Downtown Chicago Comparison

Today, Detroit, New York City and Chicago have many similarities They're highly populated cities with high crime rates, many homeless people, noisy streets and terrible traffic. In contrast, they attract many tourists with their tall skyscrapers, and their famous attractions. As well as similarities, there's also, many differences. Today, Chicago and New York City are known for having many job opportunities and luring people in with promising careers. Whereas in Detroit, it's known to be quite hard to find employment. These cities have gone on a long journey to get to where they're at today. I'll be discussing Detroit's history from around 1880 to 1910 and comparing it to the way Chicago and New York City was in the book, Sister Carrie written by Theodore Dreiser.

The thought of Chicago hosting the world’s fair would be daunting at first, but it could turn around the reputation of Chicago from one of a city of gloom and darkness, to one of a city of light and progress from the Great Chicago fire of 1871, and that city would be fascinating for years to come. Chicago would get an economic shot in the arm from the revenue that it would get from hosting the 1893 World Fair and it would make Chicago into a great city of America. The event and also the transformation that would happen to the city of Chicago would not have happened if it would not be for one great man who had taken up the challenge to make sure to host this 1893 World fair.

For my city I chose Chicago. I chose this because I really like the city, it is close to home and it is the least vulnerable to climate change. Chicago is located in the Midwest. It is one of the largest city in the United States with a population almost at 3 million. Chicago is a huge city and a metropolitan area that stretches over 10,874km². As the center of the Midwest, Chicago is easy to find. This city sits right on Lake Michigan. It has lots of iconic sights and neighborhoods.

The Chicago Chicago was famous for was the filthy, disease-riddles, crime-filled, black Chicago, while the fair created a different Chicago: the white city, a place of beauty, wonder, history, and all the good parts of a city one should have. “Some wept at its beauty” (5). The white city was beautiful, with its exotic exhibits from all over the world. The fair was more than anyone could have dreamed, filled with whole villages imported from numerous countries, extotic dancers, a theatre, new foods, the backdrop of the lake, flowers, and island Olmstead worked so hard to make perfect, and many exhibit halls in beautiful buildings. The people of the world loved the Chicago World fair, and didn’t want it to end. Probably some of the most important parts of the white city were its’ pure water, clean public restrooms, electric lights, a sewer processing system, and an ambulance service (247). The white city ended up showing the world what a real city should provide for its’ people. In severe contrast, the black city was dirty and dangerous. There were “unlit alleys that smelled of rotted fruit” (31), and the bodies of horses, cats, rats, and various animals laying around, bursting in the summer and occasionally poisoning the water. Chicago suffered an outbreak of cholera and typhoid that killed ten percent of the population due to unclean, foul water (109). At the same time, the rest of the black

The Water Tower was first constructed in 1876 and designed by architect William W. Boyington with the purpose of being a water pumping system for the then small town. This water system pumped water from Lake Michigan’s intake bins into the tower where it was cleaned, however this process was stopped right before the turn of the century due to pollution of the water. The water tower is made out of large limestone bricks, which made it the last surviving building during the Great Chicago Fire. The water tower is significant because it shows the strength Chicago has as a unite, under great stress.

The people of Chicago and the reader would find the White City as a magical wonderland with the way Larson explains it “The fair was so perfect, its grace and beauty like an assurance that for as long as it lasted, nothing truly bad could happen to anyone anywhere” (Larson 289). While the Black City was a rat infested death “The White city had drawn men and protected them; the Black City now welcomed them back on the eve of winter with filth and starvation and violence” (Larson 323). The reader could see through Larson’s use of juxtaposition that the White city helped clean up Chicago’s image for the time

Above is my timeline that I was a part of with Ashley Bowden and we decided to do the Chicago area. I was able to talk her into doing Chicago for my love of big cities and architecture. Even as a little kid, I had a love of riding and now driving through the city looking at the massive skyscrapers and the beautiful skyline that Chicago has to offer. Chicago has an interesting story to tell and a big part of that story takes place with the Chicago Fire of 1871. After the Chicago Fire the city needed to rebuild. The land was transformed from early times of farming land to what is now the third biggest city in the United States.

In 1877 life in the cities of Cheyenne and Chicago were very different. Although they differed they had few things in common such as the use of newspapers for information. Another thing that both of the cities had in common was neither city had used electric lights yet. Also,both cities used trains as a mode of transportation.

