What Does Englewood Think?
Brittany
Published: January 21, 2013
My name is Brittany and I need the help of my community. I am conducting a project at my high school that requires me to make a website about the problems in my community and solutions to those problems based off what we have learned. My idea was that instead of just having my own opinion on my ideas I should have the communities opinion on my ideas as well. I would be very grateful if I had tons of support.
As many may know there are a multitude of problems facing the Englewood community in Chicago. The major problems range from poor education, violence, lack of local long term jobs, and the fact that Englewood is a food desert. These issues are causing a decline of population in Englewood; based on the 2000 Census Englewood had a population of about 40,000 compared to its peak in 1960 which was 97,595. The 2010 Census indicated that the population dropped to 30,000 between 2000 and 2010. The rapid decline of people in the community is causing the quality of the community to deteriorate. The only way to save this dying community is to provide solutions as a community.
The main goal for Englewood needs to be to bring our population back up. In order for this to happen many issues need to be fixed in the community. These issues all fit together and create a domino effect which can be explained in this chart.
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Issue
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Effect
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Poor Education
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Englewood houses many poorly funded schools that do not educate our children as well as better funded schools. These schools are poorly funded because the number of both homes and people in the community are decreasing. This affects school funding because some of the schools receive comes from property values. This leads to…..
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No Jobs
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Many of the people in our have to travel very far to get to work. This takes more money out of their pockets than it should. Some in our community don’t even have a job. On WBEZ 91.5 radio they talked about this issue and Harvey stated, “Unemployment in and around Englewood is a whopping 35 percent.” Things like this lead to….
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Food Desert
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If people in the community have no jobs then the community becomes a food desert, which means that there is no source of fresh healthy food in the community. With a lack of money people with no jobs will most likely buy the cheapest foods which are unhealthy. This leads to….
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Violence
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Violence is a result of all the above issues. No jobs leads to violence because some adults still need to feed their family and pay their bills so they resort to the criminal way of life. Violence is in the neighborhood because no jobs means no steady income. Many young teens fall victim to the streets because their poor education has made them unable to get a job.
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Issue
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Solution
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No Jobs
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The solution to no jobs in Englewood is to transform the plot of land on 69th and Wentworth where the old Kennedy King College building use to be into and urban farm. There have been discussions about this for some months now. This would bring a multitude of jobs to the community
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Food Desert
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An urban farm would also solve the food desert issue because the products would be grown right inside our own community. Providing healthy foods to households.
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Poor Education
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The urban farm would actually bring revenue into the community if we sell our produce outside of the community. This money would be able to go to our schools. Also if people have jobs now and are able to keep their homes then property values will go up meaning more money for the schools.
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Violence
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With more available jobs people will be off the streets and more focused on their work which would lead to a decrease in violence. Also with work comes more money meaning people don’t have to resort to the criminal life in order to survive.
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What do you think? Is this a good or bad idea? Do you believe this is a long or short term solution? Do you believe there are better solutions?
Here are some links with more info on urban farms:
Sources: