Stanley Hallett
Encyclopedia
Stanley James Hallett was an American urban planner
and specialist in urban community development
who helped seed numerous innovative initiatives and organizations throughout his career. With the bulk of his professional work taking place in Chicago
, Hallett began by working in church civil rights
and later turned increasingly toward community economic and environmental sustainability. He and colleagues together created Chicago's Center for Neighborhood Technology
, South Shore Bank (later ShoreBank
), Northwestern University
's Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research and other institutions. During his career he worked alongside numerous activists, journalists and religious leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Saul Alinsky
, George McGovern
and Studs Terkel
.
One of the key concepts that Dr. Hallett would add to urban planning
was the idea that there is an 'economy of neighborhoods,' Scott Bernstein, a Hallett disciple and co-founder of the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) in Chicago, told Chicago Enterprise magazine. Bernstein, who now heads CNT, said: "Most economists don't admit to an economy of cities, let alone neighborhoods. Stan saw neighborhoods as a place where money flows in and out."
"What's clear to anybody who worked with Stan is that he was an immensely creative and original character," John P. Kretzmann told the Chicago Tribune
in 1998. A senior researcher at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University where Hallett was a visiting scholar, Kretzmann said, "It's so hard to categorize his work. He never had what you'd call a career. He bounced around from being a minister to being a banker to being a civic developer to being an inventor to being a businessman. But there was a consistency to it. He was always looking for ways for a city to be more humane."
, Iowa
, on October 6, 1930. His parents, Reverend Reveley and Stella Hallett, had five children: Edward, Stanley, Beverly, Thomas and David. The family moved from town to town in Iowa and finally settled in Rapid City, South Dakota
.
During World War II
, with many young men serving military duty, Hallett began his church career preaching to a congregation in Wall, South Dakota
at age 14. At a Methodist Youth Conference
in Clear Lake, Iowa, Hallett roomed with future civil-rights leader ("Jim") James Lawson. The two would room together four consecutive years at this annual weeklong program.
Hallett received his B.A. from Dakota Wesleyan University
in 1950. In 1954, he received his S.T.B., magna cum laude, from Boston University
's School of Theology. He did a photo study on the Roxbury neighborhood and became acquainted with fellow theology student Martin Luther King, Jr.
Hallett was influenced by Dean Walter Muelder
. Hallett also said of Muelder "...he was way before his time on the status of women in the church, and he had a very strong commitment to dealing with questions of race".
From 1957-59, Hallett served as associate pastor to a church in Newark
, N.J. He led a campaign against an industrial park
that would displace 10,000 residents. ("You develop a special relationship with people as a pastor... And you get angry at the racism
they experience. I began to probe myself at levels I didn't even know were there. I discovered that my perceptions of race were like an onion.")
From 1961-62, Hallett studied urban planning at Harvard University
.
Rev. Edgar Chandler became a mentor; Chandler would later help organize King's Soldier Field
rally and would organize a march on the segregated Rainbow Beach, along with Monsignor John Joseph Egan
and Rabbi Robert Marx.
At the Urban Training Center for Christian Mission
, Hallett taught organizing strategies to civil-rights activists heading south. ("There's a tendency in a movement to go with the flow and respond to problems - we were trying to think ahead... When you start asking where do you want to be in a year and a half, what are the steps to get there, and what is everyone's role in making that happen, it builds in a discipline that's not externally imposed but that's in the nature of the work.")
In 1963, Hallett received his Ph.D. from Boston University. His dissertation was entitled "Ethical Issues in Urban Planning and Development."
