Weird episode Mt. Greenwood Park -- is it typical? (Chicago: transplants, houses)

[mas23]

fck racists....that is all!

[Alacran]

Yeah this happens with any place that's majority something. Be it race, class, culture, etc.


There was even teens burning down new condos in humboldt park to keep their neighborhood from changing

[mas23]

Originally Posted by Southside Shrek

If that's the way to try to save what's left of the South Side, then there's no hope.

very true

[mas23]

Originally Posted by Alacran

Yeah this happens with any place that's majority something. Be it race, class, culture, etc.


There was even teens burning down new condos in humboldt park to keep their neighborhood from changing

Call me crazy but i have a feeling that if it was a bunch of upper middle class p. ricans moving to humboldt park none of this stuff would happen...

[ImaloneJill]

I think the kids are just parroting what their fireman and policeman daddies say at the kitchen table. My husband's father is a retired Chgo fireman and had the same mindset because he was stationed in many a burned out neighborhood firehouse and saw things he never thought he would ever see. At least, this is what I have heard from him. Not saying it is right or wrong, just sayin this is probably where they get their bravado.

[Alacran]

Originally Posted by mas23

Call me crazy but i have a feeling that if it was a bunch of upper middle class p. ricans moving to humboldt park none of this stuff would happen...

Oh I think it would.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by ajolotl

I'd follow more the Beverly route -- focus on creating rules to eliminate conversions, minimize the chance of white flight, etc. and welcome anyone who can afford one of the properties (classism vs. racism). After all, well-to-do blacks seem to despise the ghetto culture as much as whites do.

Excellent points. Communities should also do this. One main problem with the intimidation approach -- even assuming arguendo there is some logical basis for it -- is it's going to give the community a bad name, and make the forces who are going to keep it viable over the long haul less likely to move there. These forces are educated professionals, who are put off by communities they view to be racist. Racism is usually associated with lack of education and creativity.

Like it or not, the blue collar, white class is shrinking rapidly. I suspect it will be a tiny minority 20-30 years from now.

[Irishtom29]

Originally Posted by BRU67

These forces are educated professionals, who are put off by communities they view to be racist. Racism is usually associated with lack of education and creativity.

Well when you have enough dough you can hate people because of their class rather than their race or ethnicity. It's not as though the educated are more tolerant, they just scorn different things.

I don't see enough professionals around to keep many neighborhoods viable; it's not like they're common. Hell, at this point I'm wondering if Chicago is gonna end up viable at all.

[latikeriii]

I'm not surprised by this at all, MT. Greenwood is a lower-middle working class White community and usually, those are the ones that ususally seem to racially change the fastest. IMO, I don't think that working class Blacks, Whites, and Hispanics get along well at all, but higher-income people of all races TEND to get along much better but definitely far from perfect. Hence Beverly is doing fine but name me one racially mixed working-class(lower-middle) neighborhood in the city that's stable and not racially changing. Those Southwest Side neighborhoods are becoming Black and Hispanic and I doubt that Whites are moving in, they're moving. Once Mt. Greenwood becomes 10-20%% Black, it will snowball and the lower, working class Whites will flee quickly. Beverly and Mt. Greenwood are oranges and apples.

[Southside Shrek]

I've always known Mt. Greenwood for its cemeteries. I hope there's not a war to go to a cemetery.