How did it get so bad? (Chicago, Schaumburg: houses, employment, neighborhoods)

[steeps]

Originally Posted by BleedCubbieBlue

Yeah neighborhoods change. I dont think there is one hood in Chicago that looks the same as it did back in the 40's or 50's or whenever you grandpa lived there. And Harvey is one of the absolute worst areas in the Chicagoland area. They consistently have the highest crime rates (city and suburbs) in the area. It's a big dump there. Let's just say that when people get kicked out of Englewood and West Garfield projects, they end up in Harvey.

Well I think in ethnic make-up, Yes every neighborhood ethnically did change. BUT IN LOOKS.... many I say where the homes are themselves, many not much. Like the 360°s streetviews I posted , from the address of the Grandfathers Childhood neighborhood in Pilsen. Then Czechoslovakian then. Now Mexican. https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8551...0QZFpXVWcw!2e0
Though gentrification has been moving in, is displacing Mexicans at its eastern side. The old homestead is EXACTLY THE SAME. As most homes on the block appear? But for the next door one with siding. Most are original brick. Chicago's vast Bungalow belt 1910 to the 1940s. 1/3 of the city.

The HOMES BEING BRICK LOOK THE SAME? as built about the 1920S Bungalows
EXAMPLE https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9377...5ewA3soyiw!2e0

The old Cottage homes. Many remain about the same here?
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9013...zZLRYQPAwA!2e0

Old Ukrainian Village area. Did they change in some gentrification? New windows maybe.
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9010...zEAkaWNlFw!2e0

Old Wicker Park Shopping intersection. It would be recognized by someone front 70 years ago.
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9104...mlD_YQim6Q!2e0

This Jefferson Park neighborhood is the same. 50s homes one side, early 60s 2-flats the other side
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9684...1rwQVsed6A!2e0

[Drover]

Originally Posted by andrew61

I had a date in Constantinople, but she was waiting for me in Istanbul.

Even old New York was once New Amsterdam.

Why'd they change it?

[oakparkdude]

Originally Posted by Drover

Why'd they change it?

I can't say, maybe they liked it better that way.

[ChicagoMeO]

this is funny - happened to me too.. my grandmother bought a 2-flat in 1920 on the northwest side.. we all grew up in that and finally my mother who last inherited the house, had to go to a nursing home and they sold the family home, a few years ago. so now theres total strangers living in OUR HOUSE!! and they have changed it and now its really a travesty in looking at what the new owners did to OUR HOUSE!! i went one day to take a look when they had the 1st floor apartment for rent, and the inside was terrible. the walk in pantry had stuff piled up and it looked like a hoarder lived there, and there was a boarder on the back porch sleeping on a mattress on the floor, when he saw me he got scared because he probably was an illegal. I am not kidding on this! The washer/dryer was for some reason on the outside front porch.. WHAT A MESS.

[jonnynonos]

I suppose it would be odd if the fourth generation of a bunch of Czechs were still living in the tiny houses their great grandparents built.

Why did it change?

Because the kids moved to the suburbs about 70 years ago.

I am not so sure a lot of neighborhoods like that aren't just empty or near empty without Hispanic immigration.

Part of the appeal of the suburbs was white flight but part was just the suburbs themselves: bigger houses, more land, away from it all, etc.

[MassVt]

Originally Posted by jonnynonos

I suppose it would be odd if the fourth generation of a bunch of Czechs were still living in the tiny houses their great grandparents built.

Why did it change?

Because the kids moved to the suburbs about 70 years ago.

I am not so sure a lot of neighborhoods like that aren't just empty or near empty without Hispanic immigration.

Part of the appeal of the suburbs was white flight but part was just the suburbs themselves: bigger houses, more land, away from it all, etc.

Now it's coming full circle, as the younger generations are moving back into the city to "reclaim" these house, as bungalows are now seen as desirable. Older generations, especially after WW2, sought to move to more spacious digs, with a little more elbow room. ( the roofs in some bungalow neighborhoods almost touch each other). The bungalows were considered to be "starter" homes..

