South Lawndale, Chicago

Last updated
South Lawndale
Little Village
Community area
Community Area 30 – South Lawndale
3cowboy.jpg
26th Street in Little Village
US-IL-Chicago-CA30.svg
Location within Illinois and within the city of Chicago
Coordinates: 41°51.0′N87°42.6′W / 41.8500°N 87.7100°W / 41.8500; -87.7100
Country Flag of the United States.svg  United States
State Flag of Illinois.svg  Illinois
County Cook
City Chicago
Neighborhoods
List
Area
 • Total4.4 sq mi (11.5 km2)
Population
 (2020) [1]
 • Total71,399
 • Density16,000/sq mi (6,200/km2)
Demographics 2015 [1]
 •  White 3.07%
 • Black11.05%
 • Hispanic85.24%
 • Asian0.25%
 • Other0.40%
Time zone UTC−6 (CST)
 • Summer (DST) UTC−5 (CDT)
ZIP Codes
parts of 60608 and 60623
Median household income $30,701 [1]
Source: U.S. Census, Record Information Services

South Lawndale is a community area on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois. Over 80% of the residents are of Mexican descent and the community is home to the largest foreign-born Mexican population in Chicago. [2] [3]

Contents

Neighborhoods

Little Village

Little Village, often referred to as the "Mexico of the Midwest," is a dense community in the western and central areas of South Lawndale, with a major commercial district along 26th Street. The area was originally settled by Eastern European and Czech immigrants mainly from Bohemia in the late 19th century, after the Great Chicago Fire sent the population of Chicago rippling out from the city's center to the outlying countryside. Jobs created by industrial development in the early 20th century also attracted residents to the area. Little Village saw a marked increase in Polish immigrants in the mid-20th century. [4]

The Mexican population of the Near West Side moved southward into Pilsen and westward into South Lawndale after the expansion of the University of Illinois Chicago campus in the mid-1960s which razed numerous blocks of housing. [5] Scholar Juan C. Guerra notes that "the contiguous communities of Pilsen and Little Village merged and emerged as the newest and largest Mexican neighborhood in Chicago." [6]

Little Village celebrates Mexican Independence Day every September with a parade down 26th Street. It is the largest Hispanic parade in Chicago. The Parade attracts thousands of spectators each year who flock to the neighborhood to show support and pride for their heritage. [7]

Little Village also boasts its economic power in Chicago. Little Village's 26th Street is the second highest grossing shopping district in the city. [8] In 2015, the two mile street created $900 million in sales. Its contender, Michigan Avenue, made approximately $1.8 billion that same year. [9]

For green spaces and recreation in Little Village, residents can make a visit to the community parks. Washtenaw Park has a baseball diamond and offers a variety of arts and crafts classes for adults as well as day camps for kids. Shedd Park is a little park in Little Village named for John G. Shedd (known to most Chicagoans as the founder of the Shedd Aquarium). Piotrowski Park is the neighborhood's largest public park and is the most popular outdoor retreat for Little Village residents.

Famous past residents of Little Village include former Mayor Anton Cermak, who lived in the 2300 block of S. Millard Avenue, across the street from Lazaro Cardenas Elementary. Pat Sajak was also a Little Village resident. He attended Gary Elementary School and Farragut High School.

The bulk of Little Village falls within the aldermanic boundaries of the 22nd Ward, represented by Ricardo Muñoz. [10]

In 2011, a music festival called Villapalooza was founded to promote non-violent spaces for arts, culture, and community engagement. This festival has been held yearly and has grown into one of Chicago's most popular and diverse grassroots music festivals drawing both local and international musicians. The festival is free and open to the public. [11]

On August 26, 2018, a fire began early that morning in Little Village. The fire killed ten children, including six children under the age of 12. [12] Investigators stated that the fire started in the back of the building in a ground-floor apartment, which was vacant. [12] The fire was the deadliest residential fire to have occurred in Chicago since 1958. [13] In the aftermath of the fire, multiple violations were found in the apartment where the fire occurred with apartment owner, Merced Gutierrez, appearing in court for the 40 violations found at the site of the fire.

On April 11, 2020, the city of Chicago permitted the implosion of an old smokestack at the Crawford Coal plant in Little Village by Hilco Redevelopment Partners to proceed. This action sent a large cloud of dust particles into the neighborhood sparking outrage and plans for a class action lawsuit. [14] As reported by Mauricio Peña, community activists in Little Village had called upon mayor Lori Lightfoot to stop the implosion before it was carried out, concerned with exposing residents to asbestos and lead, especially during the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic. [15]

Crime and public safety

Cook County Jail is in South Lawndale.

