Albert J. Schorsch, III, Ph.D.
Associate Dean
Senior Economic Development Planner
Research Assistant Professor
schorsch@uic.edu
From January 19, 1995
Dear Colleague:
The following memo provides the first formal description from April of 1994 of the Chicago Encyclopedia of Regional Policy and Development. After the closing of the Niles College of Loyola University campus in June of 1994, I joined the Center for Urban Economic Development of the University of Illinois at Chicago and the faculty of the UIC School of Urban Planning and Policy, where I can be reached at the numbers above.
With the growth of our use of the Internet, the World Wide Web seems to be a good place for a Chicago Encyclopedia of Regional Policy and Development home page for announcement purposes. I hope to be putting such an announcement up soon.
Your comments and ideas are welcome.
Cordially,
Albert J. Schorsch, III
Text of 1994 Document
DATE: 4/26/94
RE: Proposal for a Chicago Encyclopedia of Regional Policy and Development
In the past two years I may have spoken or corresponded with you about a research project, involving scholars at several Chicago universities, which would develop a continuing policy, planning, and economic forum on the development of the Chicago region, meaning Cook, Lake, Du Page, Mc Henry, Will, and Kane Counties in Illinois. I propose that this reflection appear in written form and that it be updated periodically.
My initial impetus for such a project came a decade ago, when I began to realize that changes in the property tax assessment system of Cook County in 1974 for properties commercial, industrial, and multi-housing (seven units and over) may have hastened the subsequent exodus from Chicago not only of industries and businesses, but also an undetermined portion of the over 100,000 housing units Chicago lost (counted 1970-1990, U.S. Census)--a cataclysmic number. Whether or not my hypothesis is the case, I realized that no ongoing, comprehensive, systematic, and regional analysis of the history and effects of federal, state, and especially local fiscal and regulatory policies existed for Chicagoland where such a question could be credibly examined with a minimum of political overtone. A credible forum might allow scholars to address such regional policy questions, so that cataclysmic regional public policy errors might be learned from, reduced in scope, or even avoided.
The six-county Chicago region has a larger population than the present republics of either Ireland or Israel, but these have research bodies focusing on their own economies which contribute to a national vision of economic condition. Nevertheless the public policies of the Chicago region, the size of a small nation, attract nowhere near the technical/historical attention of those of a small nation, despite a number of noble civic and scholarly attempts. Some of America's greatest urban and public policy scholars work here in Chicago, and yet there is no single, continuing scholarly point of reference from which we could share and debate our accumulated wisdom on questions of local public policy.
Policy Driven
The first key word in such an encyclopedic project is thus "policy." We concerned with Chicago policy questions proceed creatively, constructing our visions of our region in ad hoc fashion, but at the risk of ad hoc mistakes. Urban expertise is today measured as much by one's press connections and one's friends as it is by the facts, which sometimes lose out. While a number of social-ecological research projects such as the Chicago Community Fact Book provide very useful information on the region, while public-private bodies such as the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, the Civic Federation, and the Metropolitan Planning Council, the latter of these which along with the Chicago Assembly project monitor selected public policies, and while the Metropolitan Chicago Information Center accumulates and provides data and analysis to local concerns--there is not a continuing historic policy record and "scorekeeper" independent of civic leadership monitoring the success or failure of regional policies.
Revolving thus around the word "policy," this ongoing project would emphasize less the positive questions of social science than on accumulating and considering the history and prospect of policy effects for Chicago, in other words, to deepen our understanding of "what works here."
While policy analysis and management on the national scene is known for its art and improvisation, it occurs within the context of familiar policy history taught to every schoolchild against the changing map of America. And while a national policy mistake is buffered by the tremendous cushioning power of the federal government to tax, a regional policy mistake often becomes permanently visible as a fixture of the local landscape. We Chicagoans have dramatically changed our map in the last forty years, yet Chicago's policy history is in its infancy. Our city's policy history must be tied to its physical, regional development in order for explanation to be possible and for theories about policies to be tested.
When property tax policies, zoning policies, or local public investments change, for example, the effects of these are today analyzed on a case-by-case basis. While a local literature for such questions exists, it must continually be reconstructed. Scholarly voices are lost amidst a politicized, repetitive, and somewhat mythological exchange among academic, government and civic leaders, editorialists, and consultants. We Chicagoans also seem to be lost in a public administrative cycle of centralizing what had earlier been decentralized, and decentralizing what had earlier been centralized, and then repeating the process. Those who call for changes from one direction to another are generally considered "bold," or even "geniuses" by others who happen to be moving in the same direction or who promise to benefit therefrom. The effects of costly policy mistakes, therefore, can be obscured, and policy mistakes can thus be repeated. Some policy mistakes, especially those related to the taxing and zoning powers, can exacerbate conditions of social injustice.
Graphically Driven
In addition to cataloging and evaluating policy changes, this project would construct a visual, graphic display of the physical development of the Chicago region, accompanying a regional economic history. These would be joined with a regional policy history. The purpose of such an enterprise would be to examine the interaction among public policies (e.g., zoning, taxing, government investment and demolition, districting, annexation, services, public employment, etc.) and regional physical and economic development.
My short answer to, Why try such a project? is, "Although some experts have partial answers, we really don't understand how much we in city or county government do to our region when we tax, zone, or invest. Even if we knew a little more, it might be helpful to public welfare."