Take Chicago for example, Downtown Chicago has a large percentage of African-American community members who are victimized in the city every day. Chicago, in particular, has very high levels of cruel and destruction of property crime, which thus turns into violent gang activity that leads to shootings. These African American community members want to live in a safe, comfortable environment, without their children being harassed by the police. They really just want the necessities that any human would want, “steady employment, educational opportunities, respectable property values, adequate municipal transportation, air conditioning, and medical assistance” (Crank). More importantly, these families want their children to go to college so they can get away from this kind of lifestyle. Community members do not ask for this way of life. These members living under these circumstances do not do so under personal choice. No African American chose to grow up their kids in poverty because they thought it would satisfy criminal careers, or because they thought a life of poverty seemed acceptable. More importantly, these members did not plan for their children to grow up with an obligation to join gangs, and get shot, or because they wanted to go out begging for money for their children’s funerals that they couldn’t afford, or even because they wanted to experience desperation or hopelessness for the rest of their lives. Certainly African American community members did not ask for

There are many enjoyable attractions in the Chicago area that are inexpensive or even free.

Many downtowns first emerged as a distinctive place due to elite residents with homes in the area, which served as meeting places for important business transactions. By the late 19th century downtowns had typically been laid out with designated business blocks (Ford 2003). The growth of the business block as an economic center and booming downtown forced out any competition that were not appropriate with “high rents, social pressure and architectural change” (Ford 2003, pp 45). This was the origin of the spatial structure and land use patterns that are associated with contemporary downtowns. The origin of the town structure is most commonly affiliated with European cities as models of spatial layout. Specialty business and retail districts that characterized American downtowns and what we now image a good downtown to be are directly linked to it European counterpart. The key characteristic that defer from the European model was the tendency for American cities to be street-oriented rather then place-oriented. This contributed to the more linear structure of the city, business pursued locations on the “main street” rather then near major plazas or religious buildings (Robertson 1997).

“The definition of the “Middle East” as a category, is very much dependent of the existence of a “West”” (Alsayyad, 2011). What defines the term western and what makes a populace considered western? The term “western” derives from the idea of European modernization, from cities such as London or Paris. Under this modernization the cities adapted to new technologies, such as transportation and road systems. Western culture was introduced; culture referring to “that complex while which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, customs, and other capabilities and habits acquired by a person as a member of society” (Edward B Taylor, Anthropologist). Foreign capital, through tourism and investors, began to appear in these cities. Foreign

For Christmas and my sixteenth birthday present my parents planned a trip for me to go to New York City with my dad. Two days after Christmas me and my dad hopped on the plane and headed for New Jersey and New York City. I was very excited because I had been to New Jersey but I never visited New York City before. I also remember being excited because of that fact that I would actually get to see snow in the winter since it rarely ever snowed in Houston during the winter. Then that next year during my junior year in High School, I had the opportunity to go on a trip to Los Angeles with my drill team. I was very excited to get to go to both of these huge awesome cities in that two year period. Both of these cities were unique in their own way. So what makes a city similar to another city and what makes a city different to another city? The people, the weather, the vibe, the monuments and popular attractions are all some of the components of what makes a city unlike any other city. My two favorite cities besides Houston are New York and Los Angeles. I have visited both and like them both equally for different reasons. While New York and Los Angeles definitely have their similarities, they also have many differences that set them apart from each other.

the things to come and exited by the countless possibilities offered by one of the largest cities of the late 19th century – Chicago.

With an increase in urbanization, more people are moving to the industrial cities in pursuit of alternative lifestyle and jobs. Life in city and suburbs can be compared and contrasted with various aspects in mind since they share quite some details in as much as they are vastly different. Firstly, the transportation is more accessible in the city as compared to the suburb where there are no apt transport networks as compared to the city, among the transport mode in the city are subways, busses, trams and ferries. These provide easy, fast and cheap means of getting around in the city in as much as the streets are crowded. This is in contrast to the suburbs since owning a car is mandatory since such public transport systems are not available. When the costs of insurance, fuel expenses and time of commuting are added up then transport in suburbs is seen to be expensive when compared to that in the city. The easy transport in the city does not come all rosy since the city is also flooded with traffic jams due to congestion and this can render transport slow. This is contrast with suburb life where there is no traffic and hence with no congestion traveling in suburbs is more peaceful (Boulter, 2005).