Politics

The South Lawndale community area has supported the Democratic Party in the past two presidential elections. In the 2016 presidential election, South Lawndale cast 11,878 votes for Hillary Clinton and cast 585 votes for Donald Trump (92.01% to 4.53%). [16] In the 2012 presidential election, South Lawndale cast 9,391 votes for Barack Obama and cast 688 votes for Mitt Romney (91.88% to 6.73%). [17]

Education

Chicago Public Schools operates district public schools, including Farragut Career Academy (the zoned school), Little Village Lawndale High School Campus and Spry Community Links High School and Joseph E. Gary Elementary.

Harrison Technical High School was previously in South Lawndale. [18]

Enlace Chicago operates within eight Chicago Public Schools in Little Village: Farragut, World Language, Infinity, Social Justice and Multicultural Arts High Schools and at Rosario Castellanos and Madero Middle Schools and Eli Whitney grammar school. "Enlace Chicago Community Schools."

Our Lady of Tepeyac High School is in Little Village.

The United Neighborhood Organization operates the Octavio Paz School in Little Village. [19]

Historical population
CensusPop.Note%±
1930 76,749—
1940 70,915−7.6%
1950 66,977−5.6%
1960 60,940−9.0%
1970 62,8213.1%
1980 75,20419.7%
1990 81,1557.9%
2000 91,07112.2%
2010 79,288−12.9%
2020 71,399−9.9%
[1] [20]

Notable residents

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albany Park, Chicago</span> Community area in Chicago

Albany Park is one of 77 well-defined community areas of Chicago. Located on the Northwest Side of the City of Chicago with the North Branch of the Chicago River forming its east and north boundaries, it includes the ethnically diverse Albany Park neighborhood, with one of the highest percentages of foreign-born residents of any Chicago neighborhood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humboldt Park, Chicago</span> Community area in Chicago

Humboldt Park, one of 77 designated community areas, is on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois. The Humboldt Park neighborhood is known for its dynamic social and ethnic demographic change over the years. The Puerto Rican community has identified strongly with the area since the 1970s. Humboldt Park is also the name of a 207-acre (0.8 km2) park adjacent to the community area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avondale, Chicago</span> Community area in Chicago

Avondale is one of Chicago's 77 officially designated community areas. It is on the Northwest Side of the city. The northern border is Addison Street from the north branch of the Chicago River in the east to Pulaski Road in the west. The neighborhood extends further west along Belmont Avenue to the Union Pacific/Northwest Line. Its southern border is Diversey Avenue from the Union Pacific/Northwest Line to the Chicago River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armour Square, Chicago</span> Community area in Illinois, United States

Armour Square is a Chicago neighborhood on the city's South Side, as well as a larger, officially defined community area, which also includes Chinatown and the CHA Wentworth Gardens housing project. Armour Square is bordered by Bridgeport to the west, Pilsen to the northwest, Douglas and Grand Boulevard to the east and southeast, and with the Near South Side bordering the area to the north, and Fuller Park bordering its southernmost boundary, along Pershing Road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Near South Side, Chicago</span> Community area in Chicago

The Near South Side is a community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States, just south of the downtown central business district, the Loop. The Near South Side's boundaries are as follows: North—Roosevelt Road ; South—26th Street; West—Chicago River between Roosevelt and 18th Street, Clark Street between 18th Street and Cermak Road, Federal between Cermak Road and the Stevenson Expressway just south of 25th Street, and Clark Street again between the Stevenson and 26th Street; and East—Lake Michigan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Garfield Park, Chicago</span> Community area in Chicago

East Garfield Park is on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois, west of the Loop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Lawndale, Chicago</span> Community area in Chicago

North Lawndale is one of the 77 community areas of the city of Chicago, Illinois, located on its West Side. The area contains the K-Town Historic District, the Foundation for Homan Square, the Homan Square interrogation facility, and the greatest concentration of greystones in the city. In 1968, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stayed in an apartment in North Lawndale to highlight the dire conditions in the area and used the experience to pave the way to the Fair Housing Act.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lower West Side, Chicago</span> Community area in Chicago, Illinois, United States

Lower West Side is a community area on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is three miles southwest of the Chicago Loop and its main neighborhood is Pilsen. The Heart of Chicago is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of the Lower West Side.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oakland, Chicago</span> Community area in Chicago

