The Uptown neighborhood boundary once extended farther
to the North, to Hollywood Avenue.[3] Beginning at the turn of the
19th Century, just after the World's Columbian Exposition, the entire
area had experienced a housing construction boom. In the mid 1920's,
construction of large and luxurious entertainment venues resulted
in many of the ornate and historic Uptown Square buildings which
exist today. The craftsmanship and artistry of those Uptown Square
buildings reflects the ornate pavilions of the Exposition.
For over a Century, Uptown has been a popular Chicago
Entertainment District, which played a significant role in ushering
in the Gilded Age, the Lyceum Movement, the Jazz Age, the Silent
Film Era, the Swing Era, the Big Band Era, the Rock & Roll Era,
has been a Movie Filming Location for over 480 movies, has ties
to significant Spectator sport athletes and organizations, including
the Chicago Blackhawks and three Olympic figure skaters, as well
as Theater, Comedy club, Dance performers who later became nationally-famous,
and even "The People's Music School," a needs-based, tuition-free
music school for formal classical music training.
By the 1950s, the middle class was leaving Uptown
for more distant suburbs, as commuter rail and elevated train lines
were extended. Uptown's housing stock was aging, and old mansions
were subdivided. Residential hotels which had housed wives of sailors
attached to the Great Lakes Naval Station during World War II now
served low-income migrants from the South and Appalachia. Uptown
developed a reputation as "Hillbilly Heaven" during the
1950s and 1960s. The Council of the Southern Mountains, headquartered
in Berea, Kentucky launched the Chicago Southern Center in 1963
in Uptown, with help from Chicago philanthropist W. Clement Stone.[4]
Chicago's anti-poverty program opened the Montrose Urban Progress
Center.
Students for a Democratic Society initiated a community
organizing project, JOIN (Jobs or Income Now) in 1963.[5] Large-scale
urban renewal projects like Harry S. Truman College eliminated much
low-cost housing, and the low-income Southern white residents dispersed.
New waves of Asian, Hispanic, and African-American migrants moved
into the remaining neighborhoods. Latinos forced out from other
near downtown and lakefront areas by urban renewal settled close
to the border with Lakeview at Sheridan, near Irving Park. In 1975
Young Lords founder Jose (Cha-Cha) Jimenez joined with a broad coalition
of whites, blacks and Latinos and ran unsuccessfully against Daley-sponsored
Christopher Cohen. They still were able to garner 39% of the vote.
His main campaign issue was housing corruption, which was then displacing
Latinos and the poor from prime real estate areas of Chicago. Most
recently, since 2000, gentrification has spread north from neighboring
Lakeview and south from Edgewater. Median condo prices jumped 69.1%
from 2000-2005. In addition, the white population has jumped 10%
since 2000 with the black population falling 12%.
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