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How did re-urbanization play out?


The urban planning that went into revitalizing the inner city of Chicago undoubtedly had good intentions. In an effort to disperse poverty and bring hope back to a forlorn part of the city, the government pushed for the “mixing” of all socio-economic classes in close-knit communities wherein residents all stand on equal footing. However, this initiative came with a fair share of challenges, including:

 

-A bias towards the wealthy

-Persisting distinctions along lines of socio-economic class

-Continued displacement of residents



Bias Towards the Wealthy


The distribution of housing units in North Town Village in the year 2000 shows a diminishing focus on the poor. With 50% of the planned units being made available at market value, only 50% remained for low to mid-income residents who could by no means afford a market value house on their own. This statistic arose from the need to appeal to the high-income residents, who the government believed needed an incentive in order to consider living so close to Cabrini Green. As Fleming states in the second paragraph of chapter 6, North Town Village became an “attractive, high-quality community” and “the hottest-selling residential development in the city” (121). In the midst of this commercial success, the original intentions behind North Town Village, that of creating a homogenous environment wherein persons of all income levels could live comfortably, became blurred as the focus shifted from providing housing for the poor to creating pleasing, affordable housing for the more wealthy.

 

Socio-economic Divides

 

 

Has the new urbanization movement truly confronted the issue of urban poverty in Cabrini Green? It is true that families of different economic backgrounds have been placed together in one community, but is this truly a way to lift the poor out of their ruts? To this day, some individuals, including David Fleming, believe that the poor are still treated like second-class citizens even in these mixed-income communities. Fleming cites a Holsten plan for North Town Village as saying “Halsted North is for people who want to gain the benefits of an economically integrated community” (Proposed Use and Concept, 7, emphasis in original). However, while this ideal may be achieved in the sense that the poor are now living with wealthy, ultimately, as Peter Holsten himself has stated, “This place will be run as a market-rate community that just happens to have public housing residents” (141). In the end, it seems that the poor public housing residents are merely a periphery in the community. While the rich have the power to propose and make changes in the community as well as the right to set behavioral standards for the poorer residents to follow, the low-income residents are responsible for "meeting the standards of the highest [income group]" (143). They are voiceless in the face in the demands of the rich.

 

Continuing Displacement

 


For those who were fortunate enough to be given an opportunity to live in one of the new mixed income housing neighborhoods built by the government, they're lives improved, albeit with persisting problems in class relations and bias. However, there are many other public housing residents who, because of the demolition of their old homes in preparation for the new complexes, have been either been displaced or moved to other poorly managed public housing units. For them, life continues to be dangerous and harsh, unaffected by the "new urbanization" that is going on around them. Fleming describes their plight thus:

First they are told their homes are 'blighted'; then, those homes are demolished and, and they are relocated elsewhere: in another dilapidated unit at Cabrini Green, a flat in one of Chicago's many 'horizontal ghettos,' an apartment in a faraway suburb. (143)

 

So has mixed income housing failed? That is hard to say, as there have been some clear successes as well as some clear failures. To this day, new urbanization continues, and we will have to see just how it continues to play out.


Chicago Today


Check out the Chicago census data collected in 2010 and see for yourself how re-urbanization has progressed and how the city has changed in the last decade.

 http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/17/1714000.html

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User-uploaded Content

A Cabrini Green highrise from before the new urbanization movement. It generates a sense of isolation and separation from the rest of the city.

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