Tag Archives: neighborhood people

Gun Shots Are Easily Ignored in the Austin Neighborhood

Shirley is almost 51 years old. She grew up in the Austin neighborhood. A couple of her daughters live with her. She says that the neighborhood is not what it used to be. She advises me not to walk around the Austin neighborhood without backup with me.

I asked her how she liked living there now. She said she can’t wait till she moves. She was hearing gunshots last night. She says that she thinks they were gunshots but nowadays she doesn’t really listen for them because they’re so often. She said that she’s numb to it already. She can’t wait till she moves out of the neighborhood I’m going to a safer neighborhood.

She says that people aren’t as respectful as they used to be. Kids are dangerous now and very disrespectful. She just wants to move out of the area. Says that she’s been there too long.

I told her that I had heard from a few old timers that the Austin neighborhood was really beautiful back in the 1950s and ’60s. Shirley agreed with me. But I told her that the neighborhood was coming up and getting better especially north of Chicago avenue. She once again agreed with me.

Back of the Yards Chicago Attempt

Have you ever wondered what shapes the essence of a Chicago neighborhood? What was it like then, and is it still gang infested now?  Who were those Lithuanians living in the Back of the Yards neighborhood in Chicago, why did they leave? Now Latin Americans(and some undocumented ) shape the future. All the taverns, brothels, bath houses, and bakeries that once numbered in streets between the residences of the neighborhood are mostly only in the dying memories of part of the fading past. But some of the old, gritty structures still stand. The old bricks once housed sweat and tears, currently replaced by blood and fear, of the brown eyes peeking through the shades of the window. I want to see the people and document their stories. I will capture the history and also record current stories for future Chicagoans to uncover.

Driving up Ashland to 47th, then West to Wood street, and North. Keeping an eye out for some old store fronts or taverns that had been shut down, but all I seen in the streets were Mexican people in various areas. I was fed up with driving aimlessly, so I stopped and asked a guy who was with a group of other guys hanging out on the street for insight.
I asked him if he knew of any historical spaces in the area or even the historic gate in the back of the yards. He was of some Latin descent, but his eyes were almost silver. I couldn’t really notice because he kept shifting his head and eyes all over the place. He almost seemed to think it was funny that I asked him the question. He may had been looking around to see if I had back up somewhere or if I was a cop. He was definitely on some type of drugs. He may have been a gang member with the others. They let me leave instead of killing or carjacking me. He must have thought that nobody was crazy enough to stop some drug addict gang bangers in the streets for neighborhood insights.
He denied having any insight of old buildings in the neighborhood. He pointed me in the wrong direction to the historic gate of the historic stock yards that the neighborhood is named after. He may have been more freaked out than I had been, but for different reasons. His eyes were scanning down the street and at all the cars, while his friends kept their eyes steadily on me.
There were about 12 incidents this week in the back of the yards near the same streets that I drove down. Some Latin nurse girl was doing Uber for extra cash in her neighborhood, and a group of guys used a fake account to have her pick them up. They stuck a gun into her side, then demanded that they drive. The Latinos then demanded that she go buy them some food. Near 47th and Kedzie, they had her run into the taco joint while they stole her car and left her at the taco place, which luckily was not far from where she lived. There had been at least 3 carjackings in the back of the yards this week, a huge cocaine bust, and several people getting shot or killed near 47th Street this week. I grew up a mile away from this place, now I am here to capture the history, but it’s so darn dangerous. Other incidents involved armed robberies where nobody was shot this week. There’s also an amount of carjackings that go unreported.  I drove through this neighborhood as if it were 1990 still. I want to record people’s lives and the history of a neighborhood while also making history for others to read about. I’m not interested in recording the crime of the area, but sometimes that one aspect overshadows all of the other things and the essence of a community and families in a neighborhood.