Manufacturing Industrial Decline: The Politics of Economic Change in Chicago, 1955–1998

Abstract

Contemporary urban political economy emphasizes the role of structural factors in explaining the deindustrialization of cities in the post-World War II era. Urban economic restructuring, by most accounts, has left city officials with few choices other than to pursue corporate-centered economic development strategies emphasizing downtown-area commercial and residential growth. In Chicago, however, a corporate-center redevelopment strategy advanced by a coalition of downtown business leaders competed with a productionoriented strategy articulated by a coalition of neighborhood organizations, manufacturers, and labor. Centrally located industrial districts facing gentrification pressures became contested terrain, and manufacturers ultimately benefited from protective measures put in place by a sympathetic administration. This essay argues that urban economic restructuring is open-ended and politically contested. It concludes that a fuller appreciation of the contingency of urban economic development would help uncover viable regime types featuring governing coalitions that include both community-based organizations and neighborhood business establishments.

Zoning for Jobs- Industrial Land Preservation in the Nation's Largest Cities

“…Land-use policy decisions in the putative "post-industrial" city is too often built on the assumption that urban industry is dead or dying (Ferm and Jones 2016;Gospodini 2006). But recent scholarship highlights the direct role that cities play in their own deindustrialization through their development priorities and land-use policies that favor redeveloping already occupied, productive industrial districts into new commercial and residential centers, whether the justification is to simply increase local property tax revenue or is reflective of the flawed implementation of a Smart Growth plan (N. G. Leigh and Hoelzel 2012;Rast 2001;Wolf-Powers 2005). Cities are rejecting the conventional conventional wisdom that the best land-use is the use that maximizes property values and that industry has no place in the city because it is dying, obsolete, or environmentally harmful.…”

“…While planners may engage in more neglectful policies concerning industrial users, Rast's (Rast 2001) history of post-war development politics in Chicago shows urban deindustrialization to be a deliberate strategy encouraged by downtown coalitions seeking to restructure central cities in their own image and how these patterns of deindustrialization and conversion were countered by the rise of strong neighborhood coalitions looking to protect industrial jobs. In Chicago, then, conflict over industrial land was conflict over the shape of the labor market of the city and who can benefit from it.…”

Preventing the displacement of small businesses through commercial gentrification: are affordable workspace policies the solution?

“…The real concern, however, is that it erodes the integrity of employment areas, which raises expectations that further redevelopment and loss of employment land could be achieved in an area. This is a problem because it can affect the confidence of remaining businesses in the area to invest, and also motivate developers and landlords to 'manufacture urban decline' (as discussed by Rast, 2001) in order to provide justification to redevelop for higher-value uses. The speed and comprehensiveness of change that takes place as a result means that the transition is not a slow, piecemeal process of economic upgrading, but linked to large-scale capital, more characteristic of later waves of gentrification discussed in the literature.…”

“…The perspective it takes is necessarily abstract -at the level of the economy or the city -but if considered instead from the perspective of individual businesses, for the cluster they are situated in, the local people who are employed there, the residents who access their goods and services, or the identity of the area (relevant also to wider city 'users'), then commercial gentrification can more readily be seen as a problem. Importantly, it ignores the scale and pace of change and the money to be made as a consequence of the 'rent-gap' , which means that businesses are not being upgraded gradually as industries go into decline, rather there is evidence in post-industrial global cities such as London and New York of what Rast (2001) called 'manufacturing urban decline' , in which the public sector plays a role. The remainder of this article draws on this insight to evaluate the motivations of local authorities in London in negotiating affordable workspace in mixed-use redevelopments and the impacts of such intervention.…”

Impact of gentrification on environmental pressure in service micro‐enterprises

“…Zoning is an important gentrifi cation determinant, as changes or variances can lead to more stringent operating standards for noise, vibrations and odors, restricting manufacturing and service fi rm operations, and serve as a wedge for residential and commercial incursions (Rast, 2001;Nadler, 2004). Wilson and Grammenos (2005) provide a spatial history of gentrifi cation in Chicago beginning with an east-west corridor adjacent to the central business district (Loop) that expanded south and west during [1988][1989][1990][1991][1992][1993][1994][1995][1996][1997].…”