The air was chilling to the skin, but I was protected
by the layers of my coat and the inter-walls of my mom’s car as we road to the
new neighborhood where my family and I would be taking residence beginning of
February, 2010. I had glances of this neighborhood before the move as my
parents would drive past the church that was on Cicero and Washington Blvd. The
apartment we drove up, two-flat apartment we now live in, looked smaller compare to the large
house we moved from just a few days before. The exterior of the house did not
reflect the spacious inside of the rooms: a living area with a fireplace that
reminds me of the ones from movies, a dining room with a large series of 1ft by 1ft mirrors collaged together centered to the west of the room, a kitchen, four
bedrooms, a small pantry, and two bathrooms. The house also had two large bush
trees at the two front sides of the house that birds would loiter in during the morning
and afternoon. My grandma and our neighbor living in the apartment above would
throw bread or bird seeds onto the sidewalk to feed the small city birds that
endure the cold harsh winters of Chicago instead of flying south; a seasonal
route taken by Canadian Geese that would live in Chicago from June until
October. A closer observation of my new neighborhood from my apartment’s
balcony and revealed, an abandon building, multiple of two-flat apartments, two
churches, a restaurant, one four-flat apartment a daycare and a clinic.
The abandoned apartment was on the right side of my
apartment and like many abandon apartments it created a sense of small dread
and discomfort for many people who bear their eyes to the wasted shelter; the building was
on the west of our apartment. The abandon building had evidence of fire damage
on the right side of the house, three broken windows on the front of the house
and the other two on both side, and wooden planks attached over the entrances
to the building to prevent unwanted entry. As of the July of this year, the bushes that were on the right side of
the building were removed first before the brick building. Not only is the
demolition of the building a large relief for the entire neighborhood, now
the sun’s ray finally enter through my window. Further right was a clear,
grass field with a large shrub in the middle of the grass plain that almost
counteracts the unsightly view of the building. The field was with only a few
traces of trash tossed by people in front of the field and in the alley, but
otherwise cleaned from time to time by the city. Glancing at the grass lot
would sometimes revive my memories of playing in my old backyard for me. The
backyards of the neighborhood were the relatively the length and width of a
two-flat apartment’s perimeter, which was one of the problems I had with my
apartment as the one my family had before was double the square feet. To the
east of my home was the two churches, and the restaurant. One of the churches
is completely gone now similar to the abandoned building, nothing more than a
flat concrete surface resting where they demolished the church. When I moved to
the neighborhood, the church was functional with few members entering the
building each Sunday. Now the removal of the abandoned Church has also lighten
the atmosphere of the block with four trees planted on the right side of
Kilpatrick; the other church is functional with most families in the
neighborhood being members of the remaining church. The restaurant is one of
the visual points of my neighborhood as the eatery sports dark green, pale
green, orange and pale orange with the roof, the wooden walls and fence
painted the secondary colors. The color scheme was very vivid compare to the
colors of most building in my neighborhood ranging in dark brown, rust brown,
grey, and brown.
For the first 6-8 weeks of first moving into our
apartment, my family and I did not knew many neighbors. The first neighbor my
family made was the man living on the second floor above us who also is the
brother of our landlord; he’s a kind man I could say for the least. The
two-flat apartment to the left of us hosts an older family; the residents
living on the first floor are very kind and would later sometimes speak a hello to
my grandmother as she sat on the balcony.
The tallest building was the four-flat apartment that stood near the very
end of the right side of the block that never fails to intimidate many people
of its stature when they veer their eyes to the very top of the building.
Further to the western side of the block was more two-flat apartments, the
residents of those flats would be either across from us or a large distance away
on the same side of the street due to the field between us. Dark brown, rust
brown, grey, and brown were the main colors of each building with a few
exceptions of three apartments and the restaurant. Dark green vines would entangle within the
cracks and crevices of five buildings foundation and bricks for years, slowly
surrounding the front exterior of the building from the roof to the
ground. The neighborhood was pretty
average with groups of neighbors knowing their own cliques that would range depending
on the closeness of their houses; the neighbors across the street tends to have
parties at night.
Cicero, the third largest street in Chicago, is within
my neighborhood and was the street my brother and I would pass each school day
to school. Sometimes the foul smell of gas would linger near Cicero due
to the semi-trucks, construction trucks and school buses that would discharge
black and grey smoke the color of charcoal and clay. However, the neighborhood
entirely maintains the scent of grass especially after the city’s workers mows
the abandoned lot. The sky at dawn is a very pale blue with dull grey clouds to
the south and the sun beginning to come over the horizon in the east. Both the
clinic and the daycare rests beside Cicero. The daycare was a white-colored
building with one large letter in each window when combined formed “Daycare”.
The clinic was across from the daycare with a makeshift golf-course in the backyard
of the clinic. Each day a night guard would stay in the clinic to protect
equipment from thieves. Most information I gained about the people of the
neighborhood were from my grandma, as she explained that he would play golf in
the back of the clinic. The course was a very small one with about 50ft by 20
with white cords marking the boundaries of the course, small thin pipes marking
the location of the holes and flags. Planted and wild flowers lived in my
neighborhood; they would stand on the left side of the sidewalk and slowly
drifts by the wind. On the path to my elementary school there was an abundance
of more flowers, bushes and trees; the flowers ranged among the colors
yellow, purple, pink, blue, white and orange in different shades and tints.
Each morning the typical bird chirping is heard, as
two-six nests could be seen in each twenty feet high tree, their small nests particular in a
row of vegetation I would pass on my path to school. My small community also
hosts many stray cats that wonder through the neighborhood mainly at
night and I would take the time to mentally name some of the cats I see during
the day; there is also a family of rabbits that also inhabits the community with
its population unknown and probably dwindled. Only a few cases of stray dogs
occurred in my neighborhood, more people owned cats than dogs in my community,
yet it is uncommon to see a stray cat or a stray dog wondering in the
neighborhood. Four signs are apparent in the neighborhood as well, a wooden
rule sign being the most recognizable. The wooden sign seemed to have be
placed for decades as hints of erosion appears on the edges of the signs and
the small cracks embedded in the wooden plank that lists common rules such as
“No loud music” and “No loitering”. The
other signs were advertising signs for apartment flats for sale or rent. The
first day of my neighborhood and over the next four years had only a few
incidents of fights as the main problems of my neighborhood are car collisions
due to people driving over the speed limit or not yielding when by law they
must. This is a good neighborhood with not much violence compared to some unfortunate
neighborhoods, but not as carefree and trusting as surburb neighborhoods.
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