Blight and the Transformation of Industrial Property

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates how the discourse of blight shaped renewal and how the racialization of urban space underpinned housing markets and urban renewal. It talks about Chicago's political and business leaders who worked to turn some of Chicago's blighted land into productive industrial space. It also identifies agency officials who believed that the overhaul of some of Chicago's “waste lands” for industrial redevelopment would reverse decline by delivering jobs, taxes, and prosperity. The chapter describes the new set of industrial lands and the associated set of property relations that emerged out of urban renewal, which were created by all three levels of government and legitimized in the courts. It cites the Housing Act of 1937, which permitted land clearance and slum demolition for public housing and the Housing Act of 1949, which channeled federal funds to cities so that blighted districts could be redeveloped as predominantly residential.