Little Village, South Lawndale

My daughter wanted to find a sovenier from Mexico. She was about to leave on a solo three-week trip to Germany. One of the people she was planning to meet asked if she could bring him a Mexican trinket from Chicago. Back in Albuquerque, where we used to live, the request would have been easy. Now that we lived in Hyde Park we would have to travel to another part of the city to find it.

“Really?” I asked. I was in a grumpy mood. Did we really have to spend an afternoon buying a two-dollar trinket before she left? Finally, she made a peace offering. She volunteered to go tour a new neighborhood with me.

I started looking online at Mexican retail shops. We’d already been to some of the neighborhoods listed, including Bridgeport and Pilsen. Some of the shops on the north side of the city would take a couple hours, each way, to reach on public transportation from our home. We would have to make at least 3 route transfers.

Looking at the distant areas in the north I didn’t know how I was going to get there in the future. At some point I was going to have to make the trip. I decided not to worry about it now. So far, I was managing to find my way around. During my project answers have had a way of appearing when I need them.

The obvious solution to our current dilemma was to shop in the Little Village of Lawndale, a neighborhood of primarily Mexican immigrants. I’d read that their 26^th Street has the second highest amount of retail revenue along any street of Chicago. Only the Miracle Mile on North Michigan is higher. Little Village sells more goods than State Street in downtown.

Since we were familiar with the neighboring Pilsen, we took the pink line L one stop further west to the Kedzie stop. Whether the station is located in North Lawndale or Little Village depends on the map consulted. The two block walk south from the L station to the Metra train tracks did seem like a “no man’s land” with trash piled as high as my knees as we crossed under the Metra bridge.

We arrived in the Little Village neighborhood in mid-afternoon as the schools were letting out. Groups of kids and families were everywhere on the streets. I instantly felt safe when surrounded by women and children. I’ve since read that encouraging groups of immigrants to settle in troubled neighborhoods has been shown to reduce crime rates.

The area was a stark contrast to my previous neighborhood visit of East Garfield Park. Whereas Garfield Park’s streets were mostly barren of people or commercial businesses, even in the middle of the day, the Little Village was full. Neighbors seemed to know each other and would stop to chat in small groups. More strikingly, the area was bursting with small, local merchants.

Part of the explanation was culture. There was a spirit of entrepreneurship and commitment to shop the local merchants. But partially it was the architecture. There must have been hundreds of tiny, affordable stores spaces to rent. Shops could flourish because they have the physical space to do so in a concentrated area.

Even beyond the main commercial corridors there were plenty of tiny shops and corner stores among the homes. When buildings are being torn across the city, sadly, tiny storefronts like these are not being replaced. As the weather was mild for March I also saw lots of card tables set up on sidewalks to sell even more goods.

The greatest difficulty we had getting around the neighborhood was trying to cross the busier streets. There were few traffic lights and cars often didn’t stop for pedestrians in the cross walks. I watched other people have the same problem trying to get to the other side.

As we walked my daughter noticed a store full of religious icons. Inside we found ourselves in the Costco of religious supplies. There must have been hundreds of each item, most still in their boxes stacked on shelves. My daughter found a small icon to take on her trip. After hunting through numerous bottles of spiritual oils, and noticing the stack of voodoo dolls, it dawned on me the store catered to more than the local Catholics.

Later, when I checked on Google for voodoo supplies in Chicago, nothing was listed for Little Village. It made me wonder what else I might find tucked away in the stores. I plan to return to treasure hunt through the shops.

Afterwards, we wandered into a cheese shop with a full size statue of a cow in front. We were given samples of their white Mexican cheese to sample in soft, medium and hard varieties. I bought a couple to take home. I would later eat the hard as string cheese snacks. The medium I used to bake a delicious pan of black bean green chile cheese enchiladas.

  

VIDEO: Little Village, South Lawndale

Link to video of photos:

https://youtu.be/upgs0HErBmo

East Garfield Park

There are neighborhoods in Chicago I don’t feel comfortable walking without guidance. The biggest issue is crime. Will I be safe? The answers are difficult to find, despite diligent online research.

