Saturday, March 31, 2012

Theaster Gates: Chicago Artist and Planner

The Accidental DIY Developer (Atlantic Cities)

Theaster Gates is an inspiration - both a rising star in the art community and someone who's truly making a positive, innovative difference in his neighborhood.

In his most ambitious effort yet, Theaster is looking to transform abandoned low-rise public housing into an artist community called the Dorchester Artist Housing Collaborative.
















Anxiety and Isolation: How Gated Communities Enable Vigilantes (Next American City)

Does the privatized and exclusionary nature of gated communities exacerbate social fear and racial profiling?

Friday, March 30, 2012

5 States to Push for Great Lakes Wind Farms (ABC News)

Anything above an average of 17 mph (pink, violet and orange in the map above)
has excellent potential for wind power generation

Sunday, March 25, 2012

More Parents Compelled to keep their family in the city and consider CPS  (Crain's Chicago Business)

An addendum:

Chicago's loss of about 200,000 people (as noted in the article) in the 2010 census is almost entirely accounted for by African American outmigration from the South and West Sides (-181,000). A closer look at the numbers show that the remaining population drop was likely do natural death (not out-migration) in older white-ethnic communities on the Northwest Side (Polish, etc.). Net migration of the professional, (mostly-white) middle and upper class has been positive for some time. Chicago also continues to gain Latino, Asian and African immigrants. These are the same demographic trends affecting New York City, which also lost a large number of Black Americans but gained more from other immigrant groups. I also suspect that the foreclosure crisis had an out-lier affect on the 2010 census by quickly displacing a large number of relatively poor (and in the city mostly minority) homeowners during the counting process. This may have been especially detrimental to Chicago's numbers as it has a greater percentage of single-family homes than comparable cities like Boston, NYC and Philadelphia.

In any case, the large-scale out-migration of Black Chicagoans has a great deal to do with the city's legacy of segregation and the decline of blue-collar employment (as well as a host of other issues that encouraged 'white-flight' beginning in the 1950's). Indeed, it is a complicated and tragic story that surely deserves its own  post in the near future.


Lake Lanier during the 2007 drought. Photo from Pouya Dianat, AJC via the NY Times
Why Don't Young Americans Buy Cars? (The Atlantic)
Photo from Reuters via The Atlantic (it happens to be the Kinzie St. Bridge in Chicago)

Friday, March 23, 2012

The Psychology of Suburbia (Rustwire.com)

A nice piece highlighting the some of our historical motivations for disintegrating and how the isolation we sought has affected our well being as individuals and as a nation.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Contemplating Climate Change in Chicago on another 80-degree day in March

In Chicago an extremely mild winter has given way to an early spring that feels like June. For 15 of the last 16 days we’ve had highs above 60 degrees. Today was the 8th day in a row to see a high of 80 degrees (The average for this time of year is about 50 degrees).

Last weekend the City celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by spilling out of its dark taverns into sun-baked sidewalks, beer gardens and sandy beaches. Last night, as I ran near Montrose Beach, the surrounding park was already alive with the sound friends playing soccer and the smells of barbeque on the grill.

Obviously we can't point to a single event or a season as evidence of climate change, but the trend is certainly warming. Since we can't distinguish an average increase of 2 degrees over the course of our lifetime, the potential impacts of climate change only become tangible after extreme events. A winter and a spring this warm may not happen again for decades, but as long as the average continues to increase, things will change.

Chicago is already beginning to consider the implications of a warmer future. Depending on the model used to project weather scenarios, our climate may resemble contemporary St. Louis or Pittsburgh by 2030 and Oklahoma City or Washington D.C. by 2090 (US Global Change Research Program). In light of this possibility Chicago has started implementing a Climate Action Plan that, among other things, directs the parks department to plant trees that are native to southern climates. Kudzu, for example – a fast growing, parasitic plant that blankets parts of the Deep South - has already made its way to Southern Illinois.




