Humboldt Park & Gentrification

kjh: 4th Jul 2007 - 18:50 GMT

"systematic gentrification?" more like systematic commercialization. poor people should band together and buy property, houses, land, and try to ignore mass commercialism and pressures to conform to ever-changing fads and fashions.

Xavi: 7th Jul 2007 - 21:55 GMT

It is not only about class, but race as well. Instead of "poor people," in the context of Humboldt Park, it should be Puerto Ricans and Latinas/os.

Popeye & Maniac: 9th Aug 2007 - 04:56 GMT

Too many rats in humboldt park... I saw one run across the floor in a restaurant 2 days ago... I thought you guys were clean?

Glad I moved : 13th Aug 2007 - 21:36 GMT

what about the puerto rican families who have been in the humboldt area for along time and the buildings they own have gone up dramtically in price. They are selling for the money and moving elsewhere. My friend payed $37,000 for his 3 flat in 1979 and just sold it for $340,000. This is his retirement money now!!!!

Xavi: 17th Aug 2007 - 01:49 GMT

There are many stories of Puerto Rican families who are making a killing off of their homes by selling and moving to Florida, or back to Puerto Rico or wherever and they do so for many reasons. One reason is that parents have raised their children, all of whom now have their own homes or apartments and thus feel no reason to own an old house. Some just want to live somewhere else.

However, to often are stories of developers tricking (through a myriad of ways) or harassing families into selling, sometimes below the value of their homes. Or families being forced to leave because they no longer can afford the property taxes. Or being attacked with housing violations by city inspectors. Or people believing that the best life is outside Humboldt Park and regreting that they left and driving (or taking the bus) back every week to visit old friends and families. Again, in order to improve a community, one must have a community to begin with. To learn more about the detrimental affects of gentrification in Humboldt Park (which far outway the alleged "benefits") and the "move-out, move-up" mentality, read the community newspaper of La Voz del Paseo Boricua, which can be found at any Puerto Rican business in and around Paseo Boricua. Also, visit www.myspace.com/humboldtparkpd

Shon B.: 17th Aug 2007 - 07:06 GMT

I sadly agree. A lot of people who have moved into the old ethnic neighborhoods are being displaced. Many are moving to older suburban areas. Purposefully or not, a lot of big cities are gentrifying; displacing traditionally ethnic neighborhoods and replacing them with a whole different voter base.

Sam: 28th Aug 2007 - 17:21 GMT

I remember when this neighborhood was Italian. My grandmother owned a house on division street between Chicago and North Avenues. The neighborhood was beautiful and the houses well maintained. The Our Lady of the Angels Fire destroyed the families of Humboldt Park and many of them moved to escape the memory of the fire. This white flight allowed the neighborhood to swiftly become a ghetto. I tried to visit the old neighborhood a few years ago and couldn't even stop at a red light. there were so many people just standing on the street corner drinking and yelling. It was ridiculous. Why wouldn't you want that neighborhood to gentrify? Take the money and run.

Xavi: 7th Sep 2007 - 04:02 GMT

Most of the eastern part of Humboldt Park until the mass Puerto Rican migration of the 1940's and '50's was Jewish and Polish, with some German and Italian elements. When those ethnic groups were the majority it was a ghetto - that's why they left. If you read some of Saul Bellow's books you will see how he described the destitution of the Jewish population by Damen and Division (now "Wicker Park) that is comparable to any black or Latino ghetto in the U.S. However, those groups assimilated into whitenness (after they took advantage of the rich social networks and institutions that were created after being stable in a particular enclave for so long. Urban Renewal and gentrification, as well as the industrial-to-service economy shift has taken that away from present-day immigrant and marginalized populations) and fled to the suburbs through the GI Bill housing vouchers (which were highly discriminatory) after WWII. A few classes in Sociology will teach you all this.

Humboldt Park has its social ills (and as you can see from the rest of my diatribe, there are specific historical/social/political reasons why) but it is a ghetto struggling to maintain the rich social networks, organization, institutions, and cultural symbols that are needed in order to address and solve those social ills. Gentrification hightens that problem. Greed and flight ignores the problem.

To learn more about the anti-gentrification struggle in Puerto Rican Humboldt Park, please visit www.myspace.com/humboldtparkpd or go here for a caldendar of events: http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b113/TresCaminos/Xavi%20Pics/PDCalendar.jpg

Vinamon: 24th Sep 2007 - 02:16 GMT

Xavi, read the post above. Heard of the Our Lady of the Angels School Fire?

brando: 28th Sep 2007 - 15:49 GMT

Ive lived in HP for 5 years and love many things about the Hood, like being so close to wicker Park and paying alot less rent. ., but I have never been able to understand how a people so "proud" can live with so little pride. The litter, the gangs of little kids with guns, the tags, the nonstop horn honking, the unkept yards, the racist behavior towards anyone not PR. If your so "Proud" start showing some pride, this could be a great neighborhood.

Jason: 11th Oct 2007 - 01:25 GMT

I'm sorry to agree with Gentrification, The old Southeast Side used to be a mecca of beautiful homes with flowers and families enjoying life in the 1970's-early 80's. The area was majority Irish, Serbian and Croatian. Today it is a pit of violence and has become a ghetto. All the good people who kept everything clean have moved to the Northside of Chicago or to Indiana. If anything Getrification needs to come full force to the Southside.

Christopher : 8th Apr 2008 - 21:36 GMT

I agree of what they they are saying. The bad people should not come and take over by buying housing and making a condo and expensive for others.

Christopher: 22nd Apr 2008 - 22:35 GMT

It is not fair for people to be living in the bad conditions. Also that people need to respect the Humboldt Park residents who live here. Not to push people out of their homes.

Christopher: 24th Apr 2008 - 22:56 GMT

People need to step up and do the right thing for Humboldt Park. Such as the Mayor of chicago needs to do something about the case.

ChiPhi: 7th May 2008 - 18:42 GMT

Christopher and others, why is there always a: "...somebody needs to do something to help..." why don't people take responsibility and pride for their own? I have lived in this neighborhood for 5 years now and it is astounding how little respect for the 'hood most 'traditional' residents have. The litter, liquor bottles everywhere, kids cursing up a storm, graffitti, gangs, absence of viable/sustainable business on Division (Paseo Boriqua) which could provide an economic boost to the area...I can go on and on. Is this what people are fighting to preserve? No handouts, each community that has made it have energized themselves and progressed. Not sustain by regressing and keeping the community 'down'. Gentrification is a fact of capitalism. The 'so-called' yuppies also worked hard for what they got in school, at work etc...so why make them bad guys for looking to invest in an affodable neighborhood with potential? If you can't stand the heat then up your game, work to afford the condos, go to school. Time waits for no one...the Mayor is not coming to save anybody!

CaptainVideo: 18th May 2008 - 07:10 GMT

What you are doing is no different that all white communities banning together to keep blacks from moving in because they are afraid that they will bring crime and lower property values.

Humbolt is not a Hispanic name, it is an Anglo name. Humbolt Park was not always Puerto Rican in the past, and there is no reason why it should remain Puerto Rican in the future.

Most immigrant groups after they have established themselves in the city move out to the suburbs where there is less crime, no gangs and better schools. The Puerto Ricans who are selling their property to the gentrifiers at a high price and buying a nice bungalo in the suburbs are the smart ones.

kls: 30th Jul 2008 - 02:42 GMT

My husband and I have lived in Humboldt Park for 4 years since moving to Chicago from Guatemala. I cannot think of a better compromise for us both. I love being near the shops and restaurants in Wicker Park. He loves that he can go to the corner store or the coffee shop and speak Spanish (easing the culture shock of the move for both of us). We know lots of couples like us who have embraced the neighborhood for this reason. We also love the neighborhood because it is one of few in the city that is truly integrated. Just on our block we are Puerto Ricans, Ukranians, Polish, Arabs, Cubans, Mexicans, Guatemalans, Asians, Argentinians, Italians, African Americans, Caucasian Americans, hipsters, rockeros, Harley reiders, little old Ukranian ladies who have lived in their homes for 90 years.