[Markus Rheingold]

I think I am being misunderstood here, I'm not asking why the Pilsen area turned into Mexicans. With immigrants and white flight that's apparent. I'm asking mainly how what seems to be a well position suburb with (well what remained of it) solid middle class housing stock turned into such a ghetto. I have seen urban areas go bad and even some suburbs get "sketchy" but Harvey looks worse than any neighborhood in the actual south side, worse than the South Bronx or East Oakland California...its a mess.

[MassVt]

Some of this housing may have gone into "rental" mode, with absentee ownership. The odds of these homes being well-maintained go down considerably..

[steeps]

This sight and the following 2 post, are probably your best answers so far OP I would say

Harvey: A Chicago suburb abused and ignored - Chicago Tribune

Originally Posted by JerichoHW

White flight, it has happened throughout the South Suburbs.

A middle income African American family would move to a white suburb, and the residents would flip out and move to "greener pastures". There was no need to, it was pointless racial hysteria. When you couple that with heavy industry crashing in the area, that is how these neighborhoods went downhill. People were fleeing to the farther out suburbs, and many neighborhoods were left nearly vacant. Home prices fell, crime increased and areas became blighted.

The cycle then repeats itself, middle income african americans move out to the far suburbs like Matteson and the white people flee to the exurbs. It's so ridiculous. This cycle is vicious and destroys neighborhoods, and communities.

This white flight was very common in the 60s 70s. Property values declined drastically in the change.

Originally Posted by BleedCubbieBlue

Yeah neighborhoods change. Harvey is one of the absolute worst areas in the Chicagoland area. They consistently have the highest crime rates (city and suburbs) in the area. It's a big dump there. Let's just say that when people get kicked out of Englewood and West Garfield projects, they end up in Harvey.

Maybe there will be better answers for the OP yet? But it is what happened to so much of Detroit. With no Gentrification to reverse any. Chicago did manage to retain a lot of great neighborhoods and has seen 17% of declining neighborhoods undergo gentrification. Hopefully restoration continues especially on the South Side.

[UnderTheLiveOaks]

Originally Posted by Markus Rheingold

I think I am being misunderstood here, I'm not asking why the Pilsen area turned into Mexicans. With immigrants and white flight that's apparent. I'm asking mainly how what seems to be a well position suburb with (well what remained of it) solid middle class housing stock turned into such a ghetto. I have seen urban areas go bad and even some suburbs get "sketchy" but Harvey looks worse than any neighborhood in the actual south side, worse than the South Bronx or East Oakland California...its a mess.

Some of the heavy industry that provided jobs in a blue collar suburb like Harvey went away, shuttered or offshored. That's probably the biggest blow to Harvey. Once the jobs left, there was little reason to stick around, and the population declined by 17% between 1980 and 1990 and another 16% between 2000 and 2010. Its population peaked around 35k in the 70s, but is under 25k now.

Beyond that, what happened to Harvey is what happened to a lot of inner-ring suburbs: It got hit with the one-two punch of white flight followed by new urbanism. There's nothing all that special about the housing stock there, so as demographics shifted, a lot of the money ran out to the farther suburbs. When, years later, the city proper became hip again, poor people priced out of the city ended up in suburbs like Harvey. Now the town is something like 95% The schools are arguably better than many in the city, but are still objectively very bad, so there's little to draw young families in. Plus Harvey had a long history of terrible corruption. And that's compared to CHICAGO. The mayor, Eric Kellogg, is very controversial (here's a pretty scathing report from a former town spokesperson) and the police department has had a horrible track record.

Feds make arrests in police corruption probe | abc7chicago.com

Some Harvey police have controversial records - Chicago Tribune

Harvey: A Chicago suburb abused and ignored - Chicago Tribune

So with few jobs, lots of corruption, bad schools, nothing very interesting in terms of restaurants or entertainment, and housing stock that ranges from unremarkable to crumbling, what's Harvey got? Proximity to the city? If you're willing to tolerate the crime and corruption in Harvey for the sake of a shorter commute, you're better off moving into one of the less-terrible parts of the south or west sides of the city.