Climate change is likely to have an untold number of consequences for Chicago and the Great Lakes region within the next century. Agricultural production and the health of the region’s watersheds are undoubtedly the most important concerns going forward. Though many models predict increased rainfall for the Midwest, more of our precipitation may fall as intense storms that cause increased flooding and soil erosion and generally harm agriculture. Warmer temperatures are also likely to affect plant and soil health. Warmer weather might allow for extended growing seasons and more diverse agricultural production or it may trigger crop increased crop failures.


With 20% of the World’s freshwater the Great Lakes are increasingly recognized as an absolutely vital yet increasingly fragile natural resource. Decreasing ice cover during the winter and hotter temperatures in the summer will undoubtedly increase evaporation across the region. This year saw almost no ice cover in Lake Michigan and very little in Lake Superior. The marine layer of fog that Chicago often experiences in spring (much earlier than usual this year) is largely the result of this evaporation. Though the water levels of the lakes fluctuate from year to year they certainly aren’t immune to the effects of climate change or other man-made diversions. Lower, warmer lake levels will not only reduce the quantity of this vital freshwater resource, they may dramatically impact shipping and recreation, not to mention the aquatic life of the lakes themselves.

Change in Water Volume of the Aral Sea (1989 - 2008)
The Aral Sea of Central Asia is a dramatic case study for how such a large body of water can almost completely disappear in a matter of decades. Though the depletion of the Aral Sea was largely caused by the diversion of its tributary rivers for irrigation, it should nevertheless serve as a sober warning to the future of the Great Lakes - especially any further attempt to divert water for consumption and agriculture. Recognizing the fragility of the Great Lakes, surrounding states and Canadian provinces are increasingly coming together to manage and protect this resource through a series of charters and binding compacts.

Most of the controversy over the future health of the Great Lakes has been centered on Chicago’s backwards-flowing river and the city’s continued subsidization of suburban water consumption. Chicago became an important outpost 175 years ago by occupying a narrow portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Watersheds. The construction of a ship canal connecting these watersheds facilitated the transportation of goods from Chicago to the Eastern Seaboard and the Gulf Coast. Later the reversal of the river for sanitation purposes opened a small plug in the bottom of Lake Michigan. To this day, every time the locks open, millions of gallons of fresh water are released from the lakes into the Gulf of Mexico. Though the locks are now tightly regulated, environmental groups are increasingly campaigning for a restoration of the river’s course back into Lake Michigan.

The Great Lakes Watershed essentially ends at Chicago's western border, near Harlem Avenue. Though the western suburbs are almost entirely located within the Mississippi Watershed they have historically tapped into the City’s water supply from Lake Michigan. Currently suburbs as far as 40 miles away from the Lake are receiving its water. More recently, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has proposed doubling water rates for suburban users as a way to raise revenue for system upgrades. There’s no doubt that controversy will continue to surround suburban access to lake water and that this may become an increasingly important leveraging arm for the City of Chicago. It may also create further divisions among an already polarized region.

Despite the challenges we’ll face in the future, Chicago’s connection to the Great Lakes and the rich farm land of the Midwest will likely make it one of the most resilient major cities in the World. With strategic transit and infrastructure improvements the City and its older suburbs are capable of absorbing literally millions of people. Indeed, the former Rust Belt, a semi-abandoned and underutilized network of towns and cities from Milwaukee to Buffalo, may ultimately prove to be the most resilient and vital region of North America.

Coastal cities are likely to face a number of challenges related to rising sea levels. While places like New York and Boston  erect protective sea barriers like those currently deployed in the Netherlands, neighborhoods like Lower Manhattan and the Back Bay may become so vulnerable to flooding that they’re prohibitively expensive to insure. The threat of rising seas will almost certainly have devastating affects on much flatter Gulf Coast cities like New Orleans and Miami (Surging Seas, an interactive rising sea level map).

Much of the West and South will likely be threatened by extreme heat, drought, water scarcity and increased risk to wildfires. Dallas experienced a record 70 days of 100 degree heat last summer. The hottest summer on record and the historic drought across the Southwest cost the Texas agricultural industry $8 billion last year alone. If the neighboring Ogallala Aquifer is depleted a huge portion of the High Plaines will risk almost certain desertification. As glaciers and snow melt decrease desertification may also creep into the central valley of California, the nations most diverse agricultural region.

