HIGH RES

neighborhoodr-chicago:

Chicago — a handsome town, wide streets, lush parks, broad lovingly crafted buildings, Lake Michigan forming its whole East side, as big and mutable as an ocean. Though its a big city with big city problems, the scale and impact of the place is nothing like NY, mainly because of its dispersion, lack of congestion. Imagine Manhattan shrunk by half, then merged with the boroughs into a single stretch of land, and you’ve got some idea of what its like. Five minutes drive out of the Loop (the downtown area) and your in the middle of single story frame houses with backyards and tall elms.

(via Obama Explains Chicago’s Charm In A 1985 Letter: Chicagoist)

     “The lay-out influences the people here. They’re not as uptight, neurotic, as Manhattanites, but also less they’re also not as quick on the pick-up. You still see country in a lot of folks’ ways — the secretary in a skyscraper office still has the expression of a farm girl; the sound of crickets in a hot Southern night list just below the surface of the young black girls words at a check-out counter. Chicago’s also a town of neighborhoods, and to a much greater degree than NY, the various tribes remain discrete, within their own turf, carving out the various neighborhoods and replicating the feel of their native land. The You can go to the Polish section of town and not hear a word of English spoken; walk along the Indian section of town, colorful as a bazaar, and you’d swear you might be in a section of New Delhi.

     Of course, the most pertinent division here is that between the black tribe and the white tribe. The friction doesn’t appear to be any greater than in NY, but its more manifest since there’s a black mayor in power and a white City Council. And the races are spatially very separate; where I work in the South Side, you go ten miles in any direction and will not see a single white face. There are exceptions — I live in Hyde Park, near the Univ. of Chicago, which maintains a nice mix thanks to the heavy-handed influence of the University. But generally the dictum holds fast — separate and unequal.”

“Its getting cooler, and I live in mortal fear of Chicago winters.”