Tourism - The Construction of a New Identity in Chicago

             Alright, in order to begin this discussion I must address the fact that “Chicago began to promote itself as a site for convention, trade show, and tourism business at the beginning of the twentieth century” (Spirou, 2006, p.296). Focusing on tourist-oriented development is obviously not new to Chicago, but how quickly everything is built and restructured is definitely new. Even though tourism and urban beautification initiatives have proved to be crucial parts of creating a global city it might not be the best decisions for the city as whole. I do realize that it technology and globalization play a huge role in the world today, so it makes sense why Chicago has gone through many changes. However, I do not believe that spending millions of dollars in tourist-oriented development, like Millennium Park, Navy Pier, McCormick Place, the new museum campus and the new Soldier Field, has been in the best interests for actual Chicagoans.

            It is smart of Chicago to be investing millions of dollars in tourist-oriented development if they want to continue to be a toursit city. However, when taking the time to actually think about what this does to a city is crucial because even though more tourists have been coming into Chicago does not mean that everything is perfect. For example, Millennium Park is unique and beautiful, however, the amount of money spent on creating the park, in my opinion, is not truly worth it at all. There are many different festivities  that are held in the park to attract all sorts of individuals not only in Chicago but in the world; however, this extreme spending is not really worth it.  Even though the park lures in more tourism provides certain kinds of jobs, especially service jobs, does not mean that every person who is underprivileged or unemployed will obtain any of these jobs. Also, these jobs are service-based jobs and sometimes they are seasonally and do not provide much benefits, such as health-care.  City and political officials have to truly acknowledge the fact that there are greater social issues that need to be dealt, like poverty, education reform, unemployment, and etc. Beautifying and globalizing the city was a part of not only Burnham’s Plan but also Mayor Richard M. Daley and even today Rahm Emanuel. We have really beautified and transformed Chicago into a global city, so not it is time to really take into account the social issues that exist in the city.

            We have to realize that all of the millions of dollars spent on luring in tourists hasn’t done anything to decrease social issues within Chicago. The public schools of Chicago continue to struggle with students falling behind when compared to other cities and countries, even though there has been numerous different kinds of reforms. Also we cannot forger that, “criminal activity continues to undermine the quality of life in many Chicago neighborhoods,” and “housing issues persist, as more and more residents are forced to cope with effects of gentrification, displacement, and limited affordable housing options” (Siprou, 2006, p.302). These issues should be central to Chicago city and political officials, not spending millions of dollars to lure in people who only visit for a few days and go back to their own countries. It’s time to focus our attention on those who are truly falling behind in our society.

Last day of class

The very last day of class we visited the Chicago History Museum. Now I must say this was probably the coolest museum we visited. Many of you may not agree, but, hey, it was awesome. I really enjoyed the Facing Freedom exhibit. This exhibit showed us the importance of freedom. The exhibit used images, artifacts, and an interactive section to express many different stories of those who were denied rights from the United States’ past. The exhibit did an amazing job at illustrating the ways in which one can defend their rights – protest, organize, fight, and so many other ways. The next exhibit that I visited was the Chicago: Crossroad of America. This exhibit was amazing and highlighted Chicago’s major historical events, like Chicago’s culturally and ethnically diverse neighborhoods, innovations, economy, and other events.  A really neat addition to this particular exhibition was the movie called Sweet Home Chicago, which allowed the audience to get an idea of all the diverse neighborhoods of Chicago. Next, I visited probably my favorite part of the museum which was the Sensing Chicago exhibit. Even though all of us are considered to be adults, I do believe that those who got the chance to visit this specific exhibit really enjoyed it. It was truly unique because it gave visitors the chance to experience Chicago using most of our senses – touch, smell, hearing, sight. It was really fun and I believe that the museum was a great way to end the class.

I never realized how unique and truly incredible Chicago is. I’m glad I got a chance to be enrolled in this class and attending all of the class days because I really did learn a lot about the city. I definitely will be visiting Chicago a lot more now because it is really a place with rich history and it is fascinating to see how Chicago has changed over the last 20 years - physical, economically, socially, and politically. It has become a global center and I’m sure it will be exciting to see where Chicago will be 20 years from today.