Western Forest devastated by the Pine Beetle
In the Rocky Mountains longer periods of warmth have likely increased the breeding cycle of pine beetles that are now devastating millions of acres of forestland from Colorado to British Columbia. Of course, it goes without saying that climate change and decreased snow pack will threaten the entire recreation industry of the Mountain West, not to mention its natural beauty.

Almost every major city from Los Angeles to Atlanta is already facing serious water shortages that will certainly become more debilitating as the climate warms. Most of these cities are also characterized by extreme decentralization, low-density suburban sprawl and complete auto-dependency. Indeed, almost every city and suburb that we built since World War II is highly dependent on the subsidization of gas, highways, housing and water. Our nation pursued these subsidies as federal policies of growth and dispersion. In many ways we built our economy on around the consumer societ that it created. These policies and sunny suburban dreams were incredibly appealing to a nation with a long mythology of the frontier and an ethic of rugged individualism. Unfortunately that dream maybe over now.

All of this, of course, remains highly speculative. Cities like Los Angeles and Atlanta are unlikely to disappear any time soon. However, if the predictions of the climate models are reasonably accurate, most cities of the Sunbelt may be compelled to shrink to a size that is reasonably sustainable within their region. It may take decades for the consequences of climate change to begin noticeably affecting some places. It might not even happen within our lifetime. It might never happen. Technology might save us! Then again, it might not. It doesn’t hurt to consider alternative possibilities. It doesn’t hurt to begin looking for the most prudent opportunities of the future.
Can cultural resources help spur a different future for the Chicago River? (WBEZ)

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Suburban Poverty

From Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, as cited on Atlantic Cities
The New Suburban Poverty (Lisa McGirr, NY Times)

There have been a number of articles since the beginning of the recession about the dramatic increase of poverty levels in suburban America since 2000. This editorial nicely summarizes the history of post-war suburban development and its central place in America's self-image and mythology. McGirr emphasizes the fact that post-war suburban development patterns were greatly subsidized by a number of Federal Policy initiatives (they are not the 'natural' outgrowth of the free market or personal choice as many maintain or assume) and that they allowed the American Middle Class to escape the realities of poverty, pollution, cultural conflict and the general adversities of living in modern cities.

The suburbs, in other words, allowed a large majority of American's to lead entirely privatized lives pretending that our society's problems either didn't exist or that they belonged to "other's," i.e. minorities and "non-Americans" who lived back in the dark shadows of the city. As McGirr specifically notes, this privilege of isolation ultimately lead to declining support for social programs and non-suburban/road infrastructure projects and facilitated the beginning of the Republican "Tax-Revolts" of the last 30 years.

The problem is, quite simply, that the suburban way of life is not sustainable for the vast majority of Americans. The Upper Class has always had its country retreats and villas and they probably always will. Farms and Small, compact towns will be as essential in the future as they were in the past. Cities will be around as long as there is complex civilization, but era of mass suburbanization is over. Mass Middle Class suburbanization was only possible through massive Federal subsidy and cheap energy.

The only suburban areas that will remain viable in the future are those built before World Wart II ('Streetcar Suburbs' - basically like small towns), the enclaves of the extremely wealthy and some of the more recent infill developments that have higher relative densities and are located relatively close to transit. Unless McMansions built on the metropolitan fringe can be converted into small farms, they and their brand new communities will simply be abandoned.

Most newly constructed housing is simply too far from anything and too poorly built to be of any value in 50 years. While old row-houses in places like Brooklyn and Chicago were made of sturdy stone and timber and could survive being carved up into cheap apartments and neglected for decades, McMansions are mostly made of light lumber with relatively poor insulation. They will not age well, especially without constant upkeep. They were never really built to last. The entire suburban experiment was designed to be a disposable environment - a place that you could get cheap and sell for a return on your private investment before venturing on. We became a nation that treated its homes and communities as pure commodities -  literally like stock options.

