New City is one of Chicago's 77 official community areas, located on the southwest side of the city. It contains the Canaryville and Back of the Yards neighborhoods. The area was home to the famous Union Stock Yards that were on Chicago's south side until they closed in 1971.
Neighborhoods [edit]
Back of the Yards [edit]
Back of the Yards is an industrial and residential neighborhood so named because it was near the former Union Stock Yards. Life in this neighborhood, which was famously organized by Saul Alinsky in the 1930s, is profiled in Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel The Jungle. The area was formerly part of the town of Lake until it was annexed by Chicago in 1889. The area was once an Eastern European, predominantly Bohemian, Moravian, and Slovak (Czech and Slovak Republics), neighborhood.
Jane Jacobs' book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, cites the Back of the Yards as an area able to successfully "unslum" in the 1960s, due to a beneficial set of circumstances. This included a stabilized community base with skilled members willing to trade work to upgrade housing, as well as active and well led local social and political organizations. Jacobs often cited the Back of the Yards as a model for other depressed neighborhoods to follow to upgrade their communities.[2] Some time after the 1970s, the population of the neighborhood changed to predominantly Mexican-Americans.[citation needed]
Canaryville [edit]
The Canaryville neighborhood is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Chicago and has a reputation for insularity or hostility to outsiders. According to the Encyclopedia of Chicago, the neighborhood extends from 40th Street to 47th Street between Halsted Street and Wentworth Avenue. The area was heavily influenced by the development and decline of the livestock and meatpacking industries. Historically, it has been known as an Irish American neighborhood.[3]
Canaryville's name may refer to the sparrows who fed in the stockyards and railroad cars in the late nineteenth century. The name may also refer to youth gangs in the neighborhood, who were known as "wild canaries".[3]
| Historical populations |
| Census |
Pop. |
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%± |
| 1930 |
87,103 |
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—
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| 1940 |
80,725 |
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−7.3% |
| 1950 |
75,917 |
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−6.0% |
| 1960 |
67,428 |
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−11.2% |
| 1970 |
60,747 |
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−9.9% |
| 1980 |
55,860 |
|
−8.0% |
| 1990 |
53,226 |
|
−4.7% |
| 2000 |
51,721 |
|
−2.8% |
| 2010 |
44,377 |
|
−14.2% |
External links [edit]
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Designated by the
City of Chicago |
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Other districts and areas
recognized by the community |
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