WBEZ | Englewood

Englewood seeks celebrity help to keep school open near urban garden

Fri, 10 May 2013 09:05:00 -0500

Students at Yale Elementary enjoy spring weather during recess. Laughter wafts from the playground. Girls in school uniforms chat in the grass, away from younger students.

Next to the school, on 70th Street and Princeton Avenue, is a vast garden, larger than most backyard gardens. Adult volunteers massage the soil to plant daffodils the color of bright sunshine.

In the summer, this mini-farm—with the help of children—will grow tomatoes, greens and dill. The garden is called Eat to Live, and the kids even learn a little bit about urban agriculture and healthy eating in the classroom. Across the street from the garden there’s land that will become an urban farm this summer. Eat to Live Englewood will provide residents with a permanent space for food production, community learning and disease prevention education. The goal is to reduce health disparities.

But Yale is slated to close at the end of the academic year as part of the Chicago Public Schools controversial plan to shutdown 54 schools.

Pushback against school closings is familiar. Many communities champion their neighborhood school as unique. They argue that a one-size-fits-all policy shouldn’t be used to shut their school down. That’s true for parents at Yale Elementary School. They say the school’s urban garden fits right in with a burgeoning focus on urban agriculture in the larger Englewood community.

Parts of the Englewood neighborhood are in a food desert. Alisa Ivory’s two children attend Yale and she toils in the garden. She and garden neighbor Demetria Scott chat about healthy food and the impact the garden has had on their lives and their childrens’.

"We are some junk food junkies," Ivory says. "And now my idea is turning away from a lot of junk food. Because that’s what it is - junk for your body."

"We went to Aldi’s one day up the street, Michael was like can we get some plain yogurt and some granola. And some bananas. And I said oh, yeah, Michael, we can get that," Scott says.

Behind the garden, on the next street over, is a ghostly boarded-up home. It’s the house singer and actress Jennifer Hudson grew up in—and where members of her family were killed several years ago.

Hudson attended Yale Elementary. As part of its large restructuring plan, Chicago Public Schools is proposing to close Yale and move its students to Harvard Elementary, about a mile away. Both schools are on the bottom of CPS academic ratings in a poverty-stricken neighborhood.

Yvette Moyo is the director of Real Men Charities, which started the Yale Eat to Live garden. At one of the school closing hearings, Moyo revealed an idea.

“At the microphone I said, you could have called Jennifer Hudson and asked her is there something you want to do in the area that you grew up in and an area where tragedy took place. Would you like to see it come back to life again and would you play a role in it,” Moyo recalls.

Moyo just learned that Hudson’s representatives declined her request. But she figures there are other Chicagoans who might like to help make an urban agriculture elementary school. Quincy Jones, maybe, or Lupe Fiasco, Common, or R. Kelly.

The city of Chicago is invested in reducing food instability around the neighborhood.

That’s a big reason Moyo doesn’t want Yale to close.

"The vision we’ve given to the children for two years is that they’re at the cutting edge of everything Chicago will be in the future and that is a part of an urban agriculture movement that not will only provide jobs but businesses for them and their parents, which is what’s really missing - the opportunity to be fruitful and to provide for families and communities," Moyo says. "When we talk about underemployment and the level of literacy the dropout rate of the parents even. This is something that we can provide for the community. And we kind of promised that we’ll be there for them, that they have added value by working in the Eat to Live Garden."

The school garden at Yale is heading into its second season.

Moyo says even if Yale closes at the end of the school year, plans for all the farms will continue.

And she says that’s why she’ll be going after other groups to help keep the school open.

So Moyo says she’ll keep writing letters to celebrities, and holding onto the garden’s mantra: "Everything Good Grows in Englewood."

Natalie Moore is a WBEZ reporter. Follow her @natalieymoore.

Education group seizes opportunity in CPS closings

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:10:00 -0500

In the parking lot of the Burger King on 69th and Halsted, a small group of parents and activists is getting a primer on school closings on a recent Saturday morning.

