Do Chicagoans Lack Civic Pride/Community Involvement (Manhattan, Atlanta: homes, neighborhoods)

[Atlanta_BD]

I mean, I get that Chicagoans love the city. But when it comes to the city's issues, how active are its citizens in the community for the changes they wish to see? How often do citizen get involved or how often are citizens given the opportunity to be involved?

For example, with the parking meter mess and the CPS closings, were citizens given the opportunity to vote on these issues or were these actions taken and the citizens had no say? Were public hearings held?

Just curious...

[jwaiter]

Depends on the citizen. Older people who have been here for longer tend to be more active in community, young post-college transients here temporarily to find a spouse, bear young ones and move to the burbs tend to be less involved.

[UrbanCheetah]

Chicago is a big city. I think people tend to really only be concerned with their immediate surroundings (where they live, eat, work and play). Then again I don't think that is only a Chicago things. Do people who live in Manhattan really care about the issues going on in the Bronx or Staten Island? Do people in Beacon Hill or or the North End care about what is going on in South Boston? Do people in DC who live in the NW quadrant care about what is going on in the SW one? I don't think so.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Atlanta_BD

Do Chicagoans Lack Civic Pride/Community Involvement[?]

No.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by Atlanta_BD

I mean, I get that Chicagoans love the city. But when it comes to the city's issues, how active are its citizens in the community for the changes they wish to see? How often do citizen get involved or how often are citizens given the opportunity to be involved?

For example, with the parking meter mess and the CPS closings, were citizens given the opportunity to vote on these issues or were these actions taken and the citizens had no say? Were public hearings held?

Just curious...

I think Chicagoans have plenty of civic pride and volunteer, etc. However, I have also heard us described as collectively having a "Low Civic IQ."

This refers to the macro viewpoint that we seem to be content with a one-party system, corruption, etc. It's similar on a national level with Congress, everyone hates Congress, but thinks their own Senator or Rep is doing a good job.

With Chicago, I don't think it can be laid at the feet of any one person, or even group of people, it is just an incredibly ingrained/difficult culture to change. We'll have the homicide flare ups licked far before we ever see the political system overhauled, IMO.

Ask yourself - do we teach Civics in school any more? Guessing that got left in the dust with the whole drill-and-kill for standardized tests focus.

[nearnorth]

Originally Posted by Drover

No.

That's the accurate short answer, for sure.

Originally Posted by jwaiter

Depends on the citizen. Older people who have been here for longer tend to be more active in community, young post-college transients here temporarily to find a spouse, bear young ones and move to the burbs tend to be less involved.

I don't think that is a fair generalization. Sure, there are plenty of young people who fit that description, but there are also plenty who volunteer, participate in sit-ins or voter education drives, hound their aldermen for change, or choose careers with non-profits, or choose to teach in CPS when it would be much easier to teach in the suburbs, etc.

Think of the people who are most likely to hound you on the street to sign a petition or donate time or money to a non-profit. It's usually young people, in my experience.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by nearnorth

That's the accurate short answer, for sure.



I don't think that is a fair generalization. Sure, there are plenty of young people who fit that description, but there are also plenty who volunteer, participate in sit-ins or voter education drives, hound their aldermen for change, or choose careers with non-profits, or choose to teach in CPS when it would be much easier to teach in the suburbs, etc.

Think of the people who are most likely to hound you on the street to sign a petition or donate time or money to a non-profit. It's usually young people, in my experience.

I agree with both of your comments.

[Swandaddy]

I think that it also depends on the issues that are pertinent to the individual. Myself, for example, even though I may care about the CPS closings or the gang violence/murders, or the parking issue, I, like many people, am going to spend my time/$/energy on issues that matter to me.

For example, I'll donate $$ and volunteer for an organization that helps out homeless LGBT youth because had my story in life been somewhat different, that could have been me and I've had friends kicked out of their homes and on the streets because of this. Whereas the violence/murders although saddening don't directly affect me as much and by the time I'm done contributing to the things that do matter most to me I'm out of resources to help out on other causes.

CPS closings for example, Barbara Byrd Bennett was making rational arguments for her case while Karen Lewis was calling Barbara Byrd Bennett a racist; but a lot of people were saying that they shouldn't have closed that many schools. So, as I don't have kids (or a husband for that matter yet) I just kinda stayed out of that one. Same with parking; like come on it's a big city of course you're gonna pay the piper for parking.

As for the one party hegemony in the city, that's partly attributed to the nationwide urban/rural split b/w Republicans and Democrats, as Democrats carry so many cities and Republicans so many rural areas. But this is Chicago, and it has been said that politics is a full contact sport in Chicago :-0

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

I think Chicagoans have plenty of civic pride and volunteer, etc. However, I have also heard us described as collectively having a "Low Civic IQ."

This refers to the macro viewpoint that we seem to be content with a one-party system, corruption, etc. It's similar on a national level with Congress, everyone hates Congress, but thinks their own Senator or Rep is doing a good job.

With Chicago, I don't think it can be laid at the feet of any one person, or even group of people, it is just an incredibly ingrained/difficult culture to change. We'll have the homicide flare ups licked far before we ever see the political system overhauled, IMO.

Ask yourself - do we teach Civics in school any more? Guessing that got left in the dust with the whole drill-and-kill for standardized tests focus.

I do think there's a sense of resignation that one person can't do much to change the political culture and climate of a city inhabited by 2.7 million people. While this may look like a lack of civic pride from the outside, once you drill down to the neighborhood level you'll find there's plenty of civic involvement at the micro level. If you can't make a difference city-wide, then do your best to stay involved in your own little patch and hope that enough people in other neighborhoods are doing the same to an extent that the difference can be felt city-wide.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by Drover

I do think there's a sense of resignation that one person can't do much to change the political culture and climate of a city inhabited by 2.7 million people. While this may look like a lack of civic pride from the outside, once you drill down to the neighborhood level you'll find there's plenty of civic involvement at the micro level. If you can't make a difference city-wide, then do your best to stay involved in your own little patch and hope that enough people in other neighborhoods are doing the same to an extent that the difference can be felt city-wide.

I think the "Civic IQ" stat is referring more to basic understanding of government and politics. I'll have to look it up, but it was explained to me in the context of few Chicagoans really understand how City, County and State governments overlap here, and relatively few know who their elected officials are outside of the Mayor and the Alderman (edit - meaning state reps, senators, county board, etc).