An equitable transit-oriented development (TOD) program is critical to the growth of metropolitan Chicago. Learn more about TOD tools and tactics developed by the Metropolitan Planning Council February 18 at a Spring 2016 Seminar Series event hosted by the Urban Transportation Center. The presentation will be led by MPC manager Yonah Freemark and is open to all. The event begins at noon and will be held in CUPPA Hall Room 110. Visit — utc.uic.edu/current-utc-
Dr. Imeokparia discussed Ecuador’s solidarity economy. Photo by JD Mousley.
Tim Imeokparia, director of research and planning for Great Cities Institute, spoke at Temple University solidarity economy of Ecuador and some of its theoretical benefits and shortcomings. The lecture was co-hosted by SMC, the Department of Geography and Urban Studies, the Global Studies Program, Academic Center for Research on Diversity, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Architecture, the Department of Community and Regional Planning, and the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, Advocacy and Leadership.
“It [solidarity economy] is an economic practice that is non-economic,” Imeokparia said. Solidarity Economy is a push for a new economy, one focused on cooperation rather than competition. It is a system that is based on mutual assistance.
During his presentation, Imeokparia spoke about the theoretical benefits of the solidarity economy to Ecuador. He emphasized the ambition to transform Ecuador to an industrial or service economy. The idea of solidarity economy was written into Ecuador’s constitution in 2008. Since then, the government invested in roads, education, Internet access and more.
One such initiative is building a “City of Knowledge” in Yachay, Ecuador, complete with a university that will attract students and scientists.
But, Imeokparia noted, this vision is far from perfect—the strategy of solidarity economy falls short of expectations. “It becomes something ideological, it doesn’t transform the production matrix,” Imeokparia said. One reason for this issue, he said, is because the state is pressing for modernization, but the market isn’t ready for it.
Full Story from Temple University School of Media and Communication »
Authors
Teresa L. Cordova, PhD.; Matthew D. Wilson
Abstract
This report contains compilations and calculations of various employment data for males and females 16 to 24 years old by race/ethnicity from 2005 to 2014, comparing Chicago, Illinois, the U.S. and in some instances, adding Los Angeles and New York. Besides an array of figures and tables, the report contains GIS generated maps that illustrate the relationship between employment data and population distribution by race/ethnicity. It is our hope and intention that this report, in combination with the voices of young people, can illustrate the persistence and severity of conditions that have ramifications for our young people and generations to come.
News Coverage
Ann Chen is a media artist and researcher based in New York. In 2014-15 she received the Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowship to travel along the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline in northwestern Canada to make an multimedia documentary. In this talk, she will present work from this ongoing project and talk about participatory mapping, civic science, and collective storytelling as tools to understanding the potential and current impacts of energy infrastructure projects on communities and geographies in the North.
Ann is currently a Collaborative Productions Fellow at UnionDocs, an experimental documentary art center and theatre in Brooklyn, NY and a Sprint Fellow at The Public Laboratory for Open Science and Technology. She has a BA from Wesleyan University and a masters from New York University in interactive media.
Johnathan Allen, 24, left, David Elam, 25, and Antonio Monix, 23, right, testify during a hearing on youth unemployment hosted by the Chicago Urban League on Monday, Jan. 25, 2016. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)
In the city of Chicago, 47 percent of black males between the ages of 20 and 24 are out of work and out of school. This is just one of the many disturbing numbers that can be found in the Great Cities Institute report released today at the Chicago Urban League by the Alternative Schools Network. In a hearing before elected officials, UIC’s Great Cities provided highlights of the report entitled, Lost: The Crisis of Jobless and Out of School Teens and Young Adults in Chicago, Illinois, and the U.S.
Teresa Córdova, GCI Director, made the point that for young people of color, especially young Blacks, conditions of joblessness are Chronic, Concentrated and Comparatively worse (comparing to Illinois, U.S. Los Angeles and New York). Looking at data from 2005 to 2014, low rates of employment and high rates of joblessness have persisted over time. Furthermore, “The low rates of employment are spatially concentrated in neighborhoods that are also racially segregated” (19).
