‘City information’ kiosk

Originally uploaded by paytonc.

The JCDecaux people came through last week, years after finishing the bus shelter and newsbox installations, to add more useless advertising clutter to the sidewalks, under the guise of “city information.” (Hey guys, where are the public loos? the public bicycles? Or how about a deal with CTA, er, CDOT to help cover the cost of new subway elevator housings? And how come empty “newsstands” arrived years ago, while the old newsstands haven’t budged an inch?) Here at Dearborn & Washington, the billboard blocks some real city info — although a week later, that panel has vanished, while the billboard now “flips.”

Stateway’s swan song, an article by Antonio Olivo of oral histories of Stateway Gardens (with “accompanying multimedia slideshow”:http://chicagotribune.com/stateway ), included this succinct recollection of the rise and fall of CHA housing courtesy of Harold Woodridge, 64, a Stateway resident since 1959:

Sitting on his couch, he remembers when this portion of State Street was lined with clapboard shacks, a few markets and clothing stores. After Stateway Gardens opened in 1958, people were in awe of all that modernity and open space.

“You could sit on the grass and just enjoy yourself,” he says. “It was safe. Upstairs, people used to bring out their cots and sleep on the porch all night.”

But years of neglect by the Chicago Housing Authority eventually took their toll, Woolridge says.

“They didn’t do nothing to maintain the buildings. They didn’t even cut the grass. Before you knew it, [people] were selling drugs downstairs.”

Soon, as gun violence became rampant, residents learned the best way to survive was to look the other way.

“Nobody even trusts the police. The police snitch on you, telling the drug dealers you the one who gave them their information. Then, the gang is on you for telling. It got to be real bad.

“A few years back, the line for drugs downstairs would stretch 50 people. The dealers would walk up the line, keeping order, saying `Have your money out! Have it ready!’ Like they were having a department store sale.”

bq. This goes to the heart of Chicago’s glaring shortcoming: its failure to recognize that urban fabric is the lifeblood of all great cities. When I go to New York and walk around SoHo with its wealth of glorious industrial architecture, Greenwich Village with its intoxicating Left Bank ambience, and Brooklyn Heights with its picture-perfect blocks, I come back here and literally ask myself where is the city? What part of Chicago really lends itself to casual strolling? I think the best cities strike the right balance between architectural fabric and architectural monuments.

bq. It’s most unfortunate that Chicago has yet to learn what may be the most important architectural lesson of all: that great architecture is not enough. This is a city whose trophy buildings have become its consolation prizes.

— David Sikon, writing to the Chicago Tribune in response to a Kamin article citing the recent wave of bland cement boxes as one of “Chicago’s Seven Blunders”

Kristin Ostberg recently wrote an article for Chicago Journal on how Chinatown has quietly resisted gentrification (new link). The article partially arose out of conversations we had years ago while working on the Rehab Network’s Affordable Housing Factbook; it turns out that Chinatown, er, Armour Square is a complete statistical anomaly — growing economically, attracting new investment, adding proportionally many new units, but without an increase in housing stress (e.g., rising rents or overcrowding). Much of this success stems from recycling capital within the community, through informal and formal financial networks, “a circuit of reinvestment that has maintained Chinatown’s vitality through decades when neighboring communities declined.”

No one knows how long this little miracle can last, but it will probably last just long enough to withstand the current South Loop speculative bubble. Maybe that bubble, though, has helped to keep the pressure off Chinatown by pre-empting housing demand.

2017 update: WBEZ recently did a story about how Chinatown landlords typically use informal networks to recirculate apartments within the community.