Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2002 07:32:14 +0100
From: Laura Fiocco <fiocco-AT-unical.it>
Subject: Re: (Fwd) Re: AUT: a new thread



Chris, what is gentrification?
thanks
laura




At 22.37 20/03/2002 -0600, you wrote:
>Hey Nate,
>>
>> Actually, I'm told that Mayor Daley (for non-Chicagoans, Daley is our
>> despotic Mayor, the most powerful local politician in the country and
>> outspoken advocate of public-private partnerships, 're-development and
>urban
>> renewal') has instituted a few industrial preservation cooridors in which
>> condominiums and other 'development' is kept out, since gentrification
>leads
>> to erosion of industry and conflict between yuppies and neighboring
>> factories as well as residents who work in the factories. As Daley's power
>> is dependent in part on some powerful trade unions and certain sectors of
>> the (I think mostly white) industrial working class affiliated with the
>> Democratic party, further erosion of industry not only would make the city
>> economy more unstable but would jeopardize the Mayor's iron grip. Thus, a
>> class deal is made, so certain areas keep at least mildly industrial (like
>> Pilsen, with some of the worst air pollution in the country) and
>> gentrification proceeds ravenously in other areas (like the sites of much
>of
>> public housing and the south loop)
>>
>Actually, I think that concessions to industrial capital in Chicago may
>involve conflicts with the yuppie mass voter base.  I don't think that Daley
>is as dependent on the unions as his father was, especially since unionism
>in Chicago is way weaker than it was 25 years ago and the unionized
>industrial working class barely exists in Chicago anymore.  Let me give an
>example:  the largest factory, where many of the unions were, left in
>Chicago is a candy factory on the West Side owned by Brach's Candies, with
>less than 2,000 people.  Now, the Teamsters, the airline and
>airline-involved unions (International Association of Machinists, Pilots and
>Flight Attendants unions), the Chicago Teachers' Union, AFSCME and the
>building trades all carry some weight with Daley, but less so than before.
>
>In fact, Daley has clearly opened the city to the yuppies and petty
>bourgeois returning from the suburbs at the expense of working class groups
>or in concert with more 'professional' workers in service type jobs who
>actually want a kind of gentrification (the CTU and some AFSCME locals come
>to mind), but the percentage of unionized voters has dropped drastically and
>so look at Daley's coalition.  But whatever the case, Daley is not working
>to save large-scale unionized industrial workplaces.  The biggest unions in
>Chicago are not industrial, but craft or service.  A lot of the industrial
>workplaces being retained are non-union, also, which is no small matter.
>
>Just my take.
>
>Cheers,
>Chris
>
>
>
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