Résumé

Rust (urban studies, Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee) examines the history of Chicago development during the postwar period, when the common concern was that spreading slums would threaten Chicago's Loop, driving white residents and businesses out of Chicago altogether. Rust finds that three paradigms shaped urban development in Chicago: privatism, public-private partnerships of the urban-renewal period, and what he calls the "dual city." Throughout most of the postwar period, the goal was to build housing to retain the white middle class. Initially, the plan was to leverage anchor institutions, such as the Illinois Institute of Technology and Michael Reese Hospital, so that facilities could be expanded and housing could be built for their workforces, clearing out slums in the process. Under the first Mayor Daley, the city government committed to eliminating slums (no doubt prodded by Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1966 arrival in Chicago and campaign against slums) and attempted to expand development through public-private partnerships. The business leaders fronting these efforts faced resistance from area residents who feared being displaced. By the time Dearborn Park was conceived, the goal was not to eliminate slums but to mitigate their impact on new development. Thus was created the "dual city" of rich and poor, now recognized as the urban norm.