He spent that summer in the south, at the invitation of Ed King. Hallett says, "I had another friend from Boston, Ed King, who was a pastor at Tougaloo College
in Mississippi. ...Ed told me 16 civil rights workers had been killed—this was the summer of '63—and he felt the news wasn't being reported. ...I said, 'What can I do?' He said, 'The most important thing is for you to come down here. We have to get outside credible sources in here to get the news out.' I went down and spent a week in Mississippi with Ed. When I came back, I reported it to a meeting of the Church Federation of Greater Chicago. I gave probably the best speech of my life. And then we began to organize a delegation of clergy to go there from northern cities with the purpose of keeping down the violence. The clergy would come back to Detroit or Baltimore, and then there would be an article in the local papers from somebody they trusted. One after another the major metropolitan dailies started to report what was going on. Nicholas von Hoffman
was a reporter for the Chicago Daily News. When we were working on desegregating churches in Mississippi, I would talk to Nick every night. Nick would suggest what to do next because he knew what would make the news. And we'd act it out. He was the only reporter I knew who'd help make the news so he could write about it." That year Hallett also worked as a consultant to developer Jim Rouse on the planning and development of Columbia, Maryland
.
In 1965, Hallett worked to bring clergy from Chicago and other northern cities to the call of the Civil Rights Movement. He and other "bishops, rabbis, ministers, priests and nuns felt the call to march in Alabama with Martin Luther King." Hallett was quoted in the Time Magazine article of Friday, April 9, 1965, entitled Churches: The Selma Spirit--"It was a breakthrough into a whole new spirit," he says, "a sense of being part of a community at a level and depth that we've never known before."
In 1968, Hallett's church, the Church of the Holy Covenant on Diversey Street in Chicago, provided lodging for protesters during the Democratic convention
.
In 1971, Al Raby
, who headed the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations, introduced Hallett to Ron Grzywinski
, Milton Davis and Mary Houghton
, who would together establish the South Shore Bank
's community banking program. He served as a Founding Board Member for the ShoreBank Corporation from 1973 to 1975, and was vice-president of South Shore's holding company in its critical first five years.
In 1973, Hallett led the fight to save the South Shore Country Club.
In 1974, Hallett took a position at Northwestern University's Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research. The center was one of 16 research centers started by the Ford Foundation
in the wake of the 1968 riots
. He developed analysis of credit flows and economics in urban neighborhoods. Hallett became an Adjunct Faculty member at the Kellogg School of Management
.
In 1976, Hallett was co-founder, along with Scott Bernstein and Dr. John Martin, of the Center for Neighborhood Technology
. CNT grew from a project at the Center for Urban Affairs examining appropriate technology for city neighborhoods, initially looking at food production
, solar energy
and conservation. ("A lot of environmental groups are good at saying, 'Stop, don't do this.' But the question of what we should be doing instead requires that you really take a look at technological development." He served as a Board Member until his death in 1998.
That same year, Hallett helped launch Woodstock Institute. He served as a Founding Board Member until his death in 1998.
In 1978, Hallett became a faculty member at the Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
. He taught courses on History of Western Ethics and Political Philosophy
, and the Urban Mission of the Church.
Hallett helped lead a coalition of civic organizations in battle against the Deep Tunnel Project. ("You start with the assumption that if a project is that big it must be really well thought through. The more you look, the more you begin to come to the conclusion that any project that big is almost certainly not thought through. You get this great mobilization of business, union, and political forces to do things that make no sense.")
In 1980, Hallett's work helped shape the basis for City Fair, a major alternative technology
fair, in Seattle, Wash.
In 1985, Hallett and brother Tom launched Pathfinder Systems, Inc., a personal rapid-transit system, to free cities from the enormous toll of the automobile. The concept for Pathfinder would become a consuming, lifelong interest. ("It's clear to me that the automobile is a terribly polluting destructive machine. It is impossible to keep going like this - even the electric cars
, the hypercars, are too polluting... Can you imagine what this city would be like if we could convert some of these streets into gardens and tennis courts?")
In 1986, Hallett was appointed to the Metra
Board by Mayor Harold Washington
. He served through 1993.
In 1987, Hallett and John L. McKnight co-chaired the Chicago Innovations Forum, to provide forums for discussion of evolving urban issues.
From 1995-97, Hallett served on the Governor's Task Force on Human Resources
Reform.
In 1998, Hallett launched the Masters program in Community Development at North Park University
, a Christian liberal arts university
on Chicago's northwest side.