Most of us simply can't afford to do this anymore. No matter how far you move, the problems always follow. Unfortunately mythologies of the frontier, private utopias, and freedom from the adversities society (while enjoying its benefits) runs extremely deep in this country. It's going to continue to be very difficult for some people to accept change and to confront the realities of the 21st Century. We can either cling nostalgically to a relatively brief period of time when we escaped into a suburban utopia or we can re-engage reality and re-invest smartly in a more sustainable way of life.


Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Another look at Rahm Emanuel from The Atlantic Magazine

Meet the New Boss by Jonathan Alter

A couple of quick contextual qualifications on this article:

While it's true that Chicago's homicide rate is twice that of New York's, its also true that it is less than half of what it was in the early '90's and that it continues to drop almost every year (as it has done in most major cities since the mid-90's). This is not to say that crime is not a series issue. It is a very real problem, particularly for a number poor, economically isolated and underserved neighborhoods on the South and West Sides. It is, however, also a problem that is largely abstract and mythological for the (mostly-white) upper and middle classes. It is not something that they deal with directly, but are, nevertheless, constantly worried about. Many white suburbanites, for example, still percieve the City to be a dark, shadowy place filled with constant danger, when in realty they are far safer in most urban places they'll ever live or visit than they are driving through the suburbs their whole life.  I'll write on this in much greater depth when I have the chance. For now let me just say that the drop in urban crime, almost universally, but especially in NYC, has as much to do with demographic changes (fewer poor young people, more older wealthy people), as it does with better policing tactics.

Secondly, while I wouldn't rule it out that Rahm may have greater political ambitions, I'm also suspicious that he will only be a two term mayer, as the author implies. Illinois is one of the most geographically and politically divided states in the country. It is, in this way, a microcosm of the nation as a whole. While it's certainly possible to accomplish more at a higher office, it may not be a realistic position from which to achieve the most effective policy changes. Large city mayors and their governments have undoubtedly been the source of the most innovative policies in America for the last 10 - 20 years. Rahm Emanuel may already be in the best place to get things done.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Generation Y's Declining Mobility

The declining physical and economic mobility of Americans is a reoccurring theme in the news these days.

Over the weekend neo-liberal economist Todd Buchholtz and his wife, Victoria, published a short editorial in the New York Times entitled "The Go-nowhere Generation," in which they were seemingly perplexed by the particularly sharp decline in mobility for Americans under 30. Instead of contemplating this trend within the context of a declining middle class, skyrocketing debt and the worst job prospects since the 1930's, Buchholtz attempts to explain immobility as a consequence of Generation Y's passivity. I won't bother to belabor the silliness of their mostly anecdotal evidence (Derek Thompson has already countered with a short article in the Atlantic: "Generation Stuck: Why don't young people move, anymore"). Let me just say that Buchholtz makes the classic mistake of perceiving a symptom as the problem's root cause.

Generation Y isn't progressing because it is disillusioned - it is disillusioned because it doesn't have much of an opportunity to progress.

I find it fascinating how blind we have become to the paradigm shift that we're experiencing in our nation and culture. Economists are especially blind. We are, without a doubt, living in an era of changing, and some would say diminished, expectations. Generation Y is coming of age at a time of far greater disparity in wealth and opportunity than its parents. In these hyper-competitive times greater rewards are going to a diminishing minority of the global, hyper-mobile elite.

If we are more pessimistic than our parents about meritocracy and mobility it might be because we're starting to wake-up from the out-dated assumptions of American Dreams

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

TCAUP (Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning) is certainly taking advantage of its proximity to Detroit these days.

It's nice to see that the students getting real design-build experience, that thlearning how to work with materials and to fabricate installations. In all honesty this is one of TCAUP's great strengths. It has some of the greatest resources and opportunities of any school in the world.


On the other hand, I doubt the conversations in studio are advancing much in the way of their understanding of Detroit as anything more than a rusting relic that provides a sublime background to a new and beautiful object (assuming not much has changed since I was there).

I, for one, would like to see TCAUP advance something more ambitious - Instead of using the city as raw material or a post-modern gallery or a topic for existential conversations about "terrain vague."

