I was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. I lived in a very welcoming neighborhood. As a child, I had many friends on my street. We would ride bikes, climb trees, visit the playground at the local park district, and stay outside until the streetlights turned on. The families on my street always looked out for each other, so we didn't worry too much about safety. All of my friends attended the same school and participated in the Chicago Park District's activities such as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, music and dance lessons, and open gym events. The park district hosted an annual gym show so the kids could perform for their families. Residents would get together on most Sundays to talk about issues in the neighborhood and share meals and stories. …show more content…
Chicago also has multiple arena and stadiums to attend sporting and concert events, including Wrigley Field, US Cellular Field, Soldiers Field, United Center, Rosemont Theatre, and The Chicago Theater. I also visited Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo on the lakefront, and Brookfield Zoo which is located Southwest of the city. If you want to spend time on Lake Michigan, there are many beaches for swimming, and piers for boating. I can honestly say that Chicago has a lot to offer. I never had a boring time. Of the many things I miss about not living in Chicago, one of them is the food. I love Chicago hot dogs, pizza, and Chinese cuisine. Chicago neighborhoods have multiple, family owned restaurants and hot dog stands. You have enormous menu choices from hamburgers, cheese fries, hand dipped ice cream and shakes, hot dogs, gyros, giant fried shrimp, Italian beef, and one of my favorites, the "Confused Chicken Sandwich". Chicago also has multiple family owned pizza "joints", such as Lou Malnati's, Gino's East, Old World, Home Run Inn, and my two favorites, Amato's Pizza and Giordano's. The best Chinese food I've ever tasted is made in
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.
If you ever find yourself in Baltimore there are some things and places you must go and do. First of all there is Lexington Market which stretches over two blocks. This centuries old market has more than one hundred and fifty stalls and vendors offering fresh vegetables, seafood, meats, baked goods and prepared foods. You can find some of the best crab cakes known to man here, you haven't had a real crab cake until you taste one without all the bread filling. The sweet meat of blue crab is held together by egg, a tiny bit of bread crumbs an more crab meat. Camden Yards is also a must see. It is one of the most beautiful baseball stadiums in the world. Instead of the traditional hotdog stands you will find pit beef sandwiches and Natty Boh. I highly recommend you go on a food tour if ever in Baltimore.
With this in mind, Chicago is a wonderful place to visit and live, however it does have it light and dark side. Millions of people visited Chicago for it cultural events, annual festivals, to walk, jog, or ride a bike along the lakefront. Visit the Planetarium, museums, Art Institute or ride up to the 103rd floor of Willis Tower. Take in a movie go shopping down Michigan Ave, or State Street. Nevertheless, be careful of the dangers hidden in some of the neighborhoods in Chicago.
The setting of the story is Chicago’s South Side. This area of Chicago was known as the “capital of black America” (Manning), and according to Andrew Wiese, Chicago used to be known as “the most segregated city in America” (118). These seriously contradictory statements are true. Chicago’s South Side was home to William L. Dawson, who was the most powerful black politician at the time, and Joe Luis, who was a boxing champion and was known as the most popular black man in America (Manning). It was the most popular place for blacks to migrate to during the Great Migration, and the population grew from 278,000 blacks to 813,000 blacks. Most of the neighborhoods located in the South Side were poor and highly segregated from the rich white neighborhoods located just outside the South Side (Pacyga). The housing in these areas was very poor as well. Most of the African Americans at the time lived in a small apartment called a kitchenette. These were cramped with a small kitchen and small rooms (Plotkin). Lorraine Hansberry describes the Youngers house as a worn out, cramped, and very small apartment (23). She also talks about the small kitchen, living room, and bedrooms (24). These apartments were not ideal, but it was all that many African Americans could afford. If African Americans tried to move nicer neighborhoods, whites would perform violent acts on them (Choldin). This violence was recorded in a African American newspaper, known the Chicago Defender (Best).
