White Couple, black neighborhood and the shadow of gentrification
When I saw an article on DNAinfo Chicago about a couple who adopted four siblings, there was one thing that struck me. It wasn't that the couple were white and their adopted kids were black - it's not something that happens every day, but it's not that terribly unusual, either. It wasn't that they managed to keep the siblings together, despite some challenges. It was that, even before they adopted the kids, they were a white couple living in the North Lawndale neighborhood.
As recently as 50 years ago, white people living there wouldn't have been that unusual. It was a working-class neighborhood with a large Jewish population, a place with plenty of jobs - most famously, it was where Sears had its headquarters. But once black people started moving in, white people started moving out, and many business moved out with them. When Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated, riots swept through much of the Chicago West Side, which only made things worse. Sears moved its headquarters to the Sears Tower in the downtown Chicago, and factory after factory closed its doors. It's not like there aren't any jobs whatsoever - there are some businesses here and there, and Mt. Sinai Hospital is one of the West Side's biggest employers - but the neighborhood has clearly seen better days. And, the conventional wisdom goes, white people don't live there anymore.
Thing is, ever since I started writing for Austin Weekly News I discovered that the racial lines aren't set in stone. Sure, the majority of the people who live in North Lawndale and other neighborhoods the paper covers are black, but that doesn't mean every single person is black. And it's not just one or two people. At first, I thought it was just a few pockets, places like the Island and Galewood, but that's not always true, either. And the U.S. Census data suggests that, if anything, I've only seen a small portion of the number of white people that live on the largely black West Side neighborhoods. As of 2010, North Lawndale had 35,912 residents, 32,835 of whom are black and 492 of whom are white (and, by the way, 265 of whom checked more then one box). The numbers in Austin and East Garfield Park community areas are even larger. West Garfield park has the smallest number of them all, but it still has 133 white people.
So I suppose the fact that Kevin and Katrina Yohpe live in North Lawndale shouldn't be that surprising.
When I interview white people who live in North Lawndale, I don't usually ask why they live there - I want to stick to the subject of whatever the article is about. But every once in a while, the reasons come out. Some lived there since the 1950s and don't plan to move now. Some like the neighborhood - which is not as odd as it may seem. Douglas Park, the neighborhood's biggest park, is as lovely as ever.
And there are lots of really nice houses that are way cheaper then they would be further east.
North Lawndale is home to Cinespace Studios, where a growing number of Chicago-based TV shows and movies are flimed.
And between the Pink Line in the south and the Blue Line in the north, it's pretty easy to get downtown quickly
The Yohpes said that they moved to North Lawndale precisely because it was poor and crime-ridden.
They chose North Lawndale, which has one of the city's highest shooting rates, because they wanted to make a difference in an undervalued community.
"We're living here on purpose," Yohpe said. "We want to invest in the neighborhood and the people in the neighborhood. We're aware of what happens here at certain times at night, but there are a lot of great neighbors here, and a lot of people who don't like the violence here and are working hard to reduce it.
"I think it's really good for me and my family to be invested in a neighborhood that often gets overlooked. There's a risk, but it's important to value people that are valuable and aren't being valued."
At the same time, I can't ignore he fact that, ever since Riot Fest m oved to Douglas Park, many residents - black and white - have been worried about gentrification, that it would lead to increased property values, which would drive people who can't afford to pay the rising property taxes out. Just last April, the Chicago magazine put the portion of North Lawndale east of Douglas Park on its list of best "up-and-coming" neighborhoods. And during the last real estate bubble, when retailers were desperate to discover the next Wicker Park cash in, Homan Square, the area around the former Sears headquarters, got some buzz. The buzz stopped once the bubble burst, but now...
It's not that most of the people who are worried about gentrificantion want to stop it altogether. They just want to figure out how to take advantage of the good parts of it - more local businesses, more job opportunities, more new construction, more investments, less crime - while avoiding the bad. Which is easier said then done. Just ask people who lived in Wicker Park in the 1990s, or Logan Square in the 2000s.
I wonder if, 10 years from now, Yohpes will be remembered as the early parts of a trend that changed the neighborhood forever.
For now... There is one other thing that stuck me. Toward the end of the article, I came across this passage.Katina Yohpe left her job as an English literature teacher at Rauner College Prep to home-school her four new children. She does most of the shopping too, which includes mass quantities of pasta, rice, chicken, corn, peas, broccoli, strawberries, apples, oranges, raspberries, cheddar cheese and string cheese.
Here's the thing. North Lawndale has no groceries stores at all. But, when I googled, I realized there were grocery stores just outside it. If you connect the dots on the map, you can practically trace North Lawndale's neighborhood boundaries.
