In the ebbing summer heat of 1988, the Chicago Tribune laid bare the forces of obstruction that are running the city into the ground.
The series ended a week later with an overview in the Perspective section. Said the headline: “The timid city–As coalition taunts, inertia rules the roost.” “Taunts”? Has anyone seen this crowd that stands by whistling and hooting as Chicago sinks into the muck?
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The problematic notion in all of this is that of antidevelopment forces working in concert. The idea of a coalition–McCarron actually used the word “movement”–did not originate with McCarron’s series. For example, a long article on south lakefront redevelopment in the May/June 1988 Neighborhood Works spoke of “a new citywide coalition fighting what they call ‘land grabs’ by outside developers in black communities.” Still, McCarron seemed uniquely willing to throw anyone and anything into the mix. He began with three dissimilar aldermen: William Henry, an old-fashioned machine opportunist; timid modernist Timothy Evans, who will lead the black vote wherever it tells him to go; and Helen Shiller, a New Left ideologue. Into the pot of chili McCarron also tossed opponents of the world’s fair and of the new Bears and White Sox stadiums, and of plastic plumbing, and of school reform, and of a townhouse project on the near northwest side that McCarron approves of. Floating on top like shredded cheese was City Hall policymaker Rob Mier. And to the consternation of Chicago’s philanthropic community, McCarron even cited by name foundations that fund community groups that McCarron believes are holding up progress.
So, what about Bickerdike?
“Chicago on Hold” is spotted with markers that attest to McCarron’s grasp of the issues and psychologies at play out in the neighborhoods. But McCarron refused to let his powers of empathy bog him down. He wrote this time around to make waves, to redraft the development debate in tough new terms. He wrote with a kick-ass quality redolent of Tribune journalism at its most imperious. “Chicago,” McCarron declared at the get-go, “is being paralyzed by a self-serving political movement fueled by the fear of displacement and orchestrated by leaders determined to stop change in neighborhoods that need change the most.”
“A fair criticism of what I’ve done is that it should have had a second part about affordable housing. But this was not a series about the problem of affordable housing. . . . Another major criticism is that I was alleging a conspiracy theory. The use of words like ‘coalition’–it sounds like people meeting for coffee every morning. We all know they don’t. But even acting in isolation, if the combined effect is to deter the redevelopment of neighborhoods, it’s at least a movement . . .
Which is worse?