A few years ago a small group of students and I had dreams of starting something akin to Samuel Mockbee's Rural Studio - but in Detroit. In fact, this is still a dream of mine.

We never had the time or expertise or wisdom of Mockbee to pull it off as graduate students. We did, however, manage to partner with a Youth Build program lead by the late Rowland Watkins. I think my peers would agree with me that it was one of the most important and rewarding experiences of our time at Michigan.

Over the course of about 2 years we were able to build a strong relationship with Rowland and the organization. We tutored on occasion and helped to design an addition to an existing house (which the organization managed to purchase for about $400). We also designed a new home (Pictured below), which unfortunately never materialized.

I'll include more on our experience with the Young Detroit Builders on a separate page when I get the chance. For now let me just say that despite not knowing exactly what we were doing (as architects or as idealists) we learned a great deal. I only hope that the Young Detroit Builders benefited as much from us as we did from them

In any case. We hoped, or at least I hoped, that TCAUP might take something like this up as a regular studio - like, for example, the Yale Building Project. Stanley Tigerman's Archeworks in Chicago is another inspiring precedent

Perhaps we'll have the opportunity to start or participate in something like this again. Perhaps a new student or faculty member at TCAUP will feel the same way about Detroit that we did - that it is as equally fascinating and inspiring as a real place with real people as it is a romantic image of decay.






Sunday, March 4, 2012

Chicago's 175th Birthday

A quote from Nelson Algren's "Chicago, City on the Make:"

An October sort of city even in the spring...


You’ll know it’s a place built out of Man’s ceaseless failure to overcome himself...


Making it the city of all cities most like Man himself – loneliest creation of this very old poor earth....


The Potawatomi were much too square. They left nothing behind but their dirty river....


We shall leave, for remembrance, one rusty iron heart....


_Nelson Algren, 1951



Friday, March 2, 2012

Big Week in Chicago News

It's been an exciting week in Chicago news. In one year Rahm Emanuel has arguably made Chicago the most progressive (or at least innovative) city in America.

Of course, yesterday we discovered that the President has moved to the G8 summits to Camp David. For some this was yet another blow to the City's civic pride (loosing the Olympics... and Oprah over the last couple of years). In reality it's most likely for the best. The primary motivation for bringing the G8 to Chicago was global exposure - to show the world that NYC & D.C. aren't the only game in town. This was also a huge risk. Some have suggested that Chicago is still worried about a repeat of '68 - the infamous Democratic National convention that erupted into police brutality against anti-war demonstrators. They call it the "Ghost of '68."

Again I'm on the fence about this. Chicago, because it is not a media capital (like NYC/LA... or even ATL), feels that it has to promote itself to the global audience. The G8 Summit sounds like a good idea from an international perspective. From a domestic perspective it's a little different. If Chicago would have hosted the G8, in an election year, with a still (relatively) stagnant economy, increasing gas prices and the resurgence of the Occupy movement (with which I empathize), not to mention the conservative populists (with which I empathize but emphatically disagree) - the City would have certainly faced the possibility of social unrest and police backlash that would have damaged the its reputation among the global elite, the middle class and the poor. If everything would have gone perfectly well Chicago might have convinced a few billionaires or politicians to invest in the City. If there was violence the elite and the average American would have soured on the City once again. In other words, it was a risky bet - one that we're probably better of not making. Which, again, brings us back to the question that confronts Chicago today - how much should we cater to the elite or to the global media while at the same time facilitating the voices of the oppressed, the impoverished and the forgotten.

Chicago has always been at the epicenter of American politics and social change. It has always placated the business establishment while simultaneously providing refuge, if reluctantly, to everyone that "polite society" chooses to ignore. Today is no exception.

Rahm Emanuel and Bill Clinton Announce the creation of Chicago's "Infrastructure Trust," America's First - Controversial and potentially Revolutionary

How to make Rahm's Plan Work

Tech Companies partner with Chicago High Schools

A Plan for Economic Growth and Jobs - Innovative for its sincerity