Chez Ghetto

Yeah, that's exactly where I live.

I'm not talking about the 'oh, somewhat gentrified area that still has some drug deals on the corner'...no, that would be Logan Square. Or, 'used to be bad, but now has million dollar condos'...that would be Wicker Park. Or, 'still isn't great, but there's a whole bunch of us, and we're trying'...that would be Garfield Park.

I'm in the "where?"

People ask me where I live, and there's a pause, and then they say "where?"

Then I tell them, and they sorta squint. They have no idea where I live. It's sorta funny. Chicago is the 'city of neighbourhoods', and truely it is. It's just freaky that most people, unless they were born and bred in Chicago, have no idea about many of these 'hoods.

Ask your friends (if they live or used to live in Chicago) if they know where these neighborhoods are

Bridgeport. Maybe.
Canaryville. Bet they don't.
Blue Island. Fat Chance
Back of the Yards. Perhaps, but I'll betcha they've never been there.
Ukranian Village. Probably
Oz Park. They've been there, they just didn't know it had a name, because it's been swallowed up by Lakeview.
Austin. My home. Nobody has any clue.
Pilsen. Perhaps. It's my favorite 'hood right now. I wish I lived there.

Oh, and there's all the hoods in the far northwest side of the city, and all the hoods on the south side, and, and....but, odds are, if there's not a starbucks, and there's no faux Irish pub, they haven't been there.

It's sad, really. People fear where I live, and yet, it's filled with kids playing safely, who are called in when it gets dark, and mowed lawns, and construction and people who work for the city and the county...garbagemen and postal workers and cops.

I'll give you two guesses why.

Lessee...could it be race?
Um, yeah.

I'm a little sick of it, frankly. We have nice people living on my block. We don't have shootings on my block. We have families who live and work, and kiss their kids, and paint their houses, and remodel their kitchens and many of them are just like most people in this city. Okay, in the name of full disclosure, my across the way neighbors are not. They are a leetle trashy. The older son just got out of prision. He said it was drugs, but, it's not. I used the internets and he was arrested for sexual assault on a minor. He is creepy. I don't like him. He keeps trying to get into the house by starting long conversations with me, and asking if he can borrow tools. He is moving, soon, back to Michigan. Godspeed, child molester, Godspeed.

The whole west side isn't one drug-deal filled shooting gallery full of thugs. We don't have drug deals going on all night outside our house. We have a quiet block, one that has lightning bugs after dark, and the chirping of frogs when they mate.

Lovely, really. Big trees and turn of the century houses. Seriously. Drop by on a Saturday night. People will be in their back yards. They will be grilling. or sometimes Barbequing. (different things entirely).

However, if you do a search on the internets for your block, you might be surprised at some of the things that happen.

Chicagocrime.org is a great pastime.

Or, you can look up all the child molesters. Illinois has pictures of them all, along with what they've been convicted of, with the first numbers of their address, and the rest blocked out...for privacy.

I'm just sayin'.


Oh, and on the Etsy/craftfair front, I'm thinking that I'll do shows in October, November and December, and I'll start posting stuff on Etsy soon. I'm thinking that I'll get a retailer tax number, and that way, I can order fiber and yarn wholesale. I'm going to jump on the dying bandwagon, and see how that goes.