This isn’t a random crowd. They’re all with a local chapter of the national education reform group Stand For Children. It’s the well-funded, pro-charter organization that helped push through Illinois legislation for a longer school day and teacher evaluations.

For the past few weeks, they’ve been canvassing Chicago neighborhoods most affected by schools closings.

Trainers explain packets the volunteers will be handing out in Englewood. They include a list of open enrollment school options and a CPS magnet school application. There’s also Stand for Children literature.

Chicago Public Schools’ intention to close 53 elementary schools has rattled communities. Powerful groups like the local teachers union and vocal parents lambaste the closure plan. But there are others who see restructuring as an opportunity.

Juan Jose Gonzalez is Stand for Children’s Chicago director. He says in the past few weeks, canvassers have knocked on more than 11,000 doors.

“I’ve actually been very surprised at the feedback,” Gonzalez said. “We know sometimes those that scream the loudest get the most attention. But what we’ve been finding on the door is a lot of people either a. know about the school action or have come to grips with it. Some people when they find out about the new opportunities coming to them at the new school whether it be a new pre-K program, or air-conditioning or some of the capital improvements, they seem to get excited about that transition.”

It sounds a lot like Stand for Children’s own stance: Gonzalez says school closures are destabilizing, but that Stand for Children isn’t fighting them.

“There’s really nothing else we can do about it. We’re trying to be proactive and getting people to the right better quality schools,” Gonzalez said.

Mays and Banneker are two Englewood elementary schools impacted. Both have student populations that are mostly black and low income. CPS ranks both in the lowest level of academic performance. Banneker is slated to close; Mays will take over and move to Banneker’s building.

***

Stand for Children volunteer Ophelia Svitak knocks on doors and reads from a script. Her job is to explain the Mays and Banneker school closures and changes. It’s a windy day. On some blocks there are more abandoned and boarded-up homes than occupied households.

The few times people do answer their doors, Svitak finds they don’t have children at either Mays or Banneker. But Stand for Children volunteers use the opportunity to ask people to sign a postcard petition, which asks if they want quality schools for all children in Chicago. Those people are now added to the group’s mailing list and swell their ranks on paper.

Finally, one Banneker parent answers. Kenitha Currie also has preschool-aged children. When Mays becomes Banneker, there will be a new pre-K program. Currie isn’t sure if she’ll keep her older kids there but she likes the change for her younger children.

“It’s some schools out here for preschool that go all day. That’s something that I do want because half a day for preschoolers ain’t gonna get it,” Currie said.

Then Svitak has her sign a Stand for Children petition.

***

A couple of days later, I stopped by Banneker Elementary to hear from other parents.

Danielle Williams is skeptical. She said her first grader Terrence gets straight As at Banneker and he doesn’t want to change.

“I want to keep my teacher,” Terrence said.

His mother says the school knows some of the behavior problems Terrence has.

“And they know what’s going on with him and they’re okay with him. Mays come in, they should still keep Banneker teachers because they’re good teachers and the principal because they’re good people,” Williams said.

Right now that seems unlikely. Williams says she’ll see how the summer transition goes. Then she’ll decide if her son will stay at Banneker-turned-Mays Elementary come fall.

Natalie Moore is a WBEZ reporter. Follow her @natalieymoore.

Arrest records in hiring process lead to marginalization, poor mental health

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 08:02:00 -0500

Englewood residents who are repeatedly denied jobs because of an arrest record experience mental health problems, according to a new report.

The Chicago-based Adler School of Professional Psychology looked at whether updates to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission could increase employment in Englewood — a poor, black neighborhood where one of the city’s highest unemployment and arrest rates are coupled with dwindling mental health services.

Last year the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission updated its policy that prohibits employers from using arrest records in the hiring process. Adler researchers began conducting the study while the EEOC was considering revisions. They interviewed 250 Englewood residents, asking them about life satisfaction, use of the informal economy and discrimination. The school’s findings suggest that employment rejection created symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress.

