Quote:
Originally Posted by Dralcoffin
County Clerk Daley's son, Richard M., turned just seven in August.
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Actually Richard M. Daley turned eight years old on April 24, 1950. Aside from that spot on. In some ways I feel Chicago had an underwhelming skyline as far as height for the then second largest city in the United States in 1950. Then again this was a time when no other city besides New York City had supertalls and there were still tons of great pre-war skyscrapers in Chicago and the urban density was certainly there. It is so strange though that the skyline looked so much smaller then as opposed to today but there are 900,000 less people in the city now than in 1950. Downtown may be bigger today but in 1950 the neighborhoods were absolutely teeming with activity from factories and the old stockyards as well as shopping districts and retail districts that are in disrepair today such as 63rd and Halsted and North Lawndale. Today you hear about people never going downtown because of suburbs but back then the neighborhoods had so much employment and shopping that many didn't need to go downtown nor to the suburbs for anything, many lived in small worlds completely contained in their neighborhoods; you could live, work, shop, go to a movie theater, walk to school, visit relatives, etc. within a mile of where you live with no car, you could walk or take a short street car/bus/el ride to everything. I am kind of a romanticist about old Chicago neighborhood life but when I hear old timers talk it sounded like an urban paradise to me.