Quote:
Originally Posted by the urban politician
Chicago has almost as much tourism as New York City. Damn.
Where we continue to lag is in international tourism, but hell this is a HUGE leap forward regardless. Making the city more attractive, developing so many vacant lots, adding the hotels, improving infrastructure, upgrading and adding museums, and of course the food & theatre scene--we are really on a roll.
I was listening to Lee Bey on the radio today (new head of the Dusable Museum--he's a great choice, btw) and he's really gunning hard to get some of that tourism down to the south side. They have a new exhibit there about south side architecture. With that & Pullman plus the Obama Library, I do have hope that we will finally get some spillover to south side neighborhoods.
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There's a ton of cool stuff happening on the South Side right now (particularly the type of thing that would appeal to international tourists) – beyond Lee Bey's photo exhibition of South Side architecture, there's the Palais de Tokyo, one of the biggest contemporary art institutions in all of France, curating an exhibition in a Daniel Burnham-designed horse stable next to DuSable. The Ren Society continually shows some of the most cutting edge contemporary art in the world, as does Neubauer Collegium and Logan Center. Four of the Architecture Biennial 'anchor sites' are on the South Side. The Hyde Park Jazz Festival is this weekend, which is a pretty huge event.
A lot of this is in or around Hyde Park, of course, which is why I think it's so important that Bronzeville become a bigger draw for tourism (connecting downtown and McCormick to the South Side and creating a continuous link to Hyde Park, particularly with the Obama Library coming). Bronzeville's got the built-in history, culture, and identity perfect to build on for tourism attractions.
If only there were
some institution looking to form here that would speak to that neighborhood's history, and some transit-adjacent
historic building with relevant history in that neighborhood sitting vacant ready for renovation...
On another note, I'm hopeful that the Related site in the South Loop helps create a more walkable path from downtown to some of the city's best neighborhoods on the near South Side (Chinatown, Pilsen, etc.) and pulls more people that way. Pullman's already incredible to visit, but with the national monument and renovations of its biggest historic buildings, I can't wait to see the next stage.