“In communities like Englewood where there’s a large number of people who are experiencing this, it had impacts community wide. So we found that things like psychological sense of community and cohesion were undermined as well,” said Lynn Todman, the study’s lead author and director of Adler’s Institute on Social Exclusion.

During interviews, respondents said Englewood residents typically seek low-skill retail jobs. Todman said employers sometimes found arrest records without convictions while performing background checks of applicants. And subsequently they weren’t hired.

“Our findings suggested that if the EEOC tightens its guidelines and employers follow those guidelines, that we would see reduction in depressive symptoms, anxiety and then some of the indicators of collective well being in the neighborhood would improve,” Todman said.

Despite the EEOC edict that says employers can’t use arrest records in hiring, enforcement is tricky. Advocates say there’s no money for monitoring.

Todman said the Adler report was also done to mobilize Englewood residents by letting them know they can report discrimination to the EEOC and organize to lobby for money. The neighborhood’s unemployment rate stands at 25 percent, while 42 percent of residents live in poverty, according to city data.

Anthony Lowery is director of policy and advocacy for the Safer Foundation, a nonprofit that helps people with criminal records get into the workforce.

“If you just look at the number of people who are denied opportunity, they lack hope in a community,” Lowery said. “These are the same communities that have escalation of violence because when a person sees there’s no hope, opportunity for legal employment, then they provide for themselves and their families through illegal means.”

Natalie Moore is WBEZ’s South Side Bureau reporter. Follow her @natalieymoore.

Springfield is now the battleground in Chicago’s politics of booze

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 14:43:00 -0500

Eaid Masud manages Skip’s Food & Liquor on 55th and Damen. On a recent weekday morning, he’s at the register ringing up meats, canned food and snacks. Behind him, the wide shelves brim with a rainbow of alcohol — everything from the cheap stuff to the high end.

This store could be in a kind of jeopardy. On Wednesday the executive committee in the Illinois House approved a bill that would allow Chicago to close liquor stores for up to 30 days when they’re the stage for criminal activity or they threaten “the welfare of the community.” Current law allows the city to close such establishments for just seven days.

Support from the full House is still needed.

Not that Masud is worried. He said Skip’s is a family-owned business that’s a part of the West Englewood community. But Masud is aware liquor stores can sometimes attract crime.

“There should definitely be more police presence in the areas where they think there’s activity like that going on,” he said.

Still, neighbors have complained about the store and, as Masud acknowledges, Skip’s deals with people who loiter or illegally sell loose cigarettes in the parking lot. He said if he sees drug dealing, he calls the police.

“We act accordingly and call authorities but sometimes like during the summers there’s a lot of teenagers and maybe fighting outside or along the streets,” he said. “It’s out of our control. It’s nothing we allow; it just happens.”

State Rep. Esther Golar, a Democrat, introduced the bill. She said she’s fed up with drug dealing and shootings at liquor stores. Her district is in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, which she dubs a liquor corridor with up to 60 such establishments.

“These liquor licensees, which are the owners, they have knowledge of this,” Golar said. “Many times they’re either too scared, they do not care or many times they’re complicit in allowing these illegal activities to occur.

Golar’s bill would allow the liquor commissioner to shutter an errant store for 30 days — up from the current seven days. An investigation and a hearing would take place during that time.

“We wouldn’t be doing anything that’s not in the law right now,” Golar said. “It’s just that we need more time. Rather than having a store close down for seven days, they reopen up with the same issues. I’ve seen this over and over again. And what does it do for the community? The negative impact these stores have.”

The problems and politics surrounding liquor stores problems aren’t limited to Englewood. Booze is a quality of life issue in many communities. In some, residents feel store owners show them too little respect and, in others, they’ve effectively removed malt liquor or otherwise dictated what alcohol a store can sell. In other areas, voters approved measures that turned entire precincts dry. After a long fight, Bronzeville got one store shut down.

