Birthed out of the matrix of industry, Chicago is for many the archetypical industrial city. Embodying both the “ups” and “downs”, Chicago witnessed rapid population growth, accompanied by the slums, pollution and social strife that seem to universally accompany such a process. Many parts of Chicago also bore witness to the deindustrialization and suburbanization associated with the globalizing economy in the second half of the twentieth century. While this global economy created prosperity for many in the Chicagoland area, it also left much of the landscape for scrap and many of the inhabitants originally attracted by now long gone industrial jobs out in the cold.
