Joel Rast
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226661445
- eISBN:
- 9780226661612
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226661612.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
This chapter describes the origins of the Chicago Central Area Committee, an organization created in 1956 to provide a unified voice for the downtown corporate community in civic affairs. Prior to ...
More
This chapter describes the origins of the Chicago Central Area Committee, an organization created in 1956 to provide a unified voice for the downtown corporate community in civic affairs. Prior to 1956 the downtown business community was fragmented, with no single organization representing downtown interests as a whole. By the mid-1950s, certain business leaders saw this as a growing problem. The passage of the Illinois Blighted Act in 1947 and the federal Housing Act of 1949 ushered in a series of slum clearance projects in the city’s central area sponsored by various neighborhood groups. Business leaders grew alarmed as these projects were introduced in piecemeal fashion, unconnected to any broader vision for downtown redevelopment. Business unity was forged through political struggles over concrete planning initiatives in which business elites became increasingly cognizant of their collective interests in the city’s slum clearance and redevelopment program.Less
This chapter describes the origins of the Chicago Central Area Committee, an organization created in 1956 to provide a unified voice for the downtown corporate community in civic affairs. Prior to 1956 the downtown business community was fragmented, with no single organization representing downtown interests as a whole. By the mid-1950s, certain business leaders saw this as a growing problem. The passage of the Illinois Blighted Act in 1947 and the federal Housing Act of 1949 ushered in a series of slum clearance projects in the city’s central area sponsored by various neighborhood groups. Business leaders grew alarmed as these projects were introduced in piecemeal fashion, unconnected to any broader vision for downtown redevelopment. Business unity was forged through political struggles over concrete planning initiatives in which business elites became increasingly cognizant of their collective interests in the city’s slum clearance and redevelopment program.
Joel Rast
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226661445
- eISBN:
- 9780226661612
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226661612.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
This chapter focuses on the push for institutional change that accompanied the shift from the paradigm of privatism to that of public-private redevelopment partnerships in mid-twentieth century ...
More
This chapter focuses on the push for institutional change that accompanied the shift from the paradigm of privatism to that of public-private redevelopment partnerships in mid-twentieth century Chicago. The fragmentation of the city’s institutional arrangements posed an obstacle to the new slum clearance and redevelopment program, since execution of projects required centralized decision making and limited opportunities to delay and obstruct projects. The chapter describes the decade-long effort to consolidate the city’s various agencies involved with the city’s redevelopment program in one department, eliminating inefficiencies and making the obstruction of projects more difficult. The chapter findings support the argument that the prospects for new policy paradigms are determined in part by their fit with a city’s institutional arrangements.Less
This chapter focuses on the push for institutional change that accompanied the shift from the paradigm of privatism to that of public-private redevelopment partnerships in mid-twentieth century Chicago. The fragmentation of the city’s institutional arrangements posed an obstacle to the new slum clearance and redevelopment program, since execution of projects required centralized decision making and limited opportunities to delay and obstruct projects. The chapter describes the decade-long effort to consolidate the city’s various agencies involved with the city’s redevelopment program in one department, eliminating inefficiencies and making the obstruction of projects more difficult. The chapter findings support the argument that the prospects for new policy paradigms are determined in part by their fit with a city’s institutional arrangements.
