Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:45:44.601Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Critical Junctures, Long-Term Processes

Urban Redevelopment in Chicago and Milwaukee, 1945–1980

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Joel Rast
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Facing severe social and economic challenges following World War II, both Chicago and Milwaukee formed local economic development partnerships. However, Chicago’s development approach emphasized downtown, while Milwaukee’s approach focused largely on manufacturing. This article uses literature on path dependence and urban regimes to show how development strategies initiated in both cities during the late 1940s became entrenched over time, although more so in Chicago than in Milwaukee. I argue that postwar development policy in each city can be understood only through a genuinely historical approach that links outcomes at the close of this narrative in 1980 with key causal factors dating back to the 1940s.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 33 , Issue 4 , Winter 2009 , pp. 393 - 426
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2009 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arthur, W. B. (1994) Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Banfield, E. C. (1961) Political Influence: A New Theory of Urban Politics. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Berry, B., Cutler, I., Draine, E., Kiang, Y., Tocalis, T., and Vise, P. de (1976) Chicago: Transformations of an Urban System. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.Google Scholar
Biles, R. (1984) Big City Boss in Depression and War: Mayor Edward J. Kelly of Chicago. De Kalb: Northern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Biles, R. (1995) Richard J. Daley: Politics, Race, and the Governing of Chicago. De Kalb: Northern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Bluestone, B., and Harrison, B. (1982) The Deindustrialization of America. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Booth, D. E. (1985) “Municipal socialism and city government reform: The Milwaukee experience, 1910–1940.” Journal of Urban History 12: 51–74.10.1177/009614428501200103Google Scholar
Buck, T. (1959) “Loop surges toward its greatest era.” Chicago Tribune, November 13.Google Scholar
Buck, T. (1963) “Private firms play big role in renewal plans.” Chicago Tribune, May 24.Google Scholar
Chicago Central Area Committee (1956) Draft brochure. Holman Pettibone Papers, Chicago Historical Society, box 11, folder August–December 1956.Google Scholar
Chicago Central Area Committee (1973) Chicago 21: A Plan for the Central Area Communities. Chicago: Chicago Central Area Committee.Google Scholar
Chicago Committee on Housing Action (1947) “Second report.” Holman Pettibone Papers, Chicago Historical Society, box 3, folder May 1947.Google Scholar
Chicago Land Clearance Commission (1955) Progress Report. Chicago: Chicago Land Clearance Commission.Google Scholar
Chicago Land Clearance Commission (1961) Location of Commission’s 26 Redevelopment Projects, Comprising 895 Acres. Chicago: Chicago Land Clearance Commission.Google Scholar
Chicago Plan Commission (1943) Master Plan of Residential Land Use of Chicago. Chicago: Chicago Plan Commission.Google Scholar
Chicago Tribune (1950) “U.S. grants city 14.4 millions to clear slums.” February 25.Google Scholar
Chicago Tribune (1963) “A greater downtown Chicago.” May 19.Google Scholar
Collier, R. B., and Collier, D. (1991) Shaping the Political Arena: Critical Junctures, the Labor Movement, and Regime Dynamics in Latin America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Commission on the Economic Study of Milwaukee (1948) Report of the Commission on the Economic Study of Milwaukee. Milwaukee, WI: City of Milwaukee.Google Scholar
Daley, R. J. (1956) Letter to Holman Pettibone re: Department of City Planning. Holman Pettibone Papers, Chicago Historical Society, box 11, folder April–July 1956.Google Scholar
David, P. A. (1985) “Clio and the economics of QWERTY.” American Economic Review 75: 332–37.Google Scholar
