The Battle of Lincoln Park by Hertz Daniel Kay.;

Author:Hertz, Daniel Kay.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc. (Tier 2)
Published: 2018-03-12T16:00:00+00:00

The planning process highlighted the odd role that LPCA and its affiliates played in Lincoln Park, which blurred formal and informal power, “grassroots” leadership and local democracy. As a private organization whose membership amounted to barely one percent of Lincoln Park’s population, LPCA had no official governmental powers—yet it dominated the initial planning of the GNRP. Mayor Daley’s appointments to the public body that did have official power—the Lincoln Park Conservation Community Council—followed LPCA’s recommendations precisely. In fact, every member of the Council was also a member of LPCA. The first Council president, Lyle Mayer, had previously been the president of one of LPCA’s neighborhood groups.

For the rehabbers, this was a natural and just situation. After all, who better to lead the conservation program than the local residents who had organized to bring it to the neighborhood? But LPCA’s claim to be an authentic representation of the community was flimsy: Its membership made up only a small portion of the area’s residents, and overwhelmingly excluded poorer, older, renting, southern, Latino, and black Lincoln Parkers. Those who felt excluded by LPCA’s “grassroots” leadership challenged the organization’s legitimacy in particular instances, as in the strict enforcement campaign. They also raised their voices about conservation. A June 1960 newsletter column puzzled that, “contrary to one’s expectations, the announcement [of the GNRP] apparently has raised some fears.”

But in the early 1960s, the rehabbers did not yet face a strong, organized opposition. So it was not a surprise that the plan approved by the Community Council in May of 1962 was very similar to the one LPCA’s board had passed a few months earlier. The City Council, in turn, quickly voted to send the 125-page report to Washington for final review. In February 1963, federal urban renewal officials formally accepted Lincoln Park’s GNRP.

In addition to zoning and building code guidelines, traffic circulation patterns, and paeans to the neighborhood’s “charm and distinction,” the GNRP laid out the borders that had been negotiated for the first phase of renewal, called “Project One.” Eager to take advantage of federal funds and wary of more delays, many stakeholders—including powerful and resourced institutions like DePaul University—had lobbied to be included in Project One. But in the end, DePaul and most of the rest of Lincoln Park was left out. Of LPCA’s seven neighborhood groups, only one managed to get its entire territory included: the Old Town Triangle Association. From the Triangle, the borders stretched a few blocks north, into the Mid-North Association, and west, into the Lincoln Central Association, with a small panhandle over the heart of the Puerto Rican community around Armitage and Halsted.

With the GNRP approved, LPCA—working through the official Community Council—began planning Project One in earnest.

But even as the rehabbers prepared to wield the immense power of federal resources for the first time, they quickly discovered that there were costs as well. Since 1954, LPCA had been accountable only to its overwhelmingly white, professional members. The Community Council, on the other hand, faced federal requirements to hold public hearings, and it did—dozens of them.

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