The East Village Association is happy with a moratorium on packaged liquor stores from Division Street to Augusta Boulevard. The area had been populated by Latino immigrants. A wave of gentrification has washed over the community and new residents say they want to eliminate liquor-store vagrancy and crimes.

“Drunks hanging out on the streets led to crime,” said Neal McKnight, president of the association and a supporter of Golar’s bill.

“Anything that gives sort of a little bit of teeth to the liquor commissioner in dealing with difficult businesses is good for me,” he says. “When they [liquor stores] go bad it’s really difficult to get them to close ... fighting tooth and nail with the businesses.”

The East Village group has voted to lift a liquor-ban moratorium, subject to approval by the liquor commissioner, that would allow a convenience store to only sell beer and wine. No malt liquor, Wild Irish Rose or single bottle sales unless it’s a craft beer.

Originally, the group wanted to ban mass-market beers such as Budweiser but scaled back. McKnight said the board recently decided such a limitation would be overlimiting.

Last year Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced the city would be aggressive in collecting data on problem businesses. Convenience stores and liquor stores are placed on the monthly flagged business list and subject to increased inspections by all city departments. Since April 2012, the city has taken disciplinary action on 89 liquor establishments and revoked 19 licenses.

A spokeswoman for Emanuel says Golar’s bill would complement the city’s efforts, as it would target liquor stores that have been on a list of trouble building.

However, the caveats and qualifications don’t satisfy Jerry Rosen of the Beverage Retailers Alliance of Illinois.

“It’s the most horrible bill I ever heard,” Rosen said, adding that problem liquor stores should be the province for police.

“It totally flies in the face of a retailer’s rights,” he said. “They’re just taking away any rights he may have. When you shut somebody down because somebody made a complaint or an accusation of a criminal activity, you’re in essence almost putting them out of business.”

Illinois has a 30-day credit law for distributors of wine and spirits to purchase those beverages. Rosen says this new liquor law could end up putting someone out of business permanently, and an army of lawyers is fighting the bill.

Rosen’s prediction: Golar’s measure will be ruled unconstitutional and doesn’t stand a chance.

Still, with the current state of Chicago booze politics, Rosen said he’s ready to testify against the bill, if need be.

Englewood residents fight for environmental safeguards during rail yard expansion

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 15:39:00 -0600

Residents in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood are demanding that railway company Norfolk Southern include environmental protections into its expansion plans for its South Side rail yard.

The company has already bought and demolished some Englewood homes over the past several years to fulfill its expansion plans. Now Norfolk Southern is on track to purchase 104 acres of city land. The yard is set to expand southward, from Garfield Boulevard to 61st Street.

John Paul Jones, the head of the nonprofit Sustainable Englewood, said residents aren’t trying to block the rail yard expansion.

“But for Englewood it could be a dramatic impact on our quality of life but also our well-being because of a host of environmental harms such a project would bring,” Jones said.

Residents worry about health impacts of truck traffic, which would increase because the yard is location where freight is transferred from rail to trucks and vice versa. Residents are particularly concerned about increased diesel-related air pollution, as the Englewood neighborhood already has some of the highest asthma rates in the city.

Jones’ group wants a community benefits agreement from Norfolk Southern, connected to the sale of the city-owned property. Sustainable Englewood is asking for: monitoring and mitigating diesel pollution; creation of green space and placement of buffer zones around homes. The hope is to lessen noise and air pollution.

Brian Urbaszewski of Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago said filters should be go on diesel engine trucks, to eliminate 90 percent of the soot that comes out of tailpipes.

At Tuesday’s city council housing and real estate committee meeting, a hearing for the sale of city land to Norfolk Southern was delayed. A Norfolk Southern spokesman said the company is meeting with environmental activists next month.

