Urban Government and Private Development in Postindustrial Urban America
ABSTRACT: As revenue-deprived cities in the United States depend more on developments aimed at attracting visitors, the governing bodies controlling this infrastructure play a larger role in urban government. This paper explores the case of one such development, Chicago’s Navy Pier. The author argues that the Pier’s redevelopment as a festival marketplace, which was based on public rhetoric and space, necessitated the creation of a public authority that compromised this vision. The paper begins with a description of the postindustrial city, then outlines the history of Navy Pier and its redevelopment, and closes with a discussion of the role of public authorities in the contemporary city.
In 1986, Chicago and urban America generally, were in decline. The bedrock of federal urban funding had disappeared, middle class residents continued to flee the city for suburban enclaves, and manufacturing jobs that had once employed large portions of city dwellers were suddenly much scarcer. While cities searched for strategies to reverse these trends, most found great trouble in doing so. An urban regeneration seemed unlikely at the time, but cities would soon find ways to attract dollars, residents, and visitors back within their limits.
Seventy years earlier, Municipal Pier, a mixed-use development for shipping and entertainment, was constructed near the mouth of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. The initial uses of the structure known today as Navy Pier symbolize the industrial and leisure activities taking place in a rapidly growing, and at times, carefree urban setting. In the decades to follow, the pier served as a Navy training base, the Chicago campus of the University of Illinois, and finally, as a landmark used intermittently for municipal gatherings and public events. During the era of urban decline, however, Navy Pier sat idle amidst a city on the verge of rebirth; plans for renovation had come and gone and it looked as though the Pier might never be of use again.
The ever-changing currents of urban America provided a different outcome. In 1990 a plan that would redevelop the Pier was accepted, and in the previous year, two factors ensured its success. The first was the plan’s use of public rhetoric, which stood out from other festival marketplaces that had embraced private development exclusively. This can be attributed to the fact that throughout the city’s history, Chicagoans have treasured their public space along Lake Michigan. A phenomenon best represented by Daniel Burnham’s 1909 plan for Chicago, which placed an emphasis on beautifying the lakefront and rejuvenating the residents and city (Hall, 2002, pp.
...ive grab your attention? May has been compared to the greatest of the greats, people like Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson. He possesses an ability to grab a part of your soul and reach into your heart, digging deeper inside of it with every line of every poem he so articulately constructs. He establishes a connection with every reader, in every situation, at any time. Jamaal May is a fantastic and upcoming poet who has so much more to offer the world. May continues to direct the successful Organic Weapons video and chapbook series, teaching in Vermont College’s MFA program and is maintaining his name as a poet, adding to his reputation with every piece he publishes. Do you want to feel the spirit of Detroit? Do you want to experience the rush of energy and vitality contained in each of its people? Jamaal May can show you this; it’s your turn to be the reader.
Now, a normal sized town contains fast-food joints, supermarkets, malls, and superstores, but a small town lacks that appeal. The small-town could be the most beautiful landscape known to man, but lack the necessary luxuries in life that a typical American would benefit from. Carr and Kefalas make this statement that emphasizes the town’s lack of appeal, “Indeed the most conspicuous aspects of the towns landscape may be the very things that are missing; malls, subdivisions, traffic and young people” (26). The authors clearly state that they realize that towns, such as the Heartland, are hurting because of the towns’ lack of modernization. For all intents and purposes, the town’s lack of being visually pleasing is driving away probable citizens, not only the native youth, and possible future employee’s away from a possible internship with the town. The citizens with a practice or business hurt from the towns inability to grow up and change along with the rest of the world, yet the town doesn’t realize what bringing in other businesses could potentially do for their small town. Creating more businesses such as malls, superstores and supermarkets would not only drive business up the roof, but it’ll also bring in revenue and draw the
Lehrer, U. and Laidley, J. (2008) analyze how the expensive urban projects close to waterfront Toronto are used as an expression and indication of urban renewal. The article explains that diversity of forms and uses are employed in these new mega-projects which initiates urban inequality compared to the old mega project...
As terrible as the Great Chicago Fire was to the city of Chicago back in 1871, the lessons learned from this disaster and the reconstruction that followed from the ashes and rubble actually helped turn Chicago into one of the great cities in the United States. This paper will examine what happened and why, what the leaders of Chicago learned from the experience, and how the will and spirit of the people of Chicago along with financial support from a sympathetic nation and beyond forever changed the city of Chicago for the better.
