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Chicago Metropolis 2020

The Chicago Plan for the Twenty-First Century

In the late nineteenth century, Chicago was a commercial colossus, a city growing more quickly than New York, flooded with industrial money and brassy confidence but ravaged by great income disparities, dangerously lax health standards, and labor upheavals. For Chicago to become the city it could be, civic leaders recognized the need for order and planning, both to solve Chicago’s problems and to prepare it for a prosperous future. The result was architect Daniel Burnham’s 1909 plan for Chicago, a model of urban planning, aesthetic sophistication, and technical achievement.

Nearly a century later, Chicago, like all cities, faces similar dilemmas: how to reconcile privatism with public control, growth with restraint, wealth with poverty, and beauty with industry. And as it did a hundred years ago with the Burnham Plan, the Commercial Club has sponsored a wholly contemporary plan for the city’s future development. Written by Elmer W. Johnson, a lawyer and civic leader, Chicago Metropolis 2020 is a guide for those in all spheres of influence who are working to make cities economically and socially vigorous while addressing the greatest problems modern metropolises face. While Burnham’s plan primarily addressed architecture and spatial planning, Chicago Metropolis 2020 addresses all facets of urban life, from public education to suburban sprawl, from transportation to social and economic segregation, with the expressed goal of continuing Chicago’s tradition of renewal and foresight.

Chicago Metropolis 2020 is an ambitious and necessary plan for a major city at the turn of the century. In scope and execution, it aims at nothing less than economic vibrancy, quality of life, and equity of opportunity.

Read an excerpt from the introduction.


192 pages | 29 color plates, 15 halftones, 5 tables | 9 x 11-7/8 | © 2001

A project of the Commercial Club of Chicago in association with the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Chicago and Illinois

Economics and Business: Economics--Urban and Regional

Geography: Urban Geography

History: American History

Table of Contents

Foreword by Donald L. Miller
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One: Goals, Challenges, and Guiding Principles
1. Public Education and Child Care
2. Transportation
3. Land Use and Housing
4. Governance and Taxation
5. Economic Well-Being
Part Two: Recommendations
6. Investing in Children
7. Enhancing the Region’s Competitive Vigor
8. Governing the Region
9. Addressing the Problems of Race and Poverty
10. Enriching the Quality of Life: Mobility, Land Use, and the Environment
Outreach and Implementation: Chicago Metropolis 2020 and the Future of the Plan
Appendix A: The Study of the Plan of 1909
Appendix B: Understanding Sprawl and Segregation
Appendix C: Metropolis 2020 Project Committees
Notes
Bibliography
Picture Credits
Index

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