I find, however, that on Division Street people treat me very differently when I am with my husband versus when I am on my own - hard stares and even refusing service. It hurts my feelings and begs the question - where are multiracial families to live?

I love the cultural richness found on the Paseo Boricua, but hate to see this cultural pride tied to dysfunctional American culture in the form of trash, anger, gangs and violence. All of my neighbors are happy to see the mellowing on our street. No one, no matter how long they have lived on the block, is unhappy to see the car burnings stop and the crack houses rehabed. Everyone's gardens, rich or poor, look brighter since the corner store turned into a flower shop. If this is gentrification, is it so bad?

Urban areas are fluid beings that ebb and flow over time. It is sad to see what we have known change, but also sad to waste so much energy on antagonism rather than embracing the positive.

Jason: 22nd Aug 2008 - 17:21 GMT

What's most ironic is that liberals are deeply "conservative" when it comes to gentrification. They are seeking to take a vibrant city of constant flux and movement and freeze it in time.

No one group has the right to claim a neighborhood. The Puerto Ricans are not the 1st nor will they be the last group to dominate Humboldt Park. It started out German (in fact it was named after Von Humboldt), then Norweigan, then Polish-Italian-Jewish, then Hispanic and now some whites are moving in.

If you want a static, frozen society move to a "progressive" country like Cuba or North Korea.

Jason: 22nd Aug 2008 - 17:25 GMT

Here's something to contemplate:

Welfare and other social programas that "progressives" love so much are extremely costly. Between section-8, medicare, foodstamps and 101 other prograns a welfare family easily runs the tax payers $20,000 per year.

The only thing that's sustaining these constantly escalating programs is the infusion of more tax dollars brought on by the "evil yuppies" who are moving into the city.

Without these "evil yuppies" how are you going to pay for these programs?

Xavi: 7th Sep 2008 - 19:34 GMT

Humboldt Park has its social ills (and as you can see from the rest of my diatribe, there are specific historical/social/political reasons why) but it is a ghetto struggling to maintain the rich social networks, organization, institutions, and cultural symbols that are needed in order to address and solve those social ills. Gentrification hightens that problem. Greed and flight ignores the problem.

To learn more about the anti-gentrification struggle in Puerto Rican Humboldt Park, please visit www.myspace.com/humboldtparkpd

arquitecto: 11th Sep 2008 - 00:28 GMT

Xavi, good post. I feel your pain. I am a central american immigrant who grew up in cleveland. Went to school in Portland and am living in Sacramento CA. I have gained a little perspective on the issues surrounding gentrification. I see rich folks who want to move in to urban neighborhoods their ancestors had forsaken in an era drenched with artificially bloated prosperity derived from cheap oil. Their spatial positing and the heavily contested terrain of gentrification speaks to a shift in the way people are structuring their lives post-peak oil. However, being displaced from an increasingly desirable neighborhood sucks.
Without struggles (like your's Xavi) to retain the character and identity of a neighborhood, many economically disadvantaged peoples will find themselves populating the fantasy lands of the past. Suburbia stands in a vulnerable place to negotiate the waves of economic and resource disparity that will pulse through North America's imminent fall from grace.
When we refuse to give up our place in our neighborhoods we must have a clear vision of the future. How can we incorporate and adapt our existing social, economic and cultural structures into a cohesive vision of our future? Can we embrace differences and thrive on collaborative diversity? We must work together to envision a viable future based on a concrete understanding of the explicit and increasingly pertinent limitations of humanity and our mother earth.

Humboldt1: 22nd Sep 2008 - 17:23 GMT

Arquitecto,

Seriously, you don't need to use all the 5 dollar words. I have been in Humboldt Park for the past 3 years, having purchased an apartment building here in which I live. I continue to own and rent out property I have in Itasca. I know more about gentrification than most would ever want to, having lived in and studied it from a commercial real estate perspective (I work as a commercial banker here in Chicago).

I am one of those rich white people you are talking about moving back into an area that my ancestors abandoned due to cheap oil (though my ancestors are all farmers from Indiana). I am doing far more to improve the neighborhood than the thugs who came here before me.

Humboldt Park has alot of challenges. The area has improved the past 3 years slightly, though I wish it would look more like its neighbor to the north Logan Square, which also has its challenges, though perhaps less so. I think in 5-10 years, Humboldt Park will be even nicer, though I worry about the areas south of Grand Avenue, which seem to be run down and dominated by a bunch of black thugs. The Puerto Ricans in Humboldt Park certainly have their gangs, but I have had a much more favorable experience with Puerto Ricans and Mexicans in Humboldt Park and in general than I have had with blacks, having had to forcibly evict 3 black families at gunpoint with Cook County Sherriffs this past winter. I now have Mexican and Puerto Rican tenants and have had no problems other than the occassional late rent check.

I am looking to buy more buildings in the near future, but will be focusing on Logan Square and Bucktown as the real estate crisis has made these areas affordable to me again.

Humboldt/West Bucktown - whichever you prefer: 27th Sep 2008 - 05:42 GMT

I've been in this area for over 6 years. Bought a condo 3BR/3BA. The first year was rough with all the random shootings at night. I get the scoop from the locals, like my neighbor who doesn't work but hangs out in front of his porch. I think he's a section 8 candidate. Anyhow, alot of developments in the area. My place recently got appraised for $390K. Purchased it 6 years ago for $280. The area has gotten a lot nicer with the yuppies moving in.

I'm not sure why people are still claiming areas as theirs and so closed minded to gentrification. Just like gangbangers and their imaginary lines and territories. This is how ignorance starts. Humboldt has turned around because of gentrification. The shootings are still happening but not as frequent. If the pioneers wants to preserve then I suggest to ride the change and be a good host/neighbor. It's OUR community now! You know the change is good and as far as my neighbor, we're happy we can mingle. No judgement needed.

Humboldt1: 3rd Oct 2008 - 20:51 GMT

I am happy to get rid of all the gangbangers. I have confronted drug dealers and will surely do it again. I do not want the kids on my street living around this crap. I am a single guy with significant resources both monetarily and politically, so I don't fear the gangs.

If they want to confront me I welcome it. I doubt they will be any match for the police that taxpayers like me pay for. The neighborhood is better off with them not around. I can't buy every building and kick them out but I will be buying a number of buildings over the next 10-20 years and will be certain there is no place for people who ascribe the gang lifestyle in my buildings.

There is no West Bucktown. That is what realtors tell you to get you to buy a place.

I like Humboldt Park, particularly east of California, but think Logan Square is a bit further along with regards to gentrification and will be focusing most of my time and energy on acquiring properties near the california and western el stops in Logan Square and Bucktown. Areas west of Kedzie will take longer to gentrify. I know this personally as I already own an apartment building just east of Pulaski near north avenue.

dena: 7th Oct 2008 - 13:47 GMT

I have lived in the Humboldt Park area all my 50 years and seen many changes for the better yet the gangs are a big problem still in our community and schools in the area are getting worse. I live on a fix in-come and fear higher taxes will force me to sell there is too many families living in small units which, I feel is adding to over-crowding and violence when gang lifestyle in becoming the norm we need to hold home owners and building owners accountable for whom they alowed to rent in the units that they know are breaking laws.

emily: 20th Oct 2008 - 19:55 GMT

I am currently observing a class in Lafayette Elementary school. I have to write a paper regarding the changes the community or the school have gone through. The school used to have 1300 students and now it only has 640 due to the gentrification in the area. What do you believe is causing the gentrification? Does anybody believe that Humboldt Park (the actual park, not the town) is one of the main attractions? Or is is the surrounding areas?

