Chicago by 'L' w/ Geoffrey Baer

 

[VIDEO] I have always been fascinated by the CTA L trains, especially the operations. Geoffrey Baer of WTTW goes a bit further and explores the various parts of Chicago that the L travels through. The city is very large and expansive with many places to visit not just downtown but various neighborhoods.

White Castle 2 E. State Street in Roseland #Ward09 #tbt

You may well have seen this photo below on social media taken in the mid-1980s of the White Castle that formerly stood at 111th & State Streets or actually 2 E. 111th street. I'm most familiar with this location since often looking for a hamburger slider fix this was where my folks went. At some point during the 1990s this location was closed and demolished.

Then looking for photos I found an even older photo of the White Castle taken in 1937 according to the information on the photograph. Could be the same building and I don't recognize the neighborhood around it.

Via Pinterest

Of course back in the 1980s the White Castle was surrounded by a post office to the north and then to the east on 111th Street was the YMCA. The post office is still there however the YMCA is long gone though the building itself remains.

I hope you enjoy this look back and a break from the dire news regarding coronavirus.

Editorial: The Avenue could again become magnificent #Ward09

The Chicago Neighborhood

This editorial from the Chicago Sun-Times makes reference to last year's fire at the former Gatelys Department store on the Michigan Avenue shopping strip south of 111th Street. It's probably time to redevelop that corridor, especially in time for that Red Line extension whenever it gets funded and construction starts.

Keep an eye on the Roseland neighborhood’s Michigan Avenue, once a retail strip so popular it was called Chicago’s second Magnificent Mile.

Shoppers could find anything from school supplies to furniture to brand new cars.

Rocked by two devastating extra-alarm fires within the last year, and now slammed by a pandemic that’s likely to change forever how we shop and gather, the faded and struggling commercial strip faces a tough future.

But “The Avenue” — as this stretch of Michigan Avenue between 115th and 107th was called in its heyday — now is being targeted by the city for possible redevelopment.

The plans were in place before the coronavirus broke out and they’ll need to be modified. But given that the COVID-19 pandemic has hit all traditional retail strips hard — have you seen the boarded up stores on North Michigan Avenue these days? — saving The Avenue should be even more of a priority.

When neighborhood shopping dies, neighborhoods die.

The Avenue’s day as a regional commercial giant are not likely to return. People just don’t shop in brick-and-mortar stores the way they used to, and the street’s major retailers, such as JCPenney, are long gone.

But the buildings still stand and could be reused in potentially exciting new ways. And if done correctly, the lessons learned here could be applied to troubled commercial streets in neighborhoods elsewhere on the South and West sides.

Probably excerpted a lot more than I should've so I'll stop there and hope that you'll read the whole thing.

The editorial itself makes reference to this strip's proximity to the Pullman National Monument. How could the businesses and the community leverage that. The Avenue - at least for those old school residents might refer to the strip - might not return to the glory days. I still would like to see what plans could develop with revitalization. What entrepreneurs can become successful in this area.

CTA Red Line extension update

Rendering 103rd Street Red Line station - CTA 

Over at The Sixth Ward on Tuesday I shared a tweet to a Curbed Chicago article with regards to various upcoming transit projects throughout the city. One project that many who live near the 95th terminal is the planned CTA Red Line extension. One reason that Curbed article was of interest to me is the seeming progress in which case is to merely fund engineering & design work.

Of course the reason for this interest is mainly the safety and activity of the area. The 95th terminal is one of the busiest of the CTA. The CTA Red Line connects with not only CTA and Pace suburban bus routes, also intercity bus services with Greyhound and Indian Trails buses. So there's definitely a lot of activity there especially during the week.

The main thing is building this extension further south to the city's southern limits might mean less activity at 95th. Or perhaps hopefully for local leaders in the community less opportunities for criminal activity. Either way another stated and important purpose for this extension is to cut commuting times for those individuals who must use public transit who must travel to other parts of the city.

Block Club Chi: Why Do We Get Labor Day Off?

And the other part of the headline "We can thank Chicago workers".

Of course not everyone gets this holiday off, however, it's a great day to chill and relax. Five events take place in the city's history that involves labor. Two of those events takes place on the south side in Pullman and the East Side (there is newsreel footage of that). Read on at Block Club Chicago:

Here's another image from our local ABC affiliate's ig page

The No. 1 most violent Chicago neighborhood is Austin

[VIDEO] We've reached No. 1 which is the west side's Austin neighborhood or community area. As Vic Maggio writes in the description for this vid posted March 17, 2018:

The Austin Neighborhood has the largest land area and population out of all the other top ten neighborhoods.

