Industrial Property and Blight in the 1950s

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the attempts by Chicago's public–private partnerships to fight industrial decline in the 1950s by linking blight, property, and redevelopment. It recounts the South Side Planning Board's failed attempt to redevelop an area of the South Side as an industrial district. It also looks at the fight between residents and the Bodine Electric Company over the property rights embedded in the zoning ordinance and the way in which these rights shaped industrial redevelopment. The chapter explores industrial property relations that were on the agenda of Chicago's place-dependent leaders by the 1940s. It describes the fortunes of Chicago's industry over the previous two decades, in which a growing number of people were looking to find ways to combat manufacturing decline, industrial blight, and a dwindling tax base.