Alana Semuels – The Atlantic
The Atlantic, in an article about whether the University of Chicago should be more involved in its surrounding neighborhoods, quotes Rachel Weber, GCI fellow and associate professor of urban planning and policy. Weber says residents of neighborhoods near Hyde Park want the university to hire, train and educate more locals.
It’s a tricky question in the neighborhood—whether or not the university should get more involved in development in Woodlawn. When it developed neighborhoods in Hyde Park in the 1960s, thousands of households were displaced, said Rachel Weber, a professor of urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. And there’s some tension over the jurisdiction the university’s police department—one of the largest private forces in the country—has over residents who have nothing to do with the university. But some locals think the university could be doing more in other areas, like hiring, training and educating local residents, Weber said.
“There’s a sense that they could be doing more on the employment side,” she said. “Elite institutions have the ability to kind of create bubbles around themselves, and the University of Chicago is no exception.”
