The big picture

The ORIGINAL Cook County Hospital Building, which will eventually be torn down...most of my friends were born here

It's called Stroger Hospital now,

When people think about Chicago...this is the image that they most likely see...

This is what I see...

And this...projects...people that are poor and in need and whom are being shipped to the suburbs...

These homes are in disrepair, but people DO LIVE HERE, that is, until they are shipped out...

Once the poor are moved out...then comes the construction (see the condos in the background? They are 3 blocks from the projects...NEW...condos)

Four months ago...THIS....

...was a vacant lot.

Buildings like these...are being torn down and the people living here are being shipped out rather than given a chance to stay and guess what?

This...

And this...

Are being replaced by this...

Okay, so here are the two sides of the coin. Some people are upset that the people in the projects are being "displaced" to the suburbs. I am one of those people but not for the reasons that you think. Since moving project people and some (not all) simple minded people to the suburbs, you have in essence moved crime to an area where the suburban police are not equipped and all but killed suburbia. In Calumet City for example (where I live) people are urinating in the dressing rooms at the mall, there is now broken glass in the streets, stray dogs, drug dealing, lawns are unkept, and in January, my house was broken into after 11 years of peace.

I drive in the city and something we tend to complain about is how white people are taking the city back here in the Chi. But look how we do? SOME people in the projects were given new homes near the new condos that have been put up (that will be next month's pics) in four months...those NEW HOMES are already torn down and looking like the previous projects. So is it poverty or the people? Is it their environment or upbringing?

I drove through some of the roughest neighborhoods in the Chi this weekend. You know what I saw? The stereotypical liquor store on every corner and churches in close proximity to the liquor stores. On some blocks I saw churches next to one another or 6 churches on a two block grid (pics also coming next month).

So white people are taking the city back. Granted, they could have put those same dollars in rejuvenating those neighborhoods, but what would our people do if that money was invested back into those communities? (think about it...I am putting up pics of homes given to poor people and I have both before and after pics that will shock you). Is it that they have no home training that the homes are put back in disrepair, or are they victims of a perpetuated cycle of poverty?

And what about the churches? Why didn't the businessmen, black professionals, or clergy buy those properties? Many pastors in Chicago are indeed buying property and saving their communities. Many more are too busy competing with one another to even look at the bigger picture.

I'm not passing judgement...but I do want opinions. When you look at these photos, what do you see? What is the BIGGER PICTURE?

Send emails to chicagoauthor@yahoo.com