Every morning on my way to school I often pick up the Red Eye newspaper and read the latest news happening in Chicago. As I skim the pages I often see a section that shows the homicide tracker in the city of Chicago. This section of the newspaper shows numerous of deaths occurred in a month in a specific area. Consequently, similar to this homicide tracker on the newspaper the following articles have about the same homicide stories that have occurred in the city of Chicago years ago. In the book The Devil in the White City by Eric Larson illustrates the dreadful events about crime, violence, and illness all leading to death; The Coldest Case: The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre by Jonathan Eig describes a tragic murder of six men by the mob making Chicago seen as a gangland murder capital; The Untouchables by Eliot Ness tells the conflict Eliot Ness experienced trying to put the gangster Al Capone out of business, and For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz Age Chicago by Simon Baatz retells the case of judge Clarence Darrow which was to defend two boys of receiving the death penalty. The combination of these three stories shows serious issues such as crime, corruption and violence that are plaguing Chicago.
The Chicago Cubs are an interesting part of Illinois history, even if they are not always successful. The history of Wrigley Field, the famous players, and the stories behind every game are why Chicago loves the Cubs. It is the atmosphere of the friendly confines when you walk in through those gates. It is jumping out of your seat when the ball is being hit out of the park. It is things as little as singing the 7th inning stretch with all the other Cub fans around you. Rooting for the underdog is special, and that is why Cub fans are so loyal. The history, players, and stories of Chicago Cubs Baseball are the reasons why it is an important part of Illinois history.
Growing up on the south side of Chicago in the roughest neighborhood in the city I learned a lot from others and just observing my surroundings. At times, I would always think to myself my situation could always be worse than it was, and that there is always someone who is doing worst off than me. But my situation turned from being in a bad position to being in a position where my mother would come to lose her mother and our home that we had been living in, all in the same year. After losing her mother and bother my mom lost herself in her emotions and shut down on everyone and with that came the loss of a home for me and my siblings and her job. Shortly after my mom began to go back to church and so did we. It was the first time in a log time that we had attended church and it played a big part in a learning experience for me and my siblings. Through the days that came to pass going to church sparked a desire of wanting to help others who had or are struggling to get by. My mentor, Pastor, and teacher deserves appreciation for helping my mother through a hard time and keeping me and my siblings active in a positive manor.
There have been many weird things happening in Illinois in the past 100 years. There has been a whole bunch of mysterious fires and weird things happening at churches. There has been many unexplained Phenomena like weeping statues or weird poltergeist. Although there is a lot more phenomenas, there are also been some local legends like The Demon Butcher and The Axeman. Weird and creepy, there are a lot more local legends and phenomenas that i'm not going to explain.
Chicago has played a major role in American Literary history. As African American writers struggled to express their unique literary voice, they sought to celebrate diversity of the American people and to develop a unifying national identity for themselves (Woolley).
Often times I find myself reminiscing about my child hood. I recall driving throughout the prominent metro Detroit neighborhood in which I grew up, Rosedale Park. See in those days my community was a gem which shone bright toward the edification of the Motor City. On streets like Piedmont, Grandville, Stahelin and Artesian one could drive by almost at any time and see children outside playing, adults on porches and sidewalks fellowshipping, and houses abounding with vibrant lights, laughter, and with life. This was my community; moreover, this was a facet of my adolescence that I ignorantly took for granted. Today desolation has grown sovereign over this beautiful gem. Today the sounds of laughter have all but faded into a resounding restless silence. One could even say that abandoned houses and boarded doors and windows have become indigenous, not only to Rosedale Park, but to every part of the metro Detroit area. However, one thing has remained constant; Rosedale Park, no rather Detroit as a whole is still my community.
An experience that significantly stood out to me was when I moved to a different quadrant of the city, which was mainly composed of white communities. Prior to moving to this new quadrant, my family and I resided
Chicago When I first watched Chicago at the movie theater, I was not fully satisfied. I wanted more, so I went back to get some and watched it six more times with different friends and family members! Last summer during a visit to my native Mexico City, I had the opportunity to watch drag queens perform several numbers from the movie musical. They did an amazing job, without surpassing the outstanding performances of the actors in the film. Last year, I visited NYC for the first time and indulged in the rows of the Ambassador Theatre.
food needed to be flawless. One look outside, from the close quarters of such a
Moving from a highly diverse community to a less diverse community has to be the weirdest yet interesting culture shock I ever had to deal with. As a young child, I did not know about the outside world. I thought everyone rides the bus or the metro, graffiti on the wall is normal and traffic wouldn’t matter as much since everything I needed was within walking distance sometimes. There were shocking things I learned once I moved to Nebraska.
The city was blinding me with shining lights that you could see from space. It was glistening in the night and dull by day. There were cars parked all alongside the streets and traffic jams every corner.