1. The big picture: What are the broad, general dimensions of this problem or story, here in Chicago as of 2010?
As of 2010, “the ghetto” has been defined as the poor areas with dense African American populations. Nowadays the word ghetto not only describes a place, but is also used as an adjective to describe an area, or type of people in general. Chicago’s ghetto is typically referring to the south side of the city. The Chicago Housing Authority which was founded in 1937 was responsible for the majority of housing available for the city’s African American population, which was quite a controversial topic. Chicago’s ghetto today is still considered to be the south, and southeast areas of the city. However, today the term ghetto is used to describe not only the African American population, but new “ghettos” have sprung up among different cultural backgrounds and neighborhoods. A neighborhood like Pilsen would be considered a ghetto by some, housing a large amount of Chicago’s Latino population. The ghettos of Chicago are generally the poorer neighborhoods lacking white folk, noteworthy schools, security, and good housing. While African Americans are no longer strictly confined to housing projects like they were decades ago, some still face the challenges of life in the ghetto. They face the increased risk of gang violence, run down housing, and overall lesser standards for living conditions. That’s not to say that people living in the ghetto are okay with lesser standards, it’s simply stating that these are the conditions that people are presented with.
2. What’s new with regard to this issue? Have there been noteworthy and/or newsworthy incidents, changes, reforms, problems, programs, or developments over the past 4 or 5 ye...
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"Housing Bulletin: Low-Income Housing Developer Hit Hard by Downturn - Deal Estate - February 2009 - Chicago." Chicago Magazine - Dining, Shopping, Fashion, Entertainment, Real Estate, News and Events. Web. 03 Mar. 2010. .
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Guiding Questions
A Ghetto is a section of a city were members of a racial group are
Chicago’s Cabrini-Green public housing project is notorious in the United States for being the most impoverished and crime-ridden public housing development ever established. Originally established as inexpensive housing in the 1940’s, it soon became a vast complex of unsightly concrete low and high-rise apartment structures. Originally touted as a giant step forward in the development of public housing, it quickly changed from a racially and economically diverse housing complex to a predominantly black, extremely poor ghetto. As it was left to rot, so to speak, Cabrini-Green harbored drug dealers, gangs and prostitution. It continued its downward spiral of despair until the mid 1990’s when the Federal Government assumed control the Chicago Housing Authority, the organization responsible for this abomination. Cabrini-Green has slowly been recovering from its dismal state of affairs recently, with developers building mixed-income and subsidized housing. The Chicago Housing Authority has also been demolishing the monolithic concrete high-rise slums, replacing them with public housing aimed at not repeating the mistakes of the past. Fortunately, a new era of public housing has dawned from the mistakes that were made, and the lessons that were learned from the things that went on for half a century in Cabrini-Green.
In the article “Gentrification’s Insidious Violence: The Truth about American Cities” by Daniel Jose Older, Older places emphasis on the neighboring issue of gentrification in minority, low income communities or as better known as being called the “hood” communities. The author is biased on how race is a factor in gentrifying communities by local governments. Older explains his experience as a paramedic aiding a white patient in the “hood” where he was pistol whipped in a home invasion by a black male. This is an example of black on white crime which is found to be a normal occurrence in the residence of his community. But that is not the case in Older’s situation because that was the first time he has
A Ghetto Takes Shape: Black Cleveland, 1870-1930 explains in detail how the author deciphers the ghettoization process in Cleveland during the time period. Kusmer also tries to include studies that mainly pertained to specific black communities such as Harlem, Chicago, and Detroit, which strongly emphasized the institutional ghetto and dwelled on white hostility as the main reasons as to why the black ghetto was
Many of these ethnic groups still reside where their relatives first lived when they arrived many years ago, whereas a majority of the ethnic groups have dispersed all over the Chicago land area, creating many culturally mixed neighborhoods. Ultimately, all of these ethnic groups found their rightful area in which they belong in Chicago. To this day, the areas in Chicago that the different ethnic immigrants moved to back in the 1920s are very much so the same. These immigrants have a deep impact on the development of neighborhoods in today’s society. Without the immigrants’ hard work and their ambition to establish a life for their families and their future, Chicago would not be as developed and defined as it is now.
"Building Partnerships to Revitalize America's Neighborhoods." HBCU Central (Winter 2002): 1-6. Winter 2002. Web. 2 May 2012.