Austin's far Northwestern edge is Galewood, it was once a large Italian neighborhood. North Austin and South Austin Is the largest neighborhood in Austin, North Austin is a smaller area. North Austin and South Austin are very violent areas these two areas account for 90% of all the shootings and crime in Austin.

The Island a square mile in the extreme southwest corner of Austin, which is isolated by the Eisenhower Expressway and Columbus Park.

The racial makeup of the community is 84% Black, 10% Hispanic, and 4% White, the population was at its height in the 1980s at around 140.000, by 2015 the population seen a dramatic decrease to 97.000. Due to poverty, crime and gang violence this neighborhood lost over 40.000 residents over the past 35-years.

This year in the Austin Neighborhood, 461 people have been shot and, 83, have been killed and 384 have been wounded. These stats rank Austin at number 1, on the 2017 list of the most Violent neighborhoods in Chicago

And here's a map of Austin

No. 2 Chicago most violent neighborhood - Garfield Park

[VIDEO] We're down to the top two most violent neighborhoods or community areas in Chicago using statistics from 2017. #2 is Garfield Park on the west side actually there is two Garfield Parks (East and West) just as there are really two Englewoods (Englewood and West Englewood).

Here's what Vic Maggio writes in his description to this vid posted March 3, 2018

Warning Graphic Content: The Garfield Park neighborhood is home to Garfield park, it is the oldest of the three West Side parks and has one of the most beautiful field houses and has the single largest conservatories in the United States.

Most of the old sandstone buildings scattered throughout the neighborhood have religious markers on them, these are a reminder of the original Jewish history of the area. Garfield Park was also home to the 4,000-seat Marbro Theater which was among the city’s largest.

This video also covers a little history on the Chicago Police Department and touches on the relationship between the residents and the department over the years.

This neighborhood is in a state of disrepair and has quite a few abandoned businesses spread out throughout the area, it looks as though this neighborhood has been ignored and basically forgotten. I have noticed many residents packing up with moving vans and fleeing this depressed crime ravaged neighborhood.

The population of east and west Garfield park was at its height in the 1960s with 100,000 residents, over a 50-year period these two neighborhoods lost nearly 60.000 residents.

This year in the Garfield Park neighborhood, 260, people have been shot and, 36, have been killed and 224, have been wounded. These stats rank Garfield Park at number 2 on the 2017 list of the most Violent neighborhoods in Chicago.

Here's a map of the Garfield Park area, however, I haven't really been able to find a precise Google map of West Garfield Park. As you see the East Garfield Park area is well defined. Though in Maggio's vid you will see a rough outline of West Garfield Park.

No. 5 most violent Chicago neighborhood Humboldt Park

[VIDEO] Humboldt Park according to Maggio News posted to YouTube on February 9, 2018. Description

The Humboldt park neighborhood has one of the largest Hispanic populations in the Chicago area. Humboldt is home to the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture, the Urban Theater Company and one of the most Beautiful parks in the city.

Humboldt has an old connection to the FLAN (Armed Forces of National Liberation) terrorist organization. There is a deep divide amongst the residents over support for the FLAN.

The park is the life blood of this neighborhood. Humboldt Park was once the nation’s greatest public park, the park has tennis courts, an inland beach, baseball fields and bike paths. Humboldt is ranked number 5, on the list of Chicago’s top ten most violent neighborhoods and is one of the toughest neighborhoods in the city.

The riots of the 60s and 70s damaged this neighborhood and forever changed the economic future of Humboldt Park.

Like the other top ten hoods drugs, gangs and lack of opportunity continue to plague the area.

Here's a map of Humboldt Park

No. 6 Chicago most violent neighborhood - Auburn Gresham

[VIDEO] Chicago Auburn Gresham is the next subject of Vic Maggio's series on violent Chicago neighborhoods. It's one you can visit one you get off the expressway just off of 79th Street for example. Maggio writes to this video which was posted on February 2, 2018:

The Auburn Gresham Neighborhood is home to the Thurgood Marshall Branch of the Chicago public library, St. Sabina Church, headed by Rev. Michael Pfleger, and St. Leo campus for veterans, which includes the Catholic Charities' St. Leo's residence-based outpatient clinic.

The Neighborhood has seen many tough times and a lot of violence and has seen a substantial drop in population over the past couple of decades. This is directly due to crime. This neighborhoods gang problem really took off because of the piss poor economy created in the late 70s forcing many young black men to the streets to make a living. This period in time seen the rise of the mega gangs.

I have met a lot of good people in this neighborhood and hope this hood is not on the list next year.

