[PJ] WASHINGTON ‐ Chicago’s South Shore is three blocks from Lake Michigan and runs adjacent to Jackson Park, a public space designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, one of the architects of Central Park. A commuter rail system delivers residents to downtown in 10 minutes, and the neighborhood is a mix of single-family homes with well-manicured lawns and dense urban housing.
South Shore is also 96 percent African-American and lacks access to high-quality public schooling. It’s not uncommon for residents to pay $20,000 or more for private education. Meanwhile, the commercial corridor vacancy rate hovers above 30 percent, and the neighborhood is not immune from Chicago’s historically high murder rate, which saw nearly 800 people killed in 2016.
Joanna Trotter, senior program officer for the Chicago Community Trust, described these contrasts on Friday while discussing the inequality she says pervades American metropolitan areas, brought on by economic segregation that Urban Institute researchers insist is getting worse. |