Education Reform

             Chicago’ public schools have experienced several different reforms depending on who is running the city at the time. The guest speaker informed our class that the Chicago Teachers Union want better schools and a better system for their community. Their main goals are to make sure that each child has the opportunity to achieve his or her full potential by establishing smaller class sizes in order to make individual instruction possible, limit standardized tests, safer schools, and stronger contracts for teachers. Before the guest speaker came to our class, I was very spectacle of the Teacher Unions in general. I assumed that the Teacher Unions did not want to decrease standardized testing, which are definitely not the answers to solving the education problems that exist today, and that those who received tenure were not regularly checked on by school officials. However, I found that all of my assumptions were wrong, and by having the speaker come to our class, it definitely has opened not only my eyes but the rest of the class as well.

            Furthermore, the speaker expressed the Union’s position on charter schools, which are a huge part of Rahm Emanuel’s plan on education reform.  The speaker informed us that they are not in favor of charter schools because they are not generally doing any better in educating when compared to public schools. They do, however, support the Charter Schools Union in Chicago, but do not support the charter schools that are not unionized. The speaker also spoke about how firing the entire staff of faculty at a school is not the answer to solving the educational issues that exist. He mentioned how teachers can be trained and become better at their teaching styles and efforts. When he mentioned this, I totally agreed because it is very illogical to fire an entire staff and gather a whole new one because it not only affects the employment of individuals but it also greatly affects students. Students need to have faculty members that understand the environment that they are surrounded by, and just be having a whole new staff does not mean that these new faculty members will understand the type of environment that the students are living in.

            Like Lipman (2006) mentions in her article, “Reform is explicitly designed to attract the middle class to the city. New, academically challenging schools and programs are important to gentrifications.” Even though charter schools may appear to be the answer to restructuring the educational system in cities does not mean that they truly are. Many high officials and the media give the impression that all charter schools are doing extraordinary when compared to regular public schools, but we have to realize that this new obsession with charter schools may be due to political and city officials wanting to make cities more livable for middle-class families.   

The Persistence of Racial Divide & Residential Segregation

The questions posed in this week’s prompt are really interesting and difficult to answer. Racial divide still exists in the 21^st century in Chicago due to discrimination against African Americans. The 21^st century discrimination against African Americans today is a bit different when compared to the discrimination against African Americans in the past. In the past, African Americans faced overt discrimination, such as Jim Crow Laws, Redlining, financial institutions refusing mortgages, and so on, that resulted in African American to live in isolated neighborhoods. Today, discrimination against African Americans is done in ways that are covert rather than overt. What I mean by this is that many individuals still harbor strong stereotypical and racist beliefs towards African Americans, which allows for the continuation of residential segregation in urban and suburban areas. For example, Koval (2006) discusses a study done by Devah Pafer in 2003, which demonstrated the ways that employers practiced “under cover” discrimination by calling back more white applicants with jail records than black applicants with jail records. This study illustrates why some African Americans are more likely to live in lower income neighborhoods because they are less likely to obtain jobs when competing with white Americans.

Also, another reason why I believe that racial divide still persists today is because “African Americans, especially males, remain concentrated in jobs requiring little formal education beyond high school and that offer little promise of significant upward social mobility” (Koval, 2006, p. 87). Since many African Americans are not viewed equally to white Americans even if they have the same qualifications, they are more likely to be clustered in jobs that pay less and offer no benefits. With lower incomes and no benefits, African Americans are basically forced to live next to each and apart from the rest of society. Even though there are African Americans who have middle to upper incomes, these families and individuals are still likely to live in racially segregated areas due to the continuation of discrimination. There are people who are afraid to live next to others who are not like them because they believe that certain groups are more harmful than others. With this being said, not only are neighborhoods segregated based on race but also based on class. Many urban and suburban areas have constructed this “invisible” fence that keeps those in poverty and in the lower class away from the rest of the area. This allows for the segregation of residents in an area not only based on race but also on class.

