Tourism and Planning in Chicago. The Experience of Devon Avenue

Abstract

This paper concerns Devon Avenue in Chicago. Eight miles north of downtown, this area is inhabited by a large Jewish population with the majority of business owners coming from Pakistan and India. In order to make this neighborhood more attractive for outsiders and the upper-middle class, Indo-Pakistan community leaders have attempted to define a strategic plan The main aim of this paper is to discuss about spatial planning and tourism and to underline some aspects of this processes by means of a case study. The methodology, adopted to collect this information, is both qualitative (observations and 10 recorded interviews) and quantitative (statistical data collection).

Notes

See also Yin (2009) and Baxter and Jack (2008).

For Chicago neighborhood identity see Keating, 2008.

Chicago Cultural Alliance (CCA) is a non-profit organization in Chicago developing programs oriented to reinforce the value of ethnic differences in Chicago.

List of actors interviewed: Indo American Heritage Museum President; Indo American Center Senior Program Coordinator and Youth Program Coordinator; Chicago Cultural Alliance, Executive Director; South Asia American Policy and Research Institute (SAAPRI) founders; Indo-American Democratic Organization (IADO) representative; West Ridge Chamber of Commerce representative; West Ridge Planning Committee representative; Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Society representative; two university professors: one of the professors was a historian and one an architect.

For the first time in American history, race was dropped as a criterion for immigration, and immigrants were allowed to enter on the basis of professional skills in demand in the United States. India had a huge pool of skilled manpower, trained in western style universities, who could not be absorbed into its own struggling socialist economy.

In the late 1920s the Social Science Research Committee at the University of Chicago subdivided the city into 77 distinct community areas for a long-term population study. The boundaries are clearly defined, allowing for good year-by-year comparisons and statistical analysis. However, the ever-changing nature of a city means that several of the designations given in the 1920s are no longer in common use. Unlike the well-defined community areas, Chicago neighborhood names, multiplicity, and boundaries are notoriously dynamic and fuzzy. A semi-official neighborhood map still in use by the City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development was created in the 1970s by researchers who went from door-to-door asking “What neighborhood is this?” Neighborhoods are often renamed and redefined by realtors, landlords, and developers for marketing purposes. The boundaries may also change as a result of gentrification and immigration.

Gentrification poses a threat to many Chicago residents, and the Devon Avenue community is no exception. While a rise in property taxes indicates that a community is seen as a desirable place to live and work, it can take a toll on those who cannot afford the rise in property taxes.