Googling “Chicago’s worst neighborhoods” yields interesting results. A lot of the answers, particularly in forums, tends to reflect perceptions rather than actual statistics. Tourists worry more about being mugged in a very poor neighborhood, when they should be aware that garden variety pick pockets tend to congregate where the action is—tourist hot spots, particularly when late night bar hopping is added to the mix.

Searching online some neighborhoods, like Auburn Gresham, North Lawndale, and Washington Park, tend to show up consistently on “bottom” lists. East Garfield Park, while suffering from higher than average city crime rates, isn’t a shoo in for a “worst 10” neighborhood. The numbers vary. The discussion forums are a different matter. The comments constantly warn against visiting.

While I wouldn’t advise walking unfamiliar neighborhoods alone at night anywhere, tourists and many Chicagoans seem unfairly prejudiced against East Garfield Park even during the day. Getting off the green line at the Conservatory L train stop leads directly to one of the most impressive conservatories in the country. I like it better than Lincoln Park and it has more family-friendly areas. There just isn’t much to do beyond the park.

I crossed paths on social media with Dr. Peter T. Alter, Historian and Director of the Studs Terkel Center of Oral History at the Chicago History Museum. He was in the process of helping raise money for "Forty Blocks:The East Garfield Park Oral History Project.” It would train students from Breakthrough Ministries' Art and Science Academy to interview local residents about the neighborhood.

I have been asked why I don’t document neighborhoods more thoroughly when I visit, particularly the people. The answer is it would require resources like the Forty Blocks project—dozens of committed people, funding, and many hours of work per neighborhood. It takes an entire team.

What Chicago really needs is a Forty Blocks type project in every neighborhood of the city, hopefully produced by the people who live there. I am a tourist of the city taking snap shots of the architecture, capturing a particular place and time.

Alter suggested lunch at the Inspiration Kitchen, located near the conservatory. I had chicken and waffles with an egg, creole mustard, and cayenne syrup. Coming from the spicy Southwest I found the sauces mild but good. Alter had a catfish PoBoy.

I’m always hesitant to walk through a new neighborhood with someone I don’t know. Luckily, Alter has experience working with media and film crews. He was already trained to stay out of the way of my camera view. Beforehand, I realized it was kind of rude of me to suggest he show me around, then only pay half attention to what he was saying as I became engrossed in photography. I was able to solve the issue by getting some video clips of his tour.

In hindsight, I was glad he was there. I didn’t always understand what I was seeing. East Garfield Park is a once prosperous area that has declined dramatically from the 1950s. More than two-thirds of the residents have left. The area is Chicago’s own piece of the Midwestern rust belt. I felt like I was looking at Detroit.

Alter explained Chicago had two major periods of riots in 1968. The summer riots of the Democratic convention are well known. But earlier that year, in April, riots broke out across the city after the assignation of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. While King lived in Chicago he was based in the neighborhood just south of the train tracks, in Lawndale. Historically, the area was one of the first places in the western part of the city to be settled by blacks leaving the South Side after World War II.

During the April riots a significant number of homes and businesses burned in Lawndale and some surrounding areas. They were never rebuilt. The empty lots we were seeing in East Garfield Park weren’t just due to the recent housing crisis. There had been a mass exodus of factories, businesses and jobs since mid century.

During the last housing boom there was a lot of speculation about East Garfield Park gentrifying. It’s close to downtown and has good public transportation. Looking around I had to wonder—gentrify what? So much of the neighborhood is simply gone. It’s not going to be the work of fix-and-flippers or hipsters.

If the neighborhood is going to change it would take an effort like the Chicago Housing Authority in Bronzeville, transforming large blocks at a time with mixed income housing, or the South Loop, where developers are inserting large luxury projects. Even then, both of the aforementioned communities lack significant business development.

Walking around I thought I saw signs of new commercial investment in the neighborhood. I pointed out a great little grocery store. Alter explained no, it was actually a food pantry run by Breakthrough urban ministries. Ditto for the gym, child care and health center. Our lunch restaurant was likewise a social service. Almost no commercial businesses exist in the area. We did pass an urban farm with a B & B nearby.

