Pages

Sunday, April 12, 2009

South Loop: Yuppie Playground for the "Creative Class"?

Interesting article on newgeography.com that poses the question, what is urban success for a city? They start the article by saying that if you ask most people around the country the standard answer would be Chicago. However, the article goes on to praise other Midwest cities such as Indianapolis, Kansas City and Columbus. The point of the story is that cities can be successful for different reasons:
Chicago is tailoring its offerings to where it believes it can most effectively compete – new immigrants and world class talent. Places like Columbus, Indianapolis, and Kansas City are focusing on a broader middle class. Neither way is right or wrong. Both types of places, and others too, can all find success by offering unique places for people to realize their own personal American Dream.
A pretty neutral and politically correct stance, but it's hard to argue with it...we guess.

The other thing we found interesting was their take on the South Loop (and other neighborhoods in Chicago):
If you told someone 15 years ago you lived in the South Loop, they would have said, “Huh?” If you had told them you lived by the old Chicago Stadium, they would have thought you had lost your mind. These and other neighborhoods that were once derelict or dangerous, as well as some that were low key ethnic enclaves, have been transformed into bustling yuppie playgrounds for the new “creative class”.
Personally, we hate the word yuppie, because of the negative connotation that comes with it. On the other hand the classification of "Creative Class" seems innocent and positive to us, so it doesn't really bother us.

What do you think? Are these fair classifications for the Sloop?

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.