CHICAGO – One can't help but think of Charles Dickens' very, very long first sentence in the "Tale of Two Cities" when writing about the stark differences between two Chicago neighborhoods: the growing tent city off the Dan Ryan Expressway and America's fastest-growing concentration of $200,000-plus households just a few miles away.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Indeed. A perfect analysis of two Chicago neighborhoods as the city approaches 2019.
A recent Bloomberg analysis of the household concentration of those earning $200,000 or more in the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and where they are flocking showed Chicago surprisingly to be in the top slot:
Cook County, which includes the county seat of Chicago, is home to the No. 1 and No. 7 fastest-growing concentrations of $200,000-plus households. No. 1 is, ironically, the area around where the Cabrini-Green public housing projects once stood. Cabrini-Green was notorious for violent crime, poverty and de facto racial segregation until its demolition beginning in the 1990s at the behest of the Chicago Housing Authority.
The No. 7 spot for these upward-climbing households is 20 miles north – where the Glenview US Naval Air Station once thrived. Row houses and townhomes there now sell for up to $2.5 million.
(Graphic from Bloomberg)
Those are the "best of times" Chicago neighborhoods – not mentioning the high dollar single family homes, penthouses and condominiums on or near the city's Gold Coast or Magnificent Mile.
The "worst of times" neighborhoods are not too far away from the "best" in the nation. Those "worst" would include Chicago neighborhoods west of the Loop, where gang wars and crime thrive. Over Christmas weekend, 41 were shot and 11 killed – bringing the 2018 total to:
Chicago's "worst of times" neighborhoods would also have to include the tent cities growing despite Chicago's cold winter temperatures along the Dan Ryan Expressway, a major thoroughfare.
This particular grouping of 60 or more tents is located just east of the Dan Ryan, on Des Plaines Avenue, north of Roosevelt Road and south of West Taylor. The closest public restroom facilities are a nearby Binny's Beverage Depot, a Best Buy store and a Marathon gas station. The tent city is within a stone's throw of the Chicago Fire Academy:
Where's the outrage over Chicago's tent city and the homeless living there? Where's the volunteer charitable giving of those well-off moving to the area where Cabrini-Green public housing once stood?
Is it the task of city politicians to relieve the stress of those living in squalor?
How will this dire situation be remedied? Or will it ever be?
(First photo: Daniel Acker; All others: Mark Weyermuller)
