Divided Communities – Chicago

So I’ve been focusing on communities and their health. How well do they get along? And why do some communities thrive while others struggle, sputter and even die out? Good questions, each and every one. And the answers are even better. That’s if we even seek the answers. Absurdly, many communities do not ask the questions, or look for the answers.

Instead they leave. Escape. Fly away to greener pastures. That is if they can! Not all residents can do this. Witness Detroit, Flint and other Michigan communities that have watched their communities collapse. They are not alone. There are plenty of communities experiencing decay, loss of jobs, crumbling infrastructure, vacant buildings, increased crime. And of course, violence.

Chicago has some of these symptoms. So does New York, Washington DC, Boston, LA and many other American urban centers. It is part of urban cycles maybe. The rise and fall of specific locales, and then what comes after, and in what order. And even in what time frames or cycle speeds.

In most large urban centers there are many areas of economic activity and community life that rise and fall within their larger context of region and city. Some areas rise while others fall, and yet there is a comforting tempo to this cyclical pattern that informs us that not all declines are failures or inevitable either.

Not inevitable, the cycle, unless we detect and count the mini-cycles. In such the highs of the pendulum swing are not so high, nor are the lows. We modulate the cycles enough to provide the opportunity for investment and payback while regathering strength during down cycles in preparation for the next up cycle.

Not all of these cycles are economic but most are. Symptoms of decay are lower demand for services, products and housing. Loss of jobs follows rapidly, then poverty swells, crime advances and violence shows a larger and meaner face.

Violence. It is the symptom of ‘all is lost’ and what do I have to lose? I need so I take. I’m mad and powerless so I maim, injure and kill.' Soon it doesn’t matter. It is just a way of living life in down and out areas. And control of the community is lost.

A neighborhood or a town. A region or a city. Observe, please, Detroit, Michigan. For many all is lost. Their lives will never be the same again. What once was grand and of unimaginable wealth, is now slum and crumbling structures – hotels, apartment buildings, homes, mansions even. In need of paint and new roofs. Windows boarded up. Fires in the night. Crack houses by day. Meandering people picking at the remnants. Shuffling along in worn out clothing and shoes. Looking for anything of value to trade for food, shelter, clothing – or a fix.

A fix to forget and anesthetize the brain from the pain.

Poverty and pain? Boredom from poverty? Drugs for pain? Violence and pain? What is it that is creating which of the symptoms? Indeed, what is symptom and what is cause?

Communities need to understand this. It is the core of the problem they need to solve if health and prosperity is to return. Health and prosperity need people dedicated and energized to accomplish something. This is a job in and of itself. It fuels building. It creates opportunity. It informs us of the problems and the solutions that are in lockstep with one another. Find one and you will discover the other.

Communities that care about themselves do not leave the scene. They remain and fight the problems and make another day available for life and accomplishment.

A community that does this retains its sense of community and builds itself up. From the scrap heap even, it builds itself. Only now it has a keener sense of who and what it is. Now it can focus on needs. Infrastructure becomes a more evident need. Cooperation, too, and collaboration. No community ever was built without cooperation and collaboration. One is willingness to agree; the other is sharing energy and will to build and succeed for a common outcome. These are the seeds of future. These are proof of community.

Violence fills voids in crumbling communities. The answer to violence is hope for a better tomorrow. Cooperation and collaboration require us to work together, to believe together, and to strive against large odds to find and fulfill opportunities.

In the face of this violence recedes and disappears until called forth again in time of crisis. For now it is a symptom. A community is crying out for help.

Build me a future it says. Repair my street and school and supermarket. Help me live here in peace and harmony. Let me believe again in my fellow man. Help us attract jobs and economic stability. Rebuild. Here. Now.

Unfolding fresh opportunity will erase the guns because the need for them will be eliminated. Violence then will ebb until it is only a whisper in the shadow.

Chicago knows this. Communities are awakening to the realization that their problems, neighborhoods, residential blocks, are in need of working together to rebuild. It is the role of city government to support the local leadership to make good things happen. It is also the role of local organizations, churches, property owners, real estate leaders and landlords, to work together and help each segment of the community succeed.

This is their shared future. Ignoring it leads to nothingness and voids in which violence is the only incumbent.

Surely we can come together to do better.

September 27, 2016