05Racer wrote:professorbum wrote:..... Honestly, a conference with UIC in it is meh. A Chicago commuter school spitting distance from some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city. No thank you. The Valley really has fallen if the leadership thought UIC was a good idea.........
Where in Chicago isn't within spitting distance of a dangerous neighborhood these days?
I'm going to be the contrarian here. I'm a Chicago guy, but I'm siding with RacerJoe and professorbum because I can confirm both the commuter school and shady neighborhood stuff.
During my days at Circle Campus (what UIC was called before 1981), there were no dorms. I was living in the suburbs and I was a commuter, taking the train downtown. The last stop before Union Station downtown is Halsted Street, just south of the campus. In order to save time, I would get off there and walk north on Halsted. This is the neighborhood I would walk through to get to campus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUUyFrHERpU This scene is shot on Maxwell Street and portrays a romanticized version of it, including a made-for-movie mock up of the Sunday flea market. The singer is John Lee Hooker, one of the pre-eminent electric bluesmen, hardly typical of the street musicians that actually worked the market. But it still captures the spirit of the place, as well as the physical condition of the buildings circa 1979.
One thing you don't see in that scene are the rats. There was a wholesale produce market (the South Water Market) two blocks west, which gave them an ample food supply. In fact, there were so many rats in that neighborhood (both rodent and human) that I used to joke with my classmates that I was actually getting to know them.
Let's talk about north of the campus, on the other side of the expressway. In the 70's, there was Greektown, and little else. The rest of the neighborhood consisted of abandoned warehouses and factories, and when you got to Madison Street you were in the heart of skid row. These photos (one from 1969, the other from earlier) will give you a feel for what west Madison Street was like until early 90's.
http://galleries.apps.chicagotribune.co ... r-20130814 https://brians1288.tumblr.com/image/127970335353 So yes, UIC (Circle Campus) was, in fact, a commuter school sandwiched between two of the raunchiest - if not THE raunchiest - neighborhoods in Chicago.
But here's the catch: Although what you are saying is accurate, it is accurate about places that NO LONGER EXIST.
This is what the corner of Maxwell and Halsted looks like today:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/k_vo_921/ ... nydsc-s600 This is looking northwest, and Granderson stadium is one block west. You won't be getting a blues serenade on the way to a baseball game, but you can stop by Starbucks (not in picture) for a frappucino.
Skid row is similarly unrecognizable, and instead of flop houses and roach-infested single room occupancies, this is the kind of housing that is available today:
https://www.coldwellbankerhomes.com/il/ ... _45459026/ https://www.727westmadison.com/gallery/ https://www.highrises.com/chicago/madison-901-condos/ Circle Campus is now UIC, and is no longer just a commuter school. Maxwell Street is now University Village, and skid row is now the West Loop.
UIC absolutely had a role in making this happen. But the real driver was the billions of dollars of private development in an area that runs from the BNSF tracks on the south, to the Northwestern tracks to the north, from the river to the east, and Ashland on the west. The scope of this transformation is unparalleled in Chicago history after the great fire, and the institution that is reaping the greatest benefit from it today is UIC, due to proximity. IMO, that, more than anything else, explains the growth in enrolment and reputation that UIC has seen in recent years.
Now, you may pine for Maxwell Street, skid row, or Circle. Many people do. And if you want to have a conversation about the pros and cons of gentrification, I will be happy to indulge you. But the conversation has to start from an acceptance that these places no longer exist, irrespective of whether you would like them to or not.
Oh, and the rats? Here's what the South Water Market is today:
https://www.wintercohen.com/subdivision ... chicago-il
