The Origins of the Dual City : Housing, Race, and Redevelopment in Twentieth-Century Chicago

Chicago is celebrated for its rich diversity, but, even more than most US cities, it is also plagued by segregation and extreme inequality. More than ever, Chicago is a “dual city,” a condition taken for granted by many residents. In this book, Joel Rast reveals that today’s tacit acceptance of rising urban inequality is a marked departure from the past. For much of the twentieth century, a key goal for civic leaders was the total elimination of slums and blight. Yet over time, as anti-slum efforts faltered, leaders shifted the focus of their initiatives away from low-income areas and toward the upgrading of neighborhoods with greater economic promise. As misguided as postwar public housing and urban renewal programs were, they were born of a long-standing reformist impulse aimed at improving living conditions for people of all classes and colors across the city—something that can’t be said to be a true priority for many policymakers today. __The Origins of the Dual City__ illuminates how we normalized and became resigned to living amid stark racial and economic divides. History shows that opportunities for consequential change are rare, and that when change does occur it is not always for the better. At present, interests, ideas, and institutions are substantially aligned around the dual city—in Chicago and elsewhere. The resilience of this paradigm into the future may depend on the extent to which it continues to deliver benefits to the powerful and the privileged, the degree to which its contradictions can be successfully managed, and the presence or absence of alternative policy ideas that those disadvantaged by the dual city might rally around. "Chicago is celebrated for its rich diversity, but, even more than most US cities, it is also plagued by segregation and extreme inequality ... In this book, [the author] reveals that today's tacit acceptance of rising urban inequality is a marked departure from the past. For much of the twentieth century, a key goal for civic leaders was the total elimination of slums and blight. Yet over time, as anti-slum efforts faltered, leaders shifted the focus of their initiatives away from low-income areas and toward the upgrading of neighborhoods with greater economic promise."--Back cover How policy paradigms change -- Housing reform in the private city -- A formula for urban redevelopment -- Creating a unified business elite -- New institutions for a new governing agenda -- The attack on the slums -- The new convergence of power -- Learning to live with the slums