Surprising gang problem in a middle class South Side neighborhood.
Last Sunday's Chicago Tribune feature story broke my heart.
As I've written many times before, anybody who thinks Chicago South Side is nothing but the land of crime and poverty just doesn't know that part of Chicago very well. It has well-off neighborhoods, middle-class neighborhoods, working-class neighborhoods and, yes, poor neighborhoods with high crime rates. But people tend to overlook the African-American communities that aren't poor or high-crime.
For much of the last 50 or so years, Pill Hill, Calumet Heights and Avalon Park has been safe havens for African-Americans families that wanted to raise their kids. Pill Hill in particular has become a solidly middle-class area. The Chicago Skyway and railroad embankments set those neighborhoods from economically depressed, gang-ridden South Chicago and Grand Crossing (which is better off than South Chicago in some respects, but still on the lower end of South Side quality of life scale). A lot of the residents worked for the City of Chicago, and they had good relationships with CPD and city services, which helped maintain the quality of life while keeping crime at bay.
One of the first things that struck me the first time I visited the area was how peaceful it was. How warm it was. It reminded me of the East Side and Pullman. Pill Hill in particular impressed me with some nice houses and friendly residents. And even when the nearby Chatham, a historic African-American, middle-class stronghold, fell on hard times in the wake of recession, Pull Hill and the nearby neighborhoods seemed to be holding up, for the most part.
So you can imagine my sadness when I've read the Tribune's heart-wrenching story about Pill Hill's middle-class teens joining gangs - and how even teens that didn't join wound up getting affected.
What caused the increase in gangs? The article doesn't really speculate. This isn't South Chicago, where many kids wind up joining gangs for protection and to make money. But I think, like their counterparts in South Chicago, some Pill Hill kids get drawn into gangs through their friends. That and the fact that being in a gang makes you feel like you have power. That alone could tempt anyone.
While South Chicago and Pill Hill are physically separated, the neighborhood share a high school with a decent chunk of South Chicago - a chunk that I know have several rival gangs. I'm not sure how long that's been going on, but given the fact that South Side has seen more school closures than other parts of Chicago, I suspect Pill Hill kids have more opportunities to become friends with gang members and get drawn into gang conflicts than ever before.
There are ways to deal with it. Improve safety in schools. Poor resources into conflict mediation. Help kids deal with psychological traumas that often go untreated. Give kids more to do in general. Give kids more opportunities to earn money, to develop skills. And do more to try to rehabilitate gang members who do get arrested instead of just punishing them. Sure, rehabilitation wouldn't work for everyone, but it would be worth the effort.
Of course, all those solutions require investment in money and resources. The city isn't in the best financial shape right now, and non-profits who do this sort of work struggle to get funding.
But, at the same time, I think that if the members of community are willing to spend time and resources to try to resolve a problem, there is hope. We know that community efforts can go a long way. But what worries me is that, according to the article, the youngest generation of Pill Hill residents would rather leave the neighborhood as soon as possible. I can't say I blame them, but at the same time... I've written before about how much harder it is for South Side neighborhoods to attract new businesses or any sort of investment. How, if anything could change it, it would be people who are willing to try to defy the conventional wisdom and invest in the community. But if even kids who grew up in the community, who should be more invested in it then anyone, don't want to fight for it... That's not exactly encouraging.
One thing for sure - that's not going to change the way I feel about Calumet Heights and Pill Hill. It's not going to make me want to visit it any less. Because I like those neighborhoods. Because they have interesting stores and some eateries I haven't sampled yet. Because there are good people who live there there.
And because, if I were to write off a community at the first sign of trouble, I could hardly ask anyone else not to do the same.