Questions such as the following might be but a few of the important questions addressed:
Is there a "natural" limit to local taxation in the Chicago region, beyond which we should not go? and
Can business migration or the decline of multi-family housing in Chicago proper be interpreted as unintended consequences of changes in local taxation (e.g., 1974)?
Can restrictive zoning practices be proven, over the decades studied by this Project, to be destructive for the entire region? (A project of the proposed scope might actually be able to do this.)
Regional government is not likely anywhere in the near term, but useful regional insights are needed nonetheless. Such a project could have the beneficial effect of shielding research on regional development from a partisan atmosphere, and of developing scholarly consensus on regional issues which would inform public discussion.
Scholarly Driven
I propose that a number of scholars join together to tell the story (with maps of the built environment) of the Chicago region's changing development beginning at the end of World War II, and explain how local public policies shaped or mis-shaped this development. Recent progress in computer graphics have made the visual portion of such a endeavor, once only imaginable, now possible.
Each of us over the years has considered "pieces of the puzzle" pertaining to the question of the regional environment. I propose that we join together scholarly forces to form if not a consensus a wider conversation on the public role affecting the development and maintenance of the Chicago region. This Project attempts to bring together, in one encyclopedia, the accumulated wisdom of our disciplines on the Chicago region, and to accompany this encyclopedia with a continuing scholarly dialogue. This may, in the distant future, contribute to better ordered regional environment.
The Chicago Encyclopedia of Regional Policy and Development articles would be evaluated and rewritten periodically. This long-term project links:
urban economics and sociology
the graphic side of urban planning and geography
a systematic examination of local fiscal, regulatory, and program policies.
The three essential bases of this project are thus:
1. Public policy and planning driven.
2. Visually depicted data of regional development being the principal point of reference.
3. Scholarly, not politically, driven. "Scholarly" here recognizes that
Chicago has many scholars not in academic life. Scholarly Chicago voices
need a more audible and visible platform from which to address our rough-and-tumble
public concerns.
The Product Media
Computer media, print, or both. A printed encyclopedia is an expensive product, and the first question is, How big is the market for a printed Chicago Encyclopedia of Regional Policy and Development? Because of that uncertainty, I suggest that the initial chapters be placed on an experimental basis on a computer linked to the Internet. Supporting data and maps could also be stored in this computer format. One option might be a printed book of maps, referenced by articles stored in computer form. Eventually, the complete encyclopedia--with chapters, maps, and data files--could appear in CD-ROM format. If the market is big enough--and a widening group of computer-using Chicago scholars would help build the market--a printed encyclopedia would be warranted. A related option is a volume-by-volume publication, with Land and Taxes being the beginning volumes.
The Internet also provides opportunities for scholars nationally to
participate in discussions, for students and other citizens to "look over
the shoulders" of scholars, and for data and reflection to be shared on
a wider basis among scholars at many locations, institutional or no. Making
this information generally available is an important part of the democratic
process.
Funding and Concept Development
Feasibility grants will be sought from a number of foundations and donors
who support Chicago urban research. Scholars primarily connected with universities
are being contacted in this first exploratory phase of the project. The
second phase of the project will seek to broaden the exploration to include
civic organizations and other interested scholars.
The Product Outline
The following are some proposed sections for the project:
1. History. A catch-all first section on the Chicago region to World War II. Spatial analysis of Chicago's geographic expansion and metamorphosis through development; the beginning of zoning and specialized land uses; local taxation overview; impact of federal, state, and local policies; early plans--Burnham I & II; commercial and industrial patterns; city-suburb interactions; public works; parks; public transportation; racial and ethnic issues; housing patterns; development of regional efforts, etc.
The following sections will, using our changing built environment as a point of departure, concentrate on different actions within that environment, and seek to describe results of these actions since WWII.
2. Land Use Patterns and Policy.
Zoning policy and effects since WWII.
Building policies and housing patterns.
Urban-agricultural policies since WWII.
Open land, parks, and preserves policy since WWII.
3. Intergovernmental Relations
Regional federal policy effects since WWII.
City-state policy effects since WWII.
City-suburb policy interactions since WWII, including regional government efforts.
Question: What were the effects on the region of the massive public
investments in expressway, public housing, and university development since
WWII?
4. Taxation
Local taxation and effects since WWII.
State taxation and effects since WWII.
Federal taxation and effects since WWII.
5. Government-Business Interaction
Central business district policies since WWII.
Commercial business development policies since WWII.
Neighborhood business policies since WWII.
Manufacturing economic development policies and effects since WWII.
6. Environment
Waste administration
Water administration
Power administration
7. Transportation/Information
Transportation policy since WWII.
Local
State
Federal
Regional information policy since WWII.
8. Social Geography
Arts & Entertainment
Commerce and Industry
Community Organization
Education
Employment
Finance
Gambling
General Demography
Health
Housing
Human Relations
Law Enforcement & Penology
Philanthropy
Religious Organization
Science and Technology
9. Review, Analysis, and "Scorecard" on Selected Public Policies.
Response Invited
Please let me know if you would be interested in participating in this Project and in shaping its future, and I will keep you further informed. Your comments and suggestions are very welcome.