Maggio News

Here's a map of the Auburn Gresham community

 I wanted to share this post over at The Sixth Ward from 2016 with regards to John Ruberry who did an urban exploration of Auburn Gresham. His family once resided in the area and he makes sure to note some of the many abandoned homes there. He even notes the value of controversial Catholic priest Father Michael Pfleger within the community.

State Theater 11016 S. Michigan Ave #tbt

The State Theater is one many movie theaters that existed on what was known in local parlance as The Ave. South Michigan Avenue in Roseland during far more prosperous times was a very active destination for local shoppers until the local economy changed after the 1970s.

According to Cinema Treasures this theater was opened in 1922 and as you read in below ig post from Pete Kastanes was demolished in 1997.

The 10th most violent neighborhood: Back of the Yards...

[VIDEO] This is the start of Maggio's top 10 most violent Chicago neighborhoods series. This entry uploaded to YouTube on January 6, 2018 is of the Back of the Yards neighborhood with a duration of just over 8 minutes. The description he posted:

The Back of the yards neighborhood will never be known as New City, to me, or the residents of this community, this neighborhood is the least violent of the top ten.

Back of the Yards is a diverse community where the gangs are at each other’s throats, this problem has a racial component to it, that nobody dares to mention.

The violence raging in this community is total and the weaponry being used to kill and maim people is shocking. Weapons like AR-15s and AK-47s are regularly used in gang shootings in and the communities that surround the back of the yards neighborhood.

The stats show of the 33 rifle related shootings, 46 people were shot and 13 were killed in these attacks. The battles raging in this neighborhood have a vendetta based history that goes back decades.

There are a lot of good people that live in this neighborhood that are trapped by the violence, it must also be realized these gangs could not survive for decades without some sort of support from within the community.

I was born and raised in the neighboring community of Bridgeport, I worked and partied in this neighborhood for decades. It is a shame to see the senseless violence raging without no end in sight in this neighborhood.

And for your frame of reference, a map of the New City community area of which Back of the Yards is considered a part of.

Via Chicago CityScape

 I wish I could've had a map that showed the bordering streets. From the Encyclopedia of Chicago with regards to Back of the Yards:

Located in the community area of New City, the neighborhood extends from 39th to 55th Streets between Halsted and the railroad tracks along Leavitt Street, just south and west of the former Union Stock Yard and adjacent packing plants, a giant sprawl that was until the 1950s the largest livestock yards and meatpacking center in the country.

Chicago History Today: 103rd/Eggleston then & now #fbf

Just think how often I pass through this general area and it's fascinating how this area has changed over the years. 103rd Street and Eggleston back in 1905 about 113 years ago! This is courtesy of a photo provided by local historian J.R. Schmidt.

Here's how Schmidt described this scene from the early 20th century:

We are on 103rd Street at the railroad crossing, midway between Halsted and State. In 1905 this was the site of the Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad’s Fernwood station, so various businesses had been established in the immediate vicinity. Yet traffic along the street was so light that people commonly walked down the middle.

Of course as you see there are a lot of changes to this stretch. You can go over to his post from 2015 to see how this area looks today. Just think this will be the next stop from 95th once the CTA Red Line is extended.

Oh wow, another shot of a streetcar! 

111th & Michigan Roseland, Chicago

Found a photo of this corner 111th/Michigan on twitter - which was retweeted on @thesixthward.

Today is #NationalFriedChickenDay! Here is a photo of Chicken Unlimited. This one was once located at E 111th St & S Michigan Ave in the Roseland neighborhood of Chicago. Countdown to 36,000 likes to Chicago’s Extinct Businesses continues! 8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1 pic.twitter.com/7PLFz0dKUY

— Chicago's Extinct Businesses (@chgoextbusiness) July 6, 2018

Chicken Unlimited was once where the currency exchange is currently located. This is how this corner looks now. Quite a vast difference.

As you will see below some buildings are missing and while the Google Street image below is from 2015. The building in two years time looks vastly different and it has me wondering if this is the same building as Chicken Unlimited. Now I wonder! 

Washington Monthly: South Side story

The Chicago Neighborhoods

 Sorry to have sat on this since the spring. A story about the Pullman neighborhood. Or "How a historic Chicago neighborhood became a national model for community revitalization."

Yet one lower-income South Side neighborhood manages to defy the ironclad logic of the favored quarter: historic Pullman, a vibrant enclave in the middle of the South Side that is home to equal numbers of African Americans, Latinos, and whites. (Not all South and West neighborhoods are poor, but most of those doing well economically—Hyde Park, the Near West Side, Bridgeport, and Beverly—are predominantly white and Asian.)

