In the very early 80's I spent about 8 months in Chicago. I lived in a neighborhood just south of the University of Chicago called "Woodlawn" south of 63rd St. near Cottage Grove. So, some 35 years later (today) I became interested in what happened to the neighborhood.

For one thing, a population crash. In 1960 the population was 81,279, by 1980 it was 36,323, and in 2010 23,410. The entire time the population was over 95% African-American (now it is 85% Black) and, 0.6% "Hispanic" (Now 2.7%). I made frequent trips to the Loop (downtown), which I remember as taking a bus, but which I can only find references to the Greenline Elevated, so something might be screwy with my memory. I also clearly remember passing by the Robert Taylor Housing project on South State Street each night, but then again, the L was a few blocks away, so it must have been a bus.

I lived in a basement, which was flooded half the time, in a restored (by a professor at the Univ. of Chicago) stone house. Beautiful house. Here is a picture of it from a real estate agent. Back in those days the block was lined with houses. Now, the block is mostly barren vacant lots. In those days slum lords illegally divided and subdivided housed into apartments and sub-apartments to rent to African-Americans (and a spare Hispanic) at very profitable rents. There weren't any businesses that I remember, having fled the area in the 1970's

Between Woodlawn and the Loop, my most vivid memory were the absolutely gorgeous old buildings boarded up and turning into ruins. At night, the Robert Taylor Housing Project (RTHP) stop was definitely dark and scary. I remember the lookouts on abandoned cars. That said, I never had a problem walking from the Bus (or L) Stop to the basement room. RTHP was planned for 11,000 and had a population of 27,000, completely neglected by the city, full of trash, gangsters, no small businesses, and surrounded by the semi-ruins I previously mentioned. And, it was 6th poorest census area in the USA. It was finally demolished around 2000-2007.

Now, I want to show you a present day aerial photo of the area in Woodlawn that I lived in. Mostly because when I was there in 1980, the whole place was housing, and I remember it as being a lot of beautifully constructed houses and apartments with 1900 workmanship, and well kept up. Now as you see, its mostly vacant lots, looks like it would make a good area for small farms, community gardens, playgrounds and so on. As it is, these are "vacant lots infested with cat-sized rats", Lee Lee Henderson says. Some shiny roofs show gentrification... 63rd Street, which at one time was a vibrant business area, is almost all vacant lots.

The closest school (1 1/2 blocks away) to where I lived is the University of Chicago Magnet School, which has fees and entry is by lottery (local residents get some preference, not sure how much). This school has a 100% college acceptance rate. I doubt my kids would win the lottery. Really, I don't get the whole system... seems like I thought kids just went to their neighborhood school. The public schools, if they still exist and haven't been demolished are rated somewhere around 1 to 3.5 out of 10. The next closest, 14 blocks away and across a highway, is the Emmett Till Math and Science Academy, a "magnet school" rated 2 out of 10. It has a nice website and very cute kids though.

Why so many demolisions (why does this remind me of the West Bank???) ? Here is a hint:

"Judges ordered 1,154 city buildings, most of them homes, razed last year, down from 1,316 in 2013 but up from 1,085 in 2012, according to data from the Chicago Department of Buildings and the Department of Law. The demo orders hit a recent historical peak in 2013 after rising steadily in the wake of the housing crisis, said John Holden, a Law Department spokesman."

The drop may suggest the housing crisis is ebbing in some of the city's most blighted neighborhoods, as foreclosure cases decline and more investors buy up properties that might have been torn down.

"It's logical that demolition orders are declining as the biggest wave of foreclosures has worked it was way through the system, said Robert Grossinger, vice president of Enterprise Community Partners, an affordable housing finance group. Properties typically become so-called zombie, or unattended, and fall into disrepair and become hazardous immediately after a foreclosure case is filed but before banks take control. That's often when homeowners move out and banks have yet to assess the properties, Grossinger said."

"PrivateBank announced this week that 12 developers had been selected that would be eligible for construction financing to rehabilitate properties as part of a program with the Land Bank." February 05, 2015. Demolition orders down, but housing crisis far from over

What happened to the residents of these abandoned, demolished neighborhoods? Truth is, nobody knows where most of them went. Of Cabrini Green's (another Chicago Hell Hole Project) 16,800 dislocated residents, 9,600 either violated their "lease terms" or plain vanished. The rest are mostly squeezed into already crowded neighborhoods like Englewood, while "vouchers" have all but disappeared from places like Lincoln Park. I will let you guess the demographics/economic status of these two zones.

BTW, I tried to get a housing voucher back in those days and failed. Nothing like studying 60 hours a week on a tiny grant, working 20, and living in a flooded basement. I don't remember eating, but I must have ate something, LOL.