Serving UIC's Great Cities Commitment: Solutions for Today's Urban Challenges

Image Source: Tyler LaRiviere, Sun-Times

A Chicago Sun-Times story looking at pandemic recovery by Chicago features perspective from Teresa Cordova, director of the Great Cities Institute and professor of urban planning and policy at UIC, and Matt Wilson, senior research specialist with the Great Cities Institute.

Teresa Cordova, director of the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois Chicago, also spoke of a manufacturing revival that could nurture entrepreneurship and create jobs that support families.

“One thing we learned in this pandemic is the importance of essential workers. They deserve our respect and livable pay,” she said.

Cordova, who also chairs the Chicago Plan Commission, spoke of how developers are captives of a boom-and-bust cycle, which often means too much gets built. Everybody needs to slow down and think about community benefits in large-scale projects and to make sure there’s enough affordable housing, she said.

A colleague of hers at the Great Cities Institute, economic development planner Matt Wilson, said Chicago could take the cars off some commercial streets and turn them into pedestrian-centered lanes or plazas. It would build on a city-sponsored experiment in some neighborhoods the past two summers that people, craving socialization with fresh air, seemed to like.

Full story from Chicago Sun-Times »

Image Source: Liam Kennedy, Bloomberg

A Bloomberg News story detailing safety guidance to Amazon employees in advance of the recent southern Illinois tornado includes comments from Beth Gutelius, research director for the Center for Urban Economic Development at UIC and senior research specialist with the Great Cities Institute at UIC.

Beth Gutelius, research director at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Center for Urban Economic Development, said that Amazon warehouses typically have an intense pace, employees come and go swiftly and there are many contractors—particularly amid the holiday season.

“Between the contractors and rate of turnover, between the number of temporary workers and churn, it raises questions about how well prepared any of those workers were for an emergency event like this,” she said.

Full story from Bloomberg »

Image Source: Timothy D. Easley, Associated Press

Comments from Beth Gutelius, research director for the Center for Urban Economic Development at UIC and senior research specialist with the Great Cities Institute at UIC, and Marcus Dillender, UIC assistant professor of health policy and administration in the School of Public Health, are featured in a Los Angeles Times article about the possible need to adjust warehouse and factory emergency response plans and infrastructure to improver worker safety.

Companies that employ workers in massive factories and warehouses — in some cases thin, modern metal buildings that typically don’t have basements — should explore how to create infrastructure that can withstand powerful tornadoes, said Beth Gutelius, research director at the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

“We need to think about and plan ahead to make sure both buildings they work in and emergency preparedness protocols in place are as strong as they need to be and as proactive as they need to be,” Gutelius said.

Full story from Los Angeles Times »

Image Source: Esther Yoon-Ji Kang, WBEZ

A WBEZ story on community continuity and racial equity in the Chicago aldermanic remap process includes perspective from Jim Lewis, senior research specialist at UIC’s Great Cities Institute, who addresses the difficulties and politics involved in achieving majority representation.

“It is just not possible to keep all communities that have some form of integrity together when you’re trying to solve these other remap problems,” said Jim Lewis, a researcher at the Great Cities Institute within the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Lewis explains that while aldermen are tasked with creating wards that are roughly the same population – about 55,000 people in Chicago – many are attempting to draw a map that creates as many majority-Black or majority-Latino wards as possible, to maximize the chances of sending minority candidates to council.

“That’s what happened in the last remap appears to be happening again in this one,” Lewis said.

“It may be that 50% is all you can get,” Lewis said. Still, Lewis said 50.03% may be enough to ensure a future Asian American alderman in City Council. “[It] comes down to the politics,” Lewis said. “I think if they are organized… and get out the vote and have a good candidate, then I think, absolutely, they can win.”

Lewis echoed that sentiment, adding, in general, “more disadvantaged communities — communities that have suffered more poverty — would benefit from more coherent representation” than communities that can advocate for themselves in other ways.

Full story from WBEZ »

Video Source: Glenn Marshall, Associated Press

An Associated Press report on the tornado striking an Amazon delivery center in southern Illinois last week features analysis from Beth Gutelius, research director for the Center for Urban Economic Development at UIC and senior research specialist with the Great Cities Institute at UIC, who addresses workplace safety issues, the potential impact of climate change on the warehouse industry, and American consumer demand for fast shipping. Her comments also appeared in related coverage from Newsweek and PBS.

“We don’t think of warehousing as one of the industries that’s going to be severely impacted by climate change but then you have a case like this,” said Beth Gutelius, research director at the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois-Chicago. “How do we make sure the facilities are built in a way to best protect the workers inside?”

Gutelius said its central location and cheaper costs has led the warehouse industry to triple over the past decade in the greater St. Louis area, of which Edwardsville is a part, growing faster than the industry nationwide.

Gutelius said she couldn’t help but view the tragedy as a spillover effect of American consumer demand for getting packages shipped quickly.

Full story from WGN Chicago »

(Image Source: Craig Kohlruss, The Sacramento Bee)

In an article from the Sacramento Bee and published by other California-based news outlets, Beth Gutelius, research director for the Center for Urban Economic Development at UIC and senior research specialist with the Great Cities Institute at UIC, addresses the role of pay and working conditions leading to unionization efforts at some warehouses across the country, including at a Dollar General warehouse in the Sacramento area.

The plummeting unionization rate has also come with deteriorating pay and working conditions, said Beth Gutelius, the research director at the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago who authored the University of California, Berkeley Labor Center’s study on the logistics industry.

“The warehousing industry… has largely been invisible to the public for its entire existence. No one thought of warehouse workers,” she said. “I think the pandemic brought those workers out into the limelight. That matters for the workers themselves but also for the support for the unionization effort.”

Adjusting for inflation, wages in the warehousing industry are lower than they were in 1990, Gutelius said.

“In many cases, it’s very physical work so people are questioning am I getting paid the amount (commensurate with) all the physical tolls?” she said.

Full story from The Sacramento Bee »

(Video Credit: WTTW News)

Kathleen Yang-Clayton, UIC clinical associate professor of public administration and research associate with UIC’s Great Cities Institute, joined WTTW-TV’s “Chicago Tonight” for a segment on the Chicago City Council’s remap process and Asian American political representation in the city.

Kathleen Yang-Clayton, UIC clinical associate professor and research associate with UIC’s Great Cities Institute, says greater political representation is also important at a time when Asian Americans are facing a spike in racism and violence.

“We should think more broadly (about) how everyone is impacted by the lack of transparency, the gaming of these ward boundaries. There are solutions that would benefit the Asian American community as well as other communities,” Yang-Clayton.

Full story from WTTW News »