Hallett died November 24, 1998.
Urban planner
An urban planner or city planner is a professional who works in the field of urban planning/land use planning for the purpose of optimizing the effectiveness of a community's land use and infrastructure. They formulate plans for the development and management of urban and suburban areas, typically...
and specialist in urban community development
Community development
Community development is a broad term applied to the practices and academic disciplines of civic leaders, activists, involved citizens and professionals to improve various aspects of local communities....
who helped seed numerous innovative initiatives and organizations throughout his career. With the bulk of his professional work taking place in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Hallett began by working in church civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
and later turned increasingly toward community economic and environmental sustainability. He and colleagues together created Chicago's Center for Neighborhood Technology
Center for Neighborhood Technology
The Center for Neighborhood Technology is a non-profit organization, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, which is committed to sustainable development and livable urban communities. CNT, as an “innovations center for urban sustainability”, researches, invents, and tests urban strategies that use...
, South Shore Bank (later ShoreBank
ShoreBank
ShoreBank was a community development bank founded and headquartered in Chicago. At the time of its closing it was the oldest and largest such institution, and in 2008 had $2.6 billion in assets. It was owned by ShoreBank Corporation, a regulated bank holding company.ShoreBank had branches in...
), Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
's Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research and other institutions. During his career he worked alongside numerous activists, journalists and religious leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Saul Alinsky
Saul Alinsky
Saul David Alinsky was a Jewish American community organizer and writer. He is generally considered to be the founder of modern community organizing, and has been compared in Playboy magazine to Thomas Paine as being "one of the great American leaders of the nonsocialist left." He is often noted...
, George McGovern
George McGovern
George Stanley McGovern is an historian, author, and former U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the Democratic Party nominee in the 1972 presidential election....
and Studs Terkel
Studs Terkel
Louis "Studs" Terkel was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for The Good War, and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.-Early...
.
One of the key concepts that Dr. Hallett would add to urban planning
Urban planning
Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
was the idea that there is an 'economy of neighborhoods,' Scott Bernstein, a Hallett disciple and co-founder of the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) in Chicago, told Chicago Enterprise magazine. Bernstein, who now heads CNT, said: "Most economists don't admit to an economy of cities, let alone neighborhoods. Stan saw neighborhoods as a place where money flows in and out."
"What's clear to anybody who worked with Stan is that he was an immensely creative and original character," John P. Kretzmann told the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
in 1998. A senior researcher at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University where Hallett was a visiting scholar, Kretzmann said, "It's so hard to categorize his work. He never had what you'd call a career. He bounced around from being a minister to being a banker to being a civic developer to being an inventor to being a businessman. But there was a consistency to it. He was always looking for ways for a city to be more humane."
Early life
Stan Hallett was born in New HamptonNew Hampton, Iowa
New Hampton is a city in Chickasaw County, Iowa, United States. The population was 3,692 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Chickasaw County.-Geography:New Hampton is located at ....
, Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
, on October 6, 1930. His parents, Reverend Reveley and Stella Hallett, had five children: Edward, Stanley, Beverly, Thomas and David. The family moved from town to town in Iowa and finally settled in Rapid City, South Dakota
Rapid City, South Dakota
Rapid City is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of South Dakota, and the county seat of Pennington County. Named after Rapid Creek on which the city is established, it is set against the eastern slope of the Black Hills mountain range. The population was 67,956 as of the 2010 Census. Rapid...
.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, with many young men serving military duty, Hallett began his church career preaching to a congregation in Wall, South Dakota
Wall, South Dakota
Wall is a town in Pennington County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 766 at the 2010 census...
at age 14. At a Methodist Youth Conference
Youth Conference
Youth Conference is a large scale three-day Christian event held in numerous places around the world. The originating event, YC Alberta, is held in Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada...
in Clear Lake, Iowa, Hallett roomed with future civil-rights leader ("Jim") James Lawson. The two would room together four consecutive years at this annual weeklong program.
