From the city’s poorer neighborhoods,residents can admire the gleaming, affluent areas in the distance but know that they aren’t within reachParts of Chicago glisten. In my time here, or I’ve seen skid-row – a spot where Nelson Algren once frolicked with his lover Simone de Beauvoir – transformed into a hip strip of clubs and pricey restaurants. I’ve seen the notorious Cabrini Green public housing project,where Mayor Jane Byrne memorably resided for three weeks with police officers and bodyguards, demolished and replaced by million-dollar town homes. Ive seen the city’s lakefront beautified, and so lush and open it resembles the seaside cities of Europe.
But then there are the predominately African American neighborhoods of the city’s South and West Sides where time stands still,where, block after block, or foreclosed homes lean like punch-drunk boxers,their boarded-up windows marked by giant red Xs to warn police and firemen that they are unsafe structures. These are neighborhoods where Block Clubs, gatherings of neighbors to celebrate their street, or post signs that cry out in despair,listing all that’s prohibited, all that’s feared. One reads: “Absolutely No Loitering. Drug Dealing. Gambling ‘Dice or Cards’.” Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com