J: 20th Oct 2008 - 19:57 GMT

"What do you believe is causing the gentrification?" What do u THINK is causing it?

Humboldt1: 21st Oct 2008 - 16:23 GMT

Gentrification is being caused by yuppies and professionals from the east moving further west, displacing current long-time residents. The park itself is beautiful and a true gem in the Chicago Park District, but is not what is attracting new residents. Most of the gentrification is occurring east of the park. West of the Park will take longer to gentrify. I don't see much gentrification happening south of grand avenue, west of the park as this is basically ghetto and will be for quite some time. The area is much more livable north of grand avenue and division street. Garfield Park to the south and Austin to the west are both very bad areas and it will take a lot for the western parts of Humboldt Park to gentrify, though the Menards development at North and Kostner should certainly help.

I own an apartment building a couple blocks east of Pulaski and North and have lived there for the past 3 years. I know this area as well as anyone.

emily: 22nd Oct 2008 - 00:44 GMT

Thank you Humboldt1, and as a response to J's comment I want to say that I believe that the gentrification is a HUGE problem and it is completely unfair, but there has to be something that is attracting "Yuppie" people to move into this area in particular. Plus you do not need to have an attitude! I'm not the one causing this problem! In fact I am trying to help it.

Urban Neighbourhood: 22nd Oct 2008 - 04:54 GMT

Gentrification is one of those things that you either love or hate. The debate on it tends to be very polarized, but cities are not going to oppose it because it means higher property taxes that will help them support their failing infrastructure and improve services. Gentrification has been going on ever since people started moving back into the city core and it will continue as this process speeds up. Of course at the same time older suburban neighbourhoods deteriorate and those pushed out by the process find new places to live in other depressed areas.

It also tends to be one of those things that people hate but rarely offer alternatives for. What methods would you use to help neighbourhoods improve without pushing the poor out?
Over at Urban Neighbourhood we cross posted an article form New York Magazine about Willie Kathryn Suggs, a Realtor who has been blamed for being the largest cause of gentrification in the Harlem area. She has some very interesting things to say on the topic.

http://urbanneighbourhood.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/harlem-and-the-great-gentrification-debate/

Humboldt1: 24th Oct 2008 - 22:51 GMT

I love gentrification and will do everything in my power to promote it. For now, I have renters that are less than desirable, but pay, although usually late. I would much rather rent to yuppies who can pay higher rents and have less problems but my area is not ready for yuppies.

I feel bad for the people being displaced, but many of those being displaced are the ones selling drugs, killing, gang activity, etc. I know there are good people being displaced too, but also many bad people too. You cannot displace just the bad poor, you have to displace the entire poor population to fully gentrify an area.

Groups like Bickerdike and HHDC will try to keep rents artificially low so that the poor can continue to live in gentrifying areas but all this does is create mini projects, with many of these poor residents preying upon the new more affluent residents moving in. There is a reason why the buildings near Bickerdike developments sell for less and you see "No Loitering" signs on these developments.

HHDC is a little better as some of their developments have home owners who take pride in their homes.

I do not see gentrification as a problem but a solution. The only one it is a problem for is the poor being displaced. For everyone else, those who can continue to afford to live there and the city as a whole it is a benefit.

Arrest Development: 5th Nov 2008 - 21:37 GMT

Let's get real, gentrification, which means "from gentry, noble birth, good genes", is really a catering to Euro/Anglo culture who are given privilege, mobility, whether it's suburban or in the city, and easier access to jobs that won't employ those with cultural connections that are viewed as inferior to the same Anglo/Euro culture. Even with a degree, one HAS to "fit in" to the Neoliberal "free market"(for who?) development that disregards discrimination and works through a normalization of "whiteness", racial categories, a skin color cast system, and an upholding of past economic racism. Now you have so called "yuppies" buying from "blue eyed" egg donors to "preserve their race". I think it's more like preserving their power and privilege. If any of you neo-con or neoliberal capitalist think this is good for your precious system based on capital for the privlaged, your sadly mistaken. You can "sell" social justice and people liberating themsleves. In is an innate trait... Gentrification, neo-colonialism, imperialism, and economic dicrimination is the true threat to humanity, not some "spiritual devil". The devil is the system...

The System: 5th Nov 2008 - 21:39 GMT

Whatever. You'll always be a victim as long as you perceive yourself as one.

Arrest Development: 5th Nov 2008 - 21:41 GMT

Live in denial if you must... Poor people are uniting all across the globe... I know you see us on the street...

The System: 5th Nov 2008 - 21:52 GMT

Denial of what? You're using this nebulous sense of "victimization" to play devil's advocate for those who don't take advantage of the system, on their own, to benefit. Don't build walls -- because hey, I am poor myself, but don't feel like I've lost any opportunities to "the system" that weren't my own fault.

Anyone-- regardless of race, income or opportunity-- can improve their lives if they just bother to get off their asses and do it, and not sit here all day complaining about "the system".

Humboldt1: 7th Nov 2008 - 22:09 GMT

I am not poor but I live around poor people and we all get along. I have had a few run-ins with drug dealers and gang bangers hanging out on corners on my block, but I have always been able to have the police deal with this crap.

Arrest Development,

You sound like Karl Marx. Get over yourself.

Instead of playing victim get out there and get an education (you clearly have one by your writing ability) and work hard to succeed. Yes, some have it easier than others, but ultimately if you work hard, you increase your chances to succeed, regardless of your background.

I have no problems not preserving my white race as I have dated a number of hispanic women and would have children with the right woman, white or not.

ChiPhi: 26th Dec 2008 - 02:43 GMT

Wow...this thread has had some staying power and I am glad it has the legs. :)

Full disclosure...(Please read my earlier comments above for my perspective regarding this neighborhood). I am a male in my very early 30's, married with no kids yet. I live in the East Humboldt Park (5 years now) neighborhood and bought a condo and eventually a home here because I enjoy the diversity, potential, and proximity to the shops on Division. I never had a silver spoon but my single mother raised with me with the values that needed to ground me. (My father passed away very early in my life). She stressed the value of hardwork and education and never allowed me to settle for less than I deserved. I majored in Computer Engineering at a major Big Ten University and obtained an advanced degree from Northwestern University while concurrently building my career. Yes, this sometimes meant waking up at 3:00am to finish my homework before work but it was worth it. This is while trying to drown out the sounds of the young men and women in the neighborhood, loud music and all, partying outside my window and thowing beer bottles on my front lawn. I get ready to go to work but first pick the trash in front of my home. I call 311 for the new grafitti on my neighbors garage. I too am vested in this neighborhood.
So all this I guess qualifies me as a YUPPIE. And oh yeah, I am an African-American. So by all the definitions above, I don't fit the Yuppie monster profile. This term that has villified those who just want to work hard, get educated and get their part of the American homstead. We are more hated in gentrifying neighborhoods than the gangbangers that kill kids on the street. Why not redirect this energy to cleaning up the streets around the neighborhood? The only folks I see trying to clean up when we have trash drives are these 'evil yuyppies'. While those who have lived there forever have come to accept this as norm...trash and glass on the streets. Violence in our streets is tolerated. People, wrong enemy!
Paseo Boriqua has so much potential! But we'd rather have 5 barbershops on 2 blocks. And then 'services' funding just one dempgraphic. Where does the anti-yuppie movement think the funding for these community services come from? Taxes, specifically, property taxes. And most of us 'yuppies' are paying for schools that we don't even have our kids attending. It's like the money is wanted by the 'takers' but 'generators' are the enemy.
Sorry for the rant but it is really hard to read the old victim sob and conspiracy theory again while I am testament, and these times are evidence, that in most cases, hard work and persistence pays off. Good parenting pays dividends and at 17, my mother always knew where I was and I was not off at some corner hanging with the homies.
This neighborhood, East Humboldt Park, is a world better than it was just 5 years ago. Great potential and within close proiximity to the booming Division Street district where there are sustainable businesses that infuse money to that community. I just wish Paseo Boriqua could get a clue and leverage its potential. Yes, inevitably gentrification hurts some but the greater good and benefit is immense. Don't curb progress and accept a low standard of 'norm'. Paseo can be a great Puerto Rican cultural hub while being a social and entertainment district for non-residents. Development does not have to mean losing its identity! Very frustrating indeed.

