By Amy Phan
The UNITY News Online
Ask a few people around town to describe the 228 neighborhoods in Chicago and two distinctions systematically arise: the north side and the south side of Chicago. While 3 million people live within the “Windy City,” it’s uncommon for a person living in the south side to encounter north-sider.
22-year-old Danielle Hester, who grew up in the South side of Chicago, wasn’t introduced to North side culture until about 4 years ago, when she attended DePaul University.
The stereotypes, she said, remains.

“You can stay out all night without getting harmed at all on the north side, as opposed to the south side,” said Hester. People on the north side tend to ride bikes and walk out late at night. “People don’t do that stuff on the south side.”

Statistically speaking, the south side of Chicago is mostly a working class, with a population of 38,596 according to the 2000 U.S. consensus. Over 68 percent are black, followed by 26 percent Hispanic and 3 percent white.

The north side of Chicago is also working class, but with a much different color. About 47 percent are white, while 36 percent are black.  “The north side is a mostly white clientele, more upscale, nicer cars. And nicer houses are common,” according to Antonio Sharp, a Wisconsin transplant who now lives in Chicago.

But there were projects there too.

It was only when the city of Chicago decided to sell the northern properties to contractors and real estate developers that people began relocating to the south side. The gentrification eventually attracted big business and developments, it wasn’t long before better jobs followed suite.

But growing up in the ‘70s, Sharp recalls seeing prostitution, homelessness and poorer living conditions than the north side.  Sharp said he hasn’t seen many changes.

“When I go back to the south side [of Chicago], I still see a lot of poverty.” But with recent development such as the McCormick Place on the south side, he said he hopes the economy will get better.

Meanwhile Hester noted that there are some gains and losses made from recent developments.
“I look at gentrification in two ways, positive and negative. You want revenue and economy but at the same time you can’t strip away the culture,” she said. “We’re not New York.”

Does a growing economy have to mean loss of cultural identity? What other solutions are there for the south side of Chicago besides gentrification to thrive alongside its North counterpart?

topic: Chicagoland

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 26th, 2008 at 9:03 am and is filed under Blog, Chicagoland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.