Davis, R. S. (1947) “Milwaukee: Old lady thrift,” in Allen, R. S. (ed.) Our Fair City. New York: Vanguard: 189–210.Google Scholar
Department of City Development (1972) The Land Bank: Eight Years of Industrial Development Progress, 1964–1971. Milwaukee, WI: Department of City Development.Google Scholar
Department of City Development (1973) “Milwaukee center: Focus on growth.” Henry Maier Papers, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Archives Department, box 73, folder 15.Google Scholar
Department of City Planning (1958) Development Plan for the Central Area of Chicago. Chicago: City of Chicago.Google Scholar
Department of Development and Planning (1968) Far Southeast Development Area. Chicago: Department of Development and Planning.Google Scholar
Department of Urban Renewal (1964) Annual Report. Chicago: Department of Urban Renewal.Google Scholar
DiGaetano, A., and Klemanski, J. S. (1999) Power and City Governance: Comparative Perspectives on Urban Development. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Dishon, R. L. (1962) “Next 10 years to bring a revitalized downtown.” Milwaukee Sentinel, December 3.Google Scholar
Division of Economic Development (1980) Milwaukee’s Land Bank Program: A Brief History and Status Report. Milwaukee, WI: Department of City Development.Google Scholar
Dragos, S. F. (1977) “Privately funded mechanisms for Milwaukee redevelopment.” Urban Land 36: 15–23.Google Scholar
Drew, W. (1961) Milwaukee’s Annexation Program, 1945–1959, and the Thinking behind It. Milwaukee, WI: Municipal Reference Library.Google Scholar
Elkin, S. L. (1987) City and Regime in the American Republic. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Elving, R. (1978) “Development script entering second act.” Milwaukee Journal, August 28.Google Scholar
Farris, T. (1956a) “City ‘hostility’ halts renewal, expert says.” Milwaukee Sentinel, November 27.Google Scholar
Farris, T. (1956b) “N.Y. redevelop firm gets bid to invest here.” Milwaukee Sentinel, November 29.Google Scholar
Fleischmann, A. (1984) “The politics of annexation and urban development: A clash of two paradigms.” PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin.Google Scholar
Fure-Slocum, E. (2001) “The challenge of the working-class city: Recasting growth politics and liberalism in Milwaukee, 1937–1952.” PhD diss., University of Iowa.Google Scholar
Gapp, P. (1983) “Looking back at a 25-year-old master plan for the Loop area.” Chicago Tribune, September 11.Google Scholar
Gelfand, M. I. (1975) A Nation of Cities: The Federal Government and Urban America, 1933–1965. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goff, C. D. (1952) “The politics of governmental integration in metropolitan Milwaukee.” PhD diss., Northwestern University.Google Scholar
Gurda, J. (1999) The Making of Milwaukee. Milwaukee, WI: Milwaukee County Historical Society.Google Scholar
Hacker, J. S. (2002) The Divided Welfare State: The Battle over Public and Private Social Benefits in the United States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hirsch, A. R. (1998) Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago, 1940–1960. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Huber, E., and Stephens, J. D. (2001) Development and Crisis of the Welfare State: Parties and Policies in Global Markets. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Huddleston, J. H. (1973) “$3 million raised for downtown.” Milwaukee Sentinel, October 13.Google Scholar
Hughes, L. (1971) “Land bank idea restudied.” Milwaukee Journal, October 15.Google Scholar
Katznelson, I. (2003) “Reflections on purposive action in comparative historical social science,” in , J.Mahoney and , D.Reuschemeyer (eds.) Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 270–301.Google Scholar
Krieger, E. (1951) Memorandum to the Board of Public Land Commissioners re: coordination of plans for the city’s expansion and the civil defense program. Frank Zeidler Papers archival collection, Milwaukee Public Library, box 190, folder 5.Google Scholar
Levi, M. (1997) “A model, a method, and a map: Rational choice in comparative and historical analysis,” in Lichbach, M. I. and Zuckerman, A. S. (eds.) Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture, and Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 19–41.Google Scholar