Humboldt1, this is Phl_Gd from City-Data. Nice to see you chime in on here as well and sorry to hear that the experience with your renters has been skewed a bit racially. That is unfortunate but you recall my comment about 'ghetto' being socio-economic and not being necessarily along racial. I trust that no generalizations will be made based on your experience. Hang in there buddy.

morgan693: 30th Dec 2008 - 00:50 GMT

Lot's of interesting comments here, but a lot of misconceptions, in my opinion. Not everyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, contrary to popular belief. People have different intelligence levels, different life experiences and different issues to deal with, and all of that without even considering mental illness. it's arrogant to think that just because some people can better themselves anyone can if they just try. I don't believe in pushing poor people out of their homes, but I also don't believe a neighborhood should belong to one ethnicity. I lived in Humboldt Park for the 1st 10 years of my life. And I'm white. At that time Humboldt Park was mostly white. We had to move because I was sexually assaulted by 2 P.R. gangbangers. And at 15 I was jumped and mugged by 2 black kids who had been bussed to my H.S. in Albany Park. However, I'm still not racist, because I've known some pretty bad white folk' as well. However, it is frustrating, because I would like to move back to Humboldt Park but don't want to deal with anyone's attitude because of the color of my skin.

ChiPhi: 1st Jan 2009 - 02:20 GMT

True Morgan693 that due to some nuture and nature aspects of our upbringing, it may be easier for some to "pull themselves up by the boot straps". However, the excuses and crutches have to stop at some point. Why is it always somebody else's fault? Why is it always "woe is me", my situation is worse off than everybody else's? Or why is it "the man" who caused this? Does this cause you to roll down your window and calmly throw down a McDonalds bag and cup on the very streets you are supposed to be proud of? No, that is just common sense, human decency, and respect for others and most of all yourself. The lack of the aformentioned ideals is also why a man would choose to end another's life over BS. The excuses have got to end. It is hard to use mental illness over a broad swath of individuals and it is MY OPNION, that it can be done since I am living proof. I was the prototype risk factor, Black male, in a single mother household.

Humboldt1: 6th Jan 2009 - 22:43 GMT

PlGrd,

Nice to see you are back from CityData. I was starting to get really down about black renters in general, but have had a new renter (black family) in my suburban place in Itasca since Aug and they have been some of my best renters. It is truly a socio-economic thing, not a racial thing. This has really helped my view on things. I wasn't ever trying to be racist but was certainly challenged. Being a bad renter has always been a ghetto thing, not a racial thing. In Humboldt Park, it is tough to find good renters. I have 2 good ones, and 1 I have considered evicting. I haven't done so because I feel sorry for them, but they have surely taken advantage of me. I talked with them this morning about eviction and they have promised to give me their tax returns, so we will see. Ultimately, this is costing me money, money I would otherwise give to the church or some other charity. So, if they don't pay me I will evict them early spring, much easier than evicting 3 families at once like I did back in Dec 07. It may end up costing me $5,000, but I guess I can afford it (unfortunately, they know this too). I would rather take the hit and be able to sleep at night, knowing I gave them every chance to pay me, and then some.

Humboldt Park is getting better and with more and more people like myself moving back in, improving the area (some of the current residents are doing good work too), the area will improve, it just may take a few years. East Humboldt is certainly further along than West Humboldt (defined as west of Pulaski), but both areas will continue to get better. I am looking to keep my place for the foreseeable future, though after nearly 3 years of living there, I may have another 1-2 years before moving. There are nice people on my block, but I ultimately have very little in common with my neighbors and may end of moving around other yuppies in the next few years as real estate prices decline and I am able to buy in better neighborhoods.

InColdBlood: 9th Feb 2009 - 06:31 GMT

Humboldt Park is rife with anti-white racism. The real problems are the gangs, drug dealers and complacent ghetto mentality that supports them, first, because drug dealing is still a potentially lucrative activity and a viable economic option for those who either do not want to work or cannot get decent work, second because many of the Puerto Rican inhabitants have been here so long they want to believe the neighborhood exclusively belongs to them and are happy to see petty crime scare off well-heeled white people when they think it will keep their rents down and their neighborhood intact. While there is a long history of racial discrimination that isolated this population, provided them with poor city services and neglect, which resulted in these insular attitudes, ironically, much of the PR population here today is better off economically than most of the whites who move here for the lower rents. Some of the views in these posts express a patent hypocrisy about race and class issues. Most of the white folks who have moved to HP are far from well-to-do and certainly not privileged, unless by "privileged" you mean they were raised to pay attention to what they were taught in school and respect other people's property rather than idolize various strains of ignorance and pathetic criminal culture. Puerto Rican culture is a wonderful thing, and pride in one's culture and ethnicity is every American's birthright and legacy; however, when too many people in a neighborhood confuse that pride with gang affiliation and a sense of some right to engage in criminal enterprise, routine vandalism, petty theft, and narcotics trafficking in particular, then you have got some serious problems. Where the drug dealers live and prosper, the drug addicts are not far behind, and necessarily in much greater numbers and, where hard drugs are involved, given over to a lifetime of wretched misery, or as NWA put it, "to the niggas out there messin' up people's health,/Yo, what the fuck you gotta say for yourself?!"

ghetto love: 17th Feb 2009 - 22:01 GMT

The neighborhood will not change unless the values of the community change. Sad, but the place is a ghetto because the actions that the inhabitants practice is ghetto. If you don't like this post, go read any Northwestern University study that white washes the truth about this hood for political and financial reasons. "Trust no bitch". Those words are on the back window of a car parked on Spaulding and Crystal. If that isn't ghetto than ask the Mafia Insane Vice Lords selling drugs out of their mouths and but cracks what is. Get real. Humboldt Park is a joke and hell.

TRUTH: 1st Mar 2009 - 10:18 GMT

Chicago has been a hotbed for Gentrification. As a "Business Town" it attracts allot of out of town Professionals and Graduates. It also attracts those who wish to attend prestigious schools like The University Of Chicago and Northwestern Illinois University. Most of these individuals come from families who have inherited generational wealth and did not have to deal with historical and present day discrimination whether from housing, employment, education, or other services that are usually privately run and available to affluent and privileged populations. Neighborhoods like Pilson and Humboldt Park are the most recent to fall prey to the in discriminant practices of "market forces" and merchant systems adopted from Europe that see other cultures and their practices as expendable.

TRUTH: 1st Mar 2009 - 10:43 GMT

GENTRIFICATION IN BRIEF
http://www.enoughroomforspace.org/project_pages/view/198
Gentrification occurs in urban areas where prior disinvestment in the urban infrastructure creates neighborhoods that can be profitably redeveloped. In its earliest form, gentrification affected decaying working class neighborhoods close to urban centers where middle and upper middle class people colonized or re-colonized the area, leading to the displacement and eviction of existing residents. The central mechanism behind gentrification can be thought of as a “rent gap.” When neighborhoods experience disinvestment, the ground rent that can be extracted from the area declines, which means lower land prices. As this disinvestment continues, the gap between the actual ground rent in the area and the ground rent that could be extracted were the area to undergo reinvestment becomes wide enough to allow that reinvestment to take place. This rent gap may arise largely through the operation of markets, most notably in the United States, but state policies can also be central in encouraging disinvestment and reinvestment associated with gentrification. But only wealthier people are able to afford the costs of this renewed investment. Integral with these economic shifts are social and cultural shifts that change the kinds of shops, facilities and public spaces in a neighborhood. Early examples of gentrification might include the Islington area of London or Greenwich Village in Manhattan but by the 1970s there were many recorded cases of gentrification in Europe, North America and Australia. In Berlin, early examples of gentrification were recorded in Schöneberg and Kreuzberg, among other neighborhoods, but the fall of the Berlin Wall released a huge stock of housing that had undergone considerable disinvestment, leading to a widespread gentrification of Prenzlauer Berg and Mitte.