Residents have few services. Our tour was in early March. Several times we resorted to walking in the street because sidewalks were coated in sheets of ice. They wouldn’t be cleared until they melted. The situation is particularly difficult for the elderly. When I later looked online I was surprised at how high the neighborhood rents are given the condition of the area.

We ended the tour by walking down the once grand West Washington Boulevard. Some of the old mansions remain. To the west it terminates at the extraordinary Garfield Park field house owned by the city park district. Parting ways with Alter I explored the incredible marble and metal work inside. It’s one of Chicago’s relatively unknown architectural treasures, at what was once one of the country’s grandest parks, in what was one of the finer neighborhoods.

VIDEO: East Garfield Park

Link to photos:

https://youtu.be/qma5N7VDHu8

South Loop, Near South Side

On an unusually warm Sunday in late February my husband, daughter and I decided it was time for another neighborhood visit. A day earlier the city had been hit hard with storm gale force winds, causing widespread damage. Debris was littered everywhere. Service was still not fully restored to the downtown L trains. Likewise, buses were unusually crowded. We decided to stick close to home.

One of the biggest challenges doing my project is finding neighborhoods which look decent in photos during bleak winter days. Most places look best when lawns are green and flowers are in bloom. I’ve tried to cover the communities with the least amount of greenery during the coldest months. I picked South Loop to walk. The area is a dense mix of former wealth and extreme segregation, along with former industry and an abandoned red light district, without much landscaping.

Another challenge is figuring out the boundaries of the community areas. Chicago is one of those cities where dividing lines don’t stay put. For my previous neighborhoods I have relied on The Chicago 77 by Mary Zangs as my guide. I purchased the book at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, figuring they would have the most accurate information.

South Loop is a rapidly changing area. New skyscraper residential buildings have sprung up in what was historically the less desirable South Side. Zangs’ book lists the South Loop as stopping at Roosevelt Ave, where the Near South Side starts, as two separate neighborhoods.

The suddenly fashionable community south of Roosevelt Ave has been rebranded as part of The Loop rather than the South Side. The other guides I consulted, and Google Maps, show South Loop overlapping the entire Near South Side, with one exception—the shore line. The community area south of Roosevelt Ave has almost no access to the lake front. The lake shore, Museum Campus, and Northerly Island are separated from the residents by both freeway and railroad tracks.

While many of the sparkling new high rises have views of the lake, it’s a long hike for most residents to walk there. Otherwise it seems like a pleasant neighborhood, if still a bit rough around the edges. I was also surprised how few restaurants and retail services are available in such a densely populated neighborhood.

Rents have increased, particularly with the construction of newer luxury buildings, although the prices are still considered a bargain compared to similar buildings on the North Side in and around downtown.

We started our tour on the eastern side of the neighborhood from Museum Campus. The walk was enjoyable because townhomes line the sidewalks. I didn’t feel walled in by the high rises, like I did when I visited downtown Miami. Families gathered in parks and along the sidewalks.

We wandered across the Clarke Museum, a small white home in the middle of a compact park. Built in 1836 it’s fabled to be the oldest home in the city. Nearby is the Prairie Avenue Historic District, which once housed the wealthiest citizens after the Great Chicago Fire. A few of the mansions still remain.

We headed over to the western side. The area isn’t as good for walking. Some buildings remain abandoned and there is little to stop and do along the way. We passed blank areas of unapproachable landscaping and a large gated community near a freeway underpass.

We planned to grab an afternoon coffee. But as we reached the northern edge of the Near South Side by Roosevelt Ave the shops had long lines out the door. We ventured a bit further north to a diner. We sampled the difference between a traditionally grated potato latke versus a new improved version with pureed potatoes. The pureed latke reminded me of fried mush I’d eaten as a kid in NE Ohio. After potato overload we headed for home.

VIDEO: South Loop Photos

Link to video:

https://youtu.be/QBYgS1aW5dM