Chicago, America's most segregated big city

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-segregation-26-dec26,0,976255.story?page=1

 

They used to say the same exact thing about Detroit. Quit trolling.

 

Hmm. That's why homeboy had to fly to Russia for a white girl.

 

Detroit is pretty segregated

 

No, for real Chicago is truly the most segregated city in the entire union. My elder brother lives in Lake Forest now - LF is a suburb of Chicago - but used to live inside the city itself. I go visit him a lot and on many of the train rides, i remember that the rides on Metra and Pace were very segregated. It was always mainly black folks with a few Latinos if you were within the city limits but when you begin to get towards the North Shore, it's mainly white. If you are around the Loop, it was pretty mixed because of those who worked downtown or those who go shopping. The segregation is a lot like many Northern cities like Philadelphia, Boston, New York etc. That is mainly because historically, most blacks in Chicago were mainly transplants from the South who came during the Great Migration. They were poor and couldnt buy any property until about the 1980s where they could only buy homes in "certain" neighborhoods in the South Side and its surroundings. By then, many whites had moved to other areas of Chicago, its suburbs or to nearby states such as Indiana and Wisconsin.

Now, like New York, Chicago has witnessed mass gentrification and many young professionals, black and white, have chosen to move into previously run down areas that have been shook up and rather than move to exurbs, taken solace in these neighborhoods which have now been improved with valuable home prices and relative safety. The perfect examples are Hyde Park and Kenwood, the Obamas' neighborhood. Some other neighborhoods on the West side too are witnessing certain changes.

Blacks and whites rarely come in contact with one another, save for those who go to Soldier Field and extraordinary events, such as Obama's Grant Park rally. In my brother's neighborhood, his family is the only black one (well, his wife is white and his kids are mixed, but you get my point). The suburbs of Chicago are some of the most homogenous you can ever see and while i like Lake Forest a lot, sometimes you get the feeling that there is a subconscious effort to keep "unwanted" characters out.

To be quite fair though, much of the segregation in Chicago, and most places for that matter, is pretty unintended and subconscious. Its not that most people choose to live apart from others, but as the article alludes, they do it based on preference and personal comfort.

 

That's how it is in Cleveland and Akron as well.