Lieberman, R. C. (1998) Shifting the Color Line: Race and the American Welfare State. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Mahoney, J. (2000) “Path dependence in historical sociology.” Theory and Society 29: 508–48.Google Scholar
Mahoney, J. (2001) The Legacies of Liberalism: Path Dependence and Political Regimes in Central America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Mahoney, J. (2006) “Analyzing path dependence: Lessons from the social sciences,” in , A. Wimmer and Kossler, R. (eds.) Understanding Change: Models, Methodologies, and Metaphors. New York: Palgrave: 129–39.Google Scholar
Mahoney, J., and Reuschemeyer, D., eds. (2003) Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Maier, H. W. (n.d.) Letter to Capital Improvements Committee re: industrial park. Henry Maier Papers, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Archives Department, box 104, folder 3.Google Scholar
Maier, H. W. (1960) Address to members of the Common Council Committee on Buildings-Grounds-Harbors. Henry Maier Papers, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Archives Department, box 73, folder 15.Google Scholar
Maier, H. W. (1961) Statement of the mayor at presentation of Progress Report – Downtown Milwaukee, by Elmer Krieger, to City Plan Commission. Henry Maier Papers, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee Archives Department, box 73, folder 15.Google Scholar
Maier, H. W. (1971) Letter to Rudy Schoenecker re: moratorium on freeway construction. Henry Maier Papers, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Archives Department, box 87, folder 35.Google Scholar
Manley, C. (1957) “Leaders of Chicago plan for greater central area.” Chicago Tribune, September 8.Google Scholar
March, J. G. (1966) “The power of power,” in D. Easton (ed.) Varieties of Political Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall: 39–70.Google Scholar
McCarthy, J. M. (2009) Making Milwaukee Mightier: Planning and the Politics of Growth, 1910–1960. De Kalb: Northern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
McNally, J. (1973) “Need to preserve downtown unites Maier, businessmen.” Milwaukee Journal, October 14.Google Scholar
Metropolitan Housing and Planning Council (MHPC) (1946) Reclaiming Chicago’s Blighted Areas. Chicago: Metropolitan Housing and Planning Council.Google Scholar
Meyerson, M., and Banfield, E. G. (1955) Politics, Planning, and the Public Interest: The Case of Public Housing in Chicago. New York: Free Press of Glencoe.Google Scholar
Miller, S. M. (1975) “Milwaukee: Of ethnicity and labor,” in Stave, B. M. (ed.) Socialism and the Cities. London: Kennikat: 41–71.Google Scholar
Milwaukee Common Council (1971) Minutes of meeting of Common Council Special Committee on Economic Development, October 14.Google Scholar
Milwaukee Journal (1946) “City cannot endure if this sort of thing continues.” June 25.Google Scholar
Milwaukee Journal (1947) “Outline master plan for downtown area.” October 19.Google Scholar
Milwaukee Journal (1949) “Housing needs still pressing, figures hint.” January 18.Google Scholar
Milwaukee Journal (1951) “Butler, Greenfield annexations voided.” April 3.Google Scholar
Milwaukee Journal (1960a) “Industry development receives green light.” October 6.Google Scholar
Milwaukee Journal (1960b) “Development plan offered.” October 7.Google Scholar
Milwaukee Journal (1971) “Land bank rapped; new plan proposed.” September 21.Google Scholar
Milwaukee Journal (1972) “Land bank plans may be changed.” May 21.Google Scholar
Milwaukee Journal (1973) “Downtown renewal hopes rise with new plan.” October 18.Google Scholar
Milwaukee Journal (1978a) “Reuss and city’s shakers under the gun.” April 11.Google Scholar
Milwaukee Journal (1978b) “Where the buck stops downtown.” May 8.Google Scholar
Milwaukee Sentinel (1956) “City’s fight against decay told.” February 1.Google Scholar
Milwaukee Journal (1978) “Rejection a blow to downtown plan.” April 7.Google Scholar
Mueller, C. H. (1974) “City wants say in downtown plans.” Milwaukee Sentinel, May 13.Google Scholar
