When Larry Thompson was growing up on Waukegan`s south side, rivalries were settled on the basketball court and forgotten with a handshake.
Catherine Copeland moved there in 1951, a time when jobs were plentiful and young black families were buying homes.
The south side has been Carrie Lewis` home for 35 years or so. When she first moved in, she could walk the streets at night and leave her doors unlocked.
But last week, after three killings of south side residents in three weeks, those times were a distant memory for Lewis and others. Lewis said that now she will not go outdoors after dark and that she makes sure to bolt her doors before the sun goes down.
”This was one of the best towns to live in, it really was,” said Lewis, 63, as she walked one morning along Liberty Street. Now, she said, ”It`s going crazy.”
Lewis and other longtime residents said despairingly that the south side they once knew has been replaced by a deteriorating neighborhood of absentee landlords, poor single mothers and violent youths. Many held out little hope things will get better.
Recent weeks have been a bloody apex to years of escalating violence. Victims of recent slaying victims included Edward Holden, a 28-year-old man who was shot during a dispute over a woman, and Sharika Nance, a 13-year-old girl who was killed after she told a neighbor he did not have the guts to shoot.
A third victim was Thompson`s 17-year-old son, Damein, who was stabbed during an argument with a North Chicago man.
”There`s a lot of sorrow and sadness in this community,” Thompson said. ”The older people are telling the younger ones it`s time for this to stop.
”I try to tell them that there`s more to life than being out there banging each other upside the head. We have to find some way to live in peace.”
The south Waukegan area stretches from the city`s downtown to the North Chicago line, bordered on the east by Lake Michigan and on the west by Jackson Street. It`s a neighborhood of hilly, tree-lined streets and two-story homes. It long has been considered one of Waukegan`s rougher neighborhoods. But residents, who now talk with grim candor about the place where they live, said the violence has worsened considerably in recent years.
”I think the economy has a lot to do with it,” said Copeland, 57. ”The city itself has changed. The downtown area has moved out to the shopping malls. Homeowners are moving out, and outsiders are buying the houses and renting to just about anybody.”
”It`s so sad how they`re killing people,” Lewis said. ”Kids using all this dope gets them crazy. They need to get these kids working so they don`t have time for dope.”
Down the block, three young men whiled away the time on the front steps of a two-story house. They said that gangs are not the primary source of the neighborhood`s crime problem.
Worse, they said, are boredom and a lack of jobs.
”There aren`t any jobs around here,” said Greg Jones, 18. ”It`s the summer time. Everybody starts to go wild.”
His friend Tim Brown, 17, added, ”I`m tired of staying outside. All you do is get in trouble.”
Nearby, Carl Bell stood on his front doorstep looking out at McAlister Avenue. He moved his family to the south side from Memphis four years ago, lured by the prospect of high-paying factory jobs. He has been laid off twice since then and said the neighborhood has become so bad that his children are scared to sleep alone.
”Kids can`t walk down the streets without being confronted by drugs,”
said Bell, 32. ”A lot of people want to move because they`re scared to walk the streets. They feel like the police force isn`t trying to do anything about it because it`s black-on-black crime.
”If I don`t find another good job, I think we`re going to head back to Memphis. The crime is bad in Memphis, but not like this.”
Waukegan police said they beefed up patrols on the south side in the last year, assigning officers to do everything from meet with parents to paint over gang graffiti on garage doors.
But Police Sgt. Fernando Shipley said residents need to get more involved to effect real change.
”We need them to take a more pro-active approach,” Shipley said. ”They need to make us aware of the problems. You can`t just go in your house, lock the door and hope it goes away.”
Bob Baker, 32, walked along Oak Avenue one afternoon last week and reflected on the recent string of slayings. He said that unless there are more jobs for people and programs for youths, the south side will not get better.
”Some of the older people don`t even come out of their house anymore. That`s sad, man,” Baker said. ”The younger people will make more war. They see it getting crazy, so they`ll get something to protect themselves. And it gets worse.”
Standing nearby, Baker`s nephew, Ted Baker, 22, emphasized the grim realities of the neighborhood.
”If you`re on the south side at night, you better have something to protect yourself,” he said, ”or fast legs.”
