Parks, Plans, and Prejudice: The Environmental Politics of Outdoor Recreation

Beginning with a discussion of the origins and importance of the 1909 Plan of Chicago in terms of open space, Professor Platt will focus on the politics of environmental injustice in the spatial distribution of city parks (and park facilities, maintenance, staffing, etc) on the basis of race, ethnicity and class. This talk will cover the period from the World’s Fair of 1893 and the simultaneous Great Migration to Mayor Richard M. Daley’s Millennium Park.

This approach will allow Professor Platt to introduce the audience to a new generation of scholarship such as Colin Fishers’, Urban Green: Nature, Recreation, and the Working Class in Industrial Chicago (2015), and Michael D. Innis-Jimenez’s work on Mexican immigrants and recreation in South Chicago.

Harold L. Platt is Professor of History Emeritus at Loyola University Chicago. He is the author or editor of several books, including The Electric City: Energy and the Growth of the Chicago Area, Shock Cities: The Environmental Transformation and Reform of Manchester and Chicago, and Sinking Chicago: Climate Change and the Remaking of a Flood-Prone Environment. He has twice won the book-of-the-year award from the American Public Works Association.

Rust Belt No More: GCI Fellow on Chicago as Capital of “Water Belt”

 
The Chicago Tribune featured an op-ed by Rachel Havrelock, director of UIC’s Freshwater Lab, associate professor of English, and Research Fellow at GCI, who writes about keeping water public and transforming the Rust Belt into the Water Belt. She says:
The Great Lakes — Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior — hold 20 percent of the world’s fresh water and the key to survival in the era of climate change. With crippling drought and overwhelming floods occurring in so many corners of America combined with EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s mounting attack on wetlands, streams and other small bodies of water, there is a need to transform our much-maligned Rust Belt into a Water Belt, a freshwater oasis for the world. As the region’s biggest city, with shuttered factories that could hum again and a skilled workforce ready to spring into action, Chicago can lead the way.
Action steps include maintaining water as a public resource, limiting corporate involvement in water treatment and service provision, and maintaining a strong Great Lakes EPA presence.

Read the Full Opinion Piece Here.

GCI Director Quoted on Chicago’s Youth Quality of Life Index

Route Fifty, a state and local government news site from Atlantic Media, interviewed GCI Director Teresa Córdova about the City of Chicago’s recently announced Youth Quality of Life Index, which aims to measure the impact of the city’s youth programs over time and inform future budgets.

Using research, statistical data and evidence-based metrics, the working group will evaluate city policies and programs at the neighborhood level.

“One of the primary advantages of a youth quality of life index is, as programs and policies are implemented, we can measure change,” Teresa Cordova, director of the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago, told Route Fifty by phone. “It’s a great window to determine what is working under what conditions.”

The working group will inventory existing city efforts that directly and indirectly affect youth, many of which Chicago may opt to evolve or expand, Cordova said. She praised the city’s summer jobs and job training programs, as well as its direct delivery through partnerships of social and emotional health services.

GCI representatives will be part of the initiative’s independent expert working group that will collaborate with city departments and sister agencies on the project.

Read the full story here. 

GCI Data Cited in Sun-Times Opinion Piece on Youth Employment Programming

Source: Rosedale Development Association.

During his State of the Union address, President Trump highlighted the fact that African-American unemployment is at its lowest rate since 1972. However, the 6.8% Black unemployment rate fails to capture data on some African-Americans — disproportionately young men — who are chronically unemployed and not seeking employment.

Data from Great Cities Institute’s 2017 report on youth unemployment were cited in a recent Chicago Sun-Times article detailing the plight of Chicago’s unemployed youth. The piece also notes that bringing back youth employment programs could have a positive effect on this issue, as noted by Alternative Schools Network’s founder, Jack Wuest.

Federal funding for youth employment programs first emerged in 1964, in response to the Newark, New Jersey riots. But they were eliminated by Democratic president, Bill Clinton in 2000. That federal effort once employed 700,000 to 800,000 low-income kids every summer, Wuest said. If Trump truly wanted to celebrate black history, his administration could “create a comprehensive youth summer and year-round employment program for low-income and moderate-income youth and young adults,” Wuest said in an email.

