Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to go to the recent meeting hosted by state Rep. Elgie Sims on the Walgreen's store that closed on Tuesday Jun. 27th at 95th/King Drive. However I'm glad that the West Chesterfield Community Association was able to share a quick report on their fb page. That report is embedded below
Crossposted from The Sixth Ward [VIDEO] One of the main reasons why I started The Sixth Ward was to in some way highlight the middle-class aspects of the 6th Ward as it was drawn between 2002 to roughly 2015. Chatham isn't the only community with a solidly Black middle-class population, but it has often been considered a bastion of the Black middle-class.
It's a great history Blacks came from sharecroppers and then reached some form of a middle-class through entrepreneurship, trades, manufacturing, even as government workers. Although as I've learned overtime with this blog having taken an interest in the issues of the middle-class being white middle-class is often different than being Black middle-class. One difference is certainly the wealth gap:
Nearly 40 percent of black children are poor, and for every dollar of wealth in the hands of the average white family, the typical black family has only a little more than a nickel.
Also mentions which is also part of this wealth gap is the great recession and how many Black families are still digging out of it. Just think as Barack Obama took the reigns as President of the United States many Black neighborhoods here in Chicago were feeling the crisis of foreclosure.
Also noted how if one bought a home in a solidly Black populated area the values of the home would be devalued compared to a home in a white populated area. If both areas are considered solidly middle-class where people generally take care of their property there would still be a difference as far as value based upon the majority race.
With that being said is the path different for those people who seek to join the ranks of America's middle-class? What held an earlier generation back at least 50-60 years ago may not be a major factor at the start of the 21st century.
The plot thickens. There is an unverified report that Wendy's will take over the former KFC site at 95th Michigan.
Also, it has been reported that Wendy's will be opening a store at the 87th street retail corridor.
So will we have two stores opening? Will we have 4 stores in a 5mile radius with the existing stores at 86th Stony and 83rd Ashland?
What's your thoughts?
In addition there's also a Wendy's at 111th/State in Roseland. Also let's not forget that the former Wendy's at 95th/King Drive still hasn't found another tenant yet. Though it's great to finally have a new business in the former KFC space which closed permanently near the end of 2015. Here's one of our ig posts.
After a lifetime of living in Chicago, my husband is seriously talking about moving away.
It’s not just one thing that is spurring him to pack up and leave, he explained; it’s a combination of things.
He cited high taxes, crime and bad politics, but he’s obviously not alone. Black people are fleeing the city’s predominantly black neighborhoods on the South and West Sides.
Meanwhile, according to recent U.S. Census data, white people are flocking to neighborhoods near Downtown.
Chicago, once a haven for the black middle class, is no longer seen as a place of economic opportunity for African Americans.
6th Ward Alderman Roderick Sawyer was quoted:
Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th) argues that white people are moving in as black people abandon these neighborhoods.
“I’m in Woodlawn right now, and there are white people walking down the street, walking dogs and jogging. People don’t mess with white people. If I walked up and down the street over here, I would probably get hit in the head, and that’s an awful thing to say,” Sawyer conceded.
“But we can make it better by staying and putting in the time and work and getting involved in your neighborhood. You can’t complain about it while you are locked up in your house,” he said. ... “We may lose another black alderman as some of our wards are teetering around 60 percent black. In fact, Walter Burnett’s ward is not black. We lost the second ward in the last redistricting,” Sawyer said.
Still, the alderman is wary of the Census data.
“I don’t think as many people are leaving, as they are not being counted,” he said.
Conclusion:
This latest Census data shows black residents want the same things other people want: employment, fair government, safe neighborhoods and good schools.
Unfortunately, too few African-Americans in Chicago can say they have any of those things.
Employment, fair gov't, safe neighborhoods, & good schools. How do we get any of those?
Two posts from Marathon Pundit to mark the Memorial Day holiday. One was taken at the former St. Salomea Catholic Church @ 118th & Indiana Ave. (also known as Salem Baptist Church) in Roseland. That's the pic you see above.
The other pic was taken at George Pullman School located at 11311 S. Forrestville Avenue in Pullman.
Hopefully everyone had a wonderful and safe Memorial Day holiday.
In about one month the Walgreen's location at 347 E. 95th Street will be closed permanently on June 27, 2016. It'll just be another vacant storefront just like the former Wendy's across the street on 95th.
The flyer you see below is seen on a table as you enter the store and signs are posted in that location alerting customers of the impending closing. This particular space had only been open for roughly a decade.
One attempt to get a handle on the issue of gun violence in Chicago's crime ridden neighborhoods. At one point in time this blog strived to avoid issues of crime even though I recognize it as a reality in our fair city.
Regardless the fact that a shooting and the volume of them is news not just locally but nationally also is problematic. We all hope for a solution to save our young people. No easy answers, but something has to be done about the violence.
Also for this, there will be three parts to this series. I hope to be able to share the other ones as they're published.
This notice was e-mailed to Ald. Anthony Beale's e-mail list over the weekend regarding the next 9th ward community meeting tomorrow Tuesday, May 23, 2017 at the Pullman Presbyterian Church @ 550 E. 103rd Street. And of course if you attend you would hear updates from representatives of city departments and agencies.
Since the early ’80s, blacks in South and West Side neighborhoods have been steadily leaving the city, resettling at first largely in the Cook County suburbs. But over the past 15 years, more and more have been leaving the area entirely for northwest Indiana, Iowa’s Quad Cities, and Sun Belt states, says Alden Loury, the director of research and evaluation at the Metropolitan Planning Council. Today there are roughly 850,000 blacks in Chicago, down from 1.2 million in 1980.
The reasons for this are varied: The foreclosure crisis saw blacks evicted disproportionately from their rental apartments and houses; the Chicago Housing Authority leveled high-rises like the Robert Taylor Homes, scattering public housing residents; the lack of stable employment in South and West Side neighborhoods continues to force residents to look elsewhere for jobs; and school closures further disenfranchise communities. “There are not a lot of messages that Chicago cares about its black residents,” says Mary Pattillo, a sociology and African American studies professor at Northwestern University and author of the book Black Picket Fences. “When you lose the institutions that cultivate attachment, it makes it a lot easier to pick up and leave.”
How does Chicago send the message that the city cares about its Black residents?
BTW, feel free to share the article here's a tweet from @chicagomag
