Cities: Clouter with Conscience

(8 of 9)

Fall & Rise. Whatever it took, it was worth it. For the University of Chicago, once a renowned haven for brilliant teachers and bright scholars, had fallen into sad estate. The South Side area around the 125-acre campus had become Chicago's worst slum. The university was losing many of those brilliant teachers, and was becoming the school that no bright scholar should really want to go to.

The problem was plain—but immensely difficult to correct. Well-meaning Mayor Kennelley had announced plans for a 900-acre renewal program, but was never able to translate those plans into substantive action. It remained for Daley, using every instrument of his political power, to make the project really move. He teamed up with Julian Levi, the university's own slum-clearance leader, adopted and reinforced Levi's organized community assaults on greedy landlords and local crime. Today, the area's deterioration has been stemmed with the construction of nearly 2,000 housing units, as well as shopping facilities and new university additions.

Second City. Thanks largely to its improved surroundings, the university has begun again to play its proper part in Chicago's vibrant cultural climate. In the past, that climate had nurtured the talents of such innovators as Sullivan, Wright and Mies van der Rohe, Frank Norris (The Octopus), Sherwood Anderson (Winesburg, Ohio), Carl Sandburg, James T. Farrell (Studs Lonigan), and the "Chicago School" of jazz. Today, Chicago is characteristically self-conscious about its "second city'' creativity, even though young people like Shelley Berman. Negro Dick Gregory, Bob Newhart and Nichols & May have all sparked new trends in comedy entertainment and other theatrical forms—notably the cerebral cabaret satire of the highly acclaimed Second City players. Negro Playwright (Raisin in the Sun) Lorraine Hansberry has great promise, and Negro Poetess Gwendolyn Brooks has won a Pulitzer Prize. The Chicago Symphony, once in a sorry state, now ranks among the nation's best. The nine-year-old Lyric Opera and scores of smaller music groups have faithful followings, while attendance at indoor art exhibitions has increased by more than 30% in the past few years; the Art Institute alone is visited by one million people annually.

Credit to Boot. The counterpoint to all this is played by Chicago's economic activity. Its geography, from the city's birth, made Chicago a key factor in trade. As rail lines marked it like tracer bullets, it became a Goliath, took on even more muscle when the St. Lawrence Seaway opened still another economic channel.