For eight years we lived in Chicago, I was an avid WBEZ listener. I am well acquainted with Natalie Moore's reporting. I appreciate that she unapologetically covered issues important to Chicago's South Side during her time as a reporter there.I have to admit, at the time, I sometimes wondered why she so fervently spent time covering the South Side. Living on the North Side as we did for eight years, you can lose track of the vastness that is Chicago. The vibrancy of the neighborhoods. It really is a City of neighborhoods where each enclave exists unto itself. So places that have problems, like portions of the South and West sides, get ignored or put to the side. You can focus on Chicago as a whole and claim that its problems are confined to a few neighborhoods and leave it at that. I've done that.
What this book, The Southside, does, brilliantly, is tie all those things together. It talks about the genesis of the South Side, its decline, and the reasons for that. It also details the efforts of community organizers and citizens who rather than leave their troubled neighborhoods, commit to making it better. For everyone. No one is going in to save the South Side. Should it get more help and resources? Absolutely. Will it? History says no. So the people have determined they must work for themselves.
Moore discusses health, housing, violence, and education issues all affecting the South Side. It really was an illuminating look at something I hadn't devoted enough time to as a citizen of the city (full disclosure - we lived in Evanston, just over the city line, but I worked and went to school in the city). This is a great read for anyone who wants to learn more about what really goes on in Chicago. It challenges a lot of assumptions and laziness on the part of pundits who like to say things about Chicago without any context from the people living and working in the City.
4/5 Stars.
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