The SAH Annual Meeting is usually an opportunity to travel to, and learn about, a new or at least unfamiliar city; this year, however, it was held in Chicago.  Since I have already clocked a lot of miles during this sabbatical, I did not mind the ease of travel at all.  If I had the choice, I’d much rather take a train than a plane any day.  The tours are typically a highlight of these meetings, and this year was no exception.  I took a walking tour of the Pilsen neighborhood, which has changed hands several times (and continues to do so), and a mostly driving tour of Chicago Housing Authority sites.  I’m usually not crazy about being trapped on a bus but the format did allow us to cover many miles in the big city, getting a sense of the landscape in a way that my hours of looking at CHA maps has not.  We stopped a few times to get a closer look, particularly at the 1938 Jane Addams Homes, last of the ABLA project, and future site of the National Public Housing Museum.

Above: 18th Street stop, Pink Line