In the winter of 1979 I stood on the Armitage El platform as train after train whizzed by. I recall the scene and the people waiting with me vividly. The opening of Alan Ehrenreich’s New Republic article gets it dead wrong, describing trains “from the northwest side filled up with middle-class white riders near the far end of the line, leaving no room for poorer people trying to board on inner-city platforms.” Ehrenreich contends:
In the past three decades, Chicago has undergone changes that are routinely described as gentrification, but are in fact more complicated and more profound than the process that term suggests. A better description would be “demographic inversion.” Chicago is gradually coming to resemble a traditional European city–Vienna or Paris in the nineteenth century, or, for that matter, Paris today. The poor and the newcomers are living on the outskirts. The people who live near the center–some of them black or Hispanic but most of them white–are those who can afford to do so.
Is the article’s central thesis any more accurate than its opening? What’s your take?
The author is wrong on the detail of what happened on the CTA in 1979. You can get some more info here.
I do think his general “thesis” that relatively wealthier people are moving closer to Chicago’s downtown area while poorer folks are moving out is generally true. Look at all the areas near downtown that weren’t “gentrified”in 1979 and now are. Large parts of Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Bucktown, Wicker Park, Uptown, Edgewater, the South and West Loops, River East and River West, etc.
Look at numerous south and west suburbs that are now majority black or hispanic while their former white residents have largely moved further away from downtown. Generally the core area close to downtown is becoming relatively wealthier while outlying areas of the city become relatively poorer and many former low income residents of the city leave the city entirely.
I think this will continue for the next thirty years, although I may not be around to see it all. When you have organized groups trying to keep “whitey” outta Pilsen, Humboldt Park etc something is happening. When you have lower income blacks in the area from I-55 south to Woodlawn complaining about higher income blacks moving in something is happening.
I expect the changes to continue and while it will vary from hood to hood and economic upturn to economic downturn the general trend is clear.
I was amazed at some of the construction I saw on this site the other day in Woodlawn. I haven’t been out there in years and didn’t expect to see any new condos south of 63rd street.
The city is changing. Like it or not. Perhaps it is becoming more like Hyde Park which was famously described as “blacks and whites united against the lower classes.”
With the price of fuel due to keep increasing, and increasing traffic congestion, there are strong economic incentives for people to live closer to where they work. Since many higher income people work downtown, it makes sense that more and more of them live in the residential areas near downtown. On the other hand, many of the jobs for lower income people have moved to the suburbs, and therefore it makes sense for more of these people to live within reasonable driving distance in the suburbs. Strong economic forces will bring this change about. People trying to resist this process in the name of opposing gentrification are like King Canute trying to keept the tide from coming in.
the irony here is that is now upper-middle class white people who are watching trains whiz by packed like sardine cans, often with plenty of lower-middle class folks already on board. I get on the blue line at Belmont, and it’s not uncommon for the train to be at capacity before everyone at Damen can board.
when I was still taking the red/brown line in rush hour, people regularly got screwed at Fullerton and all the stops further south.
the City (ie, Hizzoner) needs to forget this nonsense about the Olympics and get cracking on the circle line, getting the basic infrastructure in shape so we don’t have more blue line-neglect disasters like we did this year, etc.
I still cannot comprehend how anyone trying to keep the City growing can underestimate the value of a competent and efficient CTA.
Carter, it’s very obvious you have an axe to grind with Hizzoner, seeing as you always seem to bash him and his son. Did you go to Ignatius with him? Hizzoner does have a few flaws, but the Olympics is what the city needs in order to get the new circle line and a complete overhaul of the current infrastructure. Forget what you experienced at St. Ignatius with his son, and look forward to a brighter day on public transit if we get the Olympics. Without it, we will get no funding as the country continues to stagnate.
I’ve seen numerous TV spots and articles on the long-term effects of hosting the Olympics, and the word “boondoggle” is what comes to mind, not “complete overhaul of infrastructure.”
You say:
“Without it, we will get no funding as the country continues to stagnate.”
How is the Olympics going to get us funding to build rail lines and a “complete overhaul of our infrastrucutre”? You don’t have much faith in America if you think the country’s hopes hinge on a temporary sporting event.
Daley guaranteed the City’s bid with public dollars – those public dollars he once swore would never be used. That is not a good sign, and that was pointed out by many in the press – and the Olympic committee didn’t seem particularly impressed with the low-ball cost estimates in Chicago’s bid.
The Olympics aren’t a cash cow for anyone who isn’t getting a construction or service industry contract. Where is all this money coming from, again? TV ads? Visitors to the games?
The reality is that Chicago is in a good place to get a good deal of infrastructure funding if (when) Obama becomes president. In recent years the big urban centers have seen federal funds dry up, and the pendulum will shift the other way with Obama. I hope Obama will not be dumb enough to essentially use federal funds to back up the Olympics, but plenty of us will be watching to see how that plays out.
I have no way to address your bewildering comment about Daley’s son, as I’ve never met any of them.
Whenever I see articles like this, I always wish for the authors to move to the inner city of Detroit, where they can be spared from the effects of “gentrification”. Though the issue is complicated, most of the division really comes down to social class rather than race. Come join me as we ride through the rural shacks and “ghettos” of white poverty (I’ve seen it first hand in my own family) that the “mainstream” media seems to ignore.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93728825
Olympics Business Boom Falls Short Of Expectations
Morning Edition, August 19, 2008 · The big economic boost from the Olympics that many in Beijing were expecting just isn’t happening — at least not during the games.
Hotels have vacant rooms, and restaurants have plenty of empty tables. Traffic restrictions have kept locals from getting around. With construction sites and factories closed, a lot of migrant workers have left town.
Local officials are now hoping for a post-Olympics tourism boom.