Reshaping Metropolitan America provides an outlook of the next fifteen years for infrastructure development in the United States. Nearly two-thirds of the buildings that will be necessary to handle the projected half billion residents of the Untied States by 2030 are not built yet. We also need to reshape our cities to handle the inversion trend; families and the next generation want to move back and live near downtown. Richard C. Nelson, the author, supports this population shift but does not strongly support it. Instead of trying to create room and additional infrastructure in downtown areas, Nelson believes that metropolitan areas should start to urbanize its suburbs to accommodate desired urban living. The American population is also changing
For several centuries, Jews were used as scapegoats even earlier than before Hitler. First written record of Jews being used as scapegoats was in the early 1600s. In history from Europe tells that Anti-semitism has existed for several years and that the first attack that was ever recorded of Anti-semitism was in Germany, Frankfurt in 1614. The Germans knew that they were Jews by their typical stereotypes and a yellow ring they wore. Jews today still have issues where they are blamed for problems they never did. Scapegoating of the Jews was highly known across the globe when Adolf Hitler accused the Jews for creating Germany into such an awful place. Not only did all of Germany agree but several countries across the globe did too. Surprisingly Canada was like any other. Several Canadians blamed the Jews for the great depression due to their capitalist and rootless thoughts. Due to being blamed for everything continuously some Jews actually believed what people said about them being capitalist and rootless since their self esteem was ruined. They were always reminded of being the evil on earth. Sigmund Freud was one of those who believed that Jews were evil due to continuously being reminded how Jews were awful. Freud was worried his theories would be ignored since he was Jewish. He too gave anti-semitic remarks hoping that people would agree with his theories. The reason why people had such thoughts of the Jews was by Persuasion. A section of social psychology, there are five parts to persuasion there is; the communicator, the one who has had experience and admires his thoughts. The message, usually a message that people like; the media, the environment and the audience which ideas they agree and what the communicator says. Other...
Beers, G. Kylene, and Lee Odell. "Poetry." Holt Literature & Language Arts. Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 2003. 413-14. Print.
Over the next 160 years Central Park has seen many transformations. An early decline in the 1900’’s followed by a revitalization by Robert Moses
don’t always see an interest in our own city’s history and development. It is important to understand how your own city came about. The World’s Fair was one example. Many people don’t know that St. Louis held the two biggest events in the world. One was the World’s Fair, and the other was the Olympics. More importantly, it was all in the same year, 1904. The Fair held in St. Louis was a great introduction to the United States becoming one of the greatest and biggest countries in the world. Today, it is even a world power. The city of St. Louis is an important and beautiful city with a great past. “The Gateway to The West” is definitely one of America’s greatest cities.
New Urbanism was a movement to revitalize communities and bring back the vitality within them that was slowly dying. Having seen a boom earlier in the century in suburbs and the want for American families to live in uncongested neighborhoods had the opposite effect: those fleeting to the suburbs caused for congestion in not only suburbs but there was also some forms of congestion in urban areas as well due to the newly epitomized automobile. New Urbanists saw an opportunity to rethink the ideals of urban planning and established a school of thought that focused on the pedestrian within a community, providing them with diverse commercial and economic options throughout the community within walking distance as well as maintaining civic engagement and social and economic diversity.
Ferguson, Margaret W. , Mary Jo Salter, and Jon Stallworthy. The Norton Anthology Of Poetry. shorter fifth edition. New York, New York: W W Norton & Co Inc, 2005. print.
Nietzsche introduces the differences between what he names later in his first essay the "master morality" and "slave morality." The first master morality is the ideas of the nobles, including solders and other ruling classes. This he says is power deciding what good and bad is they see the qualities they possess such as physical strength, political power, over all better health and longer lives, monetary gains wealth and what they see as contentment, all these things are what they see as what is good, after all these are the things that set them apart. The nobles then see the distance and the difference between those who lack or have little of these ‘good’ things. This could include things such as bad health, little physical wealth and little to know political power, since the ‘masters’ do not suffer from these qualities they class then as ‘bad’
The documentary Killing Us Softly 4 discusses and examines the role of women in advertisements and the effects of the ads throughout history. The film begins by inspecting a variety of old ads. The speaker, Jean Kilbourne, then discusses and dissects each ad describing the messages of the advertisements and the subliminal meanings they evoke. The commercials from the past and now differ in some respects but they still suggest the same messages. These messages include but are not limited to the following: women are sexual objects, physical appearance is everything, and women are naturally inferior then men. Kilbourne discusses that because individuals are surrounded by media and advertisements everywhere they go, that these messages become real attitudes and mindsets in men and women. Women believe they must achieve a level of beauty similar to models they see in magazines and television commercials. On the other hand, men expect real women to have the same characteristics and look as beautiful as the women pictured in ads. However, even though women may diet and exercise, the reality...
In Ernest W. Burgess’s “The Growth of the City: An Introduction to a Research Project,” (1925), the author delves deep into the processes that go into the construction of a modern city or urban environment. Burgess lists its following qualities: skyscrapers, the department store, the newspaper, shopping malls, etc. (p. 154). Burgess also includes social work as being part of a modern urban environment. This is supported by his construction model based on concentric circles that divided Chicago into five zones. The first was called a center loop meant for a business district. Secondly, there was an area for business and light manufacture. Third, there was a “zone for working men’s homes” (p. 156). The fourth is the residential area of high-class apartment buildings. The fifth is where suburban houses are located.
Online piracy is a huge problem, one which costs the U.S. economy between $200 and $250 billion per year, and is responsible for the loss of 750,000 American jobs. These numbers seem huge: $250 billion per year loss would be almost $800 for every man, woman, and child in America. And 750,000 jobs – that’s twice the number of those employed in the entire motion picture industry in 2010 (Freakonomics). In 2010, the Government Accountability Office released a report noting that these figures “can be substantiated or traced back to an underlying data source or methodology,” which in English means these figures are legitimate and that piracy really does hurt our economy.