At Home in the Loop: How Clout and Community Built Chicago's Dearborn Park [Paperback]

Dr. Lois Wille Honarary Doctrate (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1998

Lois Wille’s illustrated account provides behind-the-scenes insight into how a small number of Chicago business leaders transformed the dangerous and seedy South Loop into an integrated and thriving community in the heart of the central city.

The obstacles to the evolution of Dearborn Park were quite formidable, including a succession of six mayors, huge economic impediments, policy disputes engendered among people used to making their own corporate decisions, the wretched reputation of the South Loop, problems with the Chicago public school system, and public mistrust of a project supported by the wealthy, no matter how altruistic the goal. It took twenty years and millions of dollars, but it will pay off and in fact is paying off right now.

With Dearborn Park, Chicago left a formula that other cities can use to turn fallow land into vibrant neighborhoods—without big government subsidies. As Wille explains, the realization of this vision requires shared investment and shared risk on the part of local businesses, financial institutions, and government. It links private and public influence and capital. Wille explains how these elements worked together to build a neighborhood in a blighted tract of Chicago’s Loop. She also describes how key decisions affecting the public interest were made during a time of profound change in the city’s political life: Dearborn Park was conceived during the final years of the most powerful political machine in America and had to adapt as that machine crumbled and city government was reshaped

 

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Simply one of the best books written about Chicago—its business community, politicians, planners, bureaucrats, and activists—as told by one of the city's most revered journalists and distinguished Pulitzer winners."—Donald Haider, Kellogg School Professor, Northwestern University

"An inside look at a remarkable venture: the building of Chicago's new-town-in-town —without huge subsidies or resident displacement."—Ed Marciniak, President, Institute of Urban Life

"Today over 100,000 people make downtown Chicago their home, a migration sparked by the success of Dearborn Park. This South Loop community serves as a model of urban renewal unlike any other in the United States, and Lois Wille's chronicle of its twenty-five-year development provides keen insight into the history of the city of Chicago."—Tom Cokins, Executive Director, Chicago Central Area Committee

"[A] must-read for anyone who has ever wondered how good things actually get done in big cities."—Chicago Tribune

"[This] extremely readable book, full of vivid anecdotes (and 38 color photographs), makes fascinating reading for lovers of cities, lovers of Chicago, and especially lovers of the South Loop."—Chicago Sun-Times

"[An] artfully written celebration of how this amazing neighborhood came to be." —Illinois Times

About the Author

Lois Wille won the Pulitzer Prize in 1963 for a series of Chicago Daily News articles covering the refusal of public health agencies in Chicago and Cook County to provide contraceptive services for indigent women. In 1989 she received her second Pulitzer Prize, this time for editorial writing as the editorial page editor for the Chicago Tribune. She is the author of Forever Open, Clear and Free: The Struggle for Chicago’s Lakefront.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press; 1st edition (October 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809322250
• ISBN-13: 978-0809322251
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,050,908 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great insight into the politics of urban renewal, December 30, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: At Home in the Loop: How Clout and Community Built Chicago's Dearborn Park (Hardcover)

I have loved every minute of this book. This is a great summary of the entire South Loop development, including Printers Row, Dearborn I and II, Central Station, River City...

What has been most fascinating is the insight into Chicago politics beginning with Richard M. Daley's administration and continuing to Richard J. Daley's current City Hall. Readers gain a real appreciation for what goes on in Chicago to get neighborhood projects developed and financed.

While certainly an informative read for South Loop denizens, this book offers great Chicago development stories that any Chicago area resident will appreciate. Plus, anyone that doubts the clout of City Hall in Chicago will quickly learn otherwise.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Read for anyone who cares about our cities, June 27, 2001

By 

Ken (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: At Home in the Loop: How Clout and Community Built Chicago's Dearborn Park (Paperback)

This book is every bit as good as "Boss" without Mike Royko's acid pen. It should be required reading for urban planners, architects, city zoning officials, and anyone who thinks they know how people should live better than the people themselves.

It's a graphic depiction of how a wonderful, noble idea (the transformation of abandoned railyards and boarded-up industrial and skid-row buildings into the vibrant residential neighborhoods known as Dearborn Park and Printers Row) was nearly destroyed by partisan politics and petty differences. I had the opportunity to see the physical changes firsthand over the last 25 years, and they were painfully slow. I had no idea of the behind-the-scenes sleight-of-hand that made it all possible, and Lois Wille makes what could have been something boring into a page turner.

I won't give away the climax. I will say that the children of this brand-new central-city neighborhood were robbed, and "robbed" is the only word that adequately describes what happened.

If you're a longtime city resident you already care about our cities. If you're a NIMBY suburbanite or small-town resident, or if you live on a farm and can see the half-finished frames of yet another subdivision marching toward you, you should care. Why? When cities become unlivable and people pack up and leave, guess where they go?

Whoever you are, buy and read this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unique Perspective on Urban Development, March 29, 2003

By 

Alan Mills (Chicago, Illinois USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: At Home in the Loop: How Clout and Community Built Chicago's Dearborn Park (Hardcover)

Wille opens a window into the usually closed back room dealings behind major urban renewal projects. Having apparently unlimited access to the developers allows her to see the entire process of urban renewal from conception to fruition from the inside. The size of this project is unique for a private development: Dearborn Homes originally was meant to encompass the entire area directly south of Chicago's loop. Its backers were alos unique--the real movers and shakers of Chicago's business community between the late 60's and the early 80's.

The fact that deveklopment of Dearborn park spanned so many administrations in Chicago (including Daley I, Harold Washington, and Daley II) means that the politics involved were complex. Dearborn Park also became the focus of several intense community struggles--sometimes directly related to the development, and sometimes the development was only part of a much larger struggle over the general direction of development in Chicago.

The weakness of Wille's book derives directly from its strength. While Wille provides an unmatched view of the development porocess from the developer's prospective, Wille gives short shrift to the perspective of politicians and other City officials (who come accross as shallow people who stand in the way of the development for no apparent reason), and woefully short shrifts the very powerful grass roots movement which challenged the City's concentration on developing middle and upper income housing, at the expense of low cost housing.

Ultimately, Dearborn Park can only be understood as part of this larger debate on the direction of the City of Chicago. Wille has produced a book unmatched for its insights into the actions and motivations of one set of players in this debate--Chicago's major financial and real estate institutions. The book does not, however, tell the story from any other perspective.