Jack Meltzer played a role in shaping Hyde Park as an urban planner who crafted blueprints for the demolition and rebuilding of large swaths of the South Side Chicago neighborhood during the 1950s and 1960s.
Mr. Meltzer, 88, died of complications from emphysema Wednesday, May 5, at an assisted living facility in Washington, D.C., said his son Marc. He lived most recently in Chevy Chase, Md.
After getting his master’s degree in public administration with an emphasis on planning from the University of Chicago, Mr. Meltzer in 1954 became director of planning for the South East Chicago Commission, an arm of the university.
The South Side was changing rapidly as African-Americans, no longer bound by restrictive real estate covenants that had long kept them crowded into clearly delineated areas, moved into previously white neighborhoods.
Residents of Hyde Park and officials at its anchor, the U. of C., sought to stabilize their predominately white and middle- to upper-middle-class community by tearing down the aged and decrepit housing that lined many of its thoroughfares and erecting new buildings and commercial strips.
Mr. Meltzer was given the difficult task of deciding where urban renewal, for many a catchword for displacing poor and minorities, was justified and would contribute to the goal.
“His agenda was to make urban renewal work,” said Bruce Sagan, publisher of the Hyde Park Herald. “The arguments were over how much clearance and who would be hurt. In those circumstances there’s no question the poor people were hurt.”
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The plans put forth by Mr. Meltzer and the South East Chicago Commission for Hyde Park and Kenwood determined the fate of dozens of blocks between 47th and 59th streets. The plans also suggested the fate of traffic flow and other facets of city life.
“It was very controversial. But he felt it was necessary because there was great concern at the time that the university was in jeopardy because the neighborhood was in decline,” Mr. Meltzer’s son said.
Sagan points to the current state of Hyde Park, considered a stable and integrated community, as evidence that Mr. Meltzer and others involved in the planning process during that crucial time were largely successful.
Mr. Meltzer grew up in Hamtramck, Mich., near Detroit, and graduated from Wayne State University with a bachelor’s degree before coming to the University of Chicago, his son said.
After four years with the South East Chicago Commission, he started his own urban planning firm, consulting on projects including the Near West Side site for the University of Illinois at Chicago, his son said. He also did consulting work for cities around the country.
He went on to teach and chair the public affairs program at the U. of C.’s School of Social Service Administration. In 1983, he went to the University of Texas at Dallas, where he was dean of the social service school for three years, his son said.
He retired in 1986 and moved to the Washington, D.C., area to be closer to family.
Mr. Meltzer’s wife, Rae, died in 2008. He also is survived by another son, Richard; a daughter, Ellen Meltzer Schneider; eight grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Services were held.