How Chicago has been collecting taxes to prevent white flight
A recent WBEZ public radio story taught me something very interesting about Chicago.
West Lawn, a neighborhood in bungalow belt
Back in the 1920s, the so-called "bungalow belt" emerged at what were then the city's outlying neighborhoods. They were (and, in many cases, still are) working/lower-middle class areas. Most of the neighborhoods within the belt were home to immigrants from eastern European countries - places like mostly Polish Portage Park, Jefferson Park and Archer Heights or mostly Lithuanian/otherwise Baltic Marquette Park. When the laws that allowed segregation started coming down in the 1940s-1960s, those communities saw some of the fiercest resistance to integration.
To anybody who's interested in Chicago history, that's pretty common knowledge. But what I didn't realize was that, back in the early 80s, a lot of the Southwest Side and Northwest Side communities within the bungalow belt were terrified of the possibility that black people would move into their neighborhood. Not just because of race (though race no doubt played not-so-small part in it), but because of concern that it would bring down property values. Harold Washington just became the city's first African-American mayor, and racially tinged paranoia was high.
As the WBEZ story explained, Mike Madigan, the powerful state speaker, pushed through a legislation that would create three home equity taxing districts - one on the Northwest Side and two on the Southwest Side. Within those districts, residents paid a special tax, and the tax would be used to establish a fund. If the property owners had to sell their property at a loss, the fund would compensate them. The idea was to reassure the home owners that, even if the property values drop, they wouldn't be effected, giving them an incentive to stay.
As the article points out, the entire thing was ultimately kind of pointless. African-Americans never settled in most neighborhoods within the HETDs in any significant numbers. Instead, Hispanics (mostly Mexican-Americans) moved into former Polish and Lithuanian neighborhoods on the Southwest Side, while Mexican-Americans, Korean-Americans, Fillipino-Americans moved to the Northwest Side. A lot of that changed happened within the last 15 years or so. There are still majority ethnic White working-class neighborhoods in those parts of the city - Jefferson Park on the Northwest Side, Clearing on the Southwest Side. But most are either majority not-ethnic-white or getting there.
(Looking at the Racial Cartography map of Chicago in 2000 and 2010, it's really quite astonishing to realize just how much Northwest Side and Southwest Side demographics have shifted over mere ten years)
I've seen a lot of that happen with my own eyes over the years, and I do feel mixed feelings about this. I feel certain kinship to Chicago Polonia. But at the same time, it isn't as if somebody forced Archer Heights to lose most of its Polish population. In a lot of ways, Chinatown is something of an anomaly - most Chicago ethnic neighborhoods don't stay ethnic for more than a generation or two. The once-thriving Russian community along West Ridge's Devon Avenue corridor drifted out to the suburbs before my eyes. The Marquette Park section of 63rd Street, which was the city's largest Arab-American commercial corridor as recently as the 90s, is becoming more Mexican-American. Ethnic groups come in, they settle, and they move on. For better or for worse, it just happens.
Besides, in the end of the day, the communities remained, at their core, working-class communities where working-class families could have decent lives. And the now more ethnically mixed communities like Archer Heights and Portage Park seemed to have avoided a lot of racial/ethnic strife that filled so many pages of Chicago history, which is a good thing in my book.
But, as the WBEZ story points out, that does beg the question. The HETDs have been barely used, and the money is just sitting around, collecting dust. Wouldn't it be better to put it into something else. Like, say, towards helping home owners avoid foreclosure? Or rehab of vacant homes?
I wouldn't mind that at all.
If you are interested in Chicago history and social issues, I'd recommend you read the entire article. And, if you are like hettie_lz and don't have time to read, I've embedded the two parts of the audio version of the story below.
West Lawn, a neighborhood in bungalow belt
Back in the 1920s, the so-called "bungalow belt" emerged at what were then the city's outlying neighborhoods. They were (and, in many cases, still are) working/lower-middle class areas. Most of the neighborhoods within the belt were home to immigrants from eastern European countries - places like mostly Polish Portage Park, Jefferson Park and Archer Heights or mostly Lithuanian/otherwise Baltic Marquette Park. When the laws that allowed segregation started coming down in the 1940s-1960s, those communities saw some of the fiercest resistance to integration.
To anybody who's interested in Chicago history, that's pretty common knowledge. But what I didn't realize was that, back in the early 80s, a lot of the Southwest Side and Northwest Side communities within the bungalow belt were terrified of the possibility that black people would move into their neighborhood. Not just because of race (though race no doubt played not-so-small part in it), but because of concern that it would bring down property values. Harold Washington just became the city's first African-American mayor, and racially tinged paranoia was high.
As the WBEZ story explained, Mike Madigan, the powerful state speaker, pushed through a legislation that would create three home equity taxing districts - one on the Northwest Side and two on the Southwest Side. Within those districts, residents paid a special tax, and the tax would be used to establish a fund. If the property owners had to sell their property at a loss, the fund would compensate them. The idea was to reassure the home owners that, even if the property values drop, they wouldn't be effected, giving them an incentive to stay.
As the article points out, the entire thing was ultimately kind of pointless. African-Americans never settled in most neighborhoods within the HETDs in any significant numbers. Instead, Hispanics (mostly Mexican-Americans) moved into former Polish and Lithuanian neighborhoods on the Southwest Side, while Mexican-Americans, Korean-Americans, Fillipino-Americans moved to the Northwest Side. A lot of that changed happened within the last 15 years or so. There are still majority ethnic White working-class neighborhoods in those parts of the city - Jefferson Park on the Northwest Side, Clearing on the Southwest Side. But most are either majority not-ethnic-white or getting there.
(Looking at the Racial Cartography map of Chicago in 2000 and 2010, it's really quite astonishing to realize just how much Northwest Side and Southwest Side demographics have shifted over mere ten years)
I've seen a lot of that happen with my own eyes over the years, and I do feel mixed feelings about this. I feel certain kinship to Chicago Polonia. But at the same time, it isn't as if somebody forced Archer Heights to lose most of its Polish population. In a lot of ways, Chinatown is something of an anomaly - most Chicago ethnic neighborhoods don't stay ethnic for more than a generation or two. The once-thriving Russian community along West Ridge's Devon Avenue corridor drifted out to the suburbs before my eyes. The Marquette Park section of 63rd Street, which was the city's largest Arab-American commercial corridor as recently as the 90s, is becoming more Mexican-American. Ethnic groups come in, they settle, and they move on. For better or for worse, it just happens.
Besides, in the end of the day, the communities remained, at their core, working-class communities where working-class families could have decent lives. And the now more ethnically mixed communities like Archer Heights and Portage Park seemed to have avoided a lot of racial/ethnic strife that filled so many pages of Chicago history, which is a good thing in my book.
But, as the WBEZ story points out, that does beg the question. The HETDs have been barely used, and the money is just sitting around, collecting dust. Wouldn't it be better to put it into something else. Like, say, towards helping home owners avoid foreclosure? Or rehab of vacant homes?
I wouldn't mind that at all.
If you are interested in Chicago history and social issues, I'd recommend you read the entire article. And, if you are like hettie_lz and don't have time to read, I've embedded the two parts of the audio version of the story below.