Some areas in the city of Chicago are clearly nicer than others. The difference between the best and worst neighborhoods in that some sections of the city isn’t too big. However, when looking at the city from a birds eye view, Chicago has areas that simply aren’t as nice as the others.
Nice Neighborhoods
A nice neighborhood is a one where people are thriving, and people feel safe. Many neighborhoods in the city of Chicago simply aren’t like that. For example, one could compare many neighborhoods on the west side to neighborhoods on the northside and find similar results. The city of Chicago doesn’t need to be economically and racially segregated.
Economic Segregation
One of the biggest reasons why the city of Chicago has such different levels of quality of life in its neighborhoods is economic segregation. What this means is that certain neighborhoods are being invested into much more by the city and have a thriving economy because of it. While the city of Chicago is just now trying to fix the balance between the neighborhoods with the invest south west initiative, this doesn’t take from the fact that the city has economically neglected its west and south sides for decades.
“For every $1 of wealth accumulated by white families, Latinx families have eight cents and Black families just one cent, ” according to The Chicago Community Trust.
Economic Struggles
What this means is that when one lives in a neighborhood like Lakeview, they probably make a lot of money and work jobs in that community that pay well. The people that live in Lakeview don’t have to look over their shoulder or think about whether or not their children will be killed by a stray bullet while walking home from school.
Either way Lakeview doesn’t struggle with a lack of job opportunities, or an aggressive police presence, or a lack of mental health services. Yet, communities like Austin, North Lawndale, and West Garfield Park all struggle with these issues. Unfortunately, in the city of Chicago, some areas are nicer than others because the city of Chicago neglects certain neighborhoods.
“About 178,000 Chicago adults needed mental health treatment at some point in the previous year but didn’t get it. This lack of services can be devastating for vulnerable residents—including our young people and
communities of color, mainly on the south and west sides,” according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.
Redlining
Along with economic neglect the city of Chicago has a long spanning history of racial prejudice. One of the greatest examples of this is Chicago’s history with redlining. Redlining was a process of making sure that certain races weren’t allowed upward mobility through access to real estate investment.
What would happen was city planners, who were typically rich white men, would simply mark entire neighborhoods full of Black and brown people as unworthy for investment. This meant that as communities much like lakeview full of middle class white people were continuing to get investment and be provided opportunities. Communities similar to North Lawndale were made to suffer.
The consequences and ramifications of redlining can still be felt to this day. “Parts of Lawndale were in a so-called redlined area, where the federal government wouldn’t insure mortgages, which in turn meant banks wouldn’t lend to prospective buyers. By the mid-1960s, because of these racist housing policies and rampant disinvestment, much of North Lawndale was suffering from widespread poverty,” according to WTTW.
What all this means is that some areas are nicer simply because they aren’t historically Black and brown areas. It says a lot about the city of Chicago that most of the black and brown areas are poor because the city neglects historically black and brown areas.
Dirty Areas
Finally, one of the biggest reasons why some areas are nicer than others are because some areas of Chicago simply aren’t clean. If one travels to any low income area of Chicago the neighborhood simply isn’t clean. The city tends to invest in areas that are already well put together like Lincoln Park. That area is nice and clean, and most importantly a safe investment. The city clearly cares about the image of these areas.
An area like West Garfield Park isn’t clean because the city of Chicago doesn’t see it as a worthy investment. The reason why is that investors see low income communities as risky investments. In a world ruled entirely by the profit motive, being a risky investment is a death sentence.
However, communities aren’t investment opportunities, and neighborhoods aren’t opportunities for profit. A neighborhood is a place to foster a community of neighbors. All areas of the city deserve the same kinds of attention areas like Lakeview get. Chicago can never solve its racial and class inequalities until there are no differences between the areas where Black, brown, white, poor, and rich people live.
Opinion by Kenneth Mazerat
Sources
WTTWNews: Ask Geoffrey: How Did North Lawndale Get Its Name?
CCT: Closing the Racial & Ethnic Wealth Gap
Chicago Department Of Public Health: Framework for Mental Health Equity
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of The_Sacul’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Julie A Segraves’ Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Second Inset Image Courtesy of Heather Phillips’ Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
