No matter how many times I see these numbers, it's astonishing how the inner West and South sides have been destroyed. Rioting and burning stuff down is never good for a neighborhood. It breaks my heart to drive down formerly great streets like Madison and see miles of empty lots n both sides.
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Originally Posted by nei
How'd Hyde Park lose over half its population? It looked like it's doing fine.
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It wasn't back then. Hyde Park was sliding into being a slum like all of it's surrounding areas. There was a major urban renewal that removed lots of housing in addition to the neighborhood's main urban commercial district on 55th. It destroyed some of the neighborhood, but stabilized it. When my parents lived there in the early 70's it was still a dicey area.
The University of Chicago was mulling leaving the city in the 50's because of how fast the surrounding area was decaying.