Follow Natalie on Twitter @natalieymoore

New documentary shows in a quest for jobs and commerce, a corner of Englewood is vanishing

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 05:00:00 -0600

The Area from The Grid on Vimeo.

For the past few years, Chicago photographer David Schalliol has been telling us--showing us--that Chicago's West and South Sides are disappearing. Building by building; block by block.

As a native South Sider, I see Schalliol's haunting photos of clipped rowhouses, single-family homes standing alone against wide vacant lots and I am reminded of Johnny Ola's great and wistful line in Godfather II: "One by one, our old friends are gone. Death--natural or not..."

Earlier this week, I told you of a beautiful old printing plant in the Washington Park neighborhood that is now being demolished to make way for a Northfolk Southern Railroad truck depot. But look above and check out The Area, the fascinating mini-documentary that appeared on Gapers Block The Grid series this week. Here, Schalliol and his team tell the story of an entire quadrant of Englewood--just bit northwest of the doomed printing plant--that's being wiped away by the same railroad company.

It's not building by building, here. It's the disappearance of an entire neighborhood. Natural or not.

After watching the video, I caught up with Schalliol for a quick Q&A:

Q: What drew you to this story--and when?

A: I first became aware of Norfolk Southern's plans to expand into the neighboring community while working on my To be Demolished project, for which I photographed 100 buildings threatened with demolition in 2012. To that end, when I visited the neighborhood in February of last year, I immediately noticed wrecking companies exercising three demolition permits within eyesight of each other. It was the only time while working on the project when that happened, and it was clear that something bigger was going on than simple demolition. I saw it both as an important story that wasn't being told and an opportunity to explore understudied social processes. Additionally, while I am used to approaching issues as a photographer or a sociologist, this seemed like a project that required a documentary film component. I reached out to The Grid's Brian Ashby, who could advise me on the filmmaking and Dave Nagel, who edited this short. Having that support will be instrumental for the development of the feature-length film about the situation.

Q: What do you want people to take away from this?

A: I hope that the documentary short and the subsequent film can provide a new way to frame the conflicts introduced by solutions to freight transportation problems and open a window into the community affected by the process. Eventually, I also hope to be able to inform the discourse about the relationship between sociological and documentary work. This is a complicated situation, and I am happy to have the opportunity to work towards any additional clarity.

Q: But isn't this about bringing jobs to the city? If a marginal neighborhood is cleared away, isn't that actually progress?

A: Of course, the mayor is right to trumpet new, quality jobs, but as is seen in the short, many residents are skeptical that they will have the opportunity to fill them. Their expectation is that while the jobs will be South Side jobs, they won't be jobs for South Siders. As such, they believe they will bear most of the costs of the projects and receive few, if any, benefits. Additionally, residents who live near the expansion project but will not be displaced by it are concerned about the health and environmental consequences of a major expansion to the intermodal facility. As for clearing away the neighborhood, clearing it doesn't mean solving its problems. This is particularly challenging for those with teenagers, who can be marked by their association with their previous neighborhood, even if they are not involved in gang activity.

Q: Will you follow this story in the future?

A: Yes, my plan is to follow the events in the neighborhood at least until all residents have moved from the area; however, I won't necessarily stop then. Since early in the project, I have been keeping in touch with families who have already moved to other communities, and I plan to continue following their experiences as they establish roots elsewhere. Those experiences will be part of the sociological and documentary work.

How concealed carry law will affect Chicago neighborhoods

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 13:35:00 -0600

Illinois residents could soon be able to carry concealed weapons. While gun-control advocates are preparing to fight the recent court ruling, some question how Chicago neighborhoods with high crime will adapt.

Englewood has one of Chicago’s highest murder rates. The police department grapples with containing gun violence there.

Juandalyn Holland is executive director of Teamwork Englewood, a community nonprofit. She said most residents are concerned about random gun violence. But she doesn't think the end of the state’s ban on concealed weapons will increase the volume of crime.