Hallett received his B.A. from Dakota Wesleyan University
Dakota Wesleyan University
Dakota Wesleyan University is a four-year university located in Mitchell, South Dakota, founded in 1885, that is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The student body averages slightly less than 800 students...
in 1950. In 1954, he received his S.T.B., magna cum laude, from Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
's School of Theology. He did a photo study on the Roxbury neighborhood and became acquainted with fellow theology student Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
Hallett was influenced by Dean Walter Muelder
Walter George Muelder
Walter George Muelder was an important American social ethicist, ecumenist and public theologian. He studied under Edgar S Brightman at Boston University and began his teaching career at Berea College and the University of Southern California...
. Hallett also said of Muelder "...he was way before his time on the status of women in the church, and he had a very strong commitment to dealing with questions of race".
From 1957-59, Hallett served as associate pastor to a church in Newark
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
, N.J. He led a campaign against an industrial park
Industrial park
An industrial park is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development...
that would displace 10,000 residents. ("You develop a special relationship with people as a pastor... And you get angry at the racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
they experience. I began to probe myself at levels I didn't even know were there. I discovered that my perceptions of race were like an onion.")
From 1961-62, Hallett studied urban planning at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
.
The Chicago years
In 1962, Hallett moved to Chicago to take a job as director of research and planning for the Church Federation of Greater Chicago. Church Federation executive directorExecutive director
Executive director is a term sometimes applied to the chief executive officer or managing director of an organization, company, or corporation. It is widely used in North American non-profit organizations, though in recent decades many U.S. nonprofits have adopted the title "President/CEO"...
Rev. Edgar Chandler became a mentor; Chandler would later help organize King's Soldier Field
Soldier Field
Soldier Field is located on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Illinois, United States, in the Near South Side. It is home to the NFL's Chicago Bears...
rally and would organize a march on the segregated Rainbow Beach, along with Monsignor John Joseph Egan
John Joseph Egan
Monsignor John Joseph Egan was an American Roman Catholic priest and social activist. After initially studying business at DePaul University, he transferred to Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary, completing his studies under the visionary rector Msgr. Reynold Henry Hillenbrand at the...
and Rabbi Robert Marx.
At the Urban Training Center for Christian Mission
Mission (Christian)
Christian missionary activities often involve sending individuals and groups , to foreign countries and to places in their own homeland. This has frequently involved not only evangelization , but also humanitarian work, especially among the poor and disadvantaged...
, Hallett taught organizing strategies to civil-rights activists heading south. ("There's a tendency in a movement to go with the flow and respond to problems - we were trying to think ahead... When you start asking where do you want to be in a year and a half, what are the steps to get there, and what is everyone's role in making that happen, it builds in a discipline that's not externally imposed but that's in the nature of the work.")
In 1963, Hallett received his Ph.D. from Boston University. His dissertation was entitled "Ethical Issues in Urban Planning and Development."
He spent that summer in the south, at the invitation of Ed King. Hallett says, "I had another friend from Boston, Ed King, who was a pastor at Tougaloo College
Tougaloo College
Tougaloo College is a private, co-educational, liberal arts institution of higher education founded in 1869, in Madison County, north of Jackson, Mississippi, USA.Academically, Tougaloo College has received high ranks in recent years...
in Mississippi. ...Ed told me 16 civil rights workers had been killed—this was the summer of '63—and he felt the news wasn't being reported. ...I said, 'What can I do?' He said, 'The most important thing is for you to come down here. We have to get outside credible sources in here to get the news out.' I went down and spent a week in Mississippi with Ed. When I came back, I reported it to a meeting of the Church Federation of Greater Chicago. I gave probably the best speech of my life. And then we began to organize a delegation of clergy to go there from northern cities with the purpose of keeping down the violence. The clergy would come back to Detroit or Baltimore, and then there would be an article in the local papers from somebody they trusted. One after another the major metropolitan dailies started to report what was going on. Nicholas von Hoffman
Nicholas von Hoffman
Nicholas von Hoffman is an American journalist and author. He wrote for the Washington Post. Later, TV audiences knew him as a "Point-Counterpoint" commentator for CBS's 60 Minutes, from which Don Hewitt fired him in 1974.-Biography:He is of German-Russian extraction, descendant of Melchior...