1. Since the 1970s, gentrification has shifted from a marginal, fragmented process in the housing market to a large-scale, systematic and deliberate urban development policy. Gentrification has deepened as a comprehensive city-building strategy encompassing not just the residential market, but recreation, retail, employment, and the cultural economy. It has also spread geographically to Latin American and Asian cities with Shanghai and Beijing, for example, displacing hundreds of thousands of poor and working class residents. As a generalized urban strategy, gentrification weaves together the interests of city managers, developers and landlords, but also corporate employers and cultural and educational institutions which depend on a professional workforce. It is also the paradoxical but logical outcome of environmentalist demands for more dense living, pitting gentrifiers’ thirst for first-class housing against working-class demands for parks and community gardens. But these large-scale strategies are also integrated with much more local initiatives, and city managers around the world have become enamored of the idea of the “creative city.” As a matter of citywide strategy, they attempt to attract a so-called creative class of artists, intellectuals, entertainers, designers, high-tech engineers to specific gentrifying neighborhoods. This strategy was probably pioneered in New York’s Lower East Side where in the early 1980s landlords who were unable to rent commercial properties offered them at cheap rents to artists, giving them 5-year leases. After 5 years, with no rent control on commercial properties and with the neighborhood now gentrifying rapidly, landlords began to demand 400%, 600% even 1,000% rent increases to renew leases. The artists had done their work as the shock troops of gentrification and were themselves displaced. This more localized strategy is especially popular in places where perhaps there are more stringent rent controls or greater state regulation of the property market generally. The gentrification of Berlin has been more fragmented and slower than in London or New York, for example.
2.
3. Students, artists, and many other parts of the populace are part of the process of “cracking” neighborhoods that many other professionals may be unwilling to colonize. The question whether a particular neighborhood will or will not gentrify depends on the depth of the rent gap and the particulars of local policy, but it also depends on many other local issues, neighborhood characteristics and so on. If the rent gap is deep enough, I don’t think any neighborhood is “too bad” for gentrification, but at the same time there is no guarantee that a particular neighborhood will in fact be gentrified. Consider Harlem in New York City. In the 1960s and 1970s, Harlem was an international symbol of urban decline, a “bad neighborhood.” Not least, this was the product of racism as Harlem in 1980 was 97% African American. More than 20 years ago I interviewed an African American state bureaucrat in charge of trying to gentrify Harlem and as he put it: “If Harlem is going to be gentrified, whitey is really going to have to get his shit together.” Today, Harlem is gentrifying intensely, and has been after a hiatus in the late 1980s. African American professionals, students, lawyers, gays, white yuppies are all moving in, and property prices are sky rocketing. Columbia University is planning a huge university development in the area. If Harlem can be gentrified, I don’t think any neighborhood is immune. Or we could point to the early gentrification along the edges of Dharavi, the huge slum in Mumbai that is currently being dismantled.
4.
5. Neighborhoods gentrify in different ways, however. Some are cataclysmic, especially when there is centralized state sponsorship or large-scale institutional involvement, but others may gentrify slowly. Some become highly exclusive and exclusionary whereas others may remain more mixed hipster ‘hoods for a comparatively long time. The different fortunes of these areas depend on many things such as patterns of building ownership, state regulations, class structure and cohesiveness, community opposition, entrepreneurial initiatives. What ties all of these experiences together is the class shift in the neighborhood and the greater or lesser degree of displacement (direct or indirect) that ensues.

1. In the Lower East Side in the 1980s one of the anti-gentrification slogans was: “Die Yuppie Scum.” I still have a T-shirt given me by a friend with this slogan. It was an effective slogan for scaring off yuppies, and indeed the gentrification of the area stalled until the city evicted homeless people and protesters from Tompkins Square Park. But “Die Yuppie Scum” isn’t a very good analysis of gentrification. Even yuppies have very limited choices in the housing market, albeit far more choices than the poor. By contrast, the owners of capital intent on gentrifying and developing a neighborhood have a lot more “consumer choice” about which neighborhoods they want to consume, for the purposes of gentrification, and the kind of housing and other facilities they produce for the rest of us to consume. There is a huge asymmetry between the power of multi-millionaire capitalist corporations in the market and the “power” of someone trying to rent a flat on an average city income. So while the question of consumption and the availability of consumers is by no means irrelevant, it is secondary to the far greater power of capital.
2.
3. To the extent that gentrification has itself become a global urban strategy, anti-gentrification struggles have to work within this context. Local strategies are vital and have to highlight displacement, eviction, and the loss of services and jobs in neighborhoods leaving the existing working class stranded. But such struggles also need to have the global situation in their sights. Gentrification has become a strategy within globaliZation itself; the effort to create a global city is the effort to attract capital and tourists and gentrification is a central means for doing so. Some neighborhood activists – in North America I am thinking about people inspired by Jane Jacobs – have tried to rally small-scale gentrifies to fight large-scale urban redevelopment, but this is itself a gentrification strategy aimed at providing neighborhoods for the so-called creative class. The same can be said about “regeneration strategies,” endorsed as a central plank of urban policy by the European Union. In Britain especially, but elsewhere in the EU, “regeneration” has become little more than a gentrified word for gentrification. A kinder, gentler eviction is still an eviction.
4.
5. Instead, I think we need to start to think in terms of tenant collectives and neighborhood councils. These would both take over increasing responsibility for organizing neighborhood housing and at the same time build the power locally to force state anti-gentrification legislation – rent control, anti-eviction legislation, increased public housing, and so forth. But in addition to such local organizing, anti-gentrification organizers should be working with global social justice movements. Housing is a question of social justice, and gentrification is part of a wider global capital accumulation. Many gentrification projects today are designed, built and financed by international capital that makes decisions at a planetary rather than local scale. The case of the Beijing Olympics is only the most obvious. There, in preparation for that sports event which is also a bonanza for Chinese capitalists and the state, several hundred thousand poor and working class people have been summarily displaced from older neighborhoods in the city facing massive redevelopment. This connection between anti-gentrification struggles and world social justice movement activists can be extremely threatening. The recent desperate invocation of Section 129a of the German legal code, initiating “terrorism” charges against seven people, including several gentrification researchers, demonstrates exactly how threatening these connections can be. Class politics is equated with terrorism. Our response should be to intensify the connections among activists at different scales while refusing the state’s hysterical equation of class opposition with terrorism. Anti-gentrification struggles are part of that work.

Arrest Development: 1st Mar 2009 - 11:44 GMT

Humboldt1, what do you mean by preserving your "white" race...what is "white"...you sound like Adolf Hitler...after reading this article posted by Truth, it's obvious that you are a racist or a racialist which is fine but admit it and join Stromfront or something(vote for Ron Paul), and tell your tenants and the "Latin" women who date you only because you are "white" and have money, the truth... If your not already a slum lord acquiring all these properties...sounds criminal...and tell a "gang" member that you are a Nazi instead of hiding behind a cop...else you will be a racist, a greedy business criminal, AND a coward for the rest of your life...Can't hide behind the market forever bro... And don't worry about me... I don't view your "race" or your scholars as superior...there are many "scholars of color" that can explain Gentrification better then you or Marx ever could... Even Puerto Rican scholars but I am Native(Real American)... Point is, that the truly evil man always lives in fear...

