Ah, the old neighborhood

I hated being ripped off by The Coop for 4 years, but this is how Ferguson describes it: "the neighborhood's only large grocery store failed recently--it was a customer-owned cooperative, whose empty shelves and accumulated gunk attested to its Soviet-like disdain for market forces..." Umm. Soviet-like disdain for market forces? Dan, you stand behind this as one of the key things Ferguson gets right? Now maybe it's right and maybe it's not, but it sounds a little over-the-top to me.

Other issues....

>>It's not often noted that the neighborhood's diversity has its limits. "In Hyde Park," a resident told me, "?'integration' means white people and black people." The nation's fastest growing ethnic group, Hispanics, is scarcely represented at all; same for Asians.

This is just wrong. According to Wikipedia:
White 43.5%,
Black 37.7%,
Hispanic 4.11%
Asian 11.3%
Other 3.39%

I wouldn't call 4.1% "scarcely represented" in the context of race, although Hispanics are underrepresented in Hyde Park relative to the country and to Chicago. But Asians are highly overrepresented by any measure...

It's also weird how much of the article is devoted to the fact that Obama isn't a "real" South-sider who doesn't understand the "real" black experience in Chicago, while the fact that his wife *is* a "real" black woman from the South side gets half of a sentence. You'd think that would count for something in terms of giving him a view into the culture.

Oh, and the hook in the first paragraph of the article -- "Obama's casual dismissal [of Bill Ayers' living in the neighborhood] led people all across America, people who live in all kinds of communities without bombers, to look at each other and say: "Wow, what kind of neighborhood does Barack live in?" " -- well, that's just silly and bad writing. I don't think people across the country were looking around and asking one another about Obama's neighborhood.

Also I would say that Farrakhan lives in Kenwood, not Hyde Park (he's around 48th street and woodlawn, I think). It wouldn't be a meaningful distinction in most contexts, except that the whole article is sort of just an excuse for the Weekly Standard to smear Obama by association with how out-of-the-mainstream his neighborhood is.

One more thing: "There are no movie theaters, for example, and not much commerce generally. There's nowhere to buy a pair of pants or shoes." I don't want to defend the shopping selections in Hyde Park, but there's no need to exaggerate. There's a great student-run movie theater (Doc Films) on campus with a different movie every day, and if you look up "Wesley's Shoe Corral" you will see that indeed you can buy shoes in Hyde Park.

Oh, and I almost forgot this:

>> But the reputation for right-wingery is based on a simple if imprecise bit of data that shocks the delicate sensibilities of college professors: Of the tens of thousands of faculty who have taught at the University of Chicago over the past half-century, perhaps as many as 65 have, at some point in their lives, voted for a Republican.

Okay, two things. First of all, the reputation for right-wingery is "based on" few professors voting Republican? I think this sentence is screwed up, and he meant to write that the reputation is "challenged by" or "belied by" this rather than "based on" it.

Second of all... citation please? Considering that votes are private, I have no idea how he came up with that number. Anyone have a clue? I mean, seriously, you can't just make up numbers like that and have them published in a magazine article. Right?

What is this purely anecdotal? Perhaps if the writer actually did a comparative analysis, he might find other neighborhoods that mirror Hyde Park on a variety of levels: socio-economic, political, and cultural. I could replace the locative nouns and say the same exact thing about the Old Louisville neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky. Where do they get these people who write this crap? Do they actually take any courses in logic or journalism, or is there a nihilistic anti-journalism, anti-logic cult out there that swears off any of the practices of good writers?

A fact-lite story in a conservative magazine designed to smear Obama? Whoda thunk it?

"This is the perfect place for a man without an identity to make one of his own choosing."

If the Standard wants the presidential election this fall to be all Blut und Boden versus immigrant heritage and the opportunity to make yourself anew, well, gee guys, that might be worth a try. What did Brer Rabbit say about the briar patch?

I hope that the grocery situation will be greatly improved. UofC finally killed the Coop - Treasure Island has taken over -
http://www.tifoods.com/news/2008/03/hyde-park-store-grand-opening.php

I hope TI hired no former Coop employees - incompetence combined with surliness.

I remember driving out to Marquette Park to go grocery shopping. About 90% of grocery shopping was buying beer - but did get some occassional produce.

Ferguson got a lot of things right but the interaction between the City of Chicago, UofC and Hyde Park is subtle and nuanced - and greatly changing. The relationship between Evanston and Northwestern is toxic. I guess that is to be expected in a city of 80,000 that is constantly looking for new sources of revenue. It is easier to accept a large institution that does not pay taxes in a city of 2.6 million.

The old man, Richard J. Daley, always made sure that the area around UofC was taken care of - despite the fact that it was the center of his political opposition. And UofC refused to give Queen Elizabeth II an honorary degree in 1959 when she visited Chicago to celebrate the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Of course, UofC also decline to give Bill Clinton an honorary degree when he invited himself to UofC's convocation in 2000. But Daley said it was the university named after his city and that was all that mattered.

UofC is no longer this island on the south side. Development has gone well north of 47th Street and come south of the Loop. Hyde Park is now tied into the city. If Chicago gets the 2016 Olympics (centered in Washington Park), Hyde Park may become chic.

Capitalism lives in HP, albeit quietly. As a former owner of a coffee house that the celebrated Mr. Drezner used to frequent in HP, I am now opening a specialty grocery and deli on 47th Street. We hope to capture some of the UofC crowd as customers, but the core customer base for our market will be the residents from 51st Street up to 39th, MLK to the Lake. The barriers to open a new business continue to be crazy in this area of the City; but I can't imagine opening our business in any other neighborhood.