Category Archives: Places

Racial change in the suburbs and the first American pope

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Pope Leo XIV grew up in Dolton, Illinois, a suburb just south of the city of Chicago. Is this a story not just of the first American pope but a pope who grew up in the changing American suburbs? Over the years, what happened in his suburban community that had its first white settlers in the 1830s? First from the Encyclopedia of Chicago:

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The mixture of railroads and the Little Calumet River proved to be a good site for industry. Dolton grew as a center for truck farming and manufacturing. It has produced bakery equipment, brass castings, shipping containers, cement, furniture, agricultural equipment, steel tanks, and chemicals. This diverse activity attracted an ethnically varied workforce. In the 1960s the Calumet Expressway (now the Bishop Ford Freeway) improved automobile and truck access to Chicago by two interchanges serving Dolton. In recent years large numbers of African Americans have moved to Dolton. The 2000 census reported a population of 25,614 with 14 percent white, 82 percent black, and 3 percent Hispanic.

According to a table on this page, Dolton was 99.9% white in 1960, 58.1% white in 1990, and 14.3% white in 2000. According to the Census Bureau, Dolton is now 4.9% white.

Second, WBEZ in 2018 reported on the change that had taken place in Dolton:

This is the story of how one small town became trapped in a downward spiral that poverty experts say follows a well-worn pattern of deindustrialization that leads to a disenfranchised economic class. Communities of color inherit a legacy of decline and then lack the resources, both financial and political, needed to turn things around.

The focus is Dolton, but it just as easily could be Riverdale, Harvey, Dixmoor, Posen, Calumet City or other nearby suburbs that once were powered by steel and other industry but over time slowly coalesced into a broad swath of economic distress. In other parts of Illinois, such as North Chicago to the north or Maywood to the west, the details change but the problems are often much the same.

It was no one single thing, but a cascade of events that changed the fortunes of Dolton and its neighbors. The decline of manufacturing led to a loss of job and pay opportunities, which in turn fed a wave of white flight as longtime residents left and were replaced by African-American city dwellers lured by better, yet not too expensive, housing.

But luring new investment to now majority black communities proved a challenge and housing values began to fall, taking down with them the tax revenues needed to keep up public services. Next came widespread foreclosures and an invasion of real estate scavengers who bought houses on the cheap, transforming a community of homeowners with a deep financial stake in their town into one of renters with looser bonds.

All the while, the political fabric vital to turning things around continued to fray. Government stumbled amid patronage and gridlock, rendering even more challenging the task of drawing needed new investment.

This sounds like a number of American suburbs that provided opportunities for white residents after World War Two but did not provide the same opportunities for later residents.

After World War Two, Prevost’s parents owned a small suburban home and were educators with master’s degrees:

His parents had been living in a 1,200-square-foot brick house on East 141st Place in Dolton. They bought it new in 1949, paying a $42 monthly mortgage.

His father Louis Prevost was superintendent of the south suburban schools in District 169. News clippings from 1945 show he served as a Navy lieutenant in the Mediterranean in WWII. He had graduated from the old Central Y.M.C.A. College in 1943 while living in Hyde Park.

The new pope’s mother, Mildred Martinez Prevost, studied library science at DePaul University. Her death notice, in 1990, said she and her husband started the St. Mary’s library in the basement of the old school building and mentions jobs she had in the libraries at Holy Name Cathedral, Von Steuben High School on the North Side and at Mendel from 1969 to 1975.

This home was apparently recently fixed up after being purchased for under $70,000 in 2024.

The Prevosts attended a Catholic parish – St. Mary of the Assumption – just inside the southern borders of Chicago and next to the suburbs of Dolton and Riverdale. Here is what the property looked like as of July 2024:

This parish closed in 2011 and is part of a larger set of Catholic institutions the Prevost family was involved with and that have closed:

Like St. Mary’s, other Catholic institutions that helped shape the future cardinal are long gone, closed over the past several decades as the Catholic population around where he grew up and elsewhere plummeted. Among those bygone institutions:

• Mendel College Prep High School, where Prevost and his mother worked.

• St. Augustine Seminary High School in Michigan.

• Tolentine College in Olympia Fields, the suburb where he briefly lived.

• Mount Carmel Elementary School in Chicago Heights, where his father was principal.

Several of these communities mentioned – Olympia Fields, Chicago Heights – experienced racial change similar to that of Dolton.

If white Catholic residents indeed left Dolton and other communities on the South Side of Chicago and its southern suburbs and American suburbia became more complex, where did they move to? How did this shape the ministry of Pope Leo XIV?

