Welcome back to my blog. This post is for the third Action Project of the Humanities class, The Art of Rhetoric. In this unit, we have been looking into the thirteen colonies and their origin. We have also studied the Seven Years War and its significance to how the colonies reacted afterward. We also looked at OSPAAL propaganda art which was anti-imperialist propaganda. OSPAAL stands for the Organization of Solidarity with the Peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. For Field Experiences this unit, we went to Marquette Park in Chicago to look at the Martin Luther King Jr. Living Memorial. This small memorial stands in Marquette Park to represent and provide remembrance from when Martin Luther King Jr. marched through the neighborhood to protest the segregation of housing. For this Action Project, we have been tasked with creating an art piece that addresses a certain issue. The issue I have chosen to work on is affordable housing in the West Loop and I am showing this in a mural that could be put up in the West Loop. I hope you enjoy reading about my mural and observing what it would look like.
The issue I have chosen to address in this mural is affordable housing in the West Loop. As a West Loop citizen, I have seen new buildings of condos and apartments spring up out of nowhere. Many of these buildings are at least a couple of stories tall and are beautiful with a design that makes a bold presence. The residential projects are a solution and cause for the growth of the West Loop but because of this, they sell or rent for high prices. Affordable housing has become harder to find in this neighborhood. In the places left where affordable housing stands, the buildings and community they sit in aren’t the most aesthetically pleasing to look at. This divide can be seen on opposite sides of the street which is what I have chosen to depict in my mural.
Sources:
"Affordable Requirements Ordinance (ARO)." Chicago.gov, 2021, https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/doh/provdrs/developers/svcs/aro.html, Accessed 10 Nov. 2021
Bradley, Tahman. "Chicago City Council passes ordinance requiring real estate developers demolishing existing buildings to pay large fine." WGN9, 24 Mar. 2021, https://wgntv.com/news/chicago-news/chicago-city-council-passes-ordinance-requiring-real-estate-developers-demolishing-existing-buildings-to-pay-large-fine/, Accessed 10 Nov. 2021
Gallun, Alby. "Why developers grumble about affordable housing rules." Crain's Chicago Business, 17 Jan. 2020, https://www.chicagobusiness.com/commercial-real-estate/why-developers-grumble-about-affordable-housing-rules, Accessed 10 Nov. 2021
Kim, Connie. "“Folks can still afford to live there”: Q&A with Chicago Alderman Walter Burnett." The Real Deal, 15 Oct. 2021, https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:mPMZxjwjtCYJ:https://therealdeal.com/chicago/2021/10/15/folks-can-still-afford-to-live-there-qa-with-chicago-alderman-walter-burnett/+&cd=20&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us, Accessed 10 Nov. 2021
Rockett, Darcell. "Chicago’s affordable housing has a segregation problem. Here’s one plan to fix it." Chicago Tribune, 1 Feb. 2021, https://www.chicagotribune.com/real-estate/ct-re-chicago-inclusive-housing-ordinance-tt-0129-20210201-g27eksnzevhnlmy5ifxvyqowhm-story.html, Accessed 10 Nov. 2021
The issue I have chosen to address in this mural is affordable housing in the West Loop. As a West Loop citizen, I have seen new buildings of condos and apartments spring up out of nowhere. Many of these buildings are at least a couple of stories tall and are beautiful with a design that makes a bold presence. The residential projects are a solution and cause for the growth of the West Loop but because of this, they sell or rent for high prices. Affordable housing has become harder to find in this neighborhood. In the places left where affordable housing stands, the buildings and community they sit in aren’t the most aesthetically pleasing to look at. This divide can be seen on opposite sides of the street which is what I have chosen to depict in my mural.
Introducing more affordable housing into the neighborhood wouldn’t be a challenge and could be included in residential buildings planned to come. Affordable housing benefits the community in many ways and should be encouraged to be incorporated to create the meaning of home for many people. The growth of the West Loop has been wonderful and many people can call this neighborhood their home. But we can make this a home for many more by putting affordable homes to rent in these apartments and condos.
There are reasons for the lack of affordable housing in many Chicago neighborhoods. According to ABC7 News, one of these is developers can opt to pay a fee rather than build out affordable housing. The money paid goes into a city fund used for affordable housing. But this option has been an easy escape from adding affordable homes. Recently, some actions have been taken by the city council. The Affordable Requirements Ordinance encourages the production of more affordable units and maintains funding for programs supporting low-income renters. Alderman Walter Burnett and Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez are among the few alders trying to get more development with at least 20% of affordable units. These are good steps to bringing affordable housing to Chicago neighborhoods but more outreach should be done among the people of these communities.
I have chosen to create a mural to represent this and speak out to developers and citizens. As a mock-up, I used pencils and colored pencils to draw this. Murals are good for engaging and making a statement among citizens. The location I have in mind for where this mural could go is on the corner of Madison Street and Morgan Street in the West Loop. On this corner is a larger parking lot with a very big wall on the west side of the lot. I imagine this as a good space for my mural because there is a lot of space to cover and the mural would be large as well.