Mumford, L. (1938) The Culture of Cities. New York: Harcourt, Brace.Google Scholar
Neil, H. A. (1952) “The Chicago Land Clearance Commission.” Master’s thesis, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
North, D. C. (1990) Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
O'Connor, L. (1975) Clout: Mayor Daley and His City. Chicago: Regnery.Google Scholar
Orr, M. E., and G. Stoker (1994) “Urban regimes and leadership in Detroit.” Urban Affairs Quarterly 30: 48–73.Google Scholar
Pettibone, H. (1947a) Redevelopment plan, first draft. Holman Pettibone Papers, Chicago Historical Society, box 2, folder January–April 1947.Google Scholar
Pettibone, H. (1947b) Memorandum re: conversation with Mayor Kennelly. Holman Pettibone Papers, Chicago Historical Society, box 3, folder May 1947.Google Scholar
Pettibone, H. (1948) Notes of conversations in New York, May 5 and 6, 1948. Holman Pettibone Papers, Chicago Historical Society, box 4, folder March–May 1948.Google Scholar
Pierson, P. (1993) “When effect becomes cause: Policy feedback and political change.” World Politics 45: 595–628.Google Scholar
Pierson, P. (1994) Dismantling the Welfare State? Reagan, Thatcher, and the Politics of Retrenchment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pierson, P.(2000a) “Increasing returns, path dependence, and the study of politics.” American Political Science Review 94: 251–67.Google Scholar
Pierson, P. (2000b) “Not just what, but when: Timing and sequence in political processes.” Studies in American Political Development 14: 72–92.Google Scholar
Pierson, P. (2004) Politics in Time: History, Institutions, and Social Analysis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Pierson, P. (2006) “Public policies as institutions,” in Shapiro, I., Skowronek, S., and Galvin, D. (eds.) Rethinking Political Institutions: The Art of the State. New York: New York University Press: 114–31.Google Scholar
Rakove, M. (1975) Don’t Make No Waves, Don’t Back No Losers: An Insider’s Analysis of the Daley Machine. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Rast, J. (1999) Remaking Chicago: The Political Origins of Urban Industrial Change. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Rast, J. (2007) “Annexation policy in Milwaukee: An historical institutionalist approach.” Polity 39: 55–78.Google Scholar
Real Estate Research Corporation (1970) Industrial Functions in the Chicago Central Communities. Chicago: Real Estate Research Corporation.Google Scholar
Redevelopment Coordinating Committee (1948). Blight Elimination and Urban Redevelopment in Milwaukee. Milwaukee, WI: Common Council of the City of Milwaukee.Google Scholar
Rosen, G. (1980) Decision-Making Chicago Style: The Genesis of a University of Illinois Campus. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Royko, M. (1971) Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago. New York: Dutton.Google Scholar
Saffran, G. C. (1952) Annexation Practices in Milwaukee: An Administrative Analysis. Milwaukee, WI: City of Milwaukee.Google Scholar
Savitch, H. V., and Thomas, J. C., eds. (1991) Big City Politics in Transition. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Schattschneider, E. E. (1935) Politics, Pressures, and the Tariff. New York: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Sewell, W. H. (1996) “Three temporalities: Toward an eventful sociology,” in , T. McDonald (ed.) The Historic Turn in the Human Sciences. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press: 245–80.Google Scholar
Showers, D. (1977) “Enthusiasm builds on downtown plan.” Milwaukee Sentinel, October 28.Google Scholar
Skidmore, Owings &Merrill (1973) Milwaukee Central Area Study: A Report to the Milwaukee Development Group, Inc. Chicago: Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill.Google Scholar
Skocpol, T. (1992) Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Steinmo, S., , K. Thelen, and Longstreth, F., eds. (1992) Structuring Politics: Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Still, B. (1948) Milwaukee: The History of a City. Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Stinchcombe, Arthur (1968) Constructing Social Theories. New York: Harcourt, Brace.Google Scholar
