Though I only moved to Chicago in fall 2017, I find the nostalgia around Marshall Field’s-turned-Macy’s an epitome of my disappointment with the perceptions of lifelong Chicagoland residents. Too often I read complaints from them in local news outlets that paint a portrait of the downtown of decades past as a low-crime retail mecca that once was (and no longer is) a top-tier U.S. city.
From my fairly extensive historical knowledge, downtown Chicago has thrived in comparison to these rose-colored glasses nostalgic views. From the 1970s to present day, the Loop population has boomed from fewer than 5,000 to over 40,000 residents, making Chicago’s downtown the fastest growing of any major U.S. city in recent years.
A simple overhead photo will show the incredible densification of downtown from an infestation of surface parking lots to mixed-use development spanning miles, now into the West Loop and perhaps The 78, while other downtown corridors also look toward mixed uses. At the same time, those lamenting the days of old aren’t afraid to trash the State Street pedestrian mall of their supposed glory days.
SEND LETTERS TO: letters@suntimes.com. To be considered for publication, letters must include your full name, your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes. Letters should be a maximum of approximately 375 words.
I’ve encountered great folks from many generations in this city; however, I find it is only those who haven’t ever (or in several decades) lived elsewhere who are the most sour on this city. I’d like to offer that they are letting the perfect be the enemy of the good and fail to see just how much more Chicagoland offers than other metropolitan areas.
Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Detroit and Indianapolis wish they could attract a populace as diverse, educated, innovative and civically-engaged as ours. Here’s to those who both critically engage with our issues and tout this city’s continuing evolution.
Gus Haffner, Lake View
It’s time to wean commuters off the expressways
The Sun-Times article on the origin of Chicago’s expressways does a great job highlighting the disproportionate harm they have caused to Black, Brown and low-income communities. I believe this news story should be the start of a conversation on how our expressways affect the lives of Chicagoans today.
It’s funny how expressways were supposed to fix traffic, and yet there’s not a single Chicagoan today who would say traffic is a thing of the past. Expanding our roads seems to be the logical answer. We need to get the cars stuck in congestion moving, right?
For the short term, sure, but once the traffic starts flowing, people who normally take transit might decide to drive on the faster roads instead. The end result is more drivers filling up the extra capacity and coming back worse than before, because now more cars are stuck in place.
This concept, called induced demand, thankfully works for transit as well. As transit becomes safer, faster and more dependable, people who normally drive might decide to take the train. The end result here is less drivers, less congestion and improved, practical transit.
With this in mind, I believe it’s time for Chicago to talk about reducing our dependency on expressways. That could look like reducing lanes, replacing our expressways with boulevards or removing them entirely. Any change, however, has to be paired with increased, consistent funding and reform for our transit systems.
Other cities like Buffalo, Austin and Oakland are considering how they want to transform their urban highways. I believe that steps away from dependence on our expressways are beneficial for everyone and necessary to address air quality, environmental racism and greenhouse gas emissions that are currently fueling global warming. We are seeing the increase in disasters that climate change causes, like torrential rain, damaging flooding, massive wildfires smothering our city in smoke and record-breaking heat waves that all occurred last year.
It’s our obligation to ensure a livable future for not just future generations but also ourselves. One part of that is changing the ways in which we get around our city.
Deaglan McAndrew, Little Italy
Caregiving is just another role immigrants take on
This National Caregivers Day (Feb. 16), let’s make sure we recognize the critical role of immigrants in our care workforce, our community, the economy and most importantly in our families.
Our population is aging at a faster rate than we’re able to hire new home-care workers, which means we’re now facing a huge care workforce shortage. That means our elderly or disabled loved ones could go without care if we don’t address this.
Already, immigrant caregivers make up 27% of the direct care workforce including home health aides, child care workers and nursing assistants. Without immigrants, the labor shortages in our health care and child care systems would be even worse!
Many Americans, especially mothers, are so thankful for the countless contributions immigrants make to keep their families and kids healthy and safe. The rest of should be as grateful.
To really show our thanks to immigrant caregivers this National Caregivers Day, we need permanent protections for immigrants and expanded work permit authorizations. It is long overdue and critical to our families and community.
Rev. Max Burg, Kenwood
