GENTRIFICATION IN CHICAGO A REAL ISSUE
There’s a silent issue running through the neighborhoods of Chicago. Those who have grown up and lived their whole lives in various low-income neighborhoods are being pushed out. They are losing their homes and jobs, but they are especially losing their communities.The majority of residents affected by gentrification are minorities who are now facing even more poverty and displacement. It's time to take charge of this alarming issue and push for new policies.
As a growing adult, many of my childhood memories took place in the Little Village neighborhood. I’m sure looking back in time, you yourself, can think of a neighborhood that made such an imprint on your life…is it still there?
What is gentrification?
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| EXAMPLE: This once small owned business became a Subway |
It’s important to establish what gentrification is. Oxford Dictionary defines gentrification as, “the process whereby the character of a poor urban area is changed by wealthier people moving in, improving housing, and attracting new businesses, typically displacing current inhabitants in the process.” In other words, giving a “make-over” to certain poor urban neighborhoods. The intention of rebuilding a poor neighborhood in order to attract more business and wealth, has the right idea but the poorest execution.
Segregation of neighborhood: how these neighborhoods become victims for change.
The history of Chicago and how it came to be the city we know and love today is a long one, so let’s keep it short. The segregation of this city actually began when it was built. The first form of major displacement was when Native American tribes were pushed out by the French in 1833. In the early 1900s flocks of European immigrants such as Polish, Jewish, Lithuanian, and German had moved into the city. At one point, Chicago was the number one in residing Polish and Irish people. Later in the 20th century, when the railroad industry began to grow along with industries such as factories and steel mills– immigrants from Mexico and the southern part of the US moved to the US in search of economic prosperity and many African Americans sought out safety from discrimination and violence. Although the high rates of diversity flooded the city, the disperses of races and ethnicities were segregated into neighborhoods. Take for example Little Village, Pilsen, Humboldt Park…etc.
Some of you might be asking yourselves, “well what does this have to do with gentrification”? In Jaqueline Serratos, “Mapping Racial Segregation”, she explains the importance of racism and how it contributes to the neighborhoods today, “racist sentiments toward Black residents and non-whites and manifested through urban planning, housing policies, discriminatory banking, and other practices—all effectively confining people from different demographic groups to certain parts of the city” Serratos perfectly describes the situation that is today. Chicago’s past is what pushed minorities to cluster together, creating what is often a lower-income neighborhood due to the lack of support, jobs, as well as education that its residents receive.
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| We see here the clusters of races in concentrated areas |
We can’t deny this fact, take a look at Pilsen, Little Village, or Humboldt Park… predominantly Hispanic. Or Bronzeville, East Englewood, Hyde Park… predominantly black. What do these neighborhoods have in common besides being built up of minorities? These neighborhoods fall under the “below poverty level”. CEO of A Better Chicago, Beth Swanson, published an article in February of 2020, in which she explained “poverty in Chicago is everyone’s problem. According to recent census data, 1 in 10 Chicago residents are living in extreme poverty, meaning their income is 50 percent below the federal poverty line. 1 in 4 kids in our city are living in poverty.” Think about it, if 2.7 million people live in Chicago that means about 270,000 people are living in poverty. That’s almost enough people to fill up Soldier Field three times. With Chicago being the third-largest city in the nation, it’s crucial to provide for our people and help our people create a better and safer Chicago.
It's clear that race has a big role in the way Chicago is divided up. Typically, it's the neighborhoods built of minorities that suffer financially. The irony is that in a city so big, a city built of immigrants who migrated in search of economic prosperity, those are the same people who now struggle to even reach economic stability.
Outcomes/effects of gentrification
Gentrifying neighborhoods has created a storm of housing displacement. Rather than keeping the original residents of neighborhoods in, they are pushed out. Either through relocation of homelessness.
In a study conducted by the magazine, WEBZ, journalist Esther Yoon-Ji Kang, analyzed the decrease of Latino minorities versus the increase of white residents across five zip codes. These neighborhoods included: Pilsen, Logan Square, West Side, Noble Square, Irving Park, and Near South Side. Their principal finding was an increase in white residents and a decrease of Latino residents in two five-year periods.
