A Decade of Urban Change: AAG Returns to Chicago

The AAG is pleased to be holding its next annual meeting March 7-11, 2006, in the world-class city of Chicago. The AAG last met in Chicago in 1995, and in the newsletter issues leading up to the 2006 meeting, the Local Arrangements Committee (co-chaired by Mark Bouman of Chicago State University and Jon Kilpinen of Valparaiso University) will provide articles that highlight some of the more dramatic changes in Chicago since then. This article provides an overview of six areas of dramatic change, each of which will be presented in greater detail in coming issues.

The Greening of Chicago
Movements to improve and expand upon Chicago’s rich heritage of city parks and greenways have gained momentum since the AAG last met there in 1995. Preserving and enhancing public open space in northeastern Illinois since 1963, the Openlands Project (www.openlands.org/) has made tremendous progress in the past decade. In 1997 the group revised a northeastern Illinois regional greenways and trails plan to identify 4,300 miles of greenways and almost 2,000 miles of trails for the region and in 1998 they initiated an effort to identify and coordinate a 480-mile water trail plan for northeastern Illinois. In 2005 Openlands published a fourteen-county mapping project called “Natural Connections: Green Infrastructure in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana” (www.greenmapping.org/), which identifies the interconnected network of open spaces and natural areas that serve wildlife habitat and recreation across a tri-state region. AAG meeting attendees will be able to link up with this vast network of greenways just two blocks from the conference hotel in Millennium Park, which is the newest created parkland within historic Grant Park. The Millennium Park project transformed twenty-five acres of abandoned railroad tracks and parking lots and turned the area into a magnificent park space that includes world-class art, architecture, and landscape design. The AAG is already working on field trips that will visit other components of the greenway system of Chicago.

Lake Michigan and other Regional Water Resources
Though Chicago sits adjacent to the vast reservoir of Lake Michigan, regional planners are increasingly concerned about the potential for future water supply shortages. The growth of the metropolitan region’s population and area combined with international laws with Canada that limit lake withdrawals (www.nipc.org/environment/slmrwsc/mission.htm) prompted the 2002 organization of a tri-state Southern Lake Michigan Regional Water Supply Consortium to promote a comprehensive regional approach to sustainable water supply planning and management in the greater Chicago metropolitan region (including southeastern Wisconsin and northwestern Indiana). Chicago and many of its inner suburbs are already withdrawing water from Lake Michigan to meet their needs, and as the outer suburbs speculate about their own future shortages from dwindling local ground water supplies, they are being warned that Lake Michigan water may not be available. In addition to the growing concern over future population growth and water supply, the Chicago area is doing pioneering work on other water related resource issues. One of these is in the area of urban flood prevention and the AAG is working on the development of a field trip to showcase this and other regional examples of innovations in water resources management. Views of Lake Michigan are a close walking distance from the conference hotel and just a little further, approximately fourteen city blocks, is Navy Pier which puts visitors slightly above and out onto the lake.

Transportation
Chicago is still the largest container- moving port in the United States and in the last decade the amount of freight volume moving in and out of Chicago has dramatically increased due to an overheated global economy. The growth in freight flow is beginning to test the capacity of the region’s transportation infrastructure, especially when more containers appear to be entering than exiting in the short term. A recent study by Metropolis 2020 found that the current number of 37,500 railcars moving daily through the Chicago area (at an average speed of nine miles per hour) is expected to increase to 64,000 railcars by 2030 (www.chicagometropolis2020.org/ 10_40.htm). Almost all of the container freight on these railcars is transferred to and from trucks which take up twice the road space of cars on the region’s highways. To affirm this, a recent national study of traffic congestion, the Chicago region came in as the third worst in the nation. The typical Chicago driver can expect to experience fifty-six hours of delay annually due to traffic congestion. On top of the container-freight issue, the Chicago region is grappling with a host of other transportation issues, including the goal of expanding public transportation services. The edge cities toured during the last AAG meeting in Chicago have matured and exhibit both traditional and reverse commuting patterns. The Loop is still the dominant job center of the region and the peak commuting flows reflect this; however, there is a growing gentrifying population that works in the suburbs but lives and consumes in the city, which only adds more complexity to the pattern. New retail configurations in the suburbs like ”lifestyle centers” are adding to non-work related trips and suburban gridlock is commonplace on the weekends. The AAG is working on field trips that will showcase some of the problems identified here as well as some of the measures that are in place to alleviate the problems. The conference hotel is also directly accessible to public transportation, particularly the “L”, and extensive bicycle paths are within walking distance toward the lake.

