Maywood, Illinois (Chicago, Evanston, Berwyn: college, income, place to live)

[Alacran]

I remember the playground on 5th and st.charles had needles and the tubes kids went in to play smelled like pee.

[urza216]

Originally Posted by southsidehitman

oak park cops took my weed n let me go lol

Maybe they smoked it themselves.
Or used it to plant on someone else.

[ProudMaywoodian]

I've lived in Maywood all my life and it was a great place to grow up and the only problems we had at Proviso were the issues with the white kids who resented AAs going there! Everybody new everybody but now you see faces you don't recognize. The problem BEGAN when West Side residents (with issues in Chicago) started moving in and the original Maywoodians wanted no part of the invasion and began moving out! Chicago residents were sending their kids to Proviso (by using relatives addresses) because their kids had been kicked out of every Chicago school in their area and brought the problems to Proviso. NO DISREPECT TO CHICAGO RESIDENTS AS A WHOLE! Original Maywoodians respected the town they lived in, the people who lived here and the businesses. It also stems from the politicians we have running our town because people are more interested in getting their friends into office rather than getting someone who actually gives a damn about the town itself. If you are going to bad mouth Maywood, make sure you were here from the beginning and watched it spiral downward as it populated with new residents. For instance, there had never been any grafitti EVER on ANY of the buildings in Maywood until.......

[chitownperson]

Originally Posted by ProudMaywoodian

I've lived in Maywood all my life and it was a great place to grow up and the only problems we had at Proviso were the issues with the white kids who resented AAs going there! Everybody new everybody but now you see faces you don't recognize. The problem BEGAN when West Side residents (with issues in Chicago) started moving in and the original Maywoodians wanted no part of the invasion and began moving out! Chicago residents were sending their kids to Proviso (by using relatives addresses) because their kids had been kicked out of every Chicago school in their area and brought the problems to Proviso. NO DISREPECT TO CHICAGO RESIDENTS AS A WHOLE! Original Maywoodians respected the town they lived in, the people who lived here and the businesses. It also stems from the politicians we have running our town because people are more interested in getting their friends into office rather than getting someone who actually gives a damn about the town itself. If you are going to bad mouth Maywood, make sure you were here from the beginning and watched it spiral downward as it populated with new residents. For instance, there had never been any grafitti EVER on ANY of the buildings in Maywood until.......

I take it you've be there for over 40 years? And are you talking about old school white flight? I don't think anyone needs to "bad mouth", or have deep experience in Maywood to acknowledge that it is currently suffering from some very serious problems that will take a long time and a lot of effort to over come. A simple drive though is enough to show the neglect and decay of the area. I've seen drug dealing out in the open on a sunny Sunday afternoon drive through one of the main streets.

I'm not disagreeing with anything you've said. You've lived through it, so you're obviously in a better position to talk about how it hit the fan. I'd be interested to hear more of what you have to say on the transition, and how different problem arose.

It's sad to hear stories of nice areas fall to decay and crime, and is frankly scary how fragile areas are in this sense.

[linicx]

I lived in Chicago when Maywood began to change. It was a nice town with some historic homes. If I had purchased the home I wanted I would have had some really teriffic neighbors. But we were transfered to Florida. I've heard stories. i always wondered what actually happened.

[Alacran]

There are no businesses here.

It sucks having to go to other places to buy stuff.

I wanna move back to Chicago -_-

The Maywood Market which was the first Grocery store in Maywood since 20 years only lasted about a year and a half.

Why the hell can't grocery stores or any store besides pawn shops, loans, etc. make it in the ghetto

[chitownperson]

Originally Posted by Alacran

Why the hell can't grocery stores or any store besides pawn shops, loans, etc. make it in the ghetto

Because pawn stores, liquor store, and churches get all the business. Because it would get robbed too often. Because fast food generally dominates people in poverty.

[CCrest182]

Originally Posted by Venom

I've read other topics on Maywood since I live here.
It's got a horrible rep.
So I want people to tell me everything they think on it.
Does it have any hope of getting better? Why did it it start getting bad?
How could it get better?

Once a suburb collapses, it's very bad, even worse than a city neighborhood collapsing. This means the police force for a bad subur is much smaller and has much less power than a police force in a major city and for that reason it has a harder time stopping crime. The Maywood police department is getting worse, which is almost never a good sign. Schools here are bad, same with Broadview and Bellwood. Overall Maywood shows no signs of gentrifying or getting better any time soon. Many black families are moving out, and nobody really is moving in. Gangs have also claimed territory here and Bellwood. Doesn't appear it will have a good future. It's used as an exit turf for gangs escaping the Chicago city limits and using it to carry out their criminal activities in a place where the police won't be as able to catch them as in the city, like what's been happening in Harvey for years. Unfortunately, this may happen in other west and south suburbs in the future.

[doodlemagic]

I always wonder what the point of these threads is besides trying to make a spectacle of crappy areas. It's like the ghetto tours they do in LA. It's actually sad people live in bad conditions not something to be made light of. That said I kinda like how this thread has taken on not lets all crap all over maywood but more where did it go wrong. Maywood actually has some really cool houses, super close to expressway, etc much going for it, surprised it got so bad and nobody has tried to turn it around. I drive throug there frequently on my way to like Elmwood Park or Melrose Park and I see all these cool houses I'm sure which are cheap. Makes me wonder what if I bougt up a whole block fixed them up and tried to get friends family or other young people who would care for properties and not put up with crap to move in and start taking it back over, obviously not realistic but makes you wonder. I think there's a video on youtube called "I'm from maywood" where some wanna be rapper gangbangers are rapping in maywood kinda taking pride in what a dump its become, kinda sad. I guess its a takeoff on that jay z song Im from new york

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by doodlemagic

I always wonder what the point of these threads is besides trying to make a spectacle of crappy areas. It's like the ghetto tours they do in LA. It's actually sad people live in bad conditions not something to be made light of. That said I kinda like how this thread has taken on not lets all crap all over maywood but more where did it go wrong. Maywood actually has some really cool houses, super close to expressway, etc much going for it, surprised it got so bad and nobody has tried to turn it around. I drive throug there frequently on my way to like Elmwood Park or Melrose Park and I see all these cool houses I'm sure which are cheap. Makes me wonder what if I bougt up a whole block fixed them up and tried to get friends family or other young people who would care for properties and not put up with crap to move in and start taking it back over, obviously not realistic but makes you wonder. I think there's a video on youtube called "I'm from maywood" where some wanna be rapper gangbangers are rapping in maywood kinda taking pride in what a dump its become, kinda sad. I guess its a takeoff on that jay z song Im from new york

+1. These threads have the feel of folks slowing down for a car crash. Maywood's problems shouldn't be at all surprising. The success of a suburb is usually dependent on good schools. And schools are funded by property taxes. So when the community starts to decline, it becomes increasingly difficult to recover. That ship probably passed Maywood around 1980 or so.

Unlike City neighborhoods which can improve despite bad schools through gentrification, there's usually little chance of that in a suburb. Urbanists cause gentrification and most of them will want to live in the City. And Chicago has, what, 45-50 community areas that need to be gentrified at this point? And something about a 708 area code puts these people off, for whatever reason.

So Maywood has a tough row to hoe. It's best bet may be to attract a low income working class group which can increase the declining population and bring in some sense of community and values. It won't be mistaken for Oak Park, but maybe it can at least reduce some of that crime and get businesses into some of those boarded up storefronts.