Racial Map of Chicago (Cicero, Berwyn: rental, tenants, luxury)
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I think Humboldt1 exaggerates a bit. While Austin blvd itself is likely majority African American on the OP side, the next block in, Humphrey, unlike Austin Blvd, is comprised overwhelmingly of SFHs with majority white occupancy. Given the association of rental properties with higher minority occupancy, and the association of rental properties with major thoroughfares, it's not surprising to believe east OP is majority AA if you don't venture off Lake, Chicago, Washington, or Madison Sts. Behind all those arterials are side streets like Humphrey, Taylor, etc with nary an apt complex in sight.
As a preemptive rebuttal, no I'm not saying that AA SFH-owners don't exist in OP, but statistically speaking homeowners in OP skew whiter and wealthier than the OP average.
PS: Isn't it time you changed your handle to OakPark1?
Oh, I forgot to mention that OP has an ordinance forbidding real estate for sale signs. The law is no longer enforced but RE agents still voluntarily comply. The rationale of the ordinance was to prevent "block busting" which has a long a sordid history in Chicago. The village enacted several other strategies back in the 70s to aggressively fight white flight. It's a pretty unique history (maybe Hyde Park and Beverly share some similarity) which is reflected in this demographic map.
I will probably continue with Humboldt1 until I can unload the building. I still am there every other weekend collecting rent and making sure the building is in good shape.
Regarding Taylor St. I know several black families who own on the block. Not so much on Forest Ave (perhaps one of the wealthiest blocks in Oak Park for those not familiar with the area).
I agree that thoroughfares combined with apartment buildings has more AA residents.
And OakParkDude is right just a block over you go from like 80% black to maybe 50% black, going from apartments to small single family homes. I agree that the decline in Oak Park is more evident on major roads like Chicago, Division, Madison than the side streets as they have less apartment buildings or more single family homes. I think this is the same in all areas, the side streets are more attactive than busy thoroughfares.
Jackson does not suffer as much as it is less of a thoroughfare and Columbus Park acts as a partial buffer to Austin to the east.
If others really think Oak Park is truly diverse (not segregated east and west and north/south as I assert and diverse as a whole) they should stop by the Frank Lloyd Wright tour on the weekends and tell me how much diversity you see. There is none. It is all white people with some asians (they really seem into Hemingway with tourists always taking pictures - I know this for a fact as I live right next to the museum) and a few hispanics. Very occasionally do I see black people taking the Frank Lloyd Wright tour, which takes place a block from where I live.
I love Oak Park and think it is a great place to live but apart from the high school, where all sides of town attend school it is not terribly diverse and fairly segregated.
It is more diverse than Glenview though. Last weekend we went to the Glen for dinner and just like any other nice dinner my girlfriend is the only hispanic person not working there. We get that alot. There are more yuppie black people than yuppie hispanics in Oak Park.
The Oak Park Housing Authority does not seem concerned with placement of hispanics only blacks. I find this highly curious. Do they think that they do not need to avoid practice against block busting against hispanics but do against blacks?
The Oak Park Housing Authority does not seem concerned with placement of hispanics only blacks. I find this highly curious. Do they think that they do not need to avoid practice against block busting against hispanics but do against blacks?
No, they don't.
Oak Park, in addition to being a suburb of Chicago, is also a suburb of the of sub-city of Ciceronia-Berwynia-Lawndalia, and in that part of the world the apartheid line is drawn between black and non-black.
Thus, if you are either white or Mexican (there are no "Latinos" or "Hispanics" in that part of the world) you are category "B" and will be steered towards the African Americans under the assumption is your upbringing included negative (if not racist) attitudes towards blacks, resulting in a tendency to self-segregate away from them unless encouraged to do otherwise.
If you are black, you are category "A", and you will be encouraged to shed your upbringing's negative and/or racist attitudes towards non-blacks by interacting with them as you live among them.
These steering practices, I should point out, have been around since Oak Park decided to integrate (mid 1970's), and have often been criticized as unconstitutional. And it truly is the only place I know where such blatant racial steering is still tolerated. IIRC, the "compelling interest" argument has prevailed against all challenges.
And few dispute that the system has worked, despite your negative assessment. Oak Park is considered one of integration's success stories.
And if you think I'm putting you on, you are welcome to try convincing people in Cicero, Berwyn or Little Village that they should do the same thing as Oak Park. I'm even willing to organize a town hall meeting for you to make the case - provided you make me the sole beneficiary of your life insurance.
I totally agree with your post. It may not be popular but the policies are mostly working. It also only works if you have a relatively high income area like Oak Park that is bounded to the west by an even higher income area, River Forest.
When you encourage black yuppies to move to Oak Park and steer them toward the nicer part of town, you only allow for those who can afford the rent in the nicer parts. You do not have people renting 1 bedroom apartments for much less than $1000 per month, which virtually eliminates section 8 west of Ridgeland (some blocks east of there too).
If others really think Oak Park is truly diverse (not segregated east and west and north/south as I assert and diverse as a whole) they should stop by the Frank Lloyd Wright tour on the weekends and tell me how much diversity you see. There is none. It is all white people with some asians (they really seem into Hemingway with tourists always taking pictures - I know this for a fact as I live right next to the museum) and a few hispanics. Very occasionally do I see black people taking the Frank Lloyd Wright tour, which takes place a block from where I live.
Not a good lesson plan, Teach. Berwyn had its annual bungalow tour this past weekend. Your demographic observations apply to that as well. And the vast majority of the attendees were from outside the community, as I'm sure is also the case with the FLW tours. I don't want to get into why this is so (that would be pointless and somewhat silly) but house tours are not the best guide for a picture of the demographic composition of a community.
OakAnd if you think I'm putting you on, you are welcome to try convincing people in Cicero, Berwyn or Little Village that they should do the same thing as Oak Park. I'm even willing to organize a town hall meeting for you to make the case - provided you make me the sole beneficiary of your life insurance.
Berwyn brought in the Oak Park Regional Housing Center in 2007. So no need to put you on the life insurance ;-)
MAP: Distressed properties in the Chicago Metro area - chicagotribune.com (http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-0930-distressed-properties-gfx20100930,0,5307390.graphic - broken link)
Berwyn brought in the Oak Park Regional Housing Center in 2007. So no need to put you on the life insurance ;-)
Good for you!
And if that's REALLY the case, we'll see a major influx of blacks into Berwynia-Lawndalia-Ciceronia when the racial map is updated for the 2010 census, right?
Personally, I suspect somebody is yanking somebody's chain.
But the heck with my stupid conspiracy theories. Now that I know you are looking for new recruits, at the next UVA meeting I'll make a point of recommending Berwyn as a destination for the misanthropes being discharged from the remaining local parcels of old-school public housing. I have no doubt they'll be VERY interested in casing out - oops, I mean touring - the bungalows.
No, not yanking your chain. Though the Housing Center was done away with by the new administration that was elected in '09, it was operating for awhile. Its primary mission was to educate landlords on how to improve the marketability and security of their buildings, as well as to market the city's rental housing stock to higher income tenants to raise overall rental rates. The mission, despite the best efforts of fear mongers to lead people to believe otherwise, was not to relocate public housing residents to the surburbs.
Read up on the communities and organizations you're discussing, so you can have an informed opinion. It's much better than talking out of your
Spoiler
ass.
Last edited by linicx; 10-02-2010 at 09:26 AM..
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