And it's not like most of them are located in the neighborhoods that area really that much better off. The Pete's Fresh Market location in the southeast corner of the map is located Little Village, which is just as poor and crime-ridden as North Lawndale, but the majority of its residents are Mexican. And the one in the northeast corner is located in another majority-black neighborhood on the Chicago magazine's list.
Make of that what you will.
As recently as 50 years ago, white people living there wouldn't have been that unusual. It was a working-class neighborhood with a large Jewish population, a place with plenty of jobs - most famously, it was where Sears had its headquarters. But once black people started moving in, white people started moving out, and many business moved out with them. When Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated, riots swept through much of the Chicago West Side, which only made things worse. Sears moved its headquarters to the Sears Tower in the downtown Chicago, and factory after factory closed its doors. It's not like there aren't any jobs whatsoever - there are some businesses here and there, and Mt. Sinai Hospital is one of the West Side's biggest employers - but the neighborhood has clearly seen better days. And, the conventional wisdom goes, white people don't live there anymore.
Thing is, ever since I started writing for Austin Weekly News I discovered that the racial lines aren't set in stone. Sure, the majority of the people who live in North Lawndale and other neighborhoods the paper covers are black, but that doesn't mean every single person is black. And it's not just one or two people. At first, I thought it was just a few pockets, places like the Island and Galewood, but that's not always true, either. And the U.S. Census data suggests that, if anything, I've only seen a small portion of the number of white people that live on the largely black West Side neighborhoods. As of 2010, North Lawndale had 35,912 residents, 32,835 of whom are black and 492 of whom are white (and, by the way, 265 of whom checked more then one box). The numbers in Austin and East Garfield Park community areas are even larger. West Garfield park has the smallest number of them all, but it still has 133 white people.
So I suppose the fact that Kevin and Katrina Yohpe live in North Lawndale shouldn't be that surprising.
When I interview white people who live in North Lawndale, I don't usually ask why they live there - I want to stick to the subject of whatever the article is about. But every once in a while, the reasons come out. Some lived there since the 1950s and don't plan to move now. Some like the neighborhood - which is not as odd as it may seem. Douglas Park, the neighborhood's biggest park, is as lovely as ever.
And there are lots of really nice houses that are way cheaper then they would be further east.
North Lawndale is home to Cinespace Studios, where a growing number of Chicago-based TV shows and movies are flimed.
And between the Pink Line in the south and the Blue Line in the north, it's pretty easy to get downtown quickly
The Yohpes said that they moved to North Lawndale precisely because it was poor and crime-ridden.
They chose North Lawndale, which has one of the city's highest shooting rates, because they wanted to make a difference in an undervalued community.
"We're living here on purpose," Yohpe said. "We want to invest in the neighborhood and the people in the neighborhood. We're aware of what happens here at certain times at night, but there are a lot of great neighbors here, and a lot of people who don't like the violence here and are working hard to reduce it.
"I think it's really good for me and my family to be invested in a neighborhood that often gets overlooked. There's a risk, but it's important to value people that are valuable and aren't being valued."
At the same time, I can't ignore he fact that, ever since Riot Fest m oved to Douglas Park, many residents - black and white - have been worried about gentrification, that it would lead to increased property values, which would drive people who can't afford to pay the rising property taxes out. Just last April, the Chicago magazine put the portion of North Lawndale east of Douglas Park on its list of best "up-and-coming" neighborhoods. And during the last real estate bubble, when retailers were desperate to discover the next Wicker Park cash in, Homan Square, the area around the former Sears headquarters, got some buzz. The buzz stopped once the bubble burst, but now...
It's not that most of the people who are worried about gentrificantion want to stop it altogether. They just want to figure out how to take advantage of the good parts of it - more local businesses, more job opportunities, more new construction, more investments, less crime - while avoiding the bad. Which is easier said then done. Just ask people who lived in Wicker Park in the 1990s, or Logan Square in the 2000s.
I wonder if, 10 years from now, Yohpes will be remembered as the early parts of a trend that changed the neighborhood forever.
For now... There is one other thing that stuck me. Toward the end of the article, I came across this passage.Katina Yohpe left her job as an English literature teacher at Rauner College Prep to home-school her four new children. She does most of the shopping too, which includes mass quantities of pasta, rice, chicken, corn, peas, broccoli, strawberries, apples, oranges, raspberries, cheddar cheese and string cheese.
Here's the thing. North Lawndale has no groceries stores at all. But, when I googled, I realized there were grocery stores just outside it. If you connect the dots on the map, you can practically trace North Lawndale's neighborhood boundaries.
And it's not like most of them are located in the neighborhoods that area really that much better off. The Pete's Fresh Market location in the southeast corner of the map is located Little Village, which is just as poor and crime-ridden as North Lawndale, but the majority of its residents are Mexican. And the one in the northeast corner is located in another majority-black neighborhood on the Chicago magazine's list.
Make of that what you will.