How flat Chicago is

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In some American cities, you can see mountains. Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver. What you see (and experience) in Chicago is flat land. How flat? Here is one way to approach it:

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According to “A History of Beverly Hills, Chicago,” a 1926 University of Chicago thesis by Cora DeGrass Heinemann, that Far South Side neighborhood, which now goes by Beverly, “is the highest land in Cook County.” That’s because the Blue Island Ridge, a glacial moraine, winds through it.

In the Dan Ryan Woods, a forest preserve that adjoins Beverly to the north, a historical marker for Lookout Point says the spot was “used as a signal station on [the] main highway of Indian travel.” Lookout Point offers a fine view of downtown Chicago, but at 660 feet above sea level, it’s not quite the highest spot in the city. That’s a little farther south, at 91st Street between Claremont and Western, where the land rises to 670 feet.

By contrast, the city’s lowest point, the lakefront, is at 577 feet. The lesson here: With less than 100 feet between its highest and lowest elevations, Chicago is one flat city.

This is some variation in elevation, almost 100 feet. I wonder if there are additional factors that help hide changes in elevation:

  1. An urban landscape. Lots of buildings and activity might distract from elevation changes.
  2. Chicago is not just any urban landscape; there are plenty of tall buildings. A ten-story building is roughly 100 feet tall and there are plenty of these across Chicago. Such buildings could help a 100-foot difference seem small in comparison.
  3. Gradual elevation changes. This could be from the natural landscape and/or the smoothing effects of development over decades.
  4. The location of the highest point is away from the center of the city. How many people pass by this location regularly compared to other parts of the city with less variation in elevation?

So Chicago is relatively flat – and other factors could contribute to the sense of flatness.

Efforts toward a pedestrian mall in Wheaton in the 1970s

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As cities across the United States added pedestrian malls in the 1960s and 1970s, the suburb of Wheaton, Illinois considered developing its own. The efforts began in the late 1960s in the Wheaton Beautification Commission and a semi-mall was created by 1971. Today, Wheaton residents are familiar with summer dining replacing car traffic on Hale Street.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20240502/business/hale-street-tents-are-back-and-so-is-outdoor-summer-dining-in-wheaton/

In 1969, Harland Bartholemew and Associates issued The Wheaton Comprehensive Plan for the community which the city adopted in December of that year. Prior to the plan, a survey of residents commissioned by the firm noted the downtown shopping options as both an asset and a potential issue. On one hand, some residents noted: “Shopping facilities need improvement. While there are some fine shopping centers, the facilities in the central area leave much to be desired.” On the other hand, other residents said, “There is a fair level of shopping facilities and parking.”

Among the recommendations in the 1969 report was the closing of downtown Hale Street to pedestrian traffic. Here is the vision the planners provided:

Hale Street should be improved as an attractive pedestrian shopping mall and all vehicular movements – other than emergency or service vehicles – should be eliminated….Areas along each side would receive different treatment. Some would be areas planted with low shrubs, ground cover or flowers, with the latter being changed with the seasons. These would be surrounded by low walls which could be used as seats for resting purposes. Other walks or platform areas would also be slightly raised to assist in defining the service drive. One or more of these could contain benches and simply play apparatus for small children.

The city pursued this in the following years and the City Council on September 20, 1971, adopted this resolution:

Resolution R-48-71. Whereas, the Wheaton Beautification Commission in 1967 proposed the improvement of the central business area by creating a mall-type environment on Hale Street, between Front and Wesley Streets, and Whereas, this proposal was echoed in the Wheaton Comprehensive Plan, adopted in 1969, as one of the several suggested improvements to downtown Wheaton by the business community, and Whereas, with the encouragement and leadership of the Greater Wheaton Chamber of Commerce and the financial backing of the Hale Street property owners and merchants, this proposal can soon become a reality by constructing a semi-mall with trees, planters, benches, attractive brick paving, and curvilinear street alignment and other improvements to this area; Now, therefore, be it resolved by the City Council of the City of Wheaton, Illinois, that wholehearted support be and hereby is given to this project, and that the planning, engineering, parking layout revision and certain sewer changes be the City’s contribution in making the Hale Street semi-mall a reality; Be it further resolved that the proper departments of the City be authorized to proceed with the work upon establishment of an escrow account containing funds sufficient to finance the project…Motion carried unanimously…”

A description from the 1971 annual report sums up the changes made:

They did, however, join in the creation of a major accomplishment of 1971: the Hale Street semi-mall. Proposed by the City’s planning department and endorsed by the Beautification Commission nearly four years ago, the plan was revived with the help of the Greater Wheaton Chamber of Commerce, nurtured with the funds of Hale Street property owners and businessmen, and finally implemented by the City. The mall was officially opened on November 29th, and will provide future shoppers and visitors with an attractive invitation to stroll down Hale Street, browse a bit, and hopefully find what they need in the many quality shops on both sides of the gently-curved street. After shopping the customer can rest a while on one of the attractive planter benches surrounded by an area of paving brick. The Hale Street semi-mall, the first such project in the metropolitan area…

In 1975, a Chamber of Commerce publication said, “The completion of the Hale Street Mini-Mall inaugurated a greater impetus for change and growth in the seventies.”

In 1982, the downtown was struggling. In a local newspaper article discussing concerns, the suburb’s city planner said, “a pedestrian mall such as the one suggested in the early 1960’s, would be “disastrous” to merchants not in the mall.”

COVID-19 led to the complete removal of vehicular traffic on Hale Street in 2020. This continued each summer through 2024 as restaurants and residents enjoyed the extra dining space.

In sum, it appears Wheaton followed the broader patterns regarding pedestrian malls: it saw it as a possible solution to shopping activity moving out of downtowns and to strip malls and shopping malls, it put together a semi-mall with a curved street and limited traffic, and that mall faded away over time. With the onset of COVID-19 in 2020 and revived interest in more places in outdoor dining, a pedestrian mall has returned during warmer months.

Chicago area broadcasters saying “Ellinois”

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I consume enough Chicago area media to occasionally hear the state referred to as “Ellinois” rather than “Illinois.” How should the state’s name be pronounced?

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Perhaps the “El-“at the beginning of some vocalizations is a downstate/Midland accent:

While we’re on the subject of how Downstaters can’t speak English, at least not as beautifully or gracefully as Chicagoans, here a few other ways they talk funny:

  • They ask “Do you want some melk?” and declare “I’m from Ellinois.” (Darren Bailey of Clay County, the Republican nominee for governor, does this. Beyond the pronunciation, a Chicagoan would never say “I’m from Illinois.”)

Maybe the pronunciation has been altered multiple times throughout history? One source suggests:

Interesting, but not as interesting as how the Miami word irenweewa became our Illinois. McCafferty explains that in Miami pronunciation, it is the next-to-last syllable that is stressed. The French, accustomed to hearing the final syllable of a word stressed, took the next to last syllable in irenweewa to be the final word’s syllable. “The French also changed r to l,” adds McCafferty, “and slightly altered the quality of the second vowel from e to i.” Which is just so French. Then they wrote this mishmash down in accordance with the conventions of 17th century French spelling. Voila! Illinois…

So – the French misheard the Indians, and the Americans misread the French, anticipating Rauner and Madigan in a tradition that is now more than 300 years old.

The word Illinois departs from American English as well as from Miami Algonquian in a second respect. McCafferty notes that in American English you would expect Illinois to be pronounced ILL-i-noy, not ill-i-NOY, as it would be in French. And while we do not pronounce the ois in the current French style, we at least respect the original to the extent of leaving the concluding s silent.

Why not end with a YouTube pronunciation guide?

Under 15% of local voters could decide important suburban mayoral race

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The Chicago Tribune made its endorsement for mayor in Aurora, Illinois. This is not a small city or a recently-developed place; Aurora is the second largest community in Illinois with over 175,000 residents and it has nearly two centuries of history. The current mayor ran in the 2022 Republican primary for governor. Lots of people would be interested in voting, right?

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Or maybe not. Richard Irvin has been elected as mayor twice before, in 2017 and 2021. The first time he won with 5,838 votes out of 10,963 total votes. The second time he won with 6,697 out of 12,047 votes. The 2021 primary election had low turnout. In the 2021 mayoral election, turnout was under 13% for the Kane County portion of the city’s residents.

And this is not an isolated case; voter turnout in local elections in the Chicago region is often low.

All of this means that a relatively small portion of communities elect local officials. If turnout is under 15%, then a mayor can be elected by less than 10% of a suburb’s population. These elected officials then help make important decisions about local ordinances, land use, infrastructure, and more. They represent the community to residents and outsiders.

Does this low turnout in local elections help explain why it is difficult for mayors to make the jump to higher levels of government? They may be known in their communities – also think of Pete Buttigieg, former mayor of South Bend, Indiana – but they do not necessarily need large voting blocs to support them and help them get into office. Running for higher offices, like Congress or governor, then requires amassing many more votes.

