#tbt Decision at 83rd Street

[VIDEO] Last year at The Sixth Ward I posted this above video from a YouTube channel that refers to itself as Fuzzy Memories - which mostly posts old footage from Chicago TV stations. This documentary is 57 years old and illustrates the racial change that took place in the city during the 1960s.

On this blog and at The Sixth Ward I've showed a number of old pics of how various neighborhoods on the south side used to look like. As happens over time buildings are torn down, schools or churches close down, a streetscape looks vastly different from what it was decades ago. Or indeed looking at aspects of our transportation infrastructure which is vastly different from what we know about today.

Marynook on a map

In this case, WBBM-TV (or we can call them CBS 2 today) took a look at the racial change taking place in the Marynook area (which is the area between 87th and 83rd Streets north to south and the IC railroad tracks to Dorchester west to east. At issue here is the implications of the integration taking place and we hear a lot about things we associate with "white flight". We hear about "block busting" where unscrupulous real estate agents urge white homeowners to sell before the racial change of the neighborhood causes the value of their homes to depreciate.

These days Marynook is mostly Black, however, the character of that area is still basically middle class. It's often gotten attention for its mid-century architecture and could often be describes as a neighborhood that could resemble a suburban area.

BTW, as a side note I'm glad Fuzzy Memories is back. They were down for a while since YouTube tends to take down channels that are found to be uploading copyrighted materials. I've gotten away from following their channel in recent years, however, it's time to start back. It's fascinating what people saw on their TV years before I was even born. 

The Chicago Neighborhoods

Reason: Markets penalize bigotry

[VIDEO] The video you're about to see would've been great for Black History Month. All the same, I pride myself on sharing information that gets you to think. Over the years this wasn't the only video from Reason magazine that I have shared with you. Here's an early one that shares a vastly different from the one above about urban renewal.

In this case a real estate businessman Philip A. Payton knew how to play the game and essentially built a Black community in Harlem. The lesson here at least for early 20th century New York, segregation can become ultimately a very expensive luxury. I recognize times have changed so perhaps the late Philip A. Payton's approach may not work the same way today.

Tribune: Chicago area pays steep price for segregation, study finds

Another article I saw referred to Chicago as "Balkanized" i.e. divided. There's a price to this division:

The seven-county area's murder rate could be cut by 30 percent, its economy could churn out an additional $8 billion in goods and services and its African-American residents could earn another $3,000 a year if it could reduce racial and economic segregation to the median level for the nation's largest metro areas.

And 83,000 more residents could have earned bachelor's degrees, spurring another $90 billion in collective lifetime earnings.

Those were the findings of a study by the Metropolitan Planning Council, a Chicago-based public policy research group, and the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank.

The Capitol Fax has more on this and the full study.

Crossposted from The Sixth Ward

WTTW: Segregation and Racial Barriers on Chicago's South Side

Last week WBEZ's Natalie Moore was on WTTW's Chicago Tonight to talk about her book The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation. The book is based on her experience, but it discusses how segregation on the south side shapes our city. Have you read Moore's book?

UPDATE @ 11:33 AM The Tribune did an article discussing Moore's book earlier this month.