This was posted to The Sixth Ward Blog on March 5, 2012 not long after the ward remap at the time. The topic of Roseland Heights being recognized was a topic of discussion within the Roseland Heights Community Association then.
I attended the recent Roseland Heights Neighborhood Association meeting where they discussed a number of topics that affected that particular community. It could be about landscaping, street lighting, trash, fly dumping, parks, ect. But they devoted a lot of time to the recognition of Roseland Heights.
At their November meeting they devoted a lot of time to address the remap situation. One of the subjects that came up was the recognition of neighborhoods. Look at any current map of Chicago neighborhoods or even the community area maps and Roseland Heights (which is bounded by 95th on the north, Dan Ryan Expressway on the west, Bishop Ford/Calumet Expressway on the south, and King Drive on the east) is not to be found. The maps are made up by the city, the community area maps were created originally by the University of Chicago, and another map made up by the real estate businesses.
The maps change when the city recognizes a particular area. They may also change when real estate people decide to distinguish an area from the surrounding area. For example you build some new houses in Englewood, you may not like the general reputation of Englewood so you would elect to give your development a new name. One that is marketable!
That may well have been the case in Roseland Heights but then that neighborhood organization has been in existence since at least 1956. So why is it that particular neighborhood isn't recognized at all?
But then apparently there is another thread. It seems on a past map - according to association president Clevan Tucker - Roseland Heights did exist. He was looking up information regarding Abbott Park and he threw out the names of Olympia Park or Champion Park and I'll just assume those are the original designation for Abbott Park near 95th & Michigan.
However old that map was, what happened between now and then where Roseland Heights lost their recognition? Oh and I forgot to add that Roseland Heights according to a neighborhood map provided by the city is considered part of Rosemoor. I took a detail of that map and put an image here.
Also notice the thin Strip of Roseland in light green that comes on the west up to 95th Street. The western part appears to be State Street and the eastern part is Michigan Avenue and then it widens out by 107th Street. The purple shade is Roosemoor which does include most of Roseland Heights and Chicago State University.
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