February 6, 2008

Owning a Home in Chicago

CHICAGO — Where does the ideal of home ownership originate? Is home ownership the most effective way to provide decent, affordable housing to all Americans? Is it the most effective strategy to generate wealth and upward social mobility for poor and working class Americans? Do expanding home ownership rates provide a path to stable urban neighborhoods?

Learn about the history of the American Dream and the struggle of Chicago's immigrant working class to own their homes at the next American Planning Association's Tuesdays at APA forum on February 19, 2008. The discussion begins at 5 p.m. at APA's 122 S. Michigan Ave. conference center. The event is free and open to the public.

Margaret Garb, assistant professor of American history at Washington University in St. Louis, will offer a historian's perspective on Americans' seemingly boundless infatuation with home ownership, its roots in immigrant working class culture and its dramatic transformation into a mark of middle class status and of the nation's economic success.

Garb will discuss how the high rates of home ownership obscure continuing divisions between rich and poor Americans. Most Americans see home ownership as a symbol of upward mobility. Garb's research exposes the risks taken by lower-income families in the 19th century to own a home — a cautionary tale for planners and policy makers trying to understand the repercussions of the contemporary mortgage crisis.

Garb is author of City of American Dreams: A History of Home Ownership and Housing Reform, Chicago 1871-1919.

About Tuesdays at APA

Tuesdays at APA is a monthly after-work lecture and discussion series. Each month, practicing planners and researchers discuss the latest ideas, concepts and research in the planning field. For more information and upcoming events, visit www.planning.org/tuesdaysatapa or call 312-431-9100. The next Tuesdays at APA event will be March 11, 2008, examining the role and benefit of involving local high school students in planning.

Contact

Roberta Rewers, 312-786-6395; rrewers@planning.org