This report highlight that youth employment rates are tied to conditions in neighborhoods and cannot be seen as distinct from what is happening in the neighborhoods themselves. The devastation of unemployment in turn, wreaks havoc on the neighborhood (19).
Joblessness, especially when chronic, creates a cycle,
Where the “permanent scars” lead to conditions that are both a consequence and a precipitating factor that leads to further youth unemployment and parallel social conditions (19).
Some of these conditions include decreased work later in life, lower wages, teenage pregnancy, poverty,
…Where feelings of low self-esteem, depression, and powerlessness are often accompanied by substance abuse and in many cases, violence and crime (19).
This report is a powerful supplement to the voices of young people who spoke today at the hearing sponsored by the Alternative Schools Network, along with the Chicago Urban League, The Illinois Black United Fund, The Westside Health Authority, The Chicago Area Project, and Youth Connection Charter School. Those voices are clear: young people want to work. Many of the young people at the hearing spoke about their financial responsibilities in the household, how they help out their families and the difficulties when they don’t have a job. They also spoke about the value of having a job not only to provide income, but also because of what they learn. We heard so many of them say, “Having a job is important to me.” Many spoke directly about the importance of employment for providing an alternative to the streets, “Jobs can solve violence. If you are busy working, you won’t have time for violence.”
One young black man said, “I’m not asking for sympathy, it’s just my reality.” But in all the stories of their realities, these young people also spoke of wanting a future, not wanting to be a statistic, and having dreams for a better life.
In the last paragraph of the Great Cities Institute report, we are reminded,
Chicago is a great city. But how can it truly be great when this “tale of two cities,” provides such a stark comparison in the employment opportunities among young people. This report [and the voices of the young people themselves] reminds us of the urgency to address these issues of chronic and concentrated conditions of limited employment opportunities that not only affects the young people themselves, but their families, households, and neighborhoods. The reverberations surely extend to all aspects of our society.
Full Report »
ASN Youth Employment Hearing »
CAN TV Recording »
In the press:
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Chicago Tribune »
Chicago Tribune (2) »
Chicago Tribune column (Paywall) »
Crain’s Chicago Business »
DNAinfo »
Ebony Magazine »
CBS Chicago »
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CBS Chicago (3) »
Chicagoist »
Redeye »
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Redeye (3) »
Bloomberg »
ABC7 Chicago »
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Daily Herald »
Northwest Herald »
Quad City Times »
Pantagraph »
Progress Illinois »
The Final Call »
Chicago Sun-Times »
Chicago Sun-Times (2) »
ChicagoInno »
Atlanta Blackstar »
Columbia Chronicle »
Black Youth Project »
ABC Windy City Live »
Daily Kos »
The Columbia Chronicle »
My Web Times »
Welcome to the start of a new year and a new semester at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
We are very pleased to announce that Lydia Lazar has joined Great Cities Institute to direct our Energy and the Environment research cluster. From Lydia’s note below, you can see that she is extremely knowledgeable, experienced and very passionate. We are so thrilled to have her join our team. Under her direction, Great Cities will be addressing issues related to water.
I am pleased to join the team at the UIC GCI and look forward to working with you on the many new and exciting challenges ahead. I come to Great Cities Institute with an academic background in both hydrology and in law, executive experience within the private and public sectors relating to both energy conservation and waste management, and over a decade of experience working as a law and policy professor and administrator within universities in Chicago and New York.
I bring a passion for understanding the “story behind the story” when it comes to mapping and analyzing environmental impacts of human activity, and I believe that the best policy decisions will emerge when the most inclusive and most grass roots, democratic processes are used to develop, vet and choose from among the options for action. More information about my professional background can be found here.
