A Neighborhood Journey
By: Matt Ladewski
This idea I have to travel around a neighborhood in west Chicago, North Lawndale, holds a potentially positive experience based on learning new things through urban culture. Within my travels, my assignment directed me to take a bus or train, walk around a residential area, hang out at a park, eat a meal from a local business, converse with some residents, observe the environment and pick up an object from the surroundings. A combination of all these steps can give me a personal relationship and experience with the neighborhood.
Day before my journey:
A classmate asked if we could get a group together for the experience, I said I would ask some other students and see if we could arrange her plan. I had originally planned to go alone. Over my time in the city as a Chicagoan I have ridden my bike through almost every neighborhood, North Lawndale being one of them. North Lawndale through media has quite the well known background of crime. It is always on the local news channels with robberies, car jacks, shootings and fights in public places. It has been projected to be a place of one race, which over time has much action with Chicago police. It’s difficult to say if it’s truly dangerous, but I believe if a person keeps to themselves and solely travels, nothing negative would be placed upon them. I’ve been told the opposite, but don’t necessarily agree to the full extent. After a few calls we got a group together and planned to journey tomorrow morning.
Meet up:
I woke up and texted a classmate from the group. He isn’t from Chicago; in fact, he is a world traveling student! He is from Palestine and he used to live in East Jerusalem. He always tells me interesting stories from his past experiences growing up in his hometown that possibly relate to our new experience. We decided to meet on the train in our neighborhoods, north west of where our school is located. We arrive at school by 10:00 AM. Our other group members are in the lobby. As we begin walking to the train, conversation about the “possibility of danger” takes place. We instantly put the topic to rest after we all agree traveling as a group is different than traveling alone. It has become a natural reaction to the current media in our country. In media and news there is always the reaction to the idea of “being alone while traveling” or “having valuable items while traveling alone.” The question of safety that doesn’t become the topic in news would be, “what time of day is it dangerous to travel alone?” One of the most valuable assets of this assignment is seeing, feeling and participating with urban culture within the neighborhood. This experience can answer the beginning stages of those questions in media about North Lawndale.
Train ride:
Our group all board the train with our train passes. I can feel the excitement of having this experience together. We begin talking about the SAIC studio and gallery space in Homan, which is in the direction that we will be traveling for the assignment. We begin seeing graffiti cover-ups that we talked about in class last week. It’s funny beginning to experience things urban culture already. We laugh, take pictures and make jokes about how obvious these urban culture settings can be. We all begin a conversation on traveling on the train to places we’ve never been before, why we use the train for our personal schedules, as well as the continued placements of the graffiti removals. I said to one of my classmates, “I have ridden this train southwestward for the past 12 years, I’m familiar with where the neighborhood is located, North Lawndale, but there were no true reasons for me to get off at that stop.” We then realize we have gone past the Kedzie train stop and make more jokes about how it’s a normal thing to miss a train stop because we enjoy the view of urban and public artworks, along with the relaxing setting of train noises and vibrations. We’ve all become numb to riding the trains. We get off at the next stop and wait a few minutes for the train back to the Kedzie stop. As we get off at the Kedzie stop we see that one of the guards has a confused look on his face. It didn’t have a negative portrayal, but more of a curious facial expression. We begin the walk toward the Homan Avenue exit, on the west side of the train stop. When we get up top at street level I looked south, straight ahead was the Nicols Tower, where SAIC has a space.
