Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a story about Melinda Sordino. Melinda was an incoming freshman at Merryweather High, and was entering ninth grade with no friends. During the first school assembly, the new girl in town, Heather, introduced herself to Melinda, sparking somewhat of a friendship. Melinda also came across her ex-best friend, Rachel. Rachel had mouthed the words “I hate you” to Melinda, even though all she wanted to do was to tell Rachel what really happened at the infamous summer party.
Chicago could emerge as a powerhouse over other populated cities in the United States and the United States could emerge as an evolving supreme nation over all others. The an unthinkably short deadline to meet, the success and the beauty Burnham was able to capture is truly miraculous. His’s intentions for the fair were pure; he truly desired Chicago to be molded into the “white city” and many would say he achieved his goal. On the opposite end of the spectrum, but a few blocks away from the exposition, Holmes also saw potential. Holmes was already a criminal, but his bloodthirsty desire grew when the opportunity arrived to prey on the people swarming to Chicago because of the opportunities and the exposition.
Lastly, Vrabel asserts that Boston’s mayors “cultivated ethnic and class conflicts” (6), which undermined development in Boston. Ultimately, these factors spurred Bostonians to action to change Boston. On November 8, 1949, Boston elected a new mayor, John Hynes. He saw the damage the previous mayor had done in alienating businesses from settling in Boston and worked for change. Hynes did so by “streamlining city government and reducing the waste and corruption” (8).
Chicago is described as a “hog slaughtering backwater” and having streets “oozing a fragrant muck of of horse manure, mud, and garbage.” Chicago without the fair is depicted as being almost inhabitable, nearly toxic to all of the citizens there. From this arises the reputation Chicago gets as a filthy hick town with no redeeming qualities, however from this reputation derives the need for a fair, creating good from bad. While the quality of Chicago has not considerably increased, the fair is described as “Chicago's pride” and as “great”. The positivity of the fair is contrasted with the lackluster quality of the surrounding areas of Chicago.
George F. Will argues that the city of Chicago is at a turning point in its history and that the upcoming mayoral election will determine whether the city continues on a path of decline or begins to address its long-standing issues in his article "NATIONAL COLUMN: Chicago voters must choose further decline or a remedy for an ailing city." The urgent need for leadership and action to confront Chicago's ingrained problems, like crime, inequality, and economic stagnation, is the article's core focus. Will contends that years of disregard and poor management have made the city's issues worse and that a leadership change is required to stop the decline. Will provides numerous examples and research to back up his claims. For instance, he mentions
Although this effort is ultimately unsuccessful, it points to Hunters view that an act of agency need not be successful to count as a meaningful way of engagement and of shaping the evolution of the city. In fact, this view corroborates and gives credence to his assertion that the truly disadvantaged (whose efforts may therefore not always be successful), can still be seen as citymakers (p.214). He goes on to write about housing reform efforts in the 1930s that lead to a lot of migration out of the neighborhood, a long and successful effort to stop the construction of a highway that would split a neighborhood as well as the successful election of W. Wilson Goode in 1983 as the first black Mayor of the region (p. 185). Throughout the book, Hunter provides examples of intra-political and intra-racial politics, which serve to remind us that history is not always so straightforward.