To connect this to rhetoric, my piece appeals to pathos and uses devices such as antithesis and chiasmus. For pathos, I have included small boxes at the top that would be drawings of what children in my community think of home as. In the real mural, there would be more of these boxes. This connects with my audience emotionally because children that live in the neighborhood can show what home means to them and some of the things drawn could be what others think of as home but do not have access to that because there is no affordable housing for them in the neighborhood. My piece uses antithesis by showing the juxtaposition of the darker, low-income homes next to the bright, expensive homes. I use chiasmus in the bottom right by reversing the message.
There are reasons for the lack of affordable housing in many Chicago neighborhoods. According to ABC7 News, one of these is developers can opt to pay a fee rather than build out affordable housing. The money paid goes into a city fund used for affordable housing. But this option has been an easy escape from adding affordable homes. Recently, some actions have been taken by the city council. The Affordable Requirements Ordinance encourages the production of more affordable units and maintains funding for programs supporting low-income renters. Alderman Walter Burnett and Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez are among the few alders trying to get more development with at least 20% of affordable units. These are good steps to bringing affordable housing to Chicago neighborhoods but more outreach should be done among the people of these communities.
I have chosen to create a mural to represent this and speak out to developers and citizens. As a mock-up, I used pencils and colored pencils to draw this. Murals are good for engaging and making a statement among citizens. The location I have in mind for where this mural could go is on the corner of Madison Street and Morgan Street in the West Loop. On this corner is a larger parking lot with a very big wall on the west side of the lot. I imagine this as a good space for my mural because there is a lot of space to cover and the mural would be large as well.
To connect this to rhetoric, my piece appeals to pathos and uses devices such as antithesis and chiasmus. For pathos, I have included small boxes at the top that would be drawings of what children in my community think of home as. In the real mural, there would be more of these boxes. This connects with my audience emotionally because children that live in the neighborhood can show what home means to them and some of the things drawn could be what others think of as home but do not have access to that because there is no affordable housing for them in the neighborhood. My piece uses antithesis by showing the juxtaposition of the darker, low-income homes next to the bright, expensive homes. I use chiasmus in the bottom right by reversing the message.
What is Home?, GS, 2021
I hope you enjoyed reading about my mural. I had a lot of fun working on this AP. To create this I used one-point perspective which was an art form I learned in sixth grade. I thought this would be a good way to show what I wanted in this mural because it clearly depicts the divide between the lower-income housing and what could be in the modernized and bright buildings. Being able to see what issues my classmates were addressing and how they were doing so was very interesting. As a resident of the West Loop, I think affordable housing would work there, and more should be done to encourage that. This AP also connects with my last Rhetoric AP about affordable housing so working on a topic I already have some knowledge on is good. Thank you for reading and I hope to see you in the next blog.
Sources:
"Affordable Requirements Ordinance (ARO)." Chicago.gov, 2021, https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/doh/provdrs/developers/svcs/aro.html, Accessed 10 Nov. 2021
Bradley, Tahman. "Chicago City Council passes ordinance requiring real estate developers demolishing existing buildings to pay large fine." WGN9, 24 Mar. 2021, https://wgntv.com/news/chicago-news/chicago-city-council-passes-ordinance-requiring-real-estate-developers-demolishing-existing-buildings-to-pay-large-fine/, Accessed 10 Nov. 2021
Gallun, Alby. "Why developers grumble about affordable housing rules." Crain's Chicago Business, 17 Jan. 2020, https://www.chicagobusiness.com/commercial-real-estate/why-developers-grumble-about-affordable-housing-rules, Accessed 10 Nov. 2021
Kim, Connie. "“Folks can still afford to live there”: Q&A with Chicago Alderman Walter Burnett." The Real Deal, 15 Oct. 2021, https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:mPMZxjwjtCYJ:https://therealdeal.com/chicago/2021/10/15/folks-can-still-afford-to-live-there-qa-with-chicago-alderman-walter-burnett/+&cd=20&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us, Accessed 10 Nov. 2021
Rockett, Darcell. "Chicago’s affordable housing has a segregation problem. Here’s one plan to fix it." Chicago Tribune, 1 Feb. 2021, https://www.chicagotribune.com/real-estate/ct-re-chicago-inclusive-housing-ordinance-tt-0129-20210201-g27eksnzevhnlmy5ifxvyqowhm-story.html, Accessed 10 Nov. 2021
Schulte, Sarah. "Affordable housing in Chicago stunted despite ordinance by fee loophole for developers." ABC7 News, 21 Jan. 2021, https://abc7chicago.com/affordable-housing-chicago-rent-in/5869002/, Accessed 10 Nov. 2021
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