Chicago Then and Now

The famous concentric circles of the Chicago School marked the interstitial areas where gangs fought with one another.

But today, gangs are fighting a new enemy: gentrification and development. And they are losing. The map on the right is of Chicago's tax incremental financing or TIF districts, where development is underway. The areas of heaviest development in Chicago today are the same as Thrasher's gangland surrounding the Loop. The map on the left superimposes the concentric circles over the map of TIF districts.