Seminars in Urban Politics (POLSC 260): Start here

http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/doit/supp_info/community_maps.html

For a short background on the Ward System in Chicago read the article at http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1316.html

For some latest changes in the Chicago City Council read the article from the Chicago Reader ("In Chicago City Council, aldermen sweat the small stuff", http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/city-council-reform/Content?oid=3828954).

Who can introduce ordinances in the city council? Examples of city ordinances.

City of the Century chronicles Chicago's dramatic transformation from a swampy frontier town of fur traders and Native Americans to a massive metropolis that was the quintessential American city of the nineteenth century. The film tells how innovation, ingenuity, determination and ruthlessness created empires in what was a marshy wasteland and describes the hardships endured by millions of working men and women whose labor helped a capitalist class reinvent the way America did business. Along the way, this program revels in Chicago's triumphs -- among them the architectural experimentation that gave the city one of the world's most distinctive skylines -- and delves into the heart of Chicago's painful struggles. Bringing to life the Windy City's rich mixture of cultures, its writers and journalists, its political corruption and labor upheavals, this film bears witness to the creation of one of the most dynamic and vibrant cities in the world.

The State Archives administers a system of Illinois Regional Archives Depositories (IRAD) to manage the archival records of local governments. Local governments which have transferred records to the regional depositories include counties, townships, municipalities and school districts. Located on seven state university campuses, regional depositories house and service those records of local governments which have been appraised as having long-term values and have been transferred to the Archives. County records include:

•county board proceedings files and meeting minutes
•records of births, deaths and marriages
•land deeds, mortgage and tax sale records
•assessors' and collectors' tax books
•poll books and voter registers
•naturalization records, including declarations of intent
•probate records, including wills and will records, case files, administrators' and executors' records, guardianship records, and inventory and appraisement records
•civil and criminal court case files, chancery court case files (including divorces), docket books and court proceedings, and insanity proceedings and records
•coroner's inquest records and inquest files
•miscellaneous county records, including almshouse/county home records and jail registers.
•township, municipal, and school records
•City of Chicago records, including nearly 35,650 previously unknown documents that predate the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Holding include City Council proceedings files of 1833 through 1942, plats, atlases and Sanborn maps.
•Other Chicago records include election registers for 1888, 1890 and 1892 and ordinance records spanning 1837 to 1916.