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| New WBEZ staff member & Chicago resident Jennifer White |
WBEZ (Chicago Public Radio station at 91.5 FM) has a new
staff member, Jennifer White, who is joining The Morning Shift show (weekdays
at 9am) and working with other aspects of the station. She was introduced this morning on The Morning
Shift. She mentioned that she recently moved from Michigan, and while she is
currently in Oak Park, she is open to living elsewhere in the city. The Sixth
Ward writer JP Paulus was inspired to write the following blog to ask her to
consider moving to one of our neighborhoods.
You can follow Jennifer White on Twitter @JWhitePubRadio (she responds to your
tweets!).
Here’s JP’s pitch. We welcome our readers to comment, or write your own response:
Welcome to Chicago and WBEZ, Jennifer White!
My name is JP Paulus, and I am an 8 year resident of Chatham
on Chicago’s South Side, after living a decade in the multiethnic North Side
neighborhood of Uptown. I grew up in the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates and
went to school at Northwestern University (living the city/suburb of Evanston
during the summers). I am ½ white and ½ Asian, and my wife is African –American
(with traceable Native American heritage), and 2 daughters who are a blend of
us. I say all that so you get a sense of who I am, and the diversity of
experiences in my life.
I heard your introduction on this morning’s edition of WBEZ’s The Morning
Shift. Welcome to our city! I appreciate your openness to Chicago. While you’re
currently enjoying the suburb of Oak Park, I appreciate your openness to get to
know the city, and consider another place of residence.
I would like to make the pitch to live in my neighborhood of
Chatham on the South Side of Chicago. It is one of several neighborhoods within
the Sixth Ward (where this blog takes its name; is not affiliated
with any political organization. Also, since a recent ward re-map, we lost
cover surrounding neighborhoods, such as where the blog’s founder lives)
The neighborhoods other people will tell you to live in Chicago are Downtown (which
I would call Chicago’s 4th side) and the near north side. There are
lots of positives, and some of the “popular” negatives include the lack of parking
(or heavy cost of said parking), the high cost of everything (from food to day-to-day
items), and the “whiteness” of those areas.
One of the problems I feel is that many people who hype these neighborhoods ignore other neighborhoods where "normal people" live. This
includes frequent Morning Shift guest Dennis Rodkin, who is considered an
expert in real estate. But he never makes the case that a neighborhood like
Chatham should even be considered. I
think that’s a shame, and keeps good people away from my home and neighborhood.
I would also submit to you a negative of the "popular" most people have never even thought about
– it doesn’t matter to anyone if you lived there, and more importantly, if
wouldn’t matter if you left. The space you occupy in those neighborhoods would
be filled so quickly people wouldn’t have known you left. The local economy
wouldn’t suffer, and no one would feel “I lost a good friend.”
In the neighborhood that I live (Chatham), your presence truly matters. Even
you posterior matters. Sitting on a bench at a local park (such as at Ruggles school)
would mean “scaring” away teenagers or adults drinking alcohol and sitting in
the park, and encourage other families to spend some time in the park, as it was
meant to be.
That may not sound so attractive, but it is little things
that I have observed that make a difference in keeping a neighborhood safe and
even thriving, versus letting things fall apart.
Chatham is a historic pre-dominantly African American middle class
neighborhood. The culture of the neighborhood paralleled that of suburb Hoffman
Estates at the same time I grew up there. As you get to know people, you will
hear Chatham come up again and again as a place where many African Americans
(both in the city and suburbs) have a connection to.
And even in the current culture, there is a lot of good in Chatham that white
media misses. Where I live in Chatham, according to police statistics, is 4
times safer than where I lived on the North Side of Chicago in Uptown (where condominium
apartments sell for nearly ½ million dollars)
We in Chatham may seem to be far away (if you look at the map,
and consider geographic distances), but when you factor in real-time traffic
(such as everyone who crosses the street downtown, barely allowing even one car
to turn, with at least 5 or 6 waiting to turn), we are not that far away.
I would also like to remind you that Chatham is home to one
of your colleagues, and the church home of another. More importantly, there is
a WBEZ office (with studio) right in the neighborhood. So rather than fight the
snow (as you might be seeing today), you can travel a short distance to work if
need be.
Another resident, Jahmal Cole, leads a group called “My
Block, My Hood, My City”, and you can join him and youth as they too explore
the city, and its many neighborhoods.
But even within our own community, there is so much to appreciate
and experience. Our community is steeped in history. Our local library, the
Whitney Young branch, was built by African-Americans, only after the community
protested to make that happen. The school where my daughter attends, the level
1 Burnside Scholastic Academy, was at the forefront of desegregating Chicago
Public Schools in the 1960’s (we have recently installed murals which show the
historical struggle). Gospel legends Thomas Dorsey and Mahalia Jackson, who both
had homes in the neighborhood, and historical markers, record that.
We have a restaurant that has been featured nationally (
Brown Sugar Bakery) and
a restaurant that provides services to senior citizens, but has a great café that
is open to the public.
We even have our own “blue white house” (Google it with quotes), which has
recently been purchased by a citizen who grew up here.
And once you get established, you can bring people (friends,
family, colleagues and more) to Chatham and help them see the beauty and
culture here, and by doing so, help residents past and present remember that as
well, and revive this great neighborhood.
I know there are so many more issues to discuss, photos to
display, stories to tell and many other factors to consider. But I hope I gave
you an opportunity to really consider a neighborhood that most others wouldn’t
even think about – even though they should.
Thank you for your time, and I hope to see you on our
streets soon (well, at least after the snow melts)
P.S. One of the best ways to know Chicago is to visit locally
owned restaurants. We have some local chains that represent our city (such as
Lou Malnati’s for pizza, especially in
Lawndale—a whole story there). Plan it in your schedule to eat somewhere new
about once a week. There are TV/media shows that can give you a flavor of the
neighborhood. Chicago’s Best TV is one way to find those restaurants, and of
course, it would make a great Morning Shift topic (especially for the “less
popular” neighborhoods)!
