Imagine a town as if it were a source of drugs, gangs, and prostitution. Envision it as a sight of abandoned homes, vacant parking lots and foreclosure.
Picture it 100 years previous, and what stood 100 years ago does not stand now.
Rather, it stood as a source of shopping, food and entertainment, and it was a sight for thriving housing, business and industry.
The town was a perfectly painted picture of rejuvenated life in which music and people occupied exuberant streets.
Typically, a ruined piece of artwork induces a sense of inner sadness, though Chicagoans might say differently. This image may tell a depressing story, but certain residents of Chicago don’t need to picture this image, for this image is their neighborhood. Witnessing this picture every day loses the value of the image, and this lost value is a matter of lost ambition to fix what’s wrong in the picture.
Chicago, a home to both wealth and poverty, consists of 77 community areas in which the embodied districts, suburbs and neighborhoods each paint their own picture.
Chicago Heights, a southern suburb of Chicago’s Cook County, was founded in 1833 and populated by 32,776 residents of great ethnic diversity. It represents the city’s struggle to present a consistent image.
With a total of 1,343 reported crimes in Chicago’s last collected data and over 55,000 reported long-term vacant lots and abandoned homes in Cook County, Chicago Heights can’t seem to make its picture more attractive, though its picture used to be one of utmost beauty.
“The Chicago Heights I knew is not the Chicago Heights that exists today,” said Dr. Lou Corsino, a former resident who told his story in the article, “They Can’t Shoot Everyone: Italians, Social Capital, and Organized Crime in the Chicago Outfit” and the book, “The Neighborhood Outfit.”
Corsino explained that his childhood home has now been invaded by gangs; that being said, when writing about Chicago Heights, he’s able to relive his childhood experiences, remembering the moments such as those spent with his now-deceased parents when people were safe and industry was booming.
And the booming of industry is most often considered a result of the Mafia, a globally organized body of criminals of Italian descent, and their presence around the early 1900s, when immigrants chose to reside near the downtown area where businesses prospered. Mafia leader Al Capone and his followers may have committed numerous offenses, but natives of Chicago Heights believe the violence was aimed for more ethical reasons than those today.
“The game of politics has changed,” said Ken Peterson, principal of the alternative program R.I.S.E., a Chicago Heights school for suspended and expelled students. “Back then, the people who did those things…they knew how to commit crime but still get things done. You did what was right, and you didn’t cross certain people or you’d find yourself dead.”
Corsino agreed. He explained that the thesis of his book addresses the distinct difference between crime 100 years ago and crime today as a matter of the unsolicited transformation from organized to unorganized crime.
He made a comparison of crime in terms of the East-side, explaining that the Italians that once lived there all knew and appreciated one another because they were often discriminated against, whereas the diversity in ethnic backgrounds living there today has created too great a sense of unfamiliarity among one another, leaving residents to believe that certain gangs are necessary to defend their territory.
“They’re the underdogs in life, and we’re fighting for the underdogs.” -Ken Peterson, Principal of the alternative program R.I.S.E
Corsino said he feels a growing fear that, if the town ever gets overwhelmingly dangerous, the only people left providing service to the Heights will leave.
And what’s depressing to Corsino is that Heights natives “love this town. They know the same history, and when you mention a particular part of the Heights, they can identify with it.”
According to Heights-native Ron Newquist, current and former women’s head basketball coach for Bloom High School, AAU Illinois Lady Wolverines, and Washington Junior High, “kids used to identify Heights areas by families…Now they’re identified by gangs.”
“When you lose those things…when you lose those sorts of markers about it, then it’s hard for people to have that sort of connection,” Corsino said. “What’s happening is that those traditional places where people used to…go eat in Chicago Heights…it’s hard to find places to eat in Chicago Heights anymore.”
Although he may have his doubts, Corsino still believes the town has an existing sense of community that goes unseen.
Former mayor and current State Rep. Anthony Deluca agrees.
“The rich culture…the deep relationships and family ties that have been and continue to be in Chicago Heights have kept it afloat,” Deluca said. “Even with the number of families that have already left, and there’s a tremendous amount of families that have left, there’s still a base of support there that really is the engine for the community.”
Deluca added that he trusts in the elected officials of Chicago Heights institutions such as those mentioned. He recognizes that the circumstances they are being put under, such as the significant increase in limited funds and notices, they are doing the best they can to make the districts run efficiently and effectively.
These associations’ efforts are driven through the fervent beliefs of its administrators, such as those of Ken Peterson. He admitted that he was often in trouble for misconduct growing up and, though never as severe, it inspired him to realize that he wouldn’t have gotten very far if people gave up on him.
“They’re the underdogs in life, and we’re fighting for the underdogs,” Peterson said. Not to mention Ron Newquist. Both Newquist and Peterson find that what fires this undying passion for these kids is the students and players that do succeed.
Newquist said, “And then you get the kid that you can’t seem to get through to no matter what…and then that kid that gets a scholarship, gets a job…makes it in life. That’s payday, baby.”
While keeping an instilled faith in these students, the systems aren’t ignorant to the harsh reality of many of the changes these organizations have witnessed.
Bloom High School superintendent, Dr. Lenell Navarre, can relay several occurrences with students taking full advantage of opportunities to commit offenses during and outside of school hours.