Oh and ChiPhi, Yuppie means Young Urban Professional which can be "white" but anyone can sell out in capitalism that is the name of the game... Take some history and sociology/biology classes with your buddy Humboldt1 and learn about life instead of trying to find way to be superior to everyone...

That is probably why you guys lack social skills and Puerto Ricans and Black Africans in American dislike you because you guys generalize so much... It's the sign of ignorance to generalize...

Oh and to "The System", your in denial of your own role in the vilification of the poor and the REAL effects of gentrification. Do you have a colonized mind frame? Possible... See the article just posted above and educate yourself a bit. Pointing out poverty is NOT victimization and just because I am rich doesn't mean I can't side with and help the poor and discriminated against those that have no voice. I can live elsewhere and not add to the problem...With money and privilege you have options... Look it up...

"Anyone-- regardless of race, income or opportunity-- can improve their lives if they just bother to get off their asses and do it, and not sit here all day complaining about "the system"."

Bring me research and facts about this sweeping generalization when the data and evidence is clearly contrary this comment with the gentrification facts all over the world. It's extremely rare to transcend class and race especially when they are static definitions of a stratified society historically assigned by Anglo culture which is viewed as superior EVEN by colonized people and historically enslaved ones.

"People of color" where never supposed to get ANY rights even in labor let alone break into the professional sector and/or get educated. It wasn't even 40 years ago that the last of the "white only" colleges started allowing "people of color". Some still don't allow them access. Without poor and rich, their won't be other "classes". Do you know what they are? I doubt it...

The walls and the glass ceilings HAVE been built bro...You just choose to close your mind and not think critically while looking at the bigger picture... Gentrification is an extension of Imperialism and colonialism supported by an elite European merchant system... DEAL WITH IT! I am...

Franny Wentzel: 1st Mar 2009 - 12:27 GMT

I tried to read as many of these post as I could and the one question I have to ask is of what earthly good is a 'poor' neighbourhood if it fails to provide and meaningful support for its residents and is attractive enough to merit interest from a people better able to utilize it?

From all I've read about urban planning and civic history is that after WWII most American cities had survived unbombed yet were considered 'worn out' - bringing on the exodus of white/anglo people to suburbia and the influx of poor blacks and spanish speaking people. The race riots of the late 1960s exacerbated this changeover.

At the same time changes in industrial production moved the 'factory at the end of the block' to the suburbs (or Japan) depriving these new citizens of their first 'movin' on up' up job while welfare programmes and the targets withdrawal of city services encouraged the warehousing of the poor in slums neighbourhoods and Clockwork Orange style municipal flatblocks.

Concurrent with this the first wave of post-college Baby boomers, priced out of the suburbs, began to drift back into the cities to rehab the historic buildings abandoned by their parents. By the 80s and 90s many of these neighbourhoods gentrified to the point that developers began to tear down the very buildings that attracted people there in the first place to build condo flatblocks - go figure.

It's interesting that the same people who rail against the evils of suburbia are often the same people railing against the consequence of the people who listen to them and move back into cities. Ignored too are the ethnic cleansings going on in the remaining 'ghettos' where one low income ethnic group drives out another. It's happening in LA with Latinos are driving blacks from their long time homes often violently.

Cities at their heart are machines - for living, education, entertainment, economic and cultural development. With few jobs and lousy schools and deliberate neglect, cities and their leaders have served the poor rather poorly.

It would be nice if there was money in building for the low men on the economic totem pole but the people who claim to speak for the poor all too often are too busy lining their own pockets or pretending to be the next Che Guivera to actually, you know, better the lives of the poor.

Perhaps it's better to let gentrification dissolve the people and elect another. There's plenty of abandoned and foreclosed housing in suburbia for them now that the global economy has cratered and thanks to the Annointed One looks to remain so for the foreseeable future.

Humboldt Park Dweller: 5th Mar 2009 - 06:23 GMT

"We seek to undermine the legitimacy of gentrification by challenging the logic that presents urban change as a natural phenomenon"

Huh? You realize that cities aren't geological formations correct?

Those posters I see with Hispanic people and the words "Humboldt Park is not for sale!" remind me of the stories my grandfather used to tell me about he was treated. He was called all of the slurs used against people with dark skin. He and his brothers would often have to fight on the way home from school because they looked different from others. He worked hard labor his whole life and put my aunts and father through college. He never let others tell him what he was capable of. His struggles made an impact on me and his stories have helped me define myself and how I act.

But those posters. When I first experienced being called names when I moved here I thought it was just a few ignorant people, it continued. Then my building was spray painted "* go home". Fairly often people won't get out of my way, or shout behind me. Then those posters. I'd never really experienced being treated that way. This is because I'm the product of two generations that married white Europeans. I'm white unlike my grandfather. He would have walked down California without comment. What do you think he would have thought of those posters? I'm sure he would have remembered others like them from his time.

Humboldt Park Dweller: 5th Mar 2009 - 15:38 GMT

I guess what I'm trying to say is that racism is still racism, whether used against Latinos or white people. It's ironic to see the once-downtrodden races of Humboldt Park now lashing out so racially and offensively against anyone that isn't Latino.

Humboldt Park Dweller: 5th Mar 2009 - 16:00 GMT

the original poster of the name...

Thanks for the summary ;)

I was trying humanize the 'whites'. Let people know that how you look doesn't tell your story or the story of those who struggled before you.

So yeah, when someone yells "you don't belong here white boy" it gets to me. I'm probably more Hispanic by blood then 10 or 20% of the bigoted who verbally abuse me.

The really sad thing is how little these culture preservationist (I'm being kind with the title) seem to know about the world outside their enclave.

Humboldt1: 10th Mar 2009 - 15:23 GMT

Arrest Development,

I have an degree in history in addition to economics and marketing and have taken several urban sociology classes. I also have an undergrad in biomedical engineering so I know a thing or two about biology. My mother has a masters in education and sociology and taught school in Gary in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

I am not a coward as you call me and do not think I am any better than anyone else.

People are not dating me only because "I am white and have money." This is insulting to say the least.

Calling me Nazi because I call the police when gangs break the law, please.

And no one can ever accuse me of making money off of poor people, at least not yet. I have been here 3 years and have been cheated out of 10s of thousands of dollars in lost rents from tenants who have stiffed me. The tenants I mentioned evicting in my post in January I am now taking to court to have them thrown out by the sherriff as they refue to leave and are 6 months behind on rent. I felt sorry for them and their 3 kids and did not evict them over the holidays and know how painful it is to evict someone who doesn't want to leave. If they don't vacate the premises by court date on March 24th, I will schedule the Cook County Sherriff to come out and evict them by force if necessary. This is all costing me money. I am owed $5400 ($900/mth) in rent along with $530 I paid to my attorney and then if the sherriff is needed this will cost me an additional $300. I hardly see how I am profitting from poor people. Oh, and I pay their utilities (electric $75/mth and gas $125/mth), which has cost me an additional $1200. So, how am I profitting from poor people?

In late 2007, I evicted 3 families all at once and it was Hell. I lost rents for 4 months ($2100*4=$8400) and spent $2,000 on court costs to evict them.

I also live in the building in the worst unit, not some leafy suburb with other yuppies.

I am playing by the rules and getting screwed. How am I profitting from poor people?