SAIC Homan Square:
We begin walking toward the location of SAIC Homan Square at Nicols Tower. It is a 14 floor building with a thin width, it resembles a church tower or bell tower. It was at the head of the Sears company industry building, an old retail department store from Chicago. One of our group members called the director of the SAIC Homan Square and asked if we could have a short tour. The director had us come up to the 12th floor and gave us an introduction and description of their services and position in the neighborhood. The important piece of the conversation leads to the acceptance of what they are trying to achieve within their location in Homan. Currently it seems as if these neighborhoods aren’t used to the idea of an institute buying space and trying to succeed in helping the community. The content that was explained to us is the idea of giving children and young adults a chance to be safe in their neighborhood while having the opportunity to participate in art and design classes. The program provides a new experience with subjects they don’t receive in Chicago Public Schools in their neighborhood. The inside portrayal as she explained, can have such a positive outcome, but the relationship to the community is so new, they are trying to find the way to make it succeed. We then went to the 14th floor, there was an inside balcony that had an amazingly beautiful view of the city and surrounding neighborhoods. As a looked out at North Lawndale, it made me think about SAIC proving something to the community. I cannot say whether I would accept it or not as a member of the neighborhood, I have never experienced something like this situation. Especially in terms of the lines being drawn in the neighborhood from what to accept and not accept from outside businesses. By trying to understand I can use relatable memories of where I’ve lived in Chicago and undergo what I experienced in terms of community. Over 12 years I’ve lived in East Pilsen, Wicker Park, East Ukrainian Village, East Humboldt Park and Logan Square. Once the portrayal of business space began, the prime retail space areas were practically cheap, then it began exploiting the customer and refining the neighborhood from outside sources. The original communities became unhappy and were driven out in terms of rent or changes in ownership. I would never want a course of business in my community to assist outside sources to believing it’s a comfortable place to start a new business. I feel SAIC has to adhere to a tough situation by showing the community they are only there to offer positive assistance to their community.
North Lawndale Journey:
We left The Homan Square tower and began walking south on Homan Avenue. We begin looking at the ground to see if there are any items to pick up. I keep seeing Newport cigarette packages, fruit juice bottles of all types and brands, McDonald’s wrappers, empty beer and liquor cans, mostly Icehouse and Colt 45. We reach a major intersection at Roosevelt Road, right there was the place one of the group members mentioned to eat, Red’s Hot Dogs. We decide to stop and get some local neighborhood food. As we get inside, it is dim, with some old wooden booths, posters on wall of past events, ads for local services, insurance and entertainment. I kicked right up to the line and looked at the menu. My server was such a sweetheart to me, she was old and seemed as if she was doing with for quite sometime. The deal was a hot dog with onions, peppers and mustard with a side of fries for $4.75. I ordered three of those with two pops (Chicago language for soda) she said, “Thanks baby, have a nice day.” We then walked outside and continued toward Douglas Park while eating on the run. We were now on some crunch time because I had class in an hour and another classmate had to reach a meeting back at school as well. We went east down Roosevelt, next to a parking lot that had an Auto Parts store, a movie theatre and a McDonald’s. When we reached the park there were three older men sitting in folding chairs toward the shade. They directed us toward the Riot Fest, which is a metal and rock music festival. We all explained we were just there to walk the park, I’m not sure if they understood. I told them they looked like they were chillin and taking it easy, laid back in the shade because the sun was really hot at that point. They had some Colt 45’s in the drink holders of their lawn chairs. The one man responded, “yeah it sure is hot out, hope ya’ll have a nice day.” He was very nice to us, the other men were smiling and kind of gave us some funny grumbles and laughed. One of our group mates said she heard one of the grumbling men say, “yeah, just keep on walkin’.” In my mind I had a feeling they were acting, just to be cool with us. I know it’s not our groups neighborhood, we’re visitors. We then reached another group, who again directed toward the Riot fest. I saw a group of people parking and locking up their car, checking the doors twice to make sure it’s locked and all good to go. They were headed to Riot Fest. It’s funny how they checked their car twice, I don’t know why he did that, I can only assume why. The thoughts entered my head about the media news that North Lawndale or similar neighborhoods get. We reached the end of the park on that block and needed to leave because of the time crunch. I ordered a cab for all of us and we headed out. On the way back to school we sat on the highway in traffic and shared funny thoughts about what we saw on the ground, encountered at Red’s and how the old men were great actors, probably so used to that situation because it’s become a major part of their urban societal skills.
Questions:
This experience also led me into a pool of thoughts and questions, that as an SAIC student how can we explain that the program won’t impose on their neighborhoods? Is SAIC capable of their goals for the youth? Do they need to readdress that this isn’t a motion for business, but a positive program for art education? Is being above the neighborhood something the residents are comfortable with?