Poll: White residents in D.C. think redevelopment helps them. Black residents don’t.

Bernardo Tapia Garcia guides a steel beam while working on the City CenterDC complex in April. The District’s transformation began slowly downtown in the 1980s and 1990s and, in more recent years, has accelerated, raising property values and rents. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Bernardo Tapia Garcia guides a steel beam while working on the City CenterDC complex in April. The District’s transformation began slowly downtown in the 1980s and 1990s and, in more recent years, has accelerated, raising property values and rents. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

The Washington Post quotes John Betancur, former GCI scholar and professor of urban planning and policy, on a poll showing that African Americans in Washington do not feel that urban redevelopment benefits them. Betancur, an expert on gentrification, said that redevelopment and improved city services soon lead to higher rents and property values, displacing African Americans.

“When redevelopment comes, police follow, and there’s more safety in the neighborhoods and people think that’s great,” said John Bentancur, an urban studies professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “But they do not enjoy that very long. Soon those services make those neighborhoods candidates for gentrification, and the people celebrating the benefits are displaced.”

Full Story from The Washington Post »

Dick Simpson releases 2nd edition of “Twenty-First Century Chicago”

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Dick Simpson, former GCI scholar and professor of political science,  joined WFLD-TV’s (Ch. 32)  “FOX Chicago Sunday” program Nov. 22 to discuss the recently released 2nd edition of his co-edited book “Twenty-First Century Chicago.” The book explores the social, economic, political and governmental conditions of the Chicago metropolitan area and examines the region’s role in today’s global economy.

Part 1 from WLFD-TV »

Part 2 from WLFD-TV »

Supply Chain Trends and Challenges

Transportation plays a major role in the worldwide supply chain. Learn more about the importance of the supply chain in our global economy during “Supply Chain Trends and Challenges,” a seminar November 19 hosted by the Urban Transportation Center. Feature speaker will be John Caltagirone, Founding Director, Supply and Value Chain Center, Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University in Chicago. The event begins at noon and will be held in CUPPA Hall Room 110. Visit — utc.uic.edu/current-utc-events/.

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Similar conditions help radicalize youth in Chicago, Paris

Candles have been lit at a makeshift memorial in front of "Le carillon" restaurant one of the site of the attacks in Paris on November 15, 2015, in the 10th district of Paris. (LOIC VENANCE / AFP/Getty Images)

Candles have been lit at a makeshift memorial in front of “Le carillon” restaurant one of the site of the attacks in Paris on November 15, 2015, in the 10th district of Paris. (LOIC VENANCE / AFP/Getty Images)

Chicago Tribune columnist Dawn Trice, writing on the terrorist attacks in Paris, mentions the Great Cities Institute’s recent symposium, “City/Cite: A Transatlantic Exchange.” The symposium featured Andrew Diamond, a professor of American history at the Paris-Sorbonne University and a former Chicagoan who wrote “Mean Streets: Chicago Youth and the Everyday Struggle for Empowerment in the Multiracial City, 1908-1969.”

Andrew Diamond lives near the Canal Saint Martin in Paris’ 10th Arrondissement, a five-minute walk from a popular intersection that’s home to a Cambodian restaurant, a pizzeria and a bar with an expansive terrace frequented by tourists and the neighborhood’s “Bobos,” or artsy bourgeois bohemians.

It was in this area where one of Friday’s terror attacks occurred.

A professor of American history and civilization at the Paris-Sorbonne University, Diamond lived in Chicago when he wrote “Mean Streets: Chicago Youths and the Everyday Struggle for Empowerment in the Multiracial City, 1908-1969.”

I talked to him Sunday afternoon because earlier this month he returned to Chicago for a trans-Atlantic symposium that included discussions on how high unemployment, income inequality, social exclusion, poverty, and racism in Paris and in Chicago can make it easier for young folks to be radicalized.

These conditions also inspire marginalized and disaffected youth to join gangs of thugs who commit horrendous acts of terror — or as we prefer to call it here in Chicago, gun violence. On both continents, the weaponry is too easily accessible.

The symposium, called “City/Cité: A Transatlantic Exchange,” was a joint production of Chicago’s French Consulate, the University of Chicago and the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Full Story from Chicago Tribune »

Rachel Weber releases “From Boom to Bubble” book

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GCI Fellow and Professor of Urban Planning and Policy Rachel Weber’s newest book, From Boom to Bubble: How Finance Built the New Chicago, was recently published. Joel Rast, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, says “Weber gives us a compelling book that cements her reputation as one of the top urban planners in the field of urban political economy. Her sophisticated and nuanced understanding of complex systems like global finance and real estate markets is conveyed easily and accessibly to those both inside and outside of academia. From Boom to Bubble is a major contribution, one that will most certainly be widely read and discussed for years to come.”

UAW members voting on Ford contract that would bring $1.1B to Chicago area

Robert Bruno, professor and director of the Labor Education Program, talked about UAW members voting on a national labor deal with Ford in a Chicago Tribune article.

