Gold Coast

            Last week’s class was really interesting and I definitely did learn a lot. What I really enjoyed about last week’s class was the reading from Zorbaugh. The real-life stories in Zorbaugh’s book really helped me understand some of the area in Chicago that I had never knew about before. Zorbaugh points out that the city of Chicago was growing financially and economically (some areas more than othere), which led to a change in “society.” He says that “the old ‘society’ based on hereditary social position, has passed, to be replaced by a ‘society’ of cliques and sets, of wealth and display, and above all, of youth” (p.47). This quote really struck me and made me really think about how this can totally change an area. The Gold Coast used to be filled with rich families who inherited their wealth, but as the economy began to change so did wealth. What I mean by this is that young people, who did not inherit wealth from their families, found ways to increase their wealth and they did it fast. When this happened, they moved to the Gold Coast because the idolized the Gold Coast families. Once this happened, the nature of the Gold Coast’s society changed. It created a sort of division in the Gold Coast: the old-rich versus the new-rich.  

Also, last week’s lecture and walking tour of the Gold Coast was really fascinating. When I think of the Gold Coast, I think of this perfect little area in Chicago. Magnificent, large homes, expensive stores, luxurious homes, and so on; however, the Gold Coast of today’s Chicago is a bit different. Even though the Gold Coast today does have all the things mentioned above, it has integrated younger middle-class families and an area known as the slum. It is fascinating to know that the Gold Coast is an area where families are pretty well-off, yet a few blocks away from the well-off families there are families struggling to survive.

Another really part of Zorbaugh’s book that interested me was the story of the “charity girl.” Her story seriously made me really think about my life and how coming from a small town and moving to a bigger city just makes you feel really lonely. I kind of could relate to her and understood where is was coming from. Even though I do not live in Chicago, I did move from a small town in Illinois to the suburbs of Chicago. Sometimes I do feel a bit lonely where I live because I really do not know any of my neighbors and I do not really have any friends that live in Downers Grove. However, when I come to campus I feel a lot less lonely because I have professors, classmates, and friends that I interact with and this makes me feel a lot better about myself. I do believe that real interaction with others is extremely important in remaining sane and without it, people can truly feel isolated and depressed. In my perspective, feeling isolated and depressed is not healthy for anyone.

This class is definitely making me think about the Chicago in ways that I would have never really thought about. I definitely appreciate Chicago more than ever before, because I never realized that Chicago is truly unique and beautiful, yet depressing and mysterious.