Strolling down Pullman’s St. Lawrence Avenue, whose shaded sidewalks are fronted by side-by-side duplexes, you notice the same redbrick charm that characterizes the North Side. Yet in Pullman, you can land a well-kept three-bedroom duplex down the block from a cozy café and around the corner from one of the city’s top-rated public elementary schools at a price that wouldn’t go far in swank precincts across town. Residents enjoy many of the conveniences of North Side living, too. At the new Pullman Park development, there’s a Walmart (watering this former food desert), a clothing store, a Planet Fitness health club, a locally owned dry cleaners, and Pullman’s first sit-down restaurant in decades.

The relative peace and prosperity of Pullman in the midst of the hard-hit South Side highlights the promise of “asset-based” community development—the idea that focusing on the strengths of a particular place is just as important as targeting the problems. This model offers practical lessons for other neighborhoods across the country suffering from economic disinvestment and social unraveling. In Pullman’s case, a remarkable degree of resilience has arisen from these assets: high levels of civic engagement; a physical environment that encourages walking and social interaction; access to resources tied to historic preservation; and an ambitious community developer planting stakes in the neighborhood.

If the name Pullman sounds vaguely familiar, it’s likely because of the legendary railroad sleeping cars built here from 1881 to 1955. Pullman was no grimy slum, but actually one of the most celebrated urban planning projects of the nineteenth century—providing a good place to live was part of owner George Pullman’s mission to elevate the character of his workers. The London Times declared the elegant public buildings and squares flanked by single-family homes for managers and handsome brick townhouses for workers “the most perfect town in the world.” The other reason you may have heard of Pullman is that in 1894 the company’s workers responded to wage cuts with no reduction in rent at company-owned housing with a historic strike.

Read the whole thing!

Three snapshots on 87th Street, Wednesday

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to reenact the shots taken on New Year's Eve 2007 on 87th Street - posted to Sixth Ward blog . Back in January I did a throwback post also at The Sixth Ward blog with an old photo of the Seaway Bank sign from 2007. Just bear in mind that 87th Street represents the northern most of the 9th Ward from the Dan Ryan to roughly King Drive.

Unlike back in 2007 when these shots were taken on a simple point and shoot digital camera, these photos were taken on my iPhone with an olloclip lens.

Click on all pics for larger resolution.

Across the street is a Family Dollar store. If you can see the grand opening sign near the front entrance don't let that fool you, this particular store has been open since sometime in 2007. A local community organization wrote in their newsletters that year that they wanted a grocery store at this location. Even 10 years later no grocer has stepped forward to turn this back into a grocery store. Before 2007, this space was home to a locally owned Food Basket store.

 Moving along on 87th Street, here is a branch of Illinois Service Federal. Earlier in 2007 it was the site of a fatal bank robbery which made the local news. A teller was killed by gunfire during that violent incident. Since then ISF has gone through their own changes with a new ownership group hailing from Ghana who now owns this Black-owned financial institution.

Finally got a shot of the new sign at the former Seaway Bank which sports new signage because of it's ownership under Self-Help Federal Credit Union. Seaway Bank itself failed in January 2017 and was purchased in a FDIC auction by State Bank of Texas. Then in May 2017 Self-Help took over deposits and branches of Seaway after SBT sold them to the credit union.

There are more photos from 87th Street that I would like to post in the near future. At least on a much nicer day closer to Spring was I finally able to retake these shots. Of course there are other changes on 87th Street worth noting not captured in these three shots.

Tribune: Politics, funding impede Pullman restoration as monument approaches 3rd anniversary

Via The Chicago Neighborhoods

This Tribune article updates us on the progress of that Pullman National Monument announced by then President Barack Obama in 2015:

Since 2015, Pullman National Monument has moved sluggishly toward these goals. The state-owned grounds are in the midst of an extensive cleanup from decades of industrial waste. The National Park Service’s visitors center, planned for the clock tower building, has been pushed back at least a year. Plans mapping out the monument’s long-term future were supposed to be completed within three years but are only now beginning. State and federal money has been minimal, and progress on some projects has been slowed because of several federal government shutdowns and an unprecedented two-year state budget standoff.

The one project that could move forward, an apartment building for artists, is on hold after federal officials told the developers to seek additional input from the public.

“My wife and I have been here for 50 years, and we’ve seen different cycles and levels of interest from people working in Pullman,” said resident Mike Shymanski. Progress “takes time and takes patience, but once the restoration is done it’ll be around a long time.”