To answer the second part of this prompt is a difficult one. Honestly, I am not sure what society could do to dismantle residential segregation. There have been many policies trying to integrate neighborhoods, such as mixed-income housing efforts; however, this does not always lead to the dismantlement of residential segregation. What needs to happen is educating society on how racism and classism exists today rather than ignoring the issues. If more people knew about what was really going on in urban and suburban areas, then maybe, just maybe things could change. Also, implementing policies that focus on education and providing better schools and better teachers in all areas could possibly allow for the dismantle of residential segregation. If people from different races and classes saw that schools located in lower income neighborhoods were just as good as schools found in high income neighborhood then maybe residential segregation would slowly disintegrate. It takes time for these changes to occur… hopefully our generation can aid in this change.

Immigrant Chicago

Immigrations and immigrants are extremely important to the city today, especially culturally and economically. The city of Chicago has neighborhoods which are dedicated and help provide comfort for specific cultures and immigrants, such as Pilsen. These neighborhoods help recent immigrants establish social connections and make living in the United States a bit easier. Also, there are “ethnic” restaurants and shops dedicated to serve the rest of society a little piece of another culture or ethnic group. Without immigrations and immigrants today, there would not be all these different restaurants and shops for everyone to enjoy and consume. Another reasons immigrations and immigrants are extremely important to the city today is because of economics. “Immigrants account for nearly all the growth in Chicago’s labor force during the past two decades” (Koval, 2006, p. 198). So, how can we conclude that immigration and immigrants are not important today when immigrants have done so much in the labor market? That is an irrational way of thinking. Immigrants from all backgrounds are formally and informally recruited for certain occupations. For example, Mexicans are informally recruited by employers due to their “perceived work ethic and willingness to labor for low wages” (Koval, 2006, p.199). Many occupations that offer lower wages are occupied by recent immigrants, such as Mexicans, because many of them have not had the opportunity of receiving higher education in their country of origin. As a result, there are more willing to work for lower wages in the United States in order to obtain the “American dream” of wealth, a nice home, children, pets, cars, and etc.

Furthermore, the obstacles and challenges that recent immigrants face today when compared to immigrants in the 19^th century – 1930’s are a little bit different. During this time period, many Europeans immigrated to Chicago, such as the Polish, the Italians, the Germans, and the Southern Europeans. Zorbaugh (1929) discusses in detail the lives of Italian families in “Little Hell” by explaining that many of the children of Italian immigrant families felt lost because they could not “live and conform in both social worlds at the same time” (American cultural values and norms versus Italian cultural values and norms p.176).  Also, Chicago’s immigrants during this time occupied many of the manufacturing, transportation, and trade jobs (Koval, 2006). This led many of Chicago’s immigrants, such as Europeans, to move up the socio-economic ladder. Even though many of the European immigrant groups faced discrimination because of different cultural values and norms, they were able to almost completely assimilate due to their skin color and the pressures of being the same as the rest of the population. As a result, European immigrants obtain higher paid jobs leaving the lower paid jobs to other immigrant groups, such as the Mexican and Latino immigrants.

There are many changes in the immigrant experience over the years, such as the pressures of assimilation are not as strong as in the past. This allows recent immigrants to incorporate the American values and norms with their own cultural values and norms. Discrimination still exists today; however, I believe that society has become more culturally accepting because of the many different cultural/ethnic restaurants and shops available to the general population. A major different in the immigrant experience today is the labor market. In the past, manufacturing and trade jobs were sky-rocketing offering high wages, but today that is a different story. Many recent Mexicans and Latinos occupy construction and service-based jobs, which offer lower wages when compared to the jobs and wages offered in the past to immigrants. The Mexican and Latino immigrants come to the United States with “lower education levels than other large foreign-born population or the native-born population;” therefore, Mexican and Latino immigrants are more likely to obtain jobs with the lowest wages (Koval, 2006, p.109). The lack of education and the increase in the wage gap contributes to the reasons why Mexican and Latino immigrant families are some of the poorest in the United States. How is this right? ….

