Journal 07/30/2010

Our tour to Uptown, Logan Square, Wicker Park, and Lincoln Park was an excellent tour.
This trip really gave me a better understanding of gentrification in Chicago.
Gentrification is becoming a problem in our city because many people are against it..and many are for it, creating a huge controversy and a war between the people who have been living in this areas for years and people who are moving back to the city, trying to move the residents of this areas out so they can move in.
The problem right now is that upper and middle class people are moving into lower class neighborhoods..this as i understood creates a problem because when this people move into this low income areas, new stores and restaurants are opened..homes are remodeled, essentially giving the neighborhoods a better look and making them "safer". The problem this creates though is that the people who used to live in this areas can no longer afford to live there because everything is just simply so expensive in the area once its gentrified...This forces the people who had been residing in this neighborhoods for years, to move out and look for new jobs, new homes new life...to the wealthy this might not be a problem because like they say..money talks...but not everyone has money to go anywhere they please and just pick a place to live in, many people cant afford to do that when they are struggling every month to pay the rent and they can hardly get by.
People started moving out of what they called Roosevelt cities- cities in the Midwest whop suffered from industrialization...now that they see businesses in the cities booming and people being able to live ok, many people who originally had moved out from the city and went to the suburbs wants to come back to the city.
Today the Pilsen area is being gentrified..this is a predominantly Mexican neighborhood and many people oppose gentrification because they see that the residents are being affected by it.


Something that i found very interesting and that is also a very controversial topic right now is immigration...I learned that during WW1 the United States recruited Mexican workers because there was a need for factory workers...later on bye 1929..when they were not needed anymore they were deporting them.
I also got the idea that when the economy is good and there is no need for jobs and everything is going good...not a lot of people seem to mind immigrant workers...but as soon as the economy is doing bad everyone wants to send them back to their countries.

Another interesting fact that i learned is that where UIC is located today, used to be a Mexican neighborhood...just like Pilsen...and in 1965 Mayor Daily established UIC, destroying completely what used to be there..making the people who lived there spread throughout the city..mainly Pilsen.
Today the Uptown neighborhood and Humboldt park are being fought over by people who want to gentrify these areas and the people who already live there who refuse to let this happen...gentrification i think is not necessarily a bad thing, to an extent..because it does change neighborhoods and make them much nicer..but at the same time it's like creating an area for one social class only because when they create super expensive homes and super expensive everything..its clearly made for one social class which is the wealthy only..leaving the middle class and poor out of the picture.



Going to all of this different neighborhoods was a nice experience...as i passed through them i definitely understood what gentrification is. I saw some of the much newer and nicer buildings and business that are being built, were old beat up buildings used to be and i could definitely compare gentrified areas to those who are not and to those who are still in the process.

we also went to a Hindu restaurant at the end of the tour..it was a..nice experience :)
to be honest..i did not like the food much...but it was a very cool experience to try a new culture..i think that it's a good thing to be open about things and always be willing to try new things..even if sometimes you don't like them much :)...but that way you still learn about the things that other people like and don't like and you learn a lot from the experience.

Journal 7/29/2010

Visiting what used to be some of Chicago's worst neighborhoods and what they have been turned into in a few years definitely gave me so much to think about.
Today we went to see the "Robert Taylor" housing projects, starting on 35th and State...and going on for about 20 blocks.
taking this tour to what used to be one of the biggest housing project in the COUNTRY was an experience that i will definitely remember for the rest of my life.
It was a great experience because i learned about the history of the Chicago housing projects and i finally understood the prospective of the people who lived in them and the people who did not.
I would like to start by giving my own opinion...On this housing projects, the people who lived in them never got to say what they wanted or how they felt or if anything was wrong...and that is one big part of what caused this huge problem...people were never given the chance to speak up. Often the ones who were making decisions on the changes and everything that had to do with the housing projects, was people who never lived in one and did not know anything.
The reason why so many from the South moved to Chicago was because there was a lot of poverty in the South...this does not only mean blacks moved to Chicago from the south, with the African American many white poor people also moved to the Midwest...the only difference between blacks and whites was that once they all moved into this housing projects...poor white were able to get a better education..they were given the opportunity to receive better jobs and eventually move out from this housing projects and move up in life and society...blacks however were not given the same opportunities to succeed just because of their skin color...in a way they were the only ones who were kept in the housing projects...you can see it as a net and they were the only ones filtered in who could never find a way out.
The projects were designed for people who could not afford a home..they were mainly used by black G.Is who were coming back from world war 2...something that i found extremely wrong was that the white G.I's who were coming back from WW2 were given the help to go to college and find a home to live in...on the other hand blacks were not...i found this very sad and in a way something that our government should be ashamed of. The fact that men and women went to war and risked their lives for not just blacks, both black and whites..to come back to their home country and be treated like second class citizens..in some cases even worse..and to be segregated, after everything they sacrificed for their country... personally i think its a disgusting act of the people and the government that allowed it to happen.