One example was “The 60608 ZIP code, the area that includes Pilsen and parts of Bridgeport and McKinley Park, saw the largest increase in median household income, more than 43%. The median household income there increased from $39,976 to $57,183 (adjusted for inflation) in a decade’s span. That ZIP code also saw its Latino population decrease by 17% and its white population increase by 28%”.
This evidence is crucial to the fact that gentrification PUSHES families out of what they once knew as home. A story from one of the many people affected, Alex Gallagos, told the journalist “Folks are saying, ‘We don’t want to move, but we have to move because we can’t … afford to pay $2,000 in rent anymore, property tax is going up $1,000 every year." 1,000 dollars might not seem like a lot to many of you, but to families and people such as Gallegos, to people like me, 1,000 dollars is what a month of groceries could be. Bills that need to be paid. Monthly tuition costs. Money for transportation. Money for basic needs.
This leads me to my next point. Money is an issue or a luxury many face today. Many families and individuals end up in a worse financial standing than before. Jocelyn Figueroa, wrote her experience of gentrification that led to homelessness in a blog article published by InvisiblePeople in 2019. She tells us that the cost of her rent skyrocketed because of her new white neighbors below her and the many that began consuming the surrounding apartments and buildings. She says, “It’s likely that we’re not the only family who ended up homeless. In fact, there is a clear link between gentrification and poverty and homelessness. The process of gentrification also predominantly affects people of color, gentrifying the neighborhoods of primarily black and brown people.”
According to the Department of Family and Support Services, the total of homeless individuals in 2020 was 5,390. Of that, nearly 77% occupants in homeless shelters are Black. With numbers like this, we must open our eyes to what the future could be: neighborhoods once filled with community and history becoming centers of wealth and power, a predominantly less diverse Chicago if its minority residents continue to be pushed out.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
So what can we do? We can create a change in the method of giving a makeover to at-risk neighborhoods. Instead of creating large-scale and high-costing changes…we instead bring in small/medium-scale change along with a mixed-income development. What I mean by this in simple terms, instead of bringing in a fast wave of creating new homes that require a 150,000 income, or rapidly bringing in new bigger businesses we allow room to build family and small businesses. We include more family-style living that doesn’t require already established families to leave. We create communities rather than sectors of income-based neighborhoods.
The argument that gentrification is not a bad thing or that it’s nothing more than a theory will always stand. The argument that residents decide to leave due to the better opportunities in other areas is a strong one. Since many of the at-risk neighborhoods are below the poverty level, many don’t provide the education or resource opportunities that other locations might offer. To many, gentrification is viewed in a positive light. “We are helping communities prosper”. “We are providing new homes for families”. This isn’t really a two lies and one truth game, all these things are true. Gentrification brings new opportunities by bringing in new booming businesses and new homes for new families. But the other truth is that gentrification DOES affect already established families.
With all the information I have provided today, I think it’s extremely clear that gentrification does hurt minorities, but it’s important to realize that it’s our people it’s hurting. While gentrification is bringing in new families and individuals as well as new opportunities, these opportunities often will never reach those who need them most. "Those" being the people who were born and raised in these areas. Instead of achieving the same equal chance to enjoy this new community, the ability to afford this new life is more than difficult. Families are leaving. Families are losing homes and turning to the streets. That’s only a glimpse into the effects of what it is doing.
To summarize, the segregation of neighborhoods (primarily minority neighborhoods) are the ones that are the most affected or targeted for “change”. This “change” often leads to the displacement of these residents. This change is often viewed in a positive manner, but it screams “it’s too good to be true”. Gentrification is causing further poverty and displacement among minorities.
So I ask you if this speech has created even a small change in your mind…if this small speech can create a butterfly effect…are you willing to help? Will you help conserve these areas full of culture and community? Will you help save what you and many others once knew as home before it's too late?
REFRENCES:
Jacqueline Serrato, Charmaine Runes and Pat Sier. “Mapping Chicago’s Racial Segregation.”
South Side Weekly, South Side Weekly, 27 Feb. 2022,
https://southsideweekly.com/mapping-chicagos-racial-segregation/.
Moore, Danisha. “Event Recap: Is Poverty Your Problem?” A Better Chicago, 21 Jan. 2021,
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