Can a movie that says something about suburbia be set in a place that is only sort of a suburb?

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The name of the new movie Holland refers to the community in west Michigan. Numerous reviews note that the film says something about the suburbs. A few examples: first, from Variety:

Through it all, Macfadyen seems suspiciously good-natured, which merely encourages us to guess what he might be hiding. The “Succession” star brings a disconcerting Kevin Spacey-like energy to his performance, which reinforces the connection some might detect between “Holland” and 1999’s “American Beauty” — another movie about the toxic black mold that thrives just beneath the veneer of suburban perfection.

Second, from Roger-Ebert.com.

Kidman does her best to be the MVP of “Holland,” imbuing Nancy with just enough Midwestern nicety to make her memorable. Nancy is the kind of woman who wants to be a perfect wife and mother but also wants some mystery in her life and responds to the attraction of the handsome new teacher at her school. She’s a suburban shark, always swimming to a nearly impossible objective of keeping her pristine reputation in the community, holding her family together, and having a fling with Dave. While she doesn’t make any bad choices, there’s a version of “Holland” that lets Kidman loose, turning the temperature up on this character’s emotions in a manner that Cave feels tentative to do.

Third, from Mashable.com:

Watching Kidman play a happy homemaker in a pretty suburban town might swiftly recall Frank Oz’s underrated 2004 comedy remake of The Stepford Wives, which Kidman starred in.

You get the idea: the setting and the plot add up o a film that seems to say something about the American suburbs. This is familiar ground in American movies (as well as novels, TV shows, songs, and other cultural works)

But is Holland, Michigan a suburb? Here is what Wikipedia says:

The city spans the Ottawa/Allegan county line, with 9.08 sq mi (23.52 km2) in Ottawa and the remaining 8.13 sq mi (21.06 km2) in Allegan. Holland is the largest city in both Ottawa and Allegan counties. The Ottawa County portion is part of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area, while the Allegan County portion anchors the Holland micropolitan statistical area, which is coextensive with Allegan County. The city is part of the larger Grand Rapids–Wyoming combined statistical area.

Since metropolitan areas have boundaries based on counties, it seems that part of the city is part of the suburbs of Grand Rapids, a city of nearly 200,000 people and a metropolitan area of over 1 million people. But a good portion of the city, home to over 37,000 residents, is also its own smaller urban area.

Do the people of Holland see themselves as suburbanites? How many commute to Grand Rapids and other parts of the region? Are there cultural and historical ties to Grand Rapids?

None of this may matter for putting together a film. Filming scenes in downtown Holland or within neighborhoods in the community may look suburban. How many people watching really want to have authentic places that match what is being described? (For example, once I have seen a few studio backlots, it is hard to unsee them.) If the movie is about the suburbs, who is to say it isn’t?

Chicago rents up at three times the rate of median household income in 2+ decades

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The cost of renting in Chicago has increased in recent years:

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After adjusting for inflation, Chicago’s median household income grew by just 9% from 2000 to 2023. Meanwhile, the city’s median cost for rent and utilities grew by 28%, roughly three times faster, according to a WBEZ analysis of census data.

This particularly affects lower-income residents:

Like Robinson, about 129,000 renter households in Chicago — roughly one-fifth of the citywide total — make between $2,000 and $4,000 a month, according to a WBEZ analysis. About 30% of those households are spending a majority of their income on rent and utilities…

Twenty-five years ago, a majority of the apartments in a dozen neighborhoods would have been affordable for someone making about half the city’s median income, like Robinson. They would have included North Lawndale, South Lawndale, the Lower West Side, the Near South Side, Douglas, Grand Boulevard, Washington Park and Woodlawn. Now, a majority of the rents in those eight neighborhoods are completely out of her reach. For example, after adjusting for inflation, the median rent in the Near South Side community has nearly quadrupled since 2000.

And the causes?

New apartment construction fell off dramatically in the late 2000s, in the early years of the subprime mortgage lending crisis and the Great Recession. “A number of single-family home builders [and] a number of multifamily developers left the sector all together,” Hermann said. “Less housing was built for more than a decade than we’ve seen pretty much ever.”…

The city is also losing housing — in particular, older two- to four-unit apartments that have historically offered more affordable rents for families.