Oakland, located on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, USA, is one of 77 officially designated Chicago community areas. Bordered by 35th and 43rd Streets, Cottage Grove Avenue and Lake Shore Drive, The Oakland area was constructed between 1872 and 1905. Some of Chicago's great old homes may be seen on Drexel Boulevard. The late 19th-century Monument Baptist Church on Oakwood Blvd. is modeled after Boston's Trinity Church. Oakwood /41st Street Beach in Burnham Park is at 4100 S. Lake Shore Drive. With an area of only 0.6 sq mi Oakland is the smallest community area by area in Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenwood, Chicago</span> Community area in Chicago

Kenwood, one of Chicago's 77 community areas, is on the shore of Lake Michigan on the South Side of the city. Its boundaries are 43rd Street, 51st Street, Cottage Grove Avenue, and the lake. Kenwood was originally part of Hyde Park Township, which was annexed to the city of Chicago in 1889. Kenwood was once one of Chicago's most affluent neighborhoods, and it still has some of the largest single-family homes in the city. It contains two Chicago Landmark districts, Kenwood and North Kenwood. A large part of the southern half of the community area is in the Hyde Park-Kenwood Historic District. In recent years, Kenwood has received national attention as the home of former U.S. President Barack Obama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicago Lawn, Chicago</span> Community area in Chicago

Chicago Lawn is one of the 77 community areas of Chicago, Illinois. It is located on the southwest side of the city. Its community neighbors include Gage Park, West Englewood, Ashburn, and West Lawn. It is bounded by Bell Avenue on the east, Central Park Avenue on the west, 59th Street on the north, and 75th Street on the south, and is 13 km (8.1 mi) southwest of the Loop. Local citizens refer to the area as "Marquette Park," after the park in its center.

The Almighty Gaylords Nation is a Chicago street gang that was founded in the early 1950s. The original president of the Gaylords selected the name after reading about the Gaylords in the public library; the Gaillards, later anglicized to Gaylord, were people from Normandy who lived near the Château Gaillard, constructed by Richard I. The gang is part of the People Nation alliance and are known for disrupting rival gangs near Kilbourn Park.

Farragut Career Academy High School is a public 4–year high school located in the Little Village neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. As a career academy, Farragut emphasizes a curriculum that combines academic instruction with work-study experiences and vocational training. In addition to Education-To-Careers clusters, Farragut is also home to the General Patton JROTC program, which functions as a school-within-a-school.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cermak Road</span>

Cermak Road, also known as 22nd Street, is a 19-mile, major east–west street on Chicago's near south and west sides and the city's western suburbs. In Chicago's street numbering system, Cermak is 2200 south, or twenty-two blocks south of the baseline of Madison Street. Normally, one mile comprises eight Chicago blocks, but the arterial streets Roosevelt Road, formerly named Twelfth Street and at 1200 South, and Cermak Road were platted before the eight-blocks-per-mile plan was implemented. Roosevelt Road is one mile south of Madison Avenue and there are twelve blocks within that mile. Cermak Road is two miles south of Madison Avenue and there are ten blocks within the mile between Roosevelt and Cermak Roads.

Gads Hill Center is a non-profit youth education and family resource center on Chicago's South Side, United States, established in 1898. With its headquarters in Chicago, Gads Hill Center serves families in the Chicago neighborhoods of Lower West Side (Pilsen), North Lawndale and South Lawndale with programming that provides learning support and educational enrichment, early childhood development, and out-of-school care for children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pilsen Historic District</span> Historic district in Illinois, United States

The Pilsen Historic District is a historic district located in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. Pilsen is a neighborhood made up of the residential sections of the Lower West Side community area of Chicago. It is recognized as one of the few neighborhoods in Chicago that still has buildings that survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Pilsen was formally founded in 1878 making the neighborhood a factor in the political and economic change planned in Chicago. In the late 19th century Pilsen was inhabited by Czech immigrants who named the district after Pilsen, the fourth largest city in Czechia. The population also included in smaller numbers other ethnic groups from the Austro-Hungarian Empire including Slovaks, Slovenes, Croats and Austrians, as well as immigrants of Polish and Lithuanian heritage. In 1934 majority of Poles, Croatians, Lithuanians, and Italians sustained Pilsen, making it an ethnic working-class neighborhood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mexicans in Chicago</span>

There is a very large Mexican American community in the Chicago metropolitan area. Illinois, and Chicago's Mexican American community is the largest outside of the Western United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Side, Chicago</span> District in Illinois, United States