Creating such programs would likely reduce the rate of youth not working or in school, which exceeds 40% for African-American men ages 20-24 in Chicago.

Read the full opinion piece here.

Announcing our Spring 2018 Real Time Chicago lecture series

The Great Cities Institute (GCI) is happy to announce that its Spring Semester theme of the Real Time Chicago lecture series will focus on the environmental activism over the span of Chicago’s 185-year history.

The first lecture, ‘Parks, Plans, and Prejudice: The Environmental Politics of Outdoor Recreation’, will be held on Tuesday, February 13. We are very excited that Professor Harold L. Platt, Professor Emeritus of History at Loyola University Chicago, will kick off the first in the series of four lectures. He is the author or editor of several books, including The Electric City: Energy and the Growth of the Chicago Area; Shock Cities: The Environmental Transformation and Reform of Manchester and Chicago; and Sinking Chicago: Climate Change and the Remaking of a Flood-Prone Environment. He has twice won the book-of-the-year award from the American Public Works Association. The 1909 Burnham Plan of Chicago provided the city with a guiding document that helped prioritize order, beautification, and of course, open green space for the modern 20th century American city. Professor Platt will unveil the inherent values that were instrumental in the creation of the Park District and the spatial distribution of parks on the basis of race, ethnicity and class.

The following week on Tuesday, February 20, former Executive Director of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, Richard Lanyon, will speak on ‘The Reversal of the Chicago River: Bridging environmentalism and urban development’. Mr. Lanyon will guide us through the history of the reversal of the Chicago River and discuss its environmental and economic legacy on the Chicago region.

Be on the lookout for two more panel topics focused on environmental justice.

Real Time Chicago lectures begin at 12 noon in the GCI Conference Room, 4th floor of CUPPA Hall. A light lunch will be provided.

GCI Research Fellow and Professor Rachel Weber Interviewed on Success of “Opportunity Zones”

Rachel Weber, UIC professor of urban planning and policy, was recently quoted in an Intercept story about whether or not channeling money to “opportunity zones” through tax bills actually helps distressed areas. The recently-passed tax bill contains provisions for continued funding to opportunity zones, a technique which many professionals view with skepticism.

Years of research show that so-called opportunity zones do next to nothing to revive distressed areas. Opportunity zones are a decades-old bipartisan idea that involves showering businesses with tax breaks, subsidies, and other incentives to lure them into struggling areas, with the hope that new injections of capital will lead to community renewal and revitalization.

In fact, “the bottom-line effects of these kinds of tax incentives are often too small to change the locational preferences of investors,” explained Rachel Weber, an urban planning professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “Moreover, they often create complex financial and administrative structures that consume a large portion of the tax benefit as transaction costs paid to industry professionals, leaving less for the bricks and mortar.”

Read the full article here.

GCI Cited in Sun-Times Column on Youth Unemployment and Crime

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell cites findings from a UIC Great Cities Institute report on youth unemployment in the Chicago area in her column examining factors leading to some of the city’s street crimes. Following a recent string of robberies near DePaul University, Mitchell discusses the link between high unemployment rates and street crime.

A recent groundbreaking study by University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities Institute found that over 40 percent of black men in Chicago between 20 and 24 years old are unemployed and out of school.

So how are the 40 percent of unemployed black men making it, especially those who don’t have families that can support them financially? A lot of the young men who are on the street engaging in criminal behavior don’t see that they have any options.

GCI data and Mitchell’s journalism show the challenging circumstances of many of Chicago’s unemployed young people, and lend insight to the discussion of crime in Chicago.

Read the full column here and the original GCI study, The High Costs for Out of School and Jobless Youth in Chicago and Cook County, here. 

