I almost feel an obligation to follow "Hip Hop Rots Your Brain" with something profound or awesome.
Unfortunately, I only have mundane news - run-of-the-mill, so to speak.
Nathan (my husband) and I went up to Chicago this past weekend to scope out the apartment scene for our upcoming move (Nate is graduating in May and I am sometime soon after that, in sh'allah). Apparantly, the renter's market is pretty open, since the new thing is owning a condo. Beautiful old brownstone and brick apartments with hardwood floors and newly renovated innards are all over the place.
Our exciting find was the neighborhood of Rogers Park, which is on the lake, just south of Evanston (the nothernmost one can be in Chicago proper without spilling over into the suburbs). It is said to be one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the nation (which is surprising, since Chicago is such a segregated city). It's demographic breaks down like this:
30% White (European/American)
30% Black (African/Caribbean)
30% Latino (South/Central American)
10% Other
What a flavourful mix! I am really excited about the prospect of moving there! It has nice tree-lined streets, and is not only diverse in terms of ethnicity, but age as well, with college students, families with children, and older adults. It also has yumma foods, with a variety of ethnic and yumma restaurants as well as a new and awesome Chipotle, which Nathan and I so dearly love.
My glee about the neighborhood is tempered only by a nagging guilt that we could also be living somewhere else - on the west or south side, where so much work is needed to be done. Amid run down highrises and economically depressed businesses there is a segregated worlds in need of social and spiritual upliftment. Nate and I drove around the south side, looking for apartments and trying to catch a feel for the area and it seemed depressing at times. I know that if we choose to move there, it will be more of a test for me - I feel that I fit in more in a diverse area than a segregated one (regardless of the segregation).
In either situation, I would be growing - moving from Urbana to Chicago is a change in the scenery, no doubt. I couldn't say that I would be growing more in one place than in another - the growth would be in different ways.
It's a difficult decision - any thoughts (no guilt trips, please)?
love,
~liz
P.S. The reference to "fresh meat" is to the organic burgers that Nathan and I got at Trader Joe's in Chicago - buffalo!
Posted by Nathonius at January 10, 2005 05:03 PMOkay, so of course I selfishly want you to live in Roger's Park, but I really think that you should live where you WANT to live and not where you feel you SHOULD live, especially when it really is not a clear cut choice of good and evil here, or even some sort of gradiation. One of the things that I've been thinking about/realizing lately--and was actually thinking of posting on my blog about--is some realizations I've been having about service. I guess what I'm realizing is that for a lot of my life what I considered service was a lot of times motivated out of guilt and/or some quest to feel a sense of importance or worth about myself. This is quite different than service that is motivated by love and gratefulness I think. I'm not saying that you're doing this, just that if you're considering moving someplace and it's motivated by guilt, then unless you can get to a place within yourselt where you truly have the WANT and excitement to move there, then I'd scrap the idea at least for now and live somewhere else you really truly want to live. In all honesty, I'm still trying to figure this stuff out. I think I always used to assume that what I really wanted deep down would always necessarily be at odds with God's Will, as though the two could never go hand in hand, but I'm beginning to wonder if the exact opposite is true. Maybe the closer we come to knowing our true selves, the closer our wants and desires become the perfect reflection of God's Will.
Posted by: Suzanne at January 18, 2005 11:42 PMThose burgers are really good.
it seems like there are lots of decisions in life that would be a lot easier if they were labeled good and evil. I definitely feel there's a lot of work to be done on the south side, however when choosing where to live I think you have to take into account the affect an apartment and/or neigborhood has on you. Don't get me wrong, people have certainly been able to get by in worse conditions than south chicago, but if you have the opportunity to live in a place that you truly WANT to be, that will uplift your spirit, it might help you to be of service.
Walking around Rogers park I had a really great feeling, and like you said, the South Side felt more depressed, low energy, indusrialized etc. I think integration is the key to revitalizing a neighborhood. A lot of South Chicago reminded me of my neigborhood growing up. It just felt kind of abandoned. Like there are lots of people there, but the larger society has pretty much left it to its own devices, so to speak. In mostly Black areas like the South Side you can really feel the effects of segregation, it's almost palpable. It kind of feels like subdivisions feel, in that you have the sense that people from outside the neigborhood probably don't come through a lot, only a lot bigger and with a lot more people who have varying economic statuses.
I don't think I've quite reconciled where I want to move either.
Posted by: nathan Davis at January 12, 2005 09:07 AM