You Are Still Here

Hyde Park, the community surrounding the University of Chicago, has a median household income of $44 thousand per year. This is unsurprising for a college town; the University has a history of supporting neighborhood growth and operates a private police force, and its students and staff constantly take advantage local businesses and real estate.

But compare Hyde Park to the surrounding neighborhoods: Woodlawn, whose borders begin where the south campus ends on 63rd street, has a median household income of $21 thousand; Washington Park, the neighborhood to the west of Cottage Grove, has a median household income of just over $15 thousand.

The University tries to remind entering first-year students of the mixed demographics of their new home the You Are Here documentary presentation and speech by Wallace Goode, college dean and head of the University Community Service Center. But few students have an incentive to travel south of 63rd Street, or west of Cottage Grove, especially when the festivities of the Chinatown, the Loop and the North Side beckon.

I have gotten to know Woodlawn by happy accidents: I covered a tour of Woodlawn by the South Side Solidarity Network student group for the Maroon last autumn, and in the spring my art class (Intervention and Public Practice with Theaster Gates) created an installation/performance piece in an empty lot on 63rd and Woodlawn, giving us the chance to collaborate with and learn from residents of Woodlawn, including the Apostolic Church of God, the wealthy mega church on 64th and Kimbark.

These experiences were worthwhile, first in helping get a sense of how Woodlawn came to look like a high-crime ghost-town when it had a bustling population of 80 thousand a century ago, and later to demonstrate just how difficult it is to connect to a community whose demographics are so different from any I have ever inhabited. Still, I don’t credit any specific University efforts for my accidental introduction to civic engagement.

So I was thrilled to bring five first-year students from my dorm to Washington Park last weekend for the University sponsored Experience Chicago Through Service Day. None of them knew that Washington Park (the neighborhood just beyond the expansive community park we spent the afternoon cleaning) was a food desert, with almost no sources of affordable produce within walking distance of its borders, or that half its residents live at or below the poverty level.

But they did learn that Washington Park is a beautiful, historic space with a large base of community supporters. One such group, the Washington Park Conservancy, supervised us in picking up trash and pruning and mulching trees. I will post some photos later.

While we worked we talked with other community members, including a man who works at the notorious Grove Parc Tenement. After or project was finished, a saxophonist and harmonica player from the annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival, serenaded us.
My first-years had a great time, and some might accompany me back to Washington Park this coming Sunday for another beautifying project with the Conservancy. I sincerely hope this isn’t their last introduction to the areas around the University that don’t look like 57th Street. But until the University finds more reasons for students to invest their time and knowledge into the community, they will have to take the initiative themselves.