Southside Tour. Saturday, June 13, 2009.
The first neighborhoods we passed broke any stereotypes I had about the Southside. The areas were entered were all black, but middle class. Places of cared-for yards and small businesses. Places that looked safe and were community oriented. Arvis told us about their history—many areas had been built for whites but when the first black people moved in, the whites fled leaving the community to grow and develop on it’s own. The shady streets are well cared for; block clubs post warnings about being noisy and parking.
Our tour shows me that the South side cannot be characterized in one generalization. It includes our safe refuge of Hyde Park, where the average level of education is seventeen and a half years and professors stroll down shady streets coffee mugs balanced on the handlebars of strollers; it includes the wealthy black neighborhood of Kenwood where Obama lives blocks from Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the nation of Islam; the middle class blacks of farther south. It includes Englewood, the second most dangerous place in the nation, a place where a nine-year-old girl was shot yesterday while bathing her dogs with her dad. It includes parks, cemeteries, Chinatown, the White Sox, and the ritzy apartments that house Mayor Daley and his cohorts. For this summer, it is my home.
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