Chicago was the best place to live and visit for anyone. Many people traveled from far places to visit and live in Chicago. Long after the World War II many things started reshaping America. One of the most significant was the racial change all over America but specifically in Chicago. Many southern blacks started to move into Chicago. Chicago started to become mostly dominated by blacks and other minorities while whites started to move into the suburbs of Chicago. "Beginning in the 1930s, with the city's black population increasing and whites fleeing to the suburbs, the black vote became a precious commodity to the white politicians seeking to maintain control" (Green, 117). Many of the mayors such as Edward J. Kelly, Martin H. Kennelly, and Richard J. Daley won over the blacks and got their votes for them to become mayor. The black population grew by 77 percent by the 1940. The white population dropped from 102,048 to 10,792 during the years of 1940 to 1960. With all of these people moving into Chicago there had to be more housing. There were many houses built to accommodate all the people. Martin H. Kennelly at one time wanted to tear down slums and have public housing built in the black ghetto. Many of the blacks wanted to escape these ghettos so some of them; if they could they would try to move to the white communities. When the blacks would try to move into the white communities they were met with mobs. There were many hurdles that blacks had to overcome not only in Chicago but all over America. The blacks of Chicago had to fight for a place to live and to find a mayor that would help them for who they are, not their color.
The downgrading of African Americans to certain neighborhoods continues today. The phrase of a not interested neighborhood followed by a shift in the urban community and disturbance of the minority has made it hard for African Americans to launch themselves, have fairness, and try to break out into a housing neighborhood. If they have a reason to relocate, Caucasians who support open housing laws, but become uncomfortable and relocate if they are contact with a rise of the African American population in their own neighborhood most likely, settle the neighborhoods they have transfer. This motion creates a tremendously increase of an African American neighborhood, and then shift in the urban community begins an alternative. All of these slight prejudiced procedures leave a metropolitan African American population with few options. It forces them to remain in non-advanced neighborhoods with rising crime, gang activity, and...
The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless estimates that between 2014 and 2015, 125,848 Chicagoans were homeless. 20,205 homeless students were identified by Chicago Public Schools. 98.1% of the students identified were 'children of color ', and 18.3% were diagnosed with disabilities or developmental delays. 54,638 students were identified throughout all of Illinois. People living in families comprise half of Chicago 's homeless population. 14% of Chicago 's homeless adults were employed.
A strong sense of community is not usually an association one makes when thinking about the urban ghettos. It is assumed that inner-city neighbourhoods, which lack formal structures and services, are home to poverty and deviance. However, for Sudhir Venkatesh, author of “Gang Leader for a Day”, a community is what he encounters when observing residents of the largest housing projects in the United States, the Robert Taylor Homes. In poor, racialized neighbourhoods such as the Robert Taylor Homes, there is an idea that there is no social structure in place to provide guidance to young people, who end up getting in trouble. Neighborhoods lacking formal organizations are unable to provide essential services to the community and lack necessary
Williamson, Kevin. “The White Ghetto.” National Review Online. 9 January 2014. Web. 05 October 2014.
In conclusion the ghetto life was wretched but then again it was better than going into a concentration camp or even a death camp, the people in the ghettos were probably relieved they lived as long as they did.
Gentrification is designed to improve the quality of life for the residents, but the fact is that it pushes out old residents to welcome in young and wealthy citizens. To analyze the demographic even further, gentrified neighborhoods in New York City have seen an increase in white population despite a city wide decrease. As Kate Abbey-Lamertz of the Huffington Post states, “The report notes that change is driven by educated people moving in, rather than by existing residents becoming more educated.” These changes are being driven by a millennial demographic who can afford the changed aesthetic. The influx of millennials are pushing out families whose lifestyle can’t keep up with the changing demographic. Even though these changes have been occurring for almost thirty years, and the city hasn’t made the changes needed for people who need low income housing. New York City’s gentrification must be slowed in order for people in low income housing to catch
Gentrification has been blamed for the displacement of poor communities. However, in a city gentrification has other important characteristics. First, it impacts the demographic of an area in the sense that there is an increase in middle-class income population. Additionally, Randy Shaw notes in his article that demographic shift includes reduction in households’ sizes as well as decline in minorities (Shaw). Most of gentrified areas appear to have whites replacing blacks and other minority
Through our meeting, Jose and I could have built a relationship to combat the student, or adolescent, that falls within the middle; “at-risk” youth who are neither an academic scholar, or a perceived risk of dropping out of school, committing violence and selling drugs. After our meeting, we could eventually meet again to discuss our goals further and figure out next steps. However, do we know if these services already exist within another organization? If so, do we talk with them to figure out if we could join efforts? If not, do we conduct more one-to-one interviews to see if we could grow our collective effort? The effort to combat youth & gang violence, education, and other crime prevention in Worcester is a citywide effort. Main South is a piece to the puzzle, but is not the only neighborhood that is plagued with these issues. However, the social capital associated with the issue of gang and youth violence, along with high school dropouts, has a strong network in the Main South Neighborhood, making that community of youth development workers strong. Robert Putnam defines Social Capital as features of social organization such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit (Putnam: 2005). Though the term, “community” is not given to certain neighborhoods or cities, when we look at collective