audience and he was including them. Plus, the old paternalism of precinct politics was an anachronistic model. There's something to be said for egalitarianism.

Even now, its good to know someone if you want a city job, so connections are important. No one has to first run up and down stairs handing out leaflets or get ballot signatures for candidates for a city job anymore, however.

Originally Posted by Irishtom29

I liked Maxwell St. the way it was.

To each his own, my brother. Tell that to UIC (formerly UICC).

Originally Posted by Irishtom29

The steel industry in South Chicago, South Deering and the East Side supplied thousands of people with good paying jobs and supplied Christ knows how much in taxes to the city, I can't see losing all that as a good thing. I was installing anti-pollution equipment at Wisconsin Steel when it was shut down; steel mills are much cleaner than they were in the 1960s, a look across the Lake from my balcony to the mills in Indiana makes that apparent.

Thirty years ago I was working basic steel here. Wisconsin Steel and Youngstown and Inland Steel in East Chicago had unsupportable economic models. They sacrificed safety and adherence to environmental laws chasing profits which were not there. Plus, due to long and demonstrated job discrimination they were grossly unfair workplaces. Do you know what sole ethnicity was laying railroad tracks at Youngstown? I do.

Then, Jim Thompson gave US Steel a pile of tax money -- and it promptly went belly up. Now Wisconsin Steel is not creating tax dollars, it is a superfund toxic waste clean up site sucking up federal dollars. Plus, do you know the cancer rate at Altgeld Gardens?

Midwest steel mills refused to or could not change. And then foreign steel entered the US market ...

[Irishtom29]

I know why the steel industry here tanked Manigault. And regardless of the reasons it wasn't a good thing for Chicago.

And regaredless of the role Whites play in Black politics it remains that just as Blacks were positioned to get a bigger share of the spoils the system was changed. I don't doubt that a few educated Blacks benefitted at the expense of a great many working class Blacks who would otherwise have obtained good city jobs.

A similar thing happened in industry didn't it? Just as Blacks were getting positioned to move into the good paying manufacturing jobs, the ones that allowed some prosperity and stability in life, many of those jobs disappeared. Not a good thing. I'm not saying that was a conspiracy or anything but it appears to have been an unfortunate historical accident.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by Manigault

2. The Loop was changed into a 24 hour college/residential/business/financial district instead just a business district which shut at 5 pm.

Well, it's more like 20 hours, but I'd agree it's an improvement. The Loop proper is also now nearly devoid of surface-parking-lots, with just a few on the edges. The near East, Near North, Near South and Near West sides are also much more built out. There's still room for improvement, but they're doing better.

Originally Posted by Manigault

3. Wisconsin Steel stopped polluting the air, water and soil on the south side.

It'd have been better if they'd stopped doing that while remaining in business.

Originally Posted by Manigault

4. The Chicago River became much more alive.

But the asian carp noticed. ;-)

Originally Posted by Manigault

6. Chicago's housing market has become far less segregated in the last 40 years.

It's less segregated, but is it actually "far less" segregated? I'm actually curious - do you know of any statistics to back it up?

Originally Posted by Manigault

9. Forty years ago there were topless bars on Rush street with large neon signs and the same on south Wabash behind the Hilton.

I thought this was a list of positive changes? ;-)

Originally Posted by Manigault

11. Forty years ago 47th street between Lake Park and Woodlawn was an ugly collection of sleazy bars, tire repair joints, car repair warehouses, a funeral parlor and a drive up liquor store.

And now it's a sea of suburban parking lots?

Originally Posted by Manigault

12. Forty years ago the el between MLK and Stoney Island (built for the Columbian Exposition) was an ugly, noisy wheezing detractor from businesses on the street.

And now, due to neighborhood shortsightedness, there's nearly no business left to be detracted, and no "L" to detract from the empty prairie that's replaced them, and even to Cottage Grove the "L" runs with less than 20 minute headways on the weekends. Maybe it's safer, but it's no longer even dysfunctional - it's dropped to be non-functional.

To rejuvenate that area, the City should re-extend to Stony Island and maybe even find a way to make a hook up to 60th or 57th. Then they should route all trains from Oak Park to that branch and turn the Ashland branch into a shuttle that meets every scheduled train at a re-opened 58th Street station, and re-open Racine on that branch. Finally, the city should upzone every single vacant parcel along that route, including something akin to DX-5 zoning 2 blocks in either direction from any station and make it clear that developers can build within that without needing any special process through the alderman. If they did that, in 20 years the area would be on the up-swing, and in 40 years it'd be an entirely different neighborhood generating enough tax revenues to support the infrastructure. As long as aldermen retain their ability to micro-manage development in their wards, the parts of the City without developer-friendly aldermen will be in a chokehold regardless of how poorly-performing they are.

Originally Posted by Manigault

13. Forty years ago Robert Taylor homes was on its long slide toward becoming the poorest neighborhood in America, with drugs and crime at epidemic proportions.

Mission Accomplished?

Originally Posted by Manigault

14. Forty years ago Northwestern's football team was a joke.

Forty years ago the University of Chicago had just been upgraded to varsity status from being a club team.

[Manigault]

I'd also include the museum campus as a recent plus.

[williepotatoes]

The collapse of the steel industry here decimated an entire region. How that can be considered an "improvement" is beyond comprehension. I guess the blight, crime and disinvestment that followed was better for the environment.

[cubssoxfan]

Originally Posted by Manigault
14. Forty years ago Northwestern's football team was a joke

1964-1972: The Alex Agase Era

Alex Agase's head coaching career at Northwestern did not begin well, with the Wildcats finishing no higher than 6th in the conference in his first five years, and compiling losing records in his first six. In the 1970 and 1971 seasons, Northwestern finished second in the Big Ten, with overall records of 6–4 and 7–4. However, the following year, Northwestern would begin a streak of failure, achieving a record of 2–9. Agase would finish his career at Northwestern with a record of 32–58–1, which ranks first in total losses.


OFF by a year.


And wasn't Humboldt Park and Logan Square getting crappy in the mid-late 60's already?! I look at where my Oma lived around North and Homan/Kimball and it looks a hell of a lot better today than it did in the early 80's! And I remember the 70's as the time where we would visit and see the burnt out apartment or building "of the month". Then in the 80's the fires slowed down.