This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Dpbsmith (talk | contribs) at 23:43, 4 November 2005 (→K-Town: Add a few more, alphabetize). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 23:43, 4 November 2005 by Dpbsmith (talk | contribs) (→K-Town: Add a few more, alphabetize)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| Community Area 29 - North Lawndale Chicago Community Area 29 - North Lawndale Location within the city of Chicago | ||
| Latitude Longitude |
41°51.6′N 87°42.6′W / 41.8600°N 87.7100°W / 41.8600; -87.7100 | |
| Neighborhoods |
| |
| ZIP Code | parts of 60608, 60623 and 60624 | |
| Area | 8.29 km² (3.20 mi²) | |
| Population (2000) Density |
41,768 (down 11.69% from 1990) 5,039.6 /km² | |
| Demographics | White Black Hispanic Asian Other |
0.92% 93.8% 4.54% 0.13% 0.65% |
| Median income | $18,342 | |
| Source: U.S. Census, Record Information Services | ||
North Lawndale (also known simply as "Lawndale") is a community area located on the west side of Chicago, Illinois.
David K. Fremon (1998) calls North Lawndale "the embodiment of the urban black ghetto." From about 1900 to 1950, he says, Russian Jews dominated the neighborhood, starting in North Lawndale and moving northward as they became more prosperous. In the 1950s, blacks moved in and "unscrupulous real-estate dealers" all but evacuated the white population, from 87,000 in 1950 to 11,000 in 1960.
K-Town
K-Town is a nickname for an area in North Lawndale in which many names of north-south avenues (Karlov Ave., Kedvale Ave., Keeler Ave., Kenneth Ave., Keystone Ave., Kilbourn Ave., Kildare Ave., Knox Ave., Kolin Ave., Komensky Ave. Kostner Ave.) begin with the letter K. The pattern is an historical relic of a 1913 street naming proposal in which streets were to be systematically named according to their distance from the Illinois-Indiana border; K, the eleventh letter, was to be assigned to streets within the eleventh mile, counting west from the state line. K-Town is one of the few places where the plan was actually implemented.
John W. Fountain (2005) writes:
- K-Town is a city within a city, a fifteen-minute drive from downtown Chicago's skyscrapers... I used to joke that the "K" stood for "kill." I was only half-joking... it had developed a reputation for being one of the rougher places in the city.... K-Town is where my grandfather... and all the other black folk that flocked to the West Side during the mid- to late-1950s bought proud brick houses on tree-lined streets with crackless cement sidewalks....
References
- John W. Fountain (2005): True Vine: A Young Black Man's Journey of Faith, Hope, and Clarity. Public Affairs, ISBN 1586482858
- David W. Fremon (1998): Chicago Politics, Ward by Ward. Indiana University Press, ISBN 0253204909.
External links
- Chicago Park District
- K-Town, entry in the Chicago Historical Society's Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago
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