ChiPhi: 3rd Apr 2009 - 16:44 GMT

Arrested Development,
Thanks for the input. You are certainly entitled to your opnions and I respect that. I respect that enough not to call you names since that just dilutes an otherwise interesting debate on a public forum.
The thoughts I expressed here were not a categorization of everyone in the neighborhood but an account of what we have experienced here and in neighborhoods around the world with a similar socio-economic situation. We have some great, great neighbors (Puerto Rican, Polish, African-American and Caucasian) who have been here all their lives who are fighting the same negativity that we fight. They are raising their kids to be respectable and pray and work for a safe place for their kids while the gangs try to ravage their neighborhood. This is the pride we should all have.
I also never mentioned anything about being rich because goodness knows, that we certainly aren't. We chose to live here because this is what we could afford and still be this close to the city. Is this our crime? But you'd rather, because you are my accountant apparently, have me move to a different neighborhood because I am 'rich'. No, I live here because this is where I can afford my piece of the dream. The same dream that most of my neighbors strive for as well. Living in a condo does not make you affluent. And besides, I have been able to make an impact here on more at-risk kids than most have so don't tell me about not siding with the less fortunate. Every week volunteering at the food bank, mentoring at-risk young men...be careful about making assumptions about who I am and my integration with my community.
Sorry about my social skills too, I guess we have met a few times and you know this? And you are rebuking sweeping generalizations?
Good luck and I sincerely hope that one day, you will understand the fallacy of some of your perspectives expressed here.

ChiPhi: 3rd Apr 2009 - 18:17 GMT

And also Arrested...if it was not obvious, the frustrations expressed in my 'rant'on Dec 26th (earlier post) are not descriptive of the less fortunate, or 'poor' as you put it. Please don't try to shift the argument to a front that it was not intended for. The frustration was directed at those in less fortunate situations that are content with letting 'a system stacked against them' as an excuse to submit to fate (whatever that is) and perpetuate the very negative stereotypes. There are also millions of less fortunate who refuse to accept a situation and wake up everyday with a drive to breakthrough that ceiling, clean up the neighborhood, raise children in the best possible environment. Isn't this the anti-thesis of colonial mentality you try to accuse me of?? Colonial Mentality? Fela Anikulapo Kuti, and his lesser known brother Ransom (brethren of mine in more ways than you will EVER know) are quite the pop culture scholars on this theory aren't they? :)

humboldtpark: 8th Apr 2009 - 03:11 GMT

Wow, there are really some interesting comments here. I live in Humboldt Park with my husband and kids and want to help clean it up. I think blacks, whites, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans....who cares what your race is, don't we all want this to become a safer place for ourselves and our children? I love the proximity to Bucktown and Wicker Park, too, but I'd sure love to see a grocery store over here and more coffee shops and places to visit so I don't have to leave the neighborhood.

For those of you here who are interested in change, whether you want to call it gentrification, commercial development, or otherwise, please check out the United Blocks of West Humboldt Park's site at www.unitedblocks.blogspot.com.

Some of you may also be interested in a site I recently ran across called www.billyocasiosucks.com.

And, if you want to be part of the growing group of people who want to see change and more development here while still preserving the character of Humboldt Park, consider joining http://groups.google.com/group/humboldtparkneighbors.

Norse Viking: 17th Apr 2009 - 06:10 GMT

Arrest Development...Your are so right man... Bravo to you... Keep it up!!!

"I think blacks, whites, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans....who cares what your race is, don't we all want this to become a safer place for ourselves and our children?"

"humboldtpark"
Evidently it matters because that is how they segregated Chicago and many Urban cities. Look up Daley's father, Neoliberal practices, and the Chicago corporate structure. The city was segregated by "race" and all to convenience elite middle, and even working class "whites".

Why didn't they invest in the 80's in Humboldt Park/west side schools when poor "black, brown, and poor white" folks where dealing with the violence, bad education, getting vilified by the state, and still dealing with racism. Sometimes just for standing in front of their homes.

Why did they take out the many factories in the area. I know! Maybe to put some fancy boutique where only "yuppies" frequent. Puerto Ricans specifically where kicked out of Lincoln Park as well...Look at it know... ALL YUPPIES... and rich ones at the that. They are not feeling the "crunch" of the economic collapse...only the poor are and they are STILL dying or banished to the suburbs/other states where they are forgotten and the rich enjoy the cities sites and sounds. (Olympics anyone?) Why? Reinvestment of capital for the development of the new middle class(Neo-liberal + Classical Republicanism = Free Market)...

Guess what? This new middle class will be mostly "white"/Anglo decent or some "model minorities" regardless of ethnicity. Just making an observation. I love my light skinned bothers and sisters and many of them understand what is really going on. I love Europe and I am Dominican.

Still, many continue to benefit from their generational wealth and discriminatory practices... Why? Because whether liberal or conservative, they hold the power and their economic system is what is controlling the world's resources and/or has influence. Why do you think they elected Obama? Now THAT is power. Electing a "black" family while millions die from racist economic policies all over the world!!! Good plan. Still, I like Obama... Smart guy...

Or, was to try to eradicate so called "white guilt". I know allot of wealthy "whites" and they don't feel guilty about anything... That is a myth. Many only feel entitled to money, privilege, and the so called "American Dream" and immigrants follow that example. It's ok though because racism is unsustainable, history has shown.

The European concept of race imposed on populations is Biologically and Socially disproven and many are realizing this. Even many "whites" who fight against gentrification know this. Injustice is always fought against and gentrification, ethnic cleansing, and racism are forms of injustice no matter how you look at it. The people who don't think so are the true corrupters of humanity.

If you don't like crime or Puerto Ricans, then why move into that area and vilify them? Sounds like racism and to me and many other intelligent people out there.

All these posts just prove to me that "white folks" only care about their own intersts. So I guess the battles will continue. Maybe the logic should be to let the Pottawatomie nation decide...they where really in the area first and contrary to popular belief, they are still around. They where screwed over the most in my opinion the similarity of "non-white" cultures remains...

"The commissioners now wanted them to surrender the rest of their land in Illinois to the American government. The tribes were camped on all sides of the village of Chicago. The commissioners offered food, whiskey, and other valuables to win their favor. Governor Porter of the Michigan Territory headed the committee. He grew weary as each day passed because the Indians delayed the negotiations. However, on September 26, 1833, both parties signed the Treaty of Chicago. It stated that the Indians had three years to vacate their territory from the Rock River in Illinois to the Grand River in Michigan for a sum of $100,000. These were the last of the Indians to leave Illinois.
http://www.lib.niu.edu/2000/ihy001209.html

Sound familar?

puch: 26th Apr 2009 - 01:05 GMT

what i noticed is that people that have rally's about no si vende humbolt park. those people dont even live in the humbolt park area.

anon (c-24-1-70-89.hsd1.il.comcast.net): 1st May 2009 - 20:00 GMT

I'm moving to humboldt park Blooming dale and whipple st. Is that the area one of the safer parts of HP?

ruserious: 16th May 2009 - 03:30 GMT

What is alarming regarding this thread are the deep undertones of racism, largely against whites. I don't understand where these misconceptions come from about Caucasians, whether it be upbringing, jealousy, or something else. I will tell you that I am a resident of Humboldt Park, I deeply appreciate the culture, and sympathize with the problem of "gentrification". But at the same time, I think we're confusing "gentrification" with being "white", and being "white" with being affluent. I've read the posts of some on here that whites have all of this generational wealth, don't value hard work, and are inherently racist themselves. I myself am third generation Italian, one half of my family coming from Sicily and the other from Naples in 1939. My grandmother worked as a seamstress, my grandfather drove a cab. I remember stories from them of signs on grocery stores saying "No Dogs or Italians Allowed" during the 40's, 50's and even 60's.

Yes, they amassed wealth, but they did so by penny pinching, saving, and working their fingers to the bone. They put 3 children through college on their income. They had a deep sense of family values, emphasis on education, hard work, and community. And speaking of community and "gentrification", go down to Little Italy and see how much TRUE Italian culture is left there...not much. So "gentrification" is a problem, but its not only a Puerto Rican, Mexican, Black, or White problem...its a problem for all of us when communities become eradicated. But lets not confuse diversification with gentrification. As both a human being and a "white" I am deeply offended and angered by the ignorance I read on this site. Please, don't assume that all whites or "yuppies" are the same, just as you would not like to be classified based on broad sweeping generalizations.

