I lived in a south side neighborhood that was >80% black and am white for nearly 20 years.
I lived there for a variety of reasons that weren’t suspicious at all like price, location, commute, etc. my neighbors didn’t seem particularly suspicious of the decision…
All of my neighbors seem to like me. The specific area I'm in has a 14% vacancy rate, so the people around here aren't worried about gentrification. I'm walking distance to the Metra. My wife has family in Indiana, and not having to drive through the entire city to see them was also a factor.
> Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.
Chicago is an extremely segregated city. In segregated cities, there is a nuanced thought process one must undergo to move into an area where you are considered an outsider. In Seattle for example, the tech community is overall reviled for having gentrified the Central District, where historically black areas were bulldozed to erect overpriced cardboard apartments for tech plebes. This is a legitimate question.
The reason you're being downvoted is because "Why are you living there?" can sound suspiciously like "You shouldn't be living there." It's also a leap to assume the black people living there are going to suspicious of him. You'd be horrified if a group of white people were "suspicious" of a black man living in their neighborhood and this should be no different.
Another question is what will his answer do? How will your opinion of him change or be influence by his answer? Maybe he was born there. Maybe that's all he can afford. Maybe he found an apartment with a particular architectural style unique to that area he wants to live in. Maybe it's close to his friends, or close to his girlfriend, or not too close to his girlfriend, or close to his parents, or easy to get to work, or he often goes into central/southern IL or over to Indiana and doesn't want to drive through the city every time.
It’s probably worth pointing out that historically the majority of the wealthiest pockets of Chicago were on the south side. There are a lot of grand streets with magnificent homes, broad sidewalks with enough space for the tree canopies to develop nicely, etc. All that exists on the north side too, just not as frequently. And where it does it’s 2-3x more expensive.
There’s a couple streets down in Kenwood that I don’t think have any equivalent on the north side though…
Not only are you making a lot of assumptions here, you have a woeful ignorance of Chicago neighborhoods but throw out names of neighborhoods like you're an expert (perhaps obtained from listening to Drill records or something).
Also, Beverly is one of the most integrated neighborhoods in Chicago, and it isn't even majority Black, so not sure why you even mention it. It also isn't 'adjacent' to Bronzeville unless you ignore all of the neighborhoods between them.
I grew up in Beverly. It's an Irish Catholic enclave. "Integrated" is not a word I would choose for it.
You're right to call out that previous commenter doesn't seem to know anything about Chicago neighborhoods; how else could you claim someone was "gentrifying" Beverly? But I wouldn't call out Beverly as a bastion of racial equity. My Black friends couldn't walk with me down the street after dark, in the 1990s, without us getting fucked with by passing cars. I doubt it's that much better now.
"Bronzeville-adjacent" is a very funny way of describing it; like saying Tacoma is Capitol Hill-adjacent.
May I ask why? This seems like a deliberate choice. It is, at best, met with suspicion by other residents.