But the promise of new product lines at both factories is a big boost for the region, according to Bob Bruno, professor of labor and employment issues at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Especially in Chicago where the Lincoln MKS sedan is being phased out.

“Having a new line is always considered the lifeblood of any factory,” Bruno said. Ford’s decision reflects its belief that “Chicago facilities are high performers,” he said. Ford is at the forefront of a less adversarial relationship with the UAW and is reaping the benefits, he said.

Full Story from Chicago Tribune »

International Exchange, Community Visioning and The Public Good

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Dear GCI followers,

We want to thank all of you who were able to join us on November 3 for City Cité: A Transatlantic Exchange.  We held the event at the Jane Addams Hull-House and were welcomed by its Director, Jennifer Scott. It was a wonderful day and the weather was nice enough for us to hold lunch outside.  The exchange between the French delegation of scholars, activists, and policy makers and the U.S. participants was rich, addressing issues and strategies in urban regions on both sides of the Atlantic. Thomas Sugrue, our keynote speaker, spoke about the French economist, Thomas Piketty, whose 700 pages treatise analyzes how the dynamics of capital accumulation generate inequality but does not address questions of race.

While the French, Sugrue stated, are comfortable speaking about inequalities based on class, they do not speak much of inequities based on race.  In the United States, he argued, we are less comfortable speaking of class but, in comparison to the French, are more willing to address racial inequalities. These differences, Sugrue pointed out, suggest what the French and the United States Americans could learn from each other.  Indeed, the day was filled with learning. Day 2, City Cité was held at the University of Chicago.  It was a pleasure to join forces with U of C and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy to host this transatlantic exchange. As soon as we have the video footage, we will post it and make it available to you.  We will also be posting some photos very soon.

Great Cities is a welcoming place for international visitors. For the fifth year in a row, a delegation of civic leaders from Russia visited Great Cities Institute to learn about the activities at GCI, The College of Urban Planning and Urban Affairs (CUPPA), and UIC. The visit is organized and supported by Open World Leadership Center (Library of Congress), American Council of Civil Society in Russia, Inc., Moscow School of Civic Education and UIC Great Cities Institute. The Moscow School of Civic Education, a non-governmental organization, was established in 1993 “to promote the development of civil society in Russia.” The delegation will be in the Chicago area for the week. Besides cultural tours and eating the wonderful Chicago cuisines, the group is meeting with various individuals and organizations. Monday, November 9, 2015 they spent the day with us at GCI. Numerous speakers from the University of Illinois at Chicago and the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs spoke about the work being done at UIC to engage directly with communities and policy makers in the region.  We thank Megan McKenna, GCI Senior Research Specialist, for her work organizing this visit.

Commercial Avenue vision meeting in South Chicago.

Commercial Avenue vision meeting in South Chicago.

Besides our international partnerships, Great Cities Institute is busy with its community –based planning projects.  This past week, we were so happy to continue our work with the South Chicago Chamber of Commerce and residents in what one resident called “a most constructive first idea-generating public meeting about the revitalization of South Chicago’s commercial corridor.”  During this invigorating community visioning session, residents shared their ideas for a revitalized commercial corridor.  In our next step, we will work with residents to express their ideas spatially.  On the basis of community ideas, we will provide a draft commercial revitalization plan for their review. The final plan will include implementation strategies to assist residents in realizing their dreams for the corridor.

On Friday, November 6, as part of our Public GOOD Initiative with the National Public Housing Museum (NPHM) and in conjunction with the Architecture Biennial, we co-hosted a forum on the “Future of Public Housing.” We might have entitled, the event, “Public Housing as a Public Good.” Other co-sponsors included The Institute for Public Architecture (IPA) and the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture at Columbia University.  The Jane Addams Hull-House Museum hosted the event. Several participants came from New York City, including Rasmia Kirmani Frye, Director of Public/Private Partnerships, New York City Housing Authority, and Nadine Maleh, Executive Director, Institute for Public Architecture, who moderated the discussion. I provided opening comments on affronts to the “public” and the importance of the concept of the public good. Stay tuned for more programming from GCI and NPHM on our pubic good initiative.

Sincerely,
Teresa Córdova
Director

Kirk’s opposition to power plant rule is political issue at home

Dick Simpson, former GCI scholar and professor of political science, is quoted in an Environment & Energy article on U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk’s opposition to the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, which aims to reduce carbon pollution from power plants.

Dick Simpson, a political science professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, said the announced votes on the CRA resolutions may be intended to balance the immigration vote, which was politically important.

“To be completely anti-immigration like some of the Republican Party is would be a dangerous position here,” said Simpson, a former Chicago alderman.

Kirk’s task, he said, is to keep “the conservative wing from putting anybody up to challenge him and getting the independent and some Democratic votes that he will need in the [general election] Senate race.”

Full Story from Environment & Energy »