As far as whites moving west and why that is happening, the answer is clear-"we" can't afford, and often times do not want, the high rents and pretentious attitude of those neighborhoods to the east. And the reason for this is something we all are suffering from-while the cost of living steadily rises, wages are not. And its the case for everyone in the low and middle classes, regardless of race. Is it wrong for us to be attracted to a family oriented, strong, vibrant, and friendly (for the most part) neighborhood like Humboldt Park? We are not your enemy nor are we a cancer on your community, unless you classify us as such.

I hope that I've shed some light as to the background of one "white boy" living in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. What am I, and 95% of whites, doing there? Just trying to live, work and grow, not destroy.

Puerto Rican Girl: 8th Jun 2009 - 19:28 GMT

I am Puerto Rican. I was born and raised in the area, went to fancy university, and moved back into the community. I hate the gang violence, the drug dealing, and the tagging as much as anyone else. Maybe more because I have lost many dear ones to it, and see the destruction that this brings to those who share my heritage. This should end, and there are several organizations and churches with primarily Hispanic congregations working towards this cause.

The frustration that I have with "yuppies" and "gentrifiers" is not the fact that they want to "make the community better." The frustration is the arrogance and patronizing tone that can be seen, even in many of the posts written here. Many of you "outsiders" (I can't generalize because I know plenty of wealthier white people who live here who don't share this attitude) move into our community and posit that you have the "right" to be here. You don't have any more right to live here than anyone, regardless of race and social status.

Another frustration is that so many of you seem to think that being Puerto-Rican = violence gang-banger. This is not true, and if you took the time to look beyond your prejudices, you would see that there are actually many very nice, decent, and hard-working Puerto Rican/Hispanic families living in this neighborhood, who are just as frustrated by the problems.

Some of us do sell our homes to the rich white and move out of the city, but there are many folks who are still here. One difference between us and you (again, "you" meaning a certain people, because you can't generalize) is that your idea of "improving the neighborhood" is coming in with your money and your culture, and pushing us out. You don't do anything to address the deep-rooted CAUSES of the gangs and other problems. You don't want to stop these things, because it would mean taking some responsibility for it.

Hegemony is not, and never will be the answer.

There is nothing wrong with you living in Humbold Park, and there is nothing wrong with Puerto Ricans wanting to preserve their cultural heritage, which at this point in history, is tied to a neighborhood. What's wrong is the inherent racism and prejudice in it all. Neighborhoods don't need to be gentrified. What they need is renewal and people who are willing to actually combat the problems, not simply push them away.

Furthermore, I would like to add that, while I often become frustrated and tired of living here, tired of the dirt and the noise, I would never move to Wicker Park. My commentary on the place is that is may be so cute and clean, but the atmosphere is totally depressing. During the day it's full of a bunch of people who all dress the same and never smile at each other, who walk around with a constant air of pride- and at night it is full of the same people who turn into drunkards who are just as loud and obnoxious as any other drunkards. Except that these ones are primarily rich and white - which is never a criteria for making anyone better than anyone else.

Finally, it is ridiculous how expensive places like Wicker Park are to live. Again, it is just proof that the rich white are not interested in solving problems, they only want to displace them.

Chic: 8th Jun 2009 - 20:29 GMT

Hey young lady with the fancy education, does your passport identify you as Puerto Rican ? I am an American and so are you ,be proud .

Real Talk: 29th Jun 2009 - 13:43 GMT

It's funny how much blood was shed when the latinos started taking over Humboldt & Logan, as the white gangs tried to defend their rapidly disappearing neighborhoods. I find it ironic that it isn't some gang that is displacing these latino gang nations like the IGs, the Cobras, OAs, MLDS, etc; but some soft ass yuppies accomplishing it with almost no resistance.

Humboldt1: 3rd Jul 2009 - 16:58 GMT

Real Talk,

You forget that these "soft ass yuppies" have the power of the police behind them as it is these yuppies who pay taxes that support the police salaries. It is much better to have the police fight our battles for us than to resort to gang violence.

In Humboldt Park, I get dirty looks all the time from guys smoking pot on their front porches but as long as I leave them alone they leave me alone. The last thing they want is to harm me and have the police all over their neighborhood.

Perhaps I have been lucky over the past 4 years and I do certainly stay aware of my surroundings but robbing a white guy in a suit coming and going from work is only going to create problems for these people. They know that their days are numbered and for the most part my neighbors welcome people like me coming in, particularly property owners.

ugh: 18th Jul 2009 - 07:15 GMT

"Many of you "outsiders"... move into our community and posit that you have the "right" to be here. You don't have any more right to live here than anyone, regardless of race and social status."
What are you even talking about? Could you please clarify with an example or two to back up your claim about those "outsiders"?

"You don't do anything to address the deep-rooted CAUSES of the gangs and other problems"
You are unbelievable.

Resident: 1st Oct 2009 - 23:16 GMT

Gang violence and crime are not attributes of a persons skin color and ethnicity but of poverty, alienation and a failed education. The culture clash in Humboldt park is inevitable and a projection of apathy.

Lets evaluate the situation you take a group of immigrants put them through an imaginary school system (also called the Chicago public school system), there education provides them with great opportunities like mind-numbing work bagging groceries for Jewel-Osco and back breaking labor. Then to spice things lets add white suburban educated middle-class Americans to the neighborhood. Sounds like a bad reality TV program my only surprise is that NBC has yet to pick up on the idea.

The culture clash should not be a surprise to anyone. It does not matter how much we have matured as a nation in terms of racial prejudice, if a group of people feels alienated and exploited by society there will be conflict. If there is to be a "real solution" why not start with transforming the Chicago Public School system in something more than a factor that produces low wage workers.

I urge many "new residents" of Humboldt Park; no I suggest that you pay a visit to
the schools in the area. I know we are all very busy with work, family, spouses, etc. But just for maybe for a few hours during the week volunteer at a school in the area. Perhaps Clemente or Wells High School, or if your fond of smaller children maybe Diego, Chopin, Von Humboldt, or Lafayette. Volunteer for an after school program for a few weeks perhaps even say you want to observe as part as your college requirements. Im sure you will find many of the answers to the "problems". Specifically, pay attention to the curriculum and ask yourself how the students are being prepared to be great leaders of this great nation. Then ask yourself if you'd like your kids to be part of these institutions. Will these educational instituations change in 10 years, if so what is the cause money? Skin color? Maturity?

Real Talk: 2nd Nov 2009 - 16:48 GMT

I don't know much, but I do know that the old school Almighty GL's are laughing their asses off!

MAFDesign: 2nd Nov 2009 - 21:55 GMT

I am an artist, my husband is in retail. We are Caucasian. We do not have a lot of money and we are looking for a house in Chicago. On a shoe string budget, this is not easy. One of the only areas of Chicago that is affordable is Humboldt Park. Coming from Rogers Park, near Howard, we have been exposed to inner city life. But admittedly, I am less easy about residing in Humboldt Park. Part of it may be that I have become familiar with Howard's flora and fauna. But the key reason is that we will be the minority. In theory, that does not bother me, but the so-called 'anti- white sentiment' makes me very uneasy. It may exist in Rogers park, but I have not felt that, so far. I have lived up here for over 8 years.

The place we found (but have not bought) in Humboldt Park is a few blocks west of the park, North of Division. Does anyone have any knowledge of this area? It looks OK. We walked around and had friendly exchanges with several people. On the surface it did not seem any better or any worse than Howard by the El. Is that a correct assumption?