"The issue is how do we stop crime, not how do we stop people from carrying weapons," she said. "Because I don’t think people are going to walk around like it’s Lone Ranger and Tonto just shooting people."

Holland said the crime problem stems from people who illegally own guns. She said so far in Englewood there hasn’t been any buzz among neighbors about the court overturning the ban on concealed weapons.

After nearly 120 years, an Englewood church still stands

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 09:50:00 -0600

I took a walk around Chicago Embassy Church a few days ago, beckoned by the 230 ft. spire that is visible — as is most of the building — from the Dan Ryan Expressway at 59th Street.

That the old building is still there is good news, given the rough time this town's vintage houses of worship are having as of late. St. James Church at 29th and Wabash will be demolished soon, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese said recently. The former Shepherd's Temple on the West Side was wrecked last March. Throw in a few church fires that have occurred here and there over the past year or two, and you have a segment of the city's architecture that bears careful watch.

Built by German immigrants in 1895 as a Roman Catholic church, the former St. Martin of Tours dominates a section of Englewood that is largely filled with frame homes. The church looks good for a 117-year-old building and can boast a beautiful and well-kept limestone exterior beneath that glorious tower, with almost all of its delicate detailing preserved. A gold leaf statue of St. Martin astride a horse once sat near the church's roof, but was blown off in a 2007 windstorm and severely damaged, however.

But look at what's still here:

Even from the back, the building looks great:

Henry J. Schlacks, who designed about two dozen of the archdiocese's grand old places including the Mediterranean-like St. Mary of the Lake at the corner of Sheridan and Buena, was only the supervising architect here. The design came from an architect in Germany and was shipped here for construction.

Orlando stumbles as he tries to move up the economic ladder

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 09:00:00 -0500

Orlando may be striking out in the job market. But he has a valuable skill set.

He's got a flair for fixing cars.

He learned from his father who used to tinker with cars and would summon a young Orlando to assist him. At age 13, he got a chance to prove himself.

"He had one day and asked me to put brakes on his car. Left the car there, went into the house. I’m like dag, for real?" Orlando recalled. "So I know to put the jack up under the car, take the lugs first then jack the car. Take the wheels off. Put the brakes on there. Put the wheels back on there and call him. He came back out there and drove the car. The car was riding fine. He said 'See boy, you learned the brakes now I gotta learn you about all the other stuff."

Those skills have allowed 30-year-old Orlando to enter what's called the "underground" or "informal" economy. These are jobs that aren't taxed and are under the government's radar. These are often jobs that involve service: fixing someone's car, house cleaning and child care. But they are also sometimes jobs like drug dealing or prostitution. People hustling to get by when they don’t have jobs in the traditional labor force.

For Orlando, it means laboring in the garage behind his house. There, he's created a makeshift mechanic shop. Working on cars gives him a sense of dignity and allows him to contribute to his household. Some weeks Orlando can earn several hundred dollars.

The busy season is on the horizon.

"It’s finna to get cold. See now this the time I know I really make some money in the wintertime. People’s motors get locked up, transmissions go out," he said.

But there are weeks when he’s lucky to pull in $25. Orlando never went to school for mechanics and he doesn’t have a license. That prevents him from working in a franchise or licensed shop.

The impact of the underground economy

Jobs in the underground economy are all too common in Orlando’s Chicago Englewood neighborhood where unemployment is a whopping 25 percent.

"I gotta another friend who work on cars. It ain’t too much of nothing to do around here but that. Especially around here that’s the only way I can see you coming up around here. Only thing I can see. Loose cigarettes, shoes, hats everything for sale."

Big retail has, by and large, left Englewood. What’s left in the neighborhood are dots of vacant land and blight. One of the most devastating factors of economic mobility is where you live. Without quality education, good jobs and solid social connections, your chances at moving up the economic ladder are few and far between. And Englewood faces stigmatization because of its sizeable poor, black population. That stigmatization can morph into stereotypes that impact job seekers.

