Homewood Illinois and Diversity: Good or Bad for Village?

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by goirish

We have been warned that nearby areas such as Hazel Crest, Markham, and Dolton, Country Club Hills, Chicago Heights with increasing diversity, the prices of homes have declined, and crime has gone up.

Those areas (other than Chicago Heights) are each 75% or more African American. "Diversity" is defined as a "structure that includes the tangible presence of individuals representing a variety of different attributes and characteristics." So just because 90% of the population of a community is made up of one minority group doesn't mean it's diverse! In fact, the opposite is true. A community which is 85% African American like Markham isn't diverse at all. It's as homogonous as Tinley Park is, just with a different group of people. Political correctness has gotten in the way of what this term should really mean.

Diversity is a good thing. Maintaining it is hard because people of different races -- and certainly people of different economic classes -- are usually leery of living around one and other. So if one group is being replaced by another which on the whole has a lower income, that is going to destabilize the community and cause property values and schools to decline. Conversely, if the opposite is true, the community will become more stable and property values and schools will improve. So I guess whether it's "good" or "bad" depends on the characteristics of the group coming in.

Homewood's key is to maintain diversity and not let the community get too much of one group.

[Frank the Tank]

This is an interesting question. I grew up in Glenwood and Homewood, graduated from H-F (go Vikings), and thought it was all a great experience on the education front. I think the real issue isn't whether diversity is good or bad - on the whole, I hope that most people consider this to be a good thing.

Instead, the real issue that faces the Homewood area is whether this is a "transition" period - that is, Homewood is a diverse community when you take a snapshot of the racial distribution today, but will it continue to be truly diverse 5 to 10 years from now or will there be a "tipping point" where one race quickly becomes predominant as has occurred in neighboring south suburban towns? At the beginning of the 1990s, H-F was over 80% white, while now the largest racial group in the high school are African-Americans. Especially considering that H-F is a large high school, that is a significant change in the relatively short period of a decade. So will it continue to change at this pace (a la geographic neighbors Chicago Heights, Harvey, and Matteson) or will the town be able to maintain the current diverse mix (a la socioeconomically comparable Oak Park and Evanston)? That's the tough question right now in my eyes.

[quest1844]

i like homewood, I grew up in Evanston, IL and now unfourtunatly reside in South Chicago Heights. I plan on moving my family to either Homewood or a new subdivision in Matteson in the very near future. I dont see homewood changing to say.....a chicago heights or anything in the next decade.

[littletechie]

i have lived in this town of Homewood. I will soon be in a position to move to
deerfield. It is so safe up there people leave keys under mat.

could it happen in Homewood . NO no no

i have lived here for almost 30 years and im black and im telling u straight truth.

i was raised here from infancy.

this town is not the same.

i hate it here and am making plans to move up north or out of state.

my sister had her car vandalized. my fathers car has been broken into, not to mention my fellow racist neighbors who are ethnic, latino and other percentile.


strange people and cars roaming at all hours of the night.

2 armed robberies at daylight one at tcf bank and one at old currency exchange were it used to close at 10 now stays open 24 hrs. i would be scared to cash check. some unsavory characters come in. there are SEVEN
sex offenders living here. Think about your kids. DEERFIELD AND NAPERVILLE would not have this.

oh did i mention the armed robberie at currency exchange the robbers were killed. It got violent.

in flossmoor about 10-15 years ago there was a major drug bust.

my father now has house alarm and we keep our cars armed , its new to us.

let me tell u something HOMEWOOD is not all that great i personally hate it. houses are up for sale left and right.

it was not like that 15 years ago. almost gated community. you would be lucky if u could get apartment real lucky if u could get condo.

now everybody can live here. race is not the issue.

do serious research, tinley park, orland, crestwood, oaklawn, posen, palos hills, palos height, nice areas affordable. good school. a good balance of people a high volume of business which means people have jobs less likely to be alot of crimes OAK FORESTis nice. if i stayed out this way i would move over there


there are still alot of racial undertones here. at one time abot 3 years ago the homewood flossmoor district wanted to withdraw from schools like thornton, in that league. due to racial.

this is not posh area , there are section 8 houses here i live next door and in area with alot of section 8 and people who rent. that was unheard of here 15 years ago.

there used to be a Washington mall here it closed in 1995.
ever since just srtip malls. the job industry is dead.

im just telling u straight. no bs

to come into any community thinking its perfect, its a false eutopia.

like i said i want to plan to move out of state , northside of city, north suburbs. or who knows one of the south suburbs i mentioned preferably
ORLAND PARK.

I GIVE HOMEWOOD TWO THUMBS DOWN


MY ADVICE TO ANYONE DO RESEARCH ON YOUR OWN, DRIVE THROUGH AREA
DAY AND NIGHT MORE THAN ONCE , I JUST CHOOSE TO TELL U THE TRUTH BUT TE AVERAGE PERSON IN HOMEWOOD ISNT.

WHEN YOU DRIVE THROUGH HOMEWOOD JUST LOOK AT ALL HOUSES FOR SALE. WHEN A COMMUNITY HAS THIS MANY HOUSES FOR SALE ,"THERE IS
SOMETHING WRONG" OH ANOTHER HINT ACCORDING TO MY FRIEND THERE IS HIGH RATE OF HIV IN COMMUNITY TOO , DO RESEARCH

IF YOUR LOOKING TO DATE , CHECK HIM OR HER OUT

[GMarshfield]

I'd be cautious over the long haul.

Diversity is the mind-numbing orthodoxy today, it never was before, and nobody can in any way quantify why it's "better" for you. In fact it's far easier to prove it's a weakness (like yugoslavia, ussr (now 15 countries), south africa, canada/quebec, belgium/flanders, china/tibet, israel/pal) than it is to prove it's a strength.

Think you'll be chatting with all that diversity in the check-out line at the local grocery store? I shop at the Costco on Damen/Diversey and nobody talks to one another in line at all, ever, so much for all this great diversity. Nobody has anything in common.

Trust your first instincts.