The Barn House (49 page)

I've learned this is the nub of the argument advanced in “Superstar Cities” (Working Paper 12355) by Joseph Gyourko, Christopher Mayer, and Todd Sinai, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, July 2006.

This approach didn't always sit well with the kids. Years later, assigned to prepare an autobiography for school, Andrew wrote, “My dad works at home but I still have to take the train home every day. Unlike Matt, whose parents love him.”

The global-city argument was most explicitly expressed by R. C. Longworth, “The 2000 Census—Chicago Has Entered the Global Era,”
Chicago Tribune
, August 25, 2002. For more on Chicago as a global city, see AbuLughod, Janet,
New York, Chicago, Los Angeles: America's Global Cities
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999); Madigan, Charles, ed.,
Global Chicago
(Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2004); and Taylor, Peter and Lang, Robert, “U.S. Cities in the ‘World City Network,'” Brookings Institution—Survey Series, February 2005. In assessing the “global network connectivity” of U.S. cities, the Brookings report notes that while New York is in a class by itself, “Chicago and Los Angeles constitute a clear, second strat[um].”

Whether these fears were well founded is a matter of debate—see, for example, Freeman, Lance, “Displacement or Succession? Residential Mobility in Gentrifying Neighborhoods,”
Urban Affairs Review
40 (2005), pp. 463- 91. Freeman's analysis purportedly shows that while gentrification undeniably changes the socioeconomic makeup of a neighborhood over time, the turnover rate is no greater than occurs in nongentrifying neighborhoods. To use Freeman's terms, gentrifiers
succeed
the original residents but don't
displace
them. Freeman bases this conclusion on a national database, however, and it may be that abuses occurred in particular cities.

I don't claim displacement isn't an issue; it has been a long-standing concern in neighborhoods like Uptown and Pilsen, and more recently in Bucktown, Wicker Park, and Logan Square. However, I'd say the attitude toward displacement in Chicago is generally pragmatic. Ron, a city guy I knew who had done some small-scale real estate development, put it this way: “Lower-income people should not be forced out of the neighborhood. But anybody who takes the place of a scum-sucking low-life dirtbag is all right by me.”

Lees, Loretta, Tom Slater, and Elvin Wyly,
Gentrification
(New York: Routledge, 2008), p. 80.

Bohemianism, the first stage of gentrification, was first noted (and named) in 1840s Paris. For a summary, see Lloyd, Richard,
Neo-Bohemia: Art and Commerce in the Postindustrial City
(New York: Routledge, 2006), pp. 50
et seq.
Lloyd's main subject is the alternative arts culture that flourished in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood in the 1990s. Today the district is substantially gentrified and few artists can afford to live there.

Some distinguish between neighborhood revitalization (accomplished by existing residents) and gentrification (done by outsiders). I don't think any sharp distinction exists. Improvement of the Barn House's neighborhood was a joint effort by older residents and newcomers.

I might add that the National Register nomination was filed by Vicki, my historic preservation consultant, and that one of the houses on the block is owned by Bob, the former publisher of my newspaper. The city-guy mafia in Chicago has its tentacles everywhere.

The following chart, which shows residential building activity in the most densely populated U.S. cities, is adapted from F. Branconi and F. Heydarpour, “Building Boom Puts New York in Good Company,”
Economic Notes
(Office of the New York City Comptroller)
,
April 2007, with additional data from the U.S. Census Bureau:

In particular I ought to acknowledge Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, who inaugurated an extensive program of civic improvements on taking office in 1989. Notwithstanding the contributions of his administration, few would dispute that the city's revival wouldn't have occurred without broad participation by ordinary citizens.

Professor Florida's books include
The Rise of the Creative Class, and How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, and Everyday Life
(New York: Basic Books, 2002);
Cities and the Creative Class
(New York: Routledge, 2005); and
The Flight of the Creative Class
(New York: HarperCollins, 2005).

Some indication of life in high-rise public housing in Chicago may be found in a September 4, 1987 story by Steve Bogira in the
Chicago Reader
entitled “They Came In Through the Bathroom Mirror.” It told of a mentally ill CHA high-rise resident murdered one evening when an intruder crawled through a pipe chase and shoved her bathroom medicine cabinet out from behind to gain entry to her apartment. The woman called the police; neighbors called a few minutes later reporting gunshots. The police on arrival found that no one would answer the door—at that point presumably the woman was dying or dead—and left without attempting to enter. The decaying corpse was discovered two days later. Two other people were murdered in unrelated incidents in the same complex two and five days later.

Some object that Hyde Park never became badly deteriorated and so can't be described as gentrified. Be that as it may, the community today is affluent and in excellent physical condition.

Not to be in any way defensive about this, but while Chicago is segregated, it's not the most segregated city in the United States, as is widely believed. For the record, Chicago as of 2000 was the ninth most segregated of forty-three major metropolitan areas in the United States having a significant number of black residents. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division, “Racial and Ethnic Residential Segregation in the United States: 1980-2000,” Table 5-4; available at
www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/resseg/tab5-4.html
; accessed October 18, 2007.

Pattillo, Mary,
Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007).