Twenty years ago researchers studied hiring and racial biases. A survey of Chicago-area firms revealed that employers avoided recruitment in poor black neighborhood -- like Englewood.

It’s no wonder that workers turn to the underground economy.

While studies have shown that billions of dollars are lost in taxes to this economy, it’s a necessity in some communities. Urban planner Nik Theodore teaches at the University of Illinois-Chicago. He said unmet labor needs explain the underground economy.

"Informal work really does occur across the economy as a whole," Theodore said. "But it’s most highly concentrated in those low- and moderate-income communities where job opportunities are the fewest and where people have the hardest time accessing opportunities elsewhere within the metropolitan area."

Day laboring, babysitting, janitorial services. Licit and illicit activity. The underground economy won’t be the boost Orlando needs to live the American Dream or move from rung A to rung B on the economic ladder. It barely keeps Orlando afloat.

Orlando loves Englewood. This is where his friends and family are. He’s never lived anywhere else. It’s home. But the neighborhood’s blemishes aren’t lost on him.

"You can tell a nice neighborhood because you can see ain’t no trash, ain’t nothing on the ground. Grass nice and cut. You can tell when you get up around here. We got all these empty lots, cans, stuff laying around. I know when I be back in the neighborhood."

Orlando has mused on what his life would be like if he had grown up in a resource-rich neighborhood elsewhere in Chicago. He doesn’t normally talk about moving out of Englewood. He doesn’t have the current social capital to do so. With no job or sustainable income on the horizon, Orlando is stuck. And without a car or steady money, he rarely leaves the neighborhood, instead hanging out with his friends and playing softball.

On this particular day, Orlando mulled over an exit strategy.

"I was born and raised here and said I’d never leave though. But if I get an opportunity or chance to better my life, I’m gone. I can always still come back and see my old man and all them and the people I see in the neighborhood. But the values…you can’t even get too much for a house around here. You got vacant lot, vacant lot, vacant lot. Our economy, it ain’t right. It ain’t right," he said.

Orlando said he’s never going back to drug dealing. Some of his friends are still on corners, hustling and slinging drugs. He said some of his friends can barely count money because they dropped out of elementary school.

The difference a good influence can make

But he has some friends who are on the ball -- like Sammy Pack Jr. who lives a few blocks away from Orlando. They met 10 years ago and know each other from the neighborhood. They bonded over a love of cars.

Thirty-one-year-old Sammy lives on an attractive block full of bungalows and neatly cut grass. Sammy joked that his lawn is the worst. His Englewood neighbors are the types who call you at work if they see someone suspicious on your front porch.

"A lot of people in Englewood are working people. Working-class, taxpaying people. We just get a bad rap. A lot of incidents kind of label the whole community and everybody that lives in the community," Sammy said.

An Iraqi veteran and current machinist at a steel company, Sammy has been encouraging Orlando.

"He does want a job. But I think he has no faith in the system, which a lot of black men in his situation, they don’t have faith in the system. They’re discouraged," Sammy said. "He wants to do better but he’s very discouraged. He feels a lot of things are against him; and they are, you know?

But Sammy said he stays on him without sounding like an older uncle. He tells Orlando about job fairs and how to get his record expunged.

"I think he could be taking a lot more advantage. It’s that same sad song where ‘they’re not going to hire me.’ Because he has tried so many times and he’s been knocked down so many times. It’s at the point where sometimes he’s sluggish to get up. The bounce back isn’t as resilient as it was. He does understand at the same time he needs to something to progress because he’s not getting any younger," Sammy said.

Orlando is trying. In fact, he’s at a crossroads of sorts.

At a crossroads

Months ago, the family computer broke down. In September, Orlando’s father Mr. Abe bought a new one so his sons could search online for jobs and school programs. Orlando’s frustration is at a flashpoint. He’s identified alternatives in lieu of not finding a job.

"I say I either go to go school if I can’t find no job by the end of this month. Go mess with this," Orlando said as he pointed to paperwork on the dining room table about an airplane mechanic school out of state.

