Say “South Shore” and think of elegant brick mansions. Say it again and think of a vacant lot strewn with garbage and beer cans. Repeat it a second time and think of neighbors joining together as a block club to keep drugs and crime away from their streets.
Tucked along the waters of Lake Michigan, South Shore is a densely populated area of economic extremes where the children of highly paid professionals play alongside those of parents struggling to survive on public aid.
Its main commercial thoroughfares, 71st Street and Jeffery Boulevard, are a hodgepodge of small businesses, dilapidated, vacant storefronts and a few large chain stores such as a Dominick’s Finer Foods.
The neighborhood, bounded by 67th Street, 79th Street, the lake and Stony Island Avenue, has problems–crime, gang activity and pockets of rundown housing–but South Shore also is a place of hope. People are crafting dreams of improving the community, and those goals seem entirely possible.
“South Shore gives people a view of what life can be like,” said Anthony Hawthorne, community outreach officer for South Shore Bank. “For people on the bubble of making it economically, it makes the nicer things in life seem attainable, not like they’re out of reach, out in the suburbs.”
People ascending the socio-economic ladder might set their sights on one of the stately homes that line the streets of Jackson Park-Highlands. These homes, in a four-block area between 67th and 71st Streets, Jeffery Boulevard and Cregier Avenue, are as elegant as any in Chicago’s more affluent suburbs.
A sign of stability and commitment toward their upkeep are the vans and trucks parked intermittently outside. One van was emblazoned with a sign advertising the installation of security systems, another loaded with construction equipment for an interior rehab project.
The homes were built around the turn of the century and would be priced in the $250,000 to $475,000 range, estimated Linda Maguire of Maguire and Associates Real Estate.
“We have those $500,000 houses,” she said. “And we have everything in between, starting with one-bedroom co-ops or condominiums that are as low as $20,000.”
Condominiums, vintage apartments, co-ops and other multifamily units make up about 60 percent of South Shore’s housing stock, according to Maguire.
Many of these vintage units boast the old-time charm of fireplaces, wood floors and built-in cabinets.
Crime may not have been a major worry when many of these vintage units were built in the 1920s, but it is a concern of residents today. Accordingly, the Chicago Police Department has completed the first year of a five-year community-policing project intended to reduce crime in South Shore.
“Citizens are getting more involved,” said police officer Charles Hight. “They’re saying `We don’t want this neighborhood to go down.’
“We’ll go in with residents to a blighted area,” he explained. “We’ll help them keep the area clean, make sure garbage is cleaned up, call the city if the trees need to be trimmed.”
A sign of neighborhood concern is posted at the entry to a street lined with small frame homes and bungalows: “Welcome to 71st Street and Greenwood University Block Club–No Drug Dealing.”
A middle-aged man working on his car on the street pointed to the sign and said, “We don’t have any problems on this block because we have the participation of residents.”
Besides block clubs, residents come together in the many churches of South Shore. Tiny storefront churches can be found throughout the area, as well as grand cathedrals that are known for their majestic architecture, such as the Church of St. Phillip Neri and Bryn Mawr Community Church.
Another vehicle for building strong community ties is the South Shore Cultural Center, the former South Shore Country Club, on the lakefront at 7059 S. South Shore Drive.
The center symbolizes the area’s future and reminds it of its recent history, when the neighborhood underwent drastic racial change.
Once an enclave for a well-to-do white population, South Shore saw an influx of African-American residents beginning in the 1960s. The African-American population was 10 percent in 1960. Today it is more than 95 percent.
The private South Shore club fell on hard times during this same time span, and for years was threatened with demolition. Then it was converted to a cultural center and and today it sponsors exhibitions, recreation and arts programs, and an after-school program for 150 children ages 7 to 14.
“You may have the children of people who make six figures and the children of people who present their public aid card,” said Tabatha Russell-Koyless, the center’s program director.
Russell-Koyless said the cultural center’s goal is to teach the children to appreciate their culture.
“We want to help people get a better understanding of their culture, help them build self-esteem, help them respect others,” she said.
The notion of building a better community can also be seen in a more concrete way among the area’s business leaders.
Hawthorne, of South Shore Bank, said plans are under way to encourage renovation of vacant or dilapidated properties along 71st Street.
“We’d like to get some Ma-and-Pa-type rehabbers back into these buildings to open a business on the first floor and live in the upstairs,” Hawthorne explained.
Small-business owners–the type who would open a coffee shop, restaurant, hardware store or dry cleaner–would increase stability in an area that already has a lot going for it, he said.