For the remainder of the 2015-2016 academic year, I will be focused on developing new research proposals and identifying and engaging potential academic collaborators across the UIC campus and throughout the world.
Within the research mandate of GCI’s Energy and the Environment cluster, we will direct a substantial amount of our attention to issues related to Water Privatization and Water Resource Management strategies, and we expect research topics to include:
These are just some of our ideas for research projects related to water, and we welcome your thoughts and suggestions for areas you’d like to see tackled by the GCI’s Energy and Environment research cluster. Contact me, Lydia Lazar, directly at llazar@uic.edu if you have an idea or want to share some knowledge that relates to our areas of interest.
Source: Atlanta Black Star
Atlanta Black Star reported on a paper co-authored by David Stovall, GCI scholar and professor of educational policy studies and African- American studies, that stated that mental health issues among black students are often unnoticed because of the students’ intense academic focus and desire to achieve.
Stovall and McGee are both mentors and teachers, and have been aware of the firsthand accounts many Black students have experienced as they try to both survive and thrive in a mostly White environment. Stovall asserts that Black students facing this multi-faceted burden have to be “protected against daily discrimination.” There are also research studies indicating that grit is needed for mental fortitude when accomplishing a task. Still, a more holistic approach is needed when gaining a clear understanding of the mental, emotional and psychological harm that Black students face while in college and beyond.
The authors of the study make a case for systemic changes in the university system, so that Black student healing can begin. This healing will have to take a different approach than traditional wellness methods.
“The process of healing from racial battle fatigue and institutional racism requires significant internal commitment and external support,” the study concludes. “Black college students are brilliant, talented, and creative, and they dream as big as other students. Pursuing higher education should not make them sick.”
Source: The Economist
The Economist quotes Maria Krysan, professor and department head of sociology and former GCI scholar, in an article comparing racial segregation patterns in urban and suburban communities.
OAK PARK, just outside Chicago, is known to architecture aficionados as the home of Frank Lloyd Wright, who built some fine houses there. This small suburban village also has another distinction: it is racially mixed. In the 1970s it vigorously enforced anti-segregation laws; today the “People’s Republic of Oak Park”, as it is sardonically known, is 64% white, 21% black and 7% Hispanic. “Oak Park stands out so much,” says Maria Krysan at the University of Illinois at Chicago. But it does not stand out quite as much as it used to.
America remains a racially divided country, and Chicago is one of its most segregated cities. The south side is almost entirely black; northern districts such as Lincoln Park are golf-ball white; a western slice is heavily Hispanic. Yet the Chicago metropolis as a whole—the city plus suburban burghs like Oak Park—is gradually blending. For several reasons, that trend is almost certainly unstoppable.
An analysis based on census data shows Chicago remains one of the most racially segregated large cities in the country. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
The Chicago Tribune’s Redeye edition quotes Dick Simpson, professor of political science and former GCI scholar, in article on a Brookings Institute report that found Chicago is the country’s third-most segregated large city.
In Chicago, the shift of African-Americans from the city to the suburbs is likely because residents are in search of better housing and schools and safer communities, said Dick Simpson, a professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a former Chicago alderman. But many black residents still land in suburbs with majority-black populations, like Dolton, Harvey and Maywood.
“There is a long tradition of segregation in Chicago and it’s only slowly eroding,” Simpson said. “The social science studies show that often African-Americans only look for housing in neighborhoods that are African-American, and whites only look to own in neighborhoods that are white. It has become deeper than past laws. It has affected the psychology and what individuals seek as a comfortable community.”
It’s only in suburban communities like Oak Park and Evanston, where the local governments have made a concerted effort to integrate, that there has been real progress, Simpson said.
Chicago is much more integrated than it was 30 years ago, he said. But it’s not nearly time to celebrate.
“The level of segregation in Chicago and the region is still scandalous,” Simpson said. “Being the most segregated city is a title we’ve had for, unfortunately, decades. We are doing better, but we are not doing better fast enough.”