Moving on...Something that was mentioned in the tour and i found very interesting was that some of the buildings on the UIC campus were modeled after public housing buildings.
I also learned that the housing projects or "Super block buildings" were built in a U shape and they were pretty much duplicated over and over again.

As many of us know...the city of Chicago is connected by the grid system, which makes it easy to get around if you know it...One thing that i found so so interesting and i had never heard of is that the Public housing buildings that were built were NOT connected in any way to the grid system.. I found this amazing because in a way it's like they were throwing all of the African Americans in some buildings..making them think they were being helped..when in fact they were being segregated and being kept away from the rest of the city.
The Robert Taylor housing projects is located a few blocks from the "Bridgeport" community...between the Taylor projects and Bridgeport, the Dan Ryan highway was built..when you look at it from the outside like i did..its not oft much importance why it was built there.
These are things that might seem very irrelevant, but when you go deeper into it..you see that there is a reason why this highway was built between Bridgeport and the housing projects..and the reason is that they wanted to separate African Americans from getting into Bridgeport..which was a predominantly white neighborhood. By building an 8 lane highway in between, you can imagine not a lot of people would try to get across with cars moving up to 60 mph.

An interesting fact that i learned today during this tour was that the "gold coast" used to be the "slum".
Today, no Robert Taylor public housing buildings are still standing...they have all been demolished and scheduled for reconstruction under the "plan for transformation" plan.
The plan for transformation is the idea to create new houses on the area were the housing projects once stood...the new homes will be small homes, town homes or apartments..
only one third of the people who were in the housing projects will be allowed to move back to this new homes.


(This is a video with a slide show that shows what the Robert Taylor Public housing buildings used to look like)




As we passed through some of the few remaining public housing buildings that are still standing..i got a feeling of almost sadness as i saw some of the buildings with the torn down "playgrounds". I could imagine the kids that had to grow up there had to go through and how rough their childhood probably was because they were being segregated..i guess just in a more "modern" way.

(this are pictures i took today on our tour of the playground)

when i saw the playground i was so blank...i thought about all of the beautiful parks my city has to offer...and when i compared them to this old beat up playgrounds i could not find an explanation as to why this kids had to play with old rusty...swings without swings..and slides that were cut in half...i could not understand why they had to play in areas were the grass was growing from the concrete and garbage was laying all over the floor...and the only explanation i could come up with was that..sadly...there is still a lot a WHOLE LOT of discrimination towards African Americans...
Today made me realize that in those old projects buildings thousands of life's went to waste...people who could have been doctors...engineers..people who could have made a change...were not given a chance...all because the system managed to work a way to contain them all in an area were they could stay..just because of their skin color...they were not given the chance to be someone in society who could have had a better life.


Below are some pictures of the few remaining standing project buildings, a picture of the "plan for transformation" new homes that have been built on the land were the project buildings once stood, and pictures of vacant grassland space that was left after the buildings were demolished.

Journal 7/28/2010

Today was very exciting...we took a trip to the Pilsen community.
We took a look at one of Chicago's Latino communities and we learned a lot of new things at the National Museum of Mexican Art.
I found out that Pilsen has not always been a Latino community...at one point the Pilsen neighborhood was mainly inhabited by Czechs-western salvic people from Central Europe.
i also learned a cool new fact...the origin of the name Pilsen comes from the Czechs, who named it that when they lived in the area.