Geographic Technologies
The Chicago region is home to a number of geographic technology companies and organizations and their presence has grown stronger since the last AAG meeting there. The Chicago region has early roots in geographic technologies, dating back to the 1856 founding of Rand McNally in Skokie, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago. Today’s mix includes companies such as NAVTEQ which specializes in database designs for vehicle navigation and fleet management systems. A Chicago organization that has a prominent role in the development and use of geographic technologies is the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) whose mission is to invent and implement new tools and methods to create livable urban communities. CNT (www.cnt.org/) began its work in the Chicago region and has since expanded into other urban areas, including South Florida, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Pittsburgh. The AAG is organizing a field trip to visit some of these and other organizations that are employing geographic technologies in unique ways.

A Booming Downtown Residential Real Estate Market
The 2000 census was the first since the 1950 census to show an increase in Chicago’s population. This population growth was just one sign of the prosperity that the city has experienced from 1995 through 2005. Recent population growth has been paralleled by a residential housing boom that has included the conversion of former downtown office spaces to residential units and new high-rise apartment buildings and condominiums that have sprouted up in and around downtown. The boom has been especially dramatic in the South Loop a neighborhood in the Near Southside Community Area. One example of this type of construction is the Central Station redevelopment project that occurred on former Illinois Central rail yards. This expansive real estate boom has coincided with gentrification and it is difficult to find neighborhoods in the city where prosperous newcomers have not invaded. Meanwhile, the city’s poverty areas have contracted spatially as a result of this new real estate investment, but also because of the demolition of Chicago’s notorious high-rise public housing buildings that began in 1996. The AAG is planning field trips that will explore the full variety and context of this real estate boom. A gentrification field trip will highlight the spatial magnitude of the process as well as the displacement issues that have occurred as a result. Evidence of the remarkable real estate boom can be seen on a short walk from the conference hotel as well.

Immigration and Ethnicity
To suggest that immigration and ethnic diversity is new to Chicago since 1995 would be to ignore all of the city’s history. However, a subsequent newsletter piece will articulate some of the changing dynamics and patterns of Chicago’s ethnic makeup since the AAG’s last meeting there in 1995. Topics to be covered will include the degree to which multiethnic neighborhoods have expanded or contracted and the question of whether classic patterns of segregation have reemerged. The piece will examine the tension that gentrification has brought some of the city’s more stable ethnic enclaves. The geographic dimensions of the growth in new immigrants (Latino and Asian) will also be described as well as the continued growth in the more firmly established immigrant groups. The AAG already has plans to visit Pilson, a Latino neighborhood that has seen new pressure from gentrification, and many other field trips are sure to emerge that will show that Chicago is still a city of neighborhoods. So as you plan your trip to Chicago, save time to explore these and many other facets of a fascinating city. Bring your walking shoes, and depending on the weather, you may even consider renting a bicycle to tour the greenways of Chicago that begin two blocks from the conference hotel. You can also venture into some of Chicago’s ethnic neighborhoods for unique dining experiences, or even plan a journey from downtown to the edgeless exurbs (but if it is during rush hour, definitely consider taking one of the Metra rail lines).

Rich Greene rgreene@niu.edu

Please direct all queries to:

Association of American Geographers 1710 16th Street NW,br> Washington, DC 20009 Voice: (202) 234-1450 Fax: (202) 234-2744 E-mail: meeting@aag.org