The West Side is one of the three major sections of the city of Chicago, Illinois, U.S. The other two sections within Chicago that associate with the West Side are the North Side and the South Side. The West Side consists of communities that are of historical, cultural, and ideological importance to the history and development of Chicago. On the flag of Chicago, the West Side is represented by the central white stripe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Rodriguez (politician)</span> American politician

Michael D. Rodriguez is a Chicago politician. He is the alderman of Chicago's 22nd ward and took office as a member of the Chicago City Council in May 2019. He was elected in the 2019 aldermanic election, in an open race to succeed incumbent alderman Ricardo Muñoz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edgar Gonzalez Jr.</span> American politician

Edgar González Jr. is a Democratic member of the Illinois House of Representatives for the 23rd District. The 23rd District includes all or parts of the Chicago neighborhoods of South Lawndale, Brighton Park, and North Lawndale along with the nearby suburb of Cicero.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Community Data Snapshot - South Lawndale" (PDF). cmap.illinois.gov. MetroPulse. Retrieved December 3, 2017.
  2. ↑ Cutler, Irving (2006). Chicago: Metropolis of the Mid-Continent, 4th Edition. Southern Illinois University Press. p. 180. ISBN   978-0809327027.
  3. ↑ Paral, Rob (2006). "Latinos of the New Chicago". In Koval, John (ed.). The New Chicago: A Social and Cultural Analysis. Temple University Press. p. 108. ISBN   1592137725.
  4. ↑ "South Lawndale, aka Little Village | WBEZ". www.wbez.org. 20 March 2013. Retrieved 2016-03-11.
  5. ↑ "Mexicans". Encyclopedia of Chicago. Retrieved December 25, 2022.
  6. ↑ Guerra, Juan C. (1998). Close to Home: Oral and Literate Practices in a Transnational Mexicano Community. Teachers College Press. p. 34. ISBN   9780807737729.
  7. ↑ Gellman, Erik. "Little Village". In Keating, Ann Durkin, ed. (2008). Chicago Neighborhoods and Suburbs: A Historical Guide, p. 198. University of Chicago Press.
  8. ↑ "Check out Chicago's other Mag Mile: 26th Street in Little Village #ccb". Crain's Chicago Business. Retrieved 2017-03-28.
  9. ↑ Gerasole, Vince. "Little Village Retail Strip Is Second Highest Grossing in City" . Retrieved 2017-03-28.
  10. ↑ "Ward 22".
  11. ↑ "Home". Villapalooza - Little Village Music Fest. Retrieved 2017-05-06.
  12. 1 2 "Apartment Fire Kills 10 Children In Chicago's Little Village Neighborhood". NPR. August 27, 2018. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  13. ↑ "Chicago briefings: 44 violations at site of Little Village fire". Daily Herald. September 1, 2018. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  14. ↑ Pathieu, Diane; Elgas, Rob (14 April 2020). "Little Village coal plant smokestack implosion sparks outrage, plans for class action lawsuit". Eyewitness News 7.
  15. ↑ Peña, Mauricio (10 April 2020). "Old Crawford Coal Plant Smokestack Will Be Blown Up Saturday In Little Village". Block Club Chicago.
  16. ↑ Ali, Tanveer (November 9, 2016). "How Every Chicago Neighborhood Voted In The 2016 Presidential Election". DNAInfo . Archived from the original on September 24, 2019. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
  17. ↑ Ali, Tanveer (November 9, 2012). "How Every Chicago Neighborhood Voted In The 2012 Presidential Election". DNAInfo . Archived from the original on February 3, 2019. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
  18. ↑ Alvarez, René Luis. "A Community that Would Not Take 'No' for an Answer: Mexican Americans, the Chicago Public Schools, and the Founding of Benito Juarez High School," Journal of Illinois History (2014) 17:1 pp 78-98. CITED: p. 88.
  19. ↑ "UNO Charter Schools Archived 2012-04-30 at the Wayback Machine ." United Neighborhood Organization. Retrieved on June 16, 2012.
  20. ↑ Paral, Rob. "Chicago Community Areas Historical Data" . Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  21. ↑ Dever, Tim, ed. (September 2007). "Sweet Home Cook County" (PDF). Cook County Clerk. p. 27. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 28, 2016. Retrieved October 2, 2018.
  22. ↑ Fremon, David (1988). Chicago Politics, Ward by Ward. Indiana University Press. pp. 146–151.
  23. ↑ Kolker, Claudia (2011). The Immigrant Advantage. Simon and Schuster. p. 130. ISBN   9781416586821 . Retrieved August 9, 2020.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.