For many residents, Chicago feels like two cities rather than one. There’s a predominantly white and middle-class Northside that doesn’t seem to be affected by social problems. On the South Side, gang wars and shootouts are part of everyday life. Chicago has a reputation for being a high-crime city, despite the higher crime rates of cities like Washington, D.C. and New York. The city was torn apart by segregation, poverty and the collapse of public housing programs.
Chicago, or the Windy City, is the third largest city in the United States. It has always been a thriving town and the jobs are always there. Many African-Americans who fled the Deep South settled there because there were always jobs in factories, cattle ranches, offices, and even the police. It was fine for a while, but not for long. Segregation came to Chicago and became the norm.
White communities wanted to be segregated from poorer blacks, so local governments passed a series of policies known as “restrictive covenants.” Almost all blacks were squeezed into ghettos. Living conditions were harsh and crowded, and these black communities grew because they had nowhere else to go.
Conditions in the slums got so bad over time that the city knocked them out and built high-rise public housing. On the surface, the apartments look fine. The government will pay for construction, while the Chicago Housing Authority will handle rent and logistics. However, the poor economy has left many families unable to pay rent. Even these brand new buildings eventually decay, worsening the quality of life – just like the slums they replace.
Over the next few decades, a sense of lawlessness began to creep through these places. Gangs and the drug trade eventually take over the neighborhood. Unfortunately, this seems to be the natural progression of a community that has been neglected by all other sectors of society. These council estates are often like urban war zones. The number of homicides is at an all-time high and every day is on an endless merry-go-round of violence, protests, gang wars, arrests, juvenile detention, drugs, and back again.
As in the past, the city dismantled these neighborhoods again. A whole generation of Chicagoans lost part of their identity. Twenty years later, nothing has been rebuilt. Public housing – the lack of it now – remains a problem.
Unfortunately, the group most affected are children. They find it difficult to break out of the vicious cycle of growing up in violent and unsupported neighborhoods, falling into the wrong crowd, and ending up in a life of crime. The silver lining is that charities are investing in these kids. Organizations help these children complete school, gain job skills, and provide them with alternatives to a life of crime. Hopefully they will thrive in life, put down roots in Chicago and build new and more exciting communities for the future.
Directed by: Brian Schodorf