Full week of activities to commemorate 50 years since the 1968 Kerner Report release

We are very excited to announce panelists for the March 1 event along with a week of activities to commemorate the February 29, 1968 release of the report of The National Commission on Civil Disorders, known as the Kerner Report.

Join us the week of February 26 through March 2 to discuss the report’s findings and their continuing relevance for today’s urban issues.  The keynote presentation on March 1 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. will feature the last remaining member of the Kerner Commission, former U.S. Senator Dr. Fred Harris.

A panel discussion will follow Dr. Harris’ keynote. Noted historian and Chicago civil rights activist Timuel Black will be joined by former mayor of Berkeley and human rights activist Eugene “Gus” Newport and former vice president of the W K Kellogg Foundation, Dr. Gail Christopher. Also included on the panel will be local activists and community builders: José Lopez of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, Willie J.R. Fleming of the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign, and Anthony Lowery of the Safer Foundation.

We also hope that you will be able to join us for one or more smaller events in the Great Cities conference room discussing the socio-economic context for the urban unrests and impetus for the development of the Kerner Commission and Report. On Monday, February 26, African American Studies Professors Jane Rhodes, Cedric Johnson, and Amanda Lewis, (who is also Director of the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy) will start the week off with a reflection on the report and issues of race and inequality in the 1960s.

Two documentary viewings on Tuesday, February 27 of Revolution ‘67 (set in Newark) and Wednesday, February 28 of Soul of Justice: Thelton Henderson’s American Journey, will add to the discussions of what led to the urban unrests of the 1960s and the work of important figures such as Judge Thelton Henderson to address racial inequality through the legal system.

Finally, on the morning of Friday, March 2, after the discussion of the main event on March 1, join panelist Eugene “Gus” Newport for a conversation around his decades of work to address racial and class disparities, both as an elected official and as a human rights activist throughout the U.S., Africa, and Latin America.

For more information on these events, please check the individual event pages on our calendar. For the March 1 main event with keynote speaker Dr. Fred Harris, an RSVP is appreciated, and can be registered for free here.

GCI Staff Weigh In on African-American Unemployment in Illinois

Source: Lynne Sladky / AP.

At 6.8%, the national Black unemployment rate is the lowest it has been since 1972. As shown in a recent Chicago Tribune article, however, the unemployment rate for Black Americans is nearly double that of whites (3.7%). In Illinois, the Black unemployment rate is 10%, the highest of any state in the U.S.

As supported by recent GCI research, Illinois’ lagging economy has disproportionately affected its Black citizens. According to recent research led by GCI Director Teresa Córdova and Economic Development Planner Matt Wilson, over 40% of young Black men in Chicago between age 20 – 24 are unemployed and out of school. While this percent has declined over recent years (from 45.7% in 2014 to 42.8% in 2015), it speaks to the spatial isolation and lack of economic activity in many of Chicago’s South and West side neighborhoods, which rarely see the economic gains of the Loop and much of the region.

Córdova says she sees “little rays of hope” that should be built on, meaning: more job training and economic development activity as the economy expands. “If you live in the Loop, this feels really exciting. If you are still living on the corner of Loomis and 63rd, what’s it like over there?”

Read the Full Story here. »

GCI Senior Associate Nik Theodore Cited on Workers’ Rights Study

Following recent expanded inspections by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, immigration reformers and workers’ rights advocates continue to debate the best path forward for employers and employees following widespread work site enforcement by ICE.

A Houston Chronicle column explaining the expanded inspections also highlighted the plight of undocumented workers, citing GCI Senior Associate Nik Theodore’s research on Houston’s day labor markets and associated wage theft following Hurricane Harvey.

Houston employers constantly complain of a labor shortage, which is why some hire unauthorized workers. Currently, unscrupulous employers hire immigrants to underpay them so they can make lower bids and win more contracts. More than a quarter of day laborers in Houston say they were cheated out of promised wages, according to a study published in November by the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Dr. Theodore’s 2017 study is of renewed importance following the uptick in immigration inspections, as it continues to raise awareness of many employers’ illegal actions towards undocumented workers.

Read the Full Article Here.