ARCHIVED NEWS: Making it in Chatham Part 4

So this is the last of the Sun-Times series published in the spring of 1986. This installment published on May 1, 1986 was entitled, "Looking to the next generation // Children, newcomers hold key as neighborhood starts to gray". This issue was touched upon in the first installment posted here October 25, in fact Worlee mentioned that the community seems to have a problem attracting younger residents in a graying community.

To start Keith Tate, who's the current President of the Chatham/Avalon Park Community Council (CAPCC), has been mentioned at various points in time throughout this series. This article he talks about the Chatham of his youth before all the whites moved out. Well in 2009, there may be concerns by some that whites are scouting Chatham. It may or may not be true, but in 1986 it was reported in this article:

But whites may be coming back to Chatham, after three decades. Young whites have been scouting the community, looking for housing opportunities. And many blacks would like to see some of them move in, because the community now sorely needs an infusion of new young people, whatever their color.

Chatham today is in some ways a victim of its own success, of old age, and of racial integration.

"Most of our children who grew up here have been successful," said Eddie Robinson, 67, a retired carpenter. "They have good jobs. So they move on, away from here. They move downtown. They move all over. I have a daughter in the West Indies, a son in Atlanta. And the sad thing is, the rest of us are growing old here now in Chatham."

You can see that at meetings of the Chatham-Avalon Park Community Council, in which Robinson serves as an area vice president. Most of the officers are senior citizens, gray of head and long in the tooth. And the block clubs that make up the council have dwindled from more than 220 to maybe half that number, many of them inactive.

Infirm older folks are finding it harder to maintain their homes - to mow their lawns, weed their gardens and keep up repairs.

That is definitely a problem today. The neighborhood growing increasingly elderly and as a result property isn't kept up and they may not always be active on their blocks or in the neighborhood organizations. The next problem is who may move in when the elderly either chooses to move on or they pass away:

As their best and brightest move out, Chathamites also are disturbed by an influx of newcomers who have been moving into rental apartments in surrounding areas and in Chatham itself (mainly in the areas north of 79th Street and east of Martin Luther King Drive). Middle-class blacks historically have been pursued in their migrations by poor blacks, and the pattern appears to be repeating itself in Chatham.

"They're coming from the ghetto," said Jack Fisher, 69, a retired factory worker. "From down in the slums. And they're not the type of people I'd like to live with. They don't care about the neighborhood."

A substantial number are on welfare, or in Section 8 subsidized housing.Wow! We still had most of the public housing high rises back then and they've already anticipated the problems that are largely occurring today. There are some in the community who may well have expressed their reservations over Section 8 tenants taking up residence in the community. Before I excerpt this article I wonder if anyone has encountering any problems with Section 8 tenants.

And this anticipates a problem that even now we're dealing with. At that in 1986, we were talking about a CHA plan for transformation and since we've started tearing down some public housing around the city especially high rises surely this program has only expanded since that time.

Perhaps this is still true and may only complicate attempts to bring in much younger residents into the community:

Given the current demand for houses in Chatham, you might think the problem of regeneration already is solving itself.

"Somebody's always calling me to see if I want to sell my house," said Clementine Skinner, a 70-year-old widow. "They have a list, I guess, and they call all the seniors. I get at least three or four calls a week."

That's typical. Available homes in fact seldom make it to the market and often are snapped up by insiders who are tipped off by friends and relatives.

Is this still the case today? Are homes in Chatham still slow to hit the market?

Here's another issue that may make the difference between stagnation and revitalization:

Local shopping strips have not thrived with the rest of the community.

That's ironically due in part to Chatham's affluence, and the middle-class tastes of residents who prefer to shop in outlying malls and downtown. There's also as yet only a short history of black entrepreneurship. But Chatham does have strong financial institutions, including the Seaway National Bank of Chicago and Independence Bank of Chicago, the largest and second-largest black-owned banks in the nation. Plans are on the boards for a new mall at 87th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue.

And the crowds at Army & Lou's magnificent soul food restaurant on 75th Street prove that Chatham-ites will support high-quality local enterprises.

If Chathamites are worried about the future, it is precisely that kind of concern that has kept their community viable. They have always looked ahead, alert to potential problems. And economic realities will almost certainly abet their efforts to attract a new generation of young people.

And goes back to a semi-recurring theme here on this blog. I do like the fact that this blog has gone in the direction of what I like to call "neighborhood development".

I say this knowing that while the blog generally direct some of these ideas to the Chatham community, there is already a neighborhood there with surely great residents who spent a very long time living in that community. Neighborhood development refers to ways that Chatham can further thrive and also attract business and residents. Another part of that is to bring in some younger people especially more educated  younger people who can bring Chatham some new vitality.

Something to consider, but get this. In that last paragraph, it could almost match what's occuring in 2009. Economic realities currently could hamper any possible effort to bring in a new generation of Chatham residents. It is, however, still a necessary thing and this is something that could use discussion in the near future.

I hope you read the whole article and you enjoyed a look back into Chatham's past.