Can leaders – political, business, real estate, etc. – address this issue? Building more units overall could help. Offering more incentives for affordable housing could help. Promoting and incentivizing development throughout the city – and not just areas where developers see the potential for a lot of profit – could help. Can housing be a leading issue to tackle?

Big cities face numerous issues but housing is a foundational concern. Residents need quality housing at prices they can afford. Not having such housing can affect all areas of life, including people’s hope for what their future can be. It can lead to people leaving (hinted at by the end of the article) and limit who can move in. And if the affordable housing shortage continues, the number of units needed only increases.

Even as there appeared there might be some energy in mid-2024 to address housing concerns at a national level, communities need to keep at this and make sure there is affordable housing on the way.

A home with an “Anytown, USA” sign

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I recently saw a real estate listing for a suburban house that had an interesting sign in the kitchen. Above the sink was a sign for “Anytown, USA.”

It is a nice enough kitchen but why have such a sign? Is it meant to appeal to buyers from anywhere? Is it a comment on the placelessness of the suburbs? Was it a gift to the resident and they needed to display it somewhere?

In contrast, a homeowner might display markers of their local community. Instead of “Anytown,” there could be hints of the specific place in which the home is located. Perhaps a map or a poster for a local event or group or an object that could only be acquired or experienced in that community.

Perhaps the sign is in reference to some cultural work? Maybe there is a connection to a 2005 documentary about a New Jersey community or a 2009 film about the Iraq War or a 2021 children’s music album.

Another option: the sign is an AI generated image to provide some decoration for the home.

Now I am intrigued: how many people display “Anytown, USA” signs in their homes? Where can I buy home? Can someone outfit an entire home with a phrase used as a placeholder?

The Chicago Tribune on the side of suburban commuters

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An editorial in the Chicago Tribune details some of the issues commuters to Chicago face:

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But hope and optimism have their limits, even among the heartiest suburbanite, who likely saw the news about the Kennedy construction delay debacle and felt put upon and frustrated — but not surprised. After all, suburban commuters are just supposed to take it. Still, this one stings…

It’s not just the roads where suburban commuters get a rough deal — they’re constantly on guard against Metra fare hikes. Fares increased last year, and now Metra is threatening fare hikes again — plus service cuts — as the agency stares down the proverbial fiscal cliff. 

So the suburban commuter faces tortuous traffic on the highways, higher prices and worse service on the trains — yet the city wants them back downtown to buy their $20 lunches and restore the Loop’s economy. Businesses want the suburban commuter back downtown to occupy vast commercial office spaces to justify the rent. And everyone wants them to boost foot traffic, creating safety in numbers and making everyone feel a little safer walking to the office…

But the city often lacks warmth for the people trekking downtown. Not too long ago, the mayor of Chicago floated weaponizing taxes on suburbanites to extract more tax revenue via a Metra “city surcharge” and a “commuter tax” as a way to “make the suburbs … pay their fair share.” See above — they’re already paying a lot to get downtown. 

A hostile relationship between the city and the suburbs is no good. Suburban willingness to come to work downtown is a direct reflection on the city’s health. Is it safe? Is it clean? Is the restaurant scene thriving? If so, people will hop on the Metra and gladly make the trip. The more suburbanites, the better.

Four thoughts in response:

  1. What exactly would “warmth” for suburbanites look like?
  2. What about the many commuters in the region who go suburb to suburb? Are their trips easier?
  3. Do suburbanites need the city more or does the city need suburbanites more?
  4. Contrary to the zero-sum game assumption in #2 above, would it be better to think of suburban commuters and city residents as part of a larger metropolitan area? Better transportation options could be good for city and suburbs as could economic opportunities for both cities and suburbs.

Immigration enforcement operations taking place in cities – and suburbs

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It is easy to find headlines regarding cities and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. But, reading a number of these stories shows these are also happening in suburbs. This one story detailing locations across the United States includes these suburbs:

Dallas, Texas, its eastern suburbs, and Lake Ray Hubbard by NASA Johnson is licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0

-Tucker, Georgia

-Irving, Arlington, and Collin County in Texas

-Federal Way, Washington

-Wilsonville, Oregon

Or see this story of operations in Chicago area suburbs.

These are suburbs of major metropolitan areas. Cities may be the target of particular political ire but there is less recognition that many people who come to the United States live in suburbs (or rural areas).

And how will suburbs respond to these federal efforts? When migrants were sent to suburbs of Chicago in 2023 from other locations in the United States, few suburban communities were interested in having them stay (see posts here, here, and here). A number of big cities have announced how they will respond but there are thousands of suburbs in the United States.