Communities In Focus
CHICAGO
Chicago, the third largest city in the country and largest in the Midwest, is divided into 50 wards represented by aldermen. Mayor Lori Lightfoot, elected in 2019, campaigned on ending corruption and aldermanic prerogative – the power aldermen have on zoning decisions.
Despite Chicago’s strong economy and large fintech presence, it continues to be a “tale of two cities.” Chicago’s low-income neighborhoods of color disproportionately struggle with crime, school closures, and population decline; COVID-19 has exacerbated the city’s inequities.
This month in Chicago
Last updated: November 9, 2020
Woman shot by suburban Chicago police sues officers, city
The police department fired the officer because he turned off his body camera while he shot at the unarmed couple. Contrary to past lawsuits, the officers names are available to the public.
CPS board president says reopening has to happen eventually to help vulnerable students
Debate ensues over whether schools should reopen. Children in special education programs, in particular, require in-person instruction. They want to reopen before all parents agree that their children will return to in-person instruction.
Illinois keeps a Secret List of Thousands of Coronavirus Outbreaks
Illinois withholds information that residents could use when deciding whether to go to public places. Some of these recorded outbreaks were in Chicago.
Neighborhood Spotlight
Chicago’s South Side is historically known as home to numerous Black communities, with a population that is 78.5 percent Black. National news outlets focus on the South Side for crime, gangs, drugs, and race issues, but it is also culturally one of Chicago’s richest areas.
After the Supreme Court banned racially restrictive covenants in 1948, people who were displaced from Black communities elsewhere relocated to neighborhoods like Hyde Park.
Chicago race MAP
Swipe right to view 1950 map, swipe left to view 2018 map
To address the economic decline resulting from white flight in the neighborhood, the University of Chicago sponsored an urban renewal plan which increased Hyde Park’s average income, but also drove out 50,000 families, many of whom were Black, by 1970. The neighborhood is seen as a racially integrated middle-income community today and has become a hotspot for private sector redevelopment.
UChicago has been the neighborhood’s biggest gentrifying force, increasingly investing in commercial real estate. The university played a significant role in developing Harper Court - a mixed-use commercial development - in Hyde Park in 2013. Some have been concerned that the university is displacing the neighborhood’s low-income residents.
Government
MAYOR Lori Lightfoot
Mayor Lori Lightfoot became the first Black woman to hold the position as well as the city’s first openly gay Mayor. She was elected with 74 percent of the vote.
Prior to becoming Mayor, Lightfoot served as Chair of the Police Accountability Task Force and President of the Chicago Police Board.
2020 City Budget
In November 2019, Lightfoot pushed forward her first budget, which closed an $838 million deficit, through the City Council. Chicago’s 2020 operating budget is $11.65 billion. In light of the pandemic, Chicago’s budget shortfall in 2021 is expected to be $1.2 billion.
The city faces a looming pension crisis, one that required the Mayor to allocate $989 million a year to pension funds prior to COVID-19. Standard & Poor’s stated in 2019 that Chicago’s pension funds are the most poorly funded of any major U.S. city. In September 2020, the City announced that it was considering high-risk pension obligation bonds to address its budget deficit.
Economics
Despite pockets of poverty, the $611.6 billion Chicago metro area’s GDP in 2019 was one of the highest in the U.S. and on par with several developed nations.
Industry
Transportation is a major part of Chicago’s economy. With O’Hare International and Midway International, the city has the only dual airport system in the country. O’Hare is the second busiest airport in the world.
Chicago leads in food, metal, electrical equipment, paper, and plastics manufacturing. The city has a manufacturing workforce of more than 400,000 and a GRP of $71.5 billion.
According to a 2017 report, Chicago is the epicenter of fintech in the Midwest, with more than 20,000 financial institutions. More than six percent of the city’s workforce participates in the financial industry.
Workforce
Chicago’s August 2020 unemployment rate was 12.6 percent. While it was 3.4 percent in February 2020, it is down from 17.5 percent in April at the height of COVID-19.
The Chicago Federation of Labor is the umbrella organization for the 300 labor unions in Cook County. Considered the birthplace for the American labor movement, Chicago is home to more “Local 1” unions than any other city and was responsible for the eight-hour work day.
Community
A 2019 analysis by DePaul University on the State of Rental Housing in Cook County indicated that low-income renters are leaving the city. Between 2015 and 2017, there was an 18.2 percent decline in renter households earning between 30 and 50 percent of the area median income.
The median household income for white residents is $70,960, compared to $30,303 for Black people. In 2018, 700,000 jobs were located within a 30-minute bus or train ride from the Loop or North Side neighborhoods. Conversely, only 50,000 jobs were within a comparable distance from South Side neighborhoods, where communities of color are concentrated.
Chicago is consistently ranked as one of the most violent cities in the country, particularly with homicides and gun crimes. In 2019, there were 503 homicides, down from the 2018 total of 567. An Ichor advisor discussed the challenge of building community where residents do not feel safe.
Chicago incidents of Violent Crime this year
Education
In 2018, more than 70,000 Chicago students had their school closed or all their school staff fired. Eighty-eight percent of these students were Black. Thirty-six of the 193 schools created since closures began have closed because of low enrollment or failing to meet benchmarks, the same issues that originally prompted closures.