was a reporter for the Chicago Daily News. When we were working on desegregating churches in Mississippi, I would talk to Nick every night. Nick would suggest what to do next because he knew what would make the news. And we'd act it out. He was the only reporter I knew who'd help make the news so he could write about it." That year Hallett also worked as a consultant to developer Jim Rouse on the planning and development of Columbia, Maryland
Columbia, Maryland
Columbia is a planned community that consists of ten self-contained villages, located in Howard County, Maryland, United States. It began with the idea that a city could enhance its residents' quality of life. Creator and developer James W. Rouse saw the new community in terms of human values, not...
.
In 1965, Hallett worked to bring clergy from Chicago and other northern cities to the call of the Civil Rights Movement. He and other "bishops, rabbis, ministers, priests and nuns felt the call to march in Alabama with Martin Luther King." Hallett was quoted in the Time Magazine article of Friday, April 9, 1965, entitled Churches: The Selma Spirit--"It was a breakthrough into a whole new spirit," he says, "a sense of being part of a community at a level and depth that we've never known before."
In 1968, Hallett's church, the Church of the Holy Covenant on Diversey Street in Chicago, provided lodging for protesters during the Democratic convention
Democratic National Convention
The Democratic National Convention is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 national convention...
.
In 1971, Al Raby
Albert Raby
Albert Anderson Raby was a teacher at Chicago's Hess Upper Grade Center who secured the support of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to desegregate schools and housing in Chicago between 1965 and 1967.-Early life:...
, who headed the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations, introduced Hallett to Ron Grzywinski
Ron Grzywinski
Ron Grzywinski is a community development banker from Chicago, and one of four founders of ShoreBank. In May 2010 he retired as chair of ShoreBank Corporation and took the position of Advisor to the Board of Directors of ShoreBank Corporation....
, Milton Davis and Mary Houghton
Mary Houghton
Mary Houghton is co-founder of ShoreBank, the largest and oldest community development bank. Houghton, along with Milton Davis, James Fletcher, and Ron Grzywinski purchased what was then South Shore Bank to fight redlining in the Chicago neighborhood...
, who would together establish the South Shore Bank
ShoreBank
ShoreBank was a community development bank founded and headquartered in Chicago. At the time of its closing it was the oldest and largest such institution, and in 2008 had $2.6 billion in assets. It was owned by ShoreBank Corporation, a regulated bank holding company.ShoreBank had branches in...
's community banking program. He served as a Founding Board Member for the ShoreBank Corporation from 1973 to 1975, and was vice-president of South Shore's holding company in its critical first five years.
In 1973, Hallett led the fight to save the South Shore Country Club.
In 1974, Hallett took a position at Northwestern University's Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research. The center was one of 16 research centers started by the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
in the wake of the 1968 riots
1968 Washington, D.C. riots
Five days of race riots erupted in Washington, D.C. following the April 4, 1968 assassination of Civil Rights Movement-leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil unrest affected at least 110 U.S...
. He developed analysis of credit flows and economics in urban neighborhoods. Hallett became an Adjunct Faculty member at the Kellogg School of Management
Kellogg School of Management
The Kellogg School of Management is the business school of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, downtown Chicago, Illinois and Miami, Florida. Kellogg offers full-time, part-time, and executive programs, as well as partnering programs with schools in China, India, Hong Kong, Israel,...
.
In 1976, Hallett was co-founder, along with Scott Bernstein and Dr. John Martin, of the Center for Neighborhood Technology
Center for Neighborhood Technology
The Center for Neighborhood Technology is a non-profit organization, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, which is committed to sustainable development and livable urban communities. CNT, as an “innovations center for urban sustainability”, researches, invents, and tests urban strategies that use...
. CNT grew from a project at the Center for Urban Affairs examining appropriate technology for city neighborhoods, initially looking at food production
Food industry
The food production is a complex, global collective of diverse businesses that together supply much of the food energy consumed by the world population...
, solar energy
Solar power
Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation, along with secondary solar-powered resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available...
and conservation. ("A lot of environmental groups are good at saying, 'Stop, don't do this.' But the question of what we should be doing instead requires that you really take a look at technological development." He served as a Board Member until his death in 1998.
That same year, Hallett helped launch Woodstock Institute. He served as a Founding Board Member until his death in 1998.
In 1978, Hallett became a faculty member at the Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
Garrett–Evangelical Theological Seminary is a graduate school of theology of the United Methodist Church located in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1853, Garrett-Evangelical is on the campus of Northwestern University and continues many associations with the university...
. He taught courses on History of Western Ethics and Political Philosophy
Political philosophy
Political philosophy is the study of such topics as liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what, if anything, makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it...
, and the Urban Mission of the Church.
Hallett helped lead a coalition of civic organizations in battle against the Deep Tunnel Project. ("You start with the assumption that if a project is that big it must be really well thought through. The more you look, the more you begin to come to the conclusion that any project that big is almost certainly not thought through. You get this great mobilization of business, union, and political forces to do things that make no sense.")
In 1980, Hallett's work helped shape the basis for City Fair, a major alternative technology
Alternative technology
Alternative technology is a term used to refer to technologies that are more environmentally friendly than the functionally equivalent technologies dominant in current practice....
fair, in Seattle, Wash.
In 1985, Hallett and brother Tom launched Pathfinder Systems, Inc., a personal rapid-transit system, to free cities from the enormous toll of the automobile. The concept for Pathfinder would become a consuming, lifelong interest. ("It's clear to me that the automobile is a terribly polluting destructive machine. It is impossible to keep going like this - even the electric cars
Electric vehicle
An electric vehicle , also referred to as an electric drive vehicle, uses one or more electric motors or traction motors for propulsion...
, the hypercars, are too polluting... Can you imagine what this city would be like if we could convert some of these streets into gardens and tennis courts?")
In 1986, Hallett was appointed to the Metra
Metra
Metra is the commuter rail division of the Illinois Regional Transportation Authority. The system serves Chicago and its metropolitan area through 240 stations on 11 different rail lines. Throughout the 21st century, Metra has been the second busiest commuter rail system in the United States by...
Board by Mayor Harold Washington
Harold Washington
Harold Lee Washington was an American lawyer and politician who became the first African-American Mayor of Chicago, serving from 1983 until his death in 1987.- Early years and military service :...
. He served through 1993.
In 1987, Hallett and John L. McKnight co-chaired the Chicago Innovations Forum, to provide forums for discussion of evolving urban issues.
From 1995-97, Hallett served on the Governor's Task Force on Human Resources
Human resources
Human resources is a term used to describe the individuals who make up the workforce of an organization, although it is also applied in labor economics to, for example, business sectors or even whole nations...
Reform.
In 1998, Hallett launched the Masters program in Community Development at North Park University
North Park University
North Park University is a four-year university located at 3225 W. Foster Avenue on the north side of Chicago, Illinois in the North Park neighborhood. It was founded in 1891 by the Evangelical Covenant Church and shares its campus with the denomination's only seminary...
, a Christian liberal arts university
Liberal arts college
A liberal arts college is one with a primary emphasis on undergraduate study in the liberal arts and sciences.Students in the liberal arts generally major in a particular discipline while receiving exposure to a wide range of academic subjects, including sciences as well as the traditional...
on Chicago's northwest side.
Hallett died November 24, 1998.
See also
- African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968)
- Asset-Based Community DevelopmentAsset-based community developmentAsset-based community development is a methodology that seeks to uncover and utilize the strengths within communities as a means for sustainable development....
- Community developmentCommunity developmentCommunity development is a broad term applied to the practices and academic disciplines of civic leaders, activists, involved citizens and professionals to improve various aspects of local communities....
- Sustainable developmentSustainable developmentSustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...