Chicago Gentrification-Woodlawn

Chicago has been a hotbed for Gentrification. As a "Business Town" it attracts allot of out of town Professionals and Graduates. It also attracts those who wish to attend prestigious schools like The University Of Chicago and Northwestern Illinois University. Most of these individuals come from families who have inherited generational wealth and did not have to deal with historical and present day discrimination whether from housing, employment, education, or other services that are usually privately run and available to affluent and privileged populations. Neighborhoods like Pilson and Humboldt Park are the most recent to fall prey to the indiscriminant practices of "market forces" and merchant systems adopted from Europe that see other cultures and their practices as expendable. Here is a clip from the "Woodlawn" community who is fighting these forces. It is from ABC news which surprisingly has made a story out of the issue and was supplied by a youtube account holder by the name of "mateochicago". The Pilson and Humboldt Park videos will be shown in another post.

"Members of Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP) + People Of Woodlawn took to the streets in downtown Chicago to protest the exclusion of low-income residents from neighborhood planning, leading to rampant gentrification and displacement. The New Communities Program, controlled in Woodlawn by the University of Chicago and its partner groups the Woodlawn Preservation + Investment Corporation and The Woodlawn Organization (TWO), has cut out the majority of the community and rubber stamped the gentrification already taking place. At the same time TWO was working on the New Communities Program and making claims to valuing affordability, they were trying to kick out 100 tenants from 5 subsidized buildings they own for a condo conversion. Tenants fought back and stopped the condo conversion and are organizing to take over their complex. This is the news coverage of one of their biggest actions in the campaign."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyXmFvHza6A