Week Three

My work with Helen and her papers continues and I have continued to uncover many interesting finds in the myriad of boxes that are inside of her basement.  Last week my focus was exclusively on the many things that I was able to discover in regards to urban and city politics whereas this week I will be focusing on the urban history gems I was able to glean from my cataloging.  The first document that caught my eye as I was going through the folders was a file pertaining to the public housing project of Cabrini Green. For those of you that are not already aware the Cabrini Green housing project was a residence on the North Side of Chicago that quickly gained a reputation as one of the worst and most violent housing projects in the country (gunfire from gang members on New Years frequently caused the annual closure of multiple surrounding streets).  It of course was of great interest to me then to come across such an interesting component of modern urban history in the basement of someone’s home.  Another amazing thing I came across were the numerous documents pertaining to Chicago’s (unsuccessful) bid for the 2020 Olympics.  It was truly amazing to see all of the planning and lobbying that can take place for something so large and extravagant (the files pertaining to it nearly took up an entire box). The final and most somber of discoveries I found though, was an innocuous seeming document of council business dated September 5th 2001.  It was difficult when reading the document to not be a bit taken aback by the mundane and everyday business that was taking place in total ignorance of the incredible tragedy that would befall our nation six days later.  The sense of normalcy so close to an event that would shatter the very concept of normalcy entirely for all of us is thus far the most powerful experience I have had during my internship.