Today, with education failures, joblessness, crime and other intertwined challenges confronting Chicago with the fourth great crisis of its 176 years, the Tribune invites readers and organizations to finish Burnham's work — to address the imperiled livability, uneven prosperity and desperate public finances that have driven residents to leave by the hundreds of thousands. In coming months you, and we, will explore how this metropolis can better survive and thrive.
Together, our mission: Make no little plans.
> Continue reading
> How to get involved: A request for your proposals
The editorials
As this series unfolds we'll focus on multiple challenges and how they interact:The public schools
Fixing schools to fix Chicago
In 1909, when Daniel Burnham issued his Plan of Chicago, city schools bustled with 300,000 children. Before the first day of school that year, the Tribune declared: "The children of all the world ... the child of the tenements and the child of millionaire's row, all will be there when the bell rings, an army of potential citizens whose possibilities stagger the imagination and a goodly portion of whose life training begins with the school year of 1909-10."
The jobs gap
A scorching jobs desert
A century ago, when Daniel Burnham was noodling his Plan of Chicago, he famously urged civic leaders to make no little plans. "Make big plans," he added. Less known is the advice Burnham gave in the very next sentence: "Aim high in hope and work."
Crime and criminals
Curb crime. Save Chicago.
Ah, safe home Chicago: The murder rate has fallen by nearly half. Unless, that is, you live on the blood-drenched streets where violent crime rates have actually increased. Until we end that concentrated slaughter, this city again risks losing its foundation of working, middle-class families.
Families
When families struggle
In Chicago, as in every other city, many kids grow up without two parents. Some young people never know their fathers, and their mothers may have children by other men. Families often disintegrate -- or never form in the first place.
Population
Now how do we keep them?
For more than half a century, the decennial U.S. census has carried almost unrelenting bad news for Chicago. After peaking at 3.6 million in 1950, the city's population dropped like a rock, including losses of nearly 11 percent in the 1970s and 7 percent in the 1980s.
Where's the money?
How Chicago debt exploded
Runaway pension costs and decades of borrowing leave Chicago taxpayers more than $30 billion in debt. The city has little left to spend on chronic crises and smart initiatives.
A new Plan
Faith, hopes and charity
Seven Sundays ago, we began this quest with urgency and a question mark as tall as Tribune Tower: Would readers concur that Chicago faces a crisis of diminished livability, uneven prosperity and desperate public finances that has driven residents to leave by the hundreds of thousands?
Reimagining youth
It's their Chicago, too
Read the newspapers and you can conclude that Chicago's children are, as a group, vulnerable waifs in need of rescue. And many are: Horrific sagas of child abuse deaths, pint-sized shooting victims and astonishing parental neglect intensify the impression of widespread helplessness. We can -- should -- do more to keep children safe on Chicago's streets and in their own homes.
|
|
How to submit your ideas
Email:
PlanOfChicago@tribune.com
Traditional mail:
Tribune Editorial Board
435 N. Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611
Twitter:
#planchicago