We had a little discussion at the beginning of class before we went on our field trip to Pilsen and we talked about the reason why there's still so much segregation in Chicago.
we all agreed that it was because the wealthy did not care about the poor, because there were not enough opportunities for minorities to progress and move up in society.
I think all of this is true...but i feel that there was something that should have been mentioned and we didnt get a chance to cover...i believe that the reason why there's still so much segregation in our city today is because there is still a lot of Ignorance among many people...that same ignorance that has been getting passed on and on for generations that does not let us move ahead.
In the article we had to read last night, i read something that i found incredible...(and not necessarily in a good way)
"In 1996, 175 hate crimes were reported in the city of Chicago & 107 in the suburbs"...i think this shows that many people still have those same ignorant ideas that many people had back in the 1900's...just because your skin color is a little darker or lighter you should not feel that you are any better or any less than anybody else because in the end we are all equal.

Back to the topic of the visit to the museum...i learned some things that i found really amazing...some of the paintings i saw blew my mind completely and made me have much more respect towards Mexican art and its culture.
i took many pictures...here are a few....

Journal 7/27/2010

Even though i was not born in Chicago, I've lived here most of my life and I'm proud to call it home. I thought i knew everything about it already, but today in class i learned so many cool things about this great city and its history.

I learned a really cool fact about Chicago... at some point in time, its sidewalks were made out of wood. I also learned that the fire that burnt Chicago was mainly spread north (I think it's a bit ironic because even though this fire destroyed a great part of the city, it was the start of a great city that would later become full of life).

Two of the only buildings that survived the fire in the downtown area and are still standing today are the water tower and the pumping station (which is still fully functional).

(These are some pictures of the old pumping station that i took today during our walking tour of the downtown area)

As you can see its a very cool building. Once you walk inside you can see what an actual old pumping station looks like.

I think it was a very cool experience to have walked inside the old pumping station and see the massive pipes that i believe are actually connected to the lake.

Another interesting fact that i learned was that after the fire..all buildings that were built in the downtow area were requiered to be built out of steel, not wood.

One of the great architects that helped shape the city of Chicago was Daniel Burnham. He made many contributions to the city by sharing his great ingenuity and visions of what Chicago could become. For example: he built the Marshall fields building (which is now macys)

Daniel Burnhams "plan of Chicago" was not what the city actually looks like today.

He had plans to give Chicago more of an European stylle. He even wrote a book called "plan of Chicago" in 1909. (I'm glad things didnt come out as he planned because i think Chicago has a way better look than Europe :)

An unique fact about Chicago is that it has a great diversity...it's a meliting pot, formed by people who came from all over the world. Part of what makes Chicago a great city is it's diversity...china town..little italy...little village... places were you can go and experience differen cultures, foods, places were you can get an understanding of different ethnic groups and their roots.

Today i learned that by 1890- 70% of Chicagos population came from other countries.

Finally...one thing that i found completely fascinating was that at one point, the Chicago Harvor had more incoming ships than London....i think that's very impressive.

Something that i would definitely want to learn more about is the underground city that was built by Al Capone. I would also want to learn more about the neighborhoods of Chicago and the diversity.

Today changed the way i look at cities because i learned that behind every city there is always a great history amd you never know what new things you might learn. It also helped me get a more visual look and understand how big cities work and how some of the most simple things that are built actually have a purpose....for example in Chicago in the downtown area, there are not a lot of places to sit at and the few houses that are around are fenced up because it's a way to keep "unwanted" guests away by not giving them a spot to actually stand for too long. Also by not having many places to sit and relax it helps congestion in big cities because people keep on moving instead of standing around.

Todays tour was amazing...even though at first i wasnt looking forward to it much because i thought i already knew about Chicago and how to get around...i was very surpriced at how many new things i learned and how interesting it all turned out to be...we visited a park called "Washington Square" which is located right in front of the Newberry Library and i found out every weekend debates about issues that affect Chicago take place at that park...we also visited Thde Drake hotel...in which Queen Elizabeth stayed when she came to Chicago..

These are pictures also taken on todays walking tour...one of the Washington Square and the other of the inside of The drake hotel.