"I’mma try to see if I can go downtown and get my background expunged and I say I just go to the Army," he said.

Orlando is also reflecting on his legacy. He figures if he hasn’t yet fulfilled his American Dream, he might get another chance through his 11-year-old son. Little Orlando lives with his mom in Wisconsin. He gets straight As.

"I want him to go to school. Don’t do what I did. Don’t do the streets. Graduate high school, go to college. Better yourself, take care of yourself. Get you a good working job, get your own place. I want him to do everything that I should’ve been doing that I ain’t doing right now. I hope he can do it," Orlando said.

Orlando thinks his son can do it, away from the empty lots and unemployment of Englewood.

Englewood, past and present

Thu, 31 May 2012 07:00:00 -0500

Englewood is a mini-Detroit. Well into the second half of the 20th century, the area centered around 63rd and Halsted was dynamic and prosperous. In more recent times, the community has struggled to overcome a host of urban problems.

The history of Englewood begins in the 1850s, with the coming of the railroads. Two lines crossed near what is now 63rd and Wentworth. A settlement called Junction Grove took root near the railroad junction. Some years later, a local real estate developer popularized the name Englewood–after his home town of Englewood, New Jersey.

Most of the early settlers here were German and Irish. Railroad workers lived near the junction, and truck farmers occupied the land to the west. When the Stock Yards opened a few miles up Halsted, many of the people employed there also found homes in Englewood.

From 1865 to 1889, the area was part of the Town of Lake. The Cook County Normal School and the first Englewood High School were built during these years. Then, in 1889, the City of Chicago annexed Englewood.

Now the community took off. Brick two-flats and apartment buildings joined the older wooden cottages. Banks, schools, hospitals, churches, and other institutions of modern civilization were established. The city streetcar system was extended into the area, and in 1907 Englewood got its own "L" branch. The population passed 90,000 and kept going.

The focus of the community was 63rd and Halsted. With three major department stores and hundreds of smaller businesses, this became the busiest shopping district outside the Loop. More than that–it was the busiest outlying shopping district in the world. For decades the stores here rang up more sales than many medium-size cities.

Englewood came through the Great Depression and World War II in reasonably good shape. The real challenges developed in the years after 1950. Now more people were driving cars. The general movement was away from the neighborhoods of the inner city.

Shopping malls began drawing traffic away from 63rd-Halsted. The marginal stores closed, and many of the better ones left. The fabulous Southtown Theater, with its duck pond in the lobby, was a major casualty–it was converted into a discount store.

Meanwhile, expressway construction and urban renewal in other parts of the city displaced many African-Americans. Some of these families settled in Englewood. Panic-peddling and white flight followed. In 1950, blacks were 11 percent of the local population. That number increased to 69 percent in 1960, and 96 percent ten years later.

During the 1970s, the city made a concerted effort to revive the 63rd-Halsted shopping center. Traffic was diverted away from the intersection, and the two key streets became bus-only malls. The experiment failed. The last two anchors, Sears and Wieboldt’s, eventually pulled out.

Englewood continued going downhill. The crime rate became one of the highest in the country. More major institutions left. Homes were abandoned or torched, leaving whole blocks empty. By 2000 the population had dwindled to just 40,000. Englewood was looking a lot like–well, a lot like Detroit.

And yet, the community has not given up. Much of the southern section remains stable. Here and there, some houses have been built. In 2007 a new campus for Kennedy-King College opened at 63rd-Halsted. There’s hope the college will revive what’s left of the shopping district.

If a single building symbolizes Englewood, that would be the South Side Masonic Temple, at 64th and Green. It has been abandoned for years, and several attempts at adaptive re-use have failed. Its future is uncertain.

Yet even with broken windows and falling bricks, the temple is an impressive reminder of past glory. Will it be brought back to life? Will Englewood be brought back to life?

We’ll see.