Hull House

           Last week’s tour of the Hull House was a great experience. Even though I have been there once before, I really enjoyed the tour this time around as well. Jane Addams is an admirable woman who decided to make a true difference in the Chicago area. Addams and Starr, along with many other women, established a place where those in desperate need were able to receive guidance and resources to better their lives.

            Addams’ approach to dealing with Chicago’s problems of population growth is very different when compared to Burnham’s 1909 Plan of Chicago. Instead of focusing on restructuring Chicago’s built environment, Addams’ Hull House focused on providing “a center for higher civic and social life, to institute and maintain educational and philanthropic enterprises; and to investigate and improve the conditions in the industrial districts of Chicago” (Addams, 1910, p.112). Her approach dealt with the issues at hand rather than at large. On the other hand, Burnham was involved with the City Beautiful movement, so he and his followers believed that a “bad urban environment brought out the worst in people,” and in order to fix people’s behaviors a more beautiful city was needed. This would then “inspire a sense of community among a city’s heterogeneous population” and Chicago’s problem would slowing disintegrate (Smith, 2006, p.15). Burnham’s contributions to the city of Chicago are outstanding; however, his plan did not take into consideration the actual needs of Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods. Addams and the other residents of Hull House took the time to understand what the people living on Halsted Street needed and provided them with services, such as night schools for adults, bookbinding work, a music school, a library, an art gallery, playground, a day-care, and so many other services. All of these facilities were used by the residents in the neighborhood, and they truly helped immigrant and low-income families better their living conditions.

            The works of Addams and Starr are remarkable, and it is interesting that we do not see any settlement houses today. If there were a settlement house today, what would it be like? Would it work today? It is hard to answer these questions. However, it is obvious that we see many of the same problems in certain neighborhoods of Chicago today that Addams and Star encountered when living on Halsted Street. So, maybe establishing settlement houses today could really work. There are professional social workers today who do the kinds of work that Addams and Starr did, but they do not live in a settlement house or even sometimes they do not live in low-income neighborhoods. So,  maybe settlement houses could truly work today, we just need to try it out.

Cabrini-Green!!!

            Last week’s class was a quite interesting one I must say. A lot of mixed feelings arouse from the walking tour of new townhouses that were constructed in place of Cabrini-Green. I understand that the new homes were needed in order to provide a higher quality of living for many families; however, what I did not understand is why city planners and government officials did not really put that much effort in making sure that these families were temporarily housed.  Mr. Haller did mention that many of the families from Cabrini-Green left the area and not all of the residents of Cabrini-Green even live in these new townhouses. Why is that? Why did they live? What I have concluded is that some of these city planners and government officials did not really take into consideration where these families would go while deconstructing Cabrini-Green.  Even when the new townhouses were built not many families from Cabrini-Green came back to live in the new homes. This really bothers me and makes me realize that a lot of people are just really selfish. I understand people want to make money and get ahead, but come now we have to really think about what is going on here and how this an affect families.

            Another part of the walking tour that really struck me was the “City Farm.” Close to the remains of Cabrini-Green, there was a “City Farm.” As we were walking past the farm, Mr. Haller mentioned that the farm was going to be completely gone in a little bit. Even though Mr. Haller informed us that it would be moved to another part of the city, it still struck me because why was the farm being moved in the first place? My immediate reaction to Mr. Haller’s statement upset me and made me realize that Burnham would have not been okay with this move. Burnham talked about how there needed to be more parks and green places so people could relax and enjoy nature, so moving the farm to another place in the city did not fly with me. The more I thought about it the more I realized that the space where the farm is currently located at will be transformed into another kind of space. The kind of space I’m referring to is “knowledge-based, service and high-tech world of business and commerce,” which means more restaurants, more Starbucks’ (even though there were already two Starbucks’ across the street of the new homes), more banks, and etc, (Koval & et al, 2006, p.11). This transformation makes me dislike Chicago city planners and local government officials even more because instead of being concerned with providing homes for people from the original Cabrini-Green, they are more concerned in making profit.