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Special Report

North of Howard. A Year in Review
Note: This series posts in chronological order.
Please scroll down for This Was Then


Environmental Adaptation

A good friend of mine always chides me on the street pics I post because as he says
" There are never any people in your pictures."

Well, he's probably right about that but living in the North of Howard neighborhood the past 3 1/2 years has taught me a few things about adaptating to the environment; snapping candid pics of people up here will get you nothing but trouble.

Sure, I could have. I've had so many opportunities to catch illegal activity through my lens last year, I would have filled more than a few fat photo albums just from my street alone. Fights, drug dealing, gambling, prostitution and gang thugs populated the 7600 block of Bosworth and the Howard and Rogers intersection every day, 24 hours a day.

North of Howard has never been an easy neighborhood to live in. There is always a level of instability and crime that you just come to expect; it's just part of the landscape. As long as I've lived here, the Bosworth, Howard, Rogers corridor has been a trouble spot and a magnet for troublemakers. But early last spring it got worse, dramatically worse.

Criminals of every persuauion were 10 and 12 deep at the entrance to the Northpoint, The Broadmoor, Tony's and Eddy's Food Mart. The environment in this 1 1/2 block area of my neighborhood was so bad, it made even this street saavy urbanite more than a little reluctant to walk anywhere near these locations because these people meant business. and they would do anything to protect their business.

Word on the street was that the Daley's dismantling of certain CHA projects, had some of the the worst of the displaced residents being sent to the outlying wards all across the city. North of Howard seemed to get more than it's fair share of the hardened criminal types and the impact on our streets was immediate and demoralizing.

What's Wrong With These Pictures?

The Broadmoor entrance on the 7600 block of Bosworth.












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Sandy's Food Store located in The Broadmoore on Howard Street.











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Eddy's Food Mart at the intersection of Rogers and Howard .











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Entrance to The Northpoint
Building on the 7600 block of Bosworth.












Well of course my friend would repeat his usual "no people" remark. These photos were taken about a week before Memorial Day at about 11am on a weekday and I could take the same pic of each of these locations any day of the week now; I couldn't do that last year.

So, if I can answer my own question, "Nothing is wrong with these pictures." This looks like an everyday scene that could have been taken in any normal neighborhood in Chicago. But this isn't a typical "normal" neighborhood, this is North of Howard. Typically, there would be what used to pass for normal up here, cars pulling up, cash and merchandise being exchanged, enforcers at the doorways and lookouts on all corners. But the criminals don't own these 4 locations as they did in the past, they are gone. They've been missing since the weather started getting warm, which is usually when their appearance officially marked the beginning of the summer season in our part of town.

I've held off on writing this article because old habits die hard and I fully expected to see walk out my door one day and see the usual suspects at their posts doing their best to ruin our neighborhood. But we've now gotten through 2 holiday weekends now and maybe it's time to beleive that some significant progress really is being made here because the troublemakers are NOT at thier posts. In the meantime, I've taken notes, interviewed lots of people, witnessed enough events and feel comfortable enough on this 4th of July to begin this "North of Howard: Year in Review" series.

Gary Fuschi