Upper-middle class in the context of "Upper classes"

Upper class in modern societies is the social class composed of people who hold the highest social status. Usually, these are the wealthiest members of class society, and wield the greatest political power. According to this view, the upper class is generally distinguished by immense wealth which is passed on from generation to generation. Prior to the 20th century, the emphasis was on aristocracy, which emphasized generations of inherited noble status, not just recent wealth.

Because the upper classes of a society may no longer rule the society in which they are living, they are often referred to as the old upper classes, and they are often culturally distinct from the newly rich middle classes that tend to dominate public life in modern social democracies. According to the latter view held by the traditional upper classes, no amount of individual wealth or fame would make a person from an undistinguished background into a member of the upper class as one must be born into a family of that class and raised in a particular manner to understand and share upper class values, traditions, and cultural norms. The term is often used in conjunction with terms like upper-middle class, middle class, and working class as part of a model of social stratification.

The City Beautiful movement is a reform philosophy of North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of introducing beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. It was a part of the progressive social reform movement in North America under the leadership of the upper-middle class, which was concerned with poor living conditions in all major cities. The movement, which was originally associated mainly with Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City and Washington, D.C., promoted beauty not only for its own sake, but also to create moral and civic virtue among urban populations.

Advocates of the philosophy believed that such beautification could promote a harmonious social order that would increase the quality of life, while critics would complain that the movement was overly concerned with aesthetics at the expense of social reform. Jane Jacobs referred to the movement as an "architectural design cult."

The West Side is one of the three major geographical "sides" of the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The others are the North Side and South Side. The West Side contains communities that are of historical and cultural importance to the history and development of Chicago. On the flag of Chicago, the West Side is represented by the central white stripe.

The West Side has gone through many transitions in its ethnic and socioeconomic makeup due to its historic role as a gateway for immigrants and migrants as well as its role for funneling poorer African-American residents away from the wealthier lakeside neighborhoods and central business district. Historically the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 started on the West Side before consuming much of the then city, and Jane Addams of Hull House brought international attention to the West Side in the late 1900s and early 20th century. At the same time, some of Chicago's grandest parks and boulevards were laid out on the West Side. Today, the West Side consists of large mixed communities of middle class, working class, and low-income African American, Puerto Rican, and Mexican residents; some small communities of blue-collar, lower middle class and middle class white residents of historically Polish, Italian, Czech, Russian Jewish, and Greek, descent; and newer communities of middle-class, upper-middle class, and wealthy white residents created by gentrification. Major shifts continue to happen due to forces such as rapid gentrification, selective corporate investments, and unequal distribution of city resources.