Gary B. Nash writes his piece, “Social Change and the Growth of Pre Revolutionary Urban Radicalism” as secondary source to articulate his thoughts about the poor living conditions in Boston, Philadelphia and New York during post war time of the later part of the 18th century. Gray Nash who is PhD graduate from Princeton University, produces concrete arguments to inform the people of the late 1960’s about actual history that conflicted with social development and advancement after the war with France and Native Americans. Nash utilizes credible historical documents to highlight the unbalanced and radical quality of life for city dwellers, especially around clustered and poverty stricken areas on the Eastern coast of the colonies. Even though
The Chicago 2020 plan addressed the wanting of the well-being of its residence, a prosperous economy and extended an invitation for residents to contribute their opinions. The plan also suggests the involvement of suburbs with the central city and social economical ideas. Although I disagree with Johnson
Chicago was seen by outsiders as a land of opportunity the same way our founding fathers saw America as the land of new beginnings. Individuals all across the nation spoke of Chicago as having a “spirit” of it own and “tangible force” that was similar to the American dream (Larson 16). As people spoke so highly of Chicago and its technology, it still did not escape the criticism from other states about how the city would not be able to handle organizing a World’s fair. When the grounds of the World’s Fair were ere being prepared in Jackson Park, Chicago, the soil was too dense to build extravagant buildings, the architects in charge of creating the buildings for the World’s Fair were surprised with all the extra work needed in order for the foundations of the buildings to be sturdy (Larson
When Chicago was chosen to host the World Fair, Burnham seized the opportunity presented to him and began working on what would become his masterpiece. His rejection by Harvard and Yale, the accusations that John Root was responsible for his success, the doubts about the fair, all of it forced Burnham to prove himself and silence the voices that doubted him. When Root died and people began to laud his achievements and lament his death, Burnham had to resist the urge to exclaim that he, “had been the engine driving the design of the fair; that he was the partner who had propelled the firm of Burnham & Root to greater and greater achievement” (108). Root being seen as the cause of their company’s success bruised Burnham’s ego, and though desiring recognition is natural, the lengths Burnham pursued to bring his vision of the fair to life suggest recognition was far from the only thing Burnham wanted. As he puts it, he sought to secure “his own place in architectural history;” not the city of Chicago’s, not anyone else’s, his (320).
In this speech, I will begin by explaining what gentrification is along with a short background on the Lincoln Park gentrification, then I will proceed to explain how the families in these areas fought for their homes, and finally I will be discussing the gentrification that is affecting citizens of Chicago today. Body I. Gentrification is the process of renovating an area to meet the standards of a different social class, typically the upper middle class. Throughout this process the price of renting and owning a home increases while family owned businesses become bankrupt. Low-income families are left homeless and without the support of a
Jovanović was amazed at the reconstruction and growth of the city. He wrote how Chicago had risen like a phoenix on the wings of “labor” and “order.” Jovanović emphasized that the reason why he eulogized the people of Chicago was their moral fortitude rather than the physical strength necessary to rebuild the
FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED AND CAMILLO SITTE: NOT AS DIFFERENT AS THEY FIRST APPEAR Harkening from different sides of the Atlantic, two influential urban planners worked to transform the blossoming urban environment of the nineteenth century, albeit with very different approaches. This essay will be looking at the ideals and some of the work of Frederick Law Olmsted and Camillo Sitte. Born within just over twenty years of one and other, Olmsted in Hartford, Connecticut, and Sitte in Vienna, both men had careers encompassing fields well beyond urban planning. Not a planner by training, Olmsted delved into the world of planning when he and Calvert Vaux won the design competition for New York’s Central Park in 1858.
Stated to be “one of the most influential critics of US planning orthodoxies holding sway during the 1950’s and 60’s,” Jane Jacobs, the American – Canadian writer and activist, is a central figure in the urbanisation of city planning. Published in 1961, her famous assault on modernist misconceptions casted by architects, is documented in her book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” one of the most influential and paramount critiques of traditional planning. It evaluates the failure of the modern movement to provide the social redemption the famous architects promised, changing the traditional attitude towards planning and the way cities are perceived. In this essay I will be discussing Jane Jacob’s criticisms and alternatives to
The United States thus far has in planning has treated people in its’ path as a nuisance to be solved. If we look at planning from Boyer’s (1986) point of view, who highlights planning as a “search for spatial order”, planning has overlooked who its’ order is suppose to benefit. Planning has been treating the masses as a sickness that is named disorder, rather than as beneficiaries. In 1890, Jacob Rite, published How the Other Half Live, which provided vivid descriptions of the New York City Slums and its’ residents with the majority being immigrants (cited in Hall, 2014).