Stoker, G. (1995) “Regime theory and urban politics,” in Judge, D., Stoker, G., and Wolman, H. (eds.) Theories of Urban Politics. London: Sage: 54–71.Google Scholar
Stone, Clarence N. (1989) Regime Politics: Governing Atlanta, 1946–1988. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
Stone, Clarence N. (1993) “Urban regimes and the capacity to govern: A political economy approach.” Journal of Urban Affairs 15: 1–28.Google Scholar
Stone, Clarence N. (2001) “The Atlanta experience re-examined: The link between agenda and regime change.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 25: 20–34.Google Scholar
Stone, C. N., Orr, M. E., and Imbroscio, D. (1991) “The reshaping of urban leadership in U.S. cities: A regime analysis,” in Gottdiener, M. and Pickvance, C. G. (eds.) Urban Life in Transition. Newbury Park, CA: Sage: 222–39.Google Scholar
Streeck, W., and Thelen, K., eds. (2005) Beyond Continuity: Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sykes, C. J. (1978) “Angry developer halts new building.” Milwaukee Journal, January 17.Google Scholar
Teaford, J. C. (1990) The Rough Road to Renaissance: Urban Revitalization in America, 1940–1985. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Thelen, K. (1999) “Historical institutionalism in comparative politics.” Annual Review of Political Science 2: 369–404.Google Scholar
Thelen, K. (2003) “How institutions evolve: Insights from comparative historical analysis,” in , J. Mahoney and , D. Reuschemeyer (eds.) Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 208–40.Google Scholar
Thelen, K. (2004) How Institutions Evolve: The Political Economy of Skills in Germany, Britain, the United States, and Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tilly, C. (1984) Big Structures, Large Processes, Huge Comparisons. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census (1940) Sixteenth Census of the United States. Vol. 2, Characteristics of the Population. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census (1950) A Report of the Seventeenth Decennial Census of the United States, Census of the Population. Vol. 2, Characteristics of the Population. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census (1960) Eighteenth Decennial Census of the United States, Census of the Population. Vol. 1, Characteristics of the Population. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Weiss, M. A., and Metzger, J. T. (1989) “Planning for Chicago: The changing politics of metropolitan growth and neighborhood development,” in Beauregard, R. A. (ed.) Atop the Urban Hierarchy. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield: 123–51.Google Scholar
Wells, R. W. (1970) This Is Milwaukee. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Wells, R. W., and Gladfelter, L. D. (1959) “New buildings go up, but not in core of city.” Milwaukee Journal, May 26.Google Scholar
Wurster, C. B. (1934) Modern Housing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Zeidler, F. P. (1949) Letter to Paul V. Betters re: development of satellite communities. Frank Zeidler Papers archival collection, Milwaukee Public Library, box 177, folder 1.Google Scholar
Zeidler, F. P. (1950) Letter to Milwaukee Builders Association re: Housing Act of 1949. Frank Zeidler Papers archival collection, Milwaukee Public Library, box 179, folder 1.Google Scholar
Zeidler, F. P. (1956) Letter to Phil Drotning re: committee to study formation of metropolitan water system. Frank Zeidler Papers archival collection, Milwaukee Public Library, box 160, folder 1.Google Scholar
Zeidler, F. P. (1957) Statement of the Honorable Frank P. Zeidler, mayor of Milwaukee, before the Subcommittee on Housing of the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency. Frank Zeidler Papers archival collection, Milwaukee Public Library, box 121, folder 2.Google Scholar
Zeidler, F. P. (1962) “A liberal in city government: My experiences as mayor of Milwaukee.” Unpublished manuscript, Milwaukee Public Library.Google Scholar
Zeidler, F. P. (2005) A Liberal in City Government: My Experiences as Mayor of Milwaukee. Milwaukee, WI: Milwaukee Publishers.Google Scholar