Pullman was expected to draw 300,000 visitors per year by 2025, however, with its current annual attendance at only 50,000, those estimates seem ambitious.

Now, the park is contending with a president who is less supportive of conservation. The Trump administration recently shrunk two Utah national monuments, bringing about at least two legal challenges and legislation to counter the move.

Here's something from Tribune Graphics showing a map of the Pullman area under the national parks.

Low attendance, lack of funding and an unsupportive president impede Pullman monument progress https://t.co/NA3Pbnn0EP via @_TonyBriscoe pic.twitter.com/Ta7btw8yLf

— Tribune Graphics (@ChiTribGraphics) February 19, 2018

While it's not looking that good there are some positive developments:

The first floor of the state-owned Hotel Florence could open even sooner, possibly over the summer after contractors finish building an accessibility ramp and restoring and furnishing the elaborate interior.

The park service also plans to work outside the monument to generate buzz through a grant from the McCormick Foundation to develop curriculum in area classrooms on nationally significant themes: transformation of passenger rail travel, urban planning, Pullman’s role in the American labor movement and the porters’ civil rights movement.

What are the plans for the Hotel Florence? I'm very keen on finding out!

Re: Maggio News documentaries posted to Nextdoor

Feel free to read more about it over at The Sixth Ward. An explanation and some findings...

Re: Maggio News documentaries posted to Nextdoor https://t.co/TlnWLglIAp

— The Sixth Ward (@TheSixthWard) January 29, 2018

CBS Chicago: Chicago Cop Shot In The Hand During Chase In Rosemoor

[VIDEO] This is why I heard the helicopter in my neighborhood last night? A police officer was shot near Chicago State University last night.

Officer was said to be fine after being shot in hand and one suspect in custody. Another piece of trivia is that the incident actually took place in Roseland Heights. Rosemoor is the neighborhood across the Bishop Ford Expressway to the south.

9th ward job fair & hiring event

9th ward job fair & hiring fair at Tuley Park - 501 E. 90th Place tomorrow Wednesday, November 15, 2017 from 9 AM to 2 PM. Refer to flyer below if you seek more information!

Capitol Fax: Austin is no longer the city’s largest neighborhood

I'm sharing a direct tweet to an article about Austin losing its designation as Chicago's most populous neighborhood - though remaining the largest community area geographically.

Austin's population has dropped dramatically as retaliatory gang violence persists https://t.co/fPIxIjoMeJ pic.twitter.com/b6bOfrT6uQ

— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) July 17, 2017

According to the Tribune article shared over at the Capitol Fax it loses this designation to the north side Lakeview neighborhood:

Home to nearly 118,000 people in 2000, Austin has seen its population drop to 97,600, according to an average of census data collected between 2011 and 2015. It has been overtaken by the North Side's Lakeview neighborhood, whose population has remained steady since the 1980s and currently has about 98,200 residents.

Now the reasons Austin is losing population is not much different than a number of neighborhoods on the south side or even the west side. Better yet not much different than why many are leaving Chicago, period.

In a neighborhood as large as Austin, each block can be its own world.

The tree-lined ones, with restored Victorian homes or brick two-flats and kids playing in polished gardens, are what residents call good blocks. They're free of the shootings and drug deals that plague others. But those other blocks, dotted with boarded-up houses and vacant lots with overgrown weeds, are often down the street or around the corner.

Austin is the city's largest community area geographically, and was the most populated for 45 years. But as the West Side neighborhood's gun violence has increased, so too has families' realization that at any moment the shootings can creep into their blocks — even the good blocks. Austin's residents are leaving, with some saying goodbye to the place they've called home their entire lives.
...
Chicago's violence is at its highest since the drug wars of the 1990s, and Austin is center stage to many of the shootings and homicides: As of July 13, there were 258 shootings in the area in 2017 and 44 homicides, according to Tribune data. More than 1,900 people have been shot in Chicago so far this year.

The city as a whole is losing residents, and Chicago last year was the only city of the country's 10 largest to lose population. Residents who've packed up and left Chicago have cited a variety of reasons — high taxes, the state budget stalemate and the weather.

Those in Austin have a different list of concerns. More than 30 percent live in poverty. Storefronts are shuttered, and grocery stores are few and far between. The neighborhood high schools that remain open are under-resourced.

But in a neighborhood where retaliatory shootings mean unending violence, many residents say safety is the biggest issue.

Of course there is more to this story so I suggest you give this a read. And check out the video with the Trib article. If only many of us has signs like this to rep our neighborhoods. For example I <3 Chatham or I <3 Roseland or I <3 Englewood.