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Notes
from March 13, 2019
A recent Sun-Times article documented a demographic shift in West Englewood: as Black residents leave the neighborhood, part of a broader trend of Black Chicagoans leaving the city, more Latinx people are moving in. Between 2010–2017, Englewood lost 19,000 Black residents, ending at just over 50,000. Meanwhile, Englewood’s Latinx population nearly tripled to 2,700.
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An interviewed Latinx Englewood newcomer cites cheap property as the primary reason to move to the neighborhood. According to the real estate website Trulia, the median home sale price in Englewood is $35,000, and $43,750 in West Englewood—much lower than in majority-Latinx neighborhoods like Pilsen ($305,000), Gage Park ($154,500), and Back of the Yards ($100,000).
Englewood residents and leaders are worried what the demographic shifts will mean for longtime residents of the neighborhood—like whether they will be pushed out. 15th Ward aldermanic candidate Rafael Yañez (who made it to the runoff against incumbent Raymond Lopez) told the Weekly he sees the coexistence of Black and Latinx people in the ward as an opportunity for cross-racial coalition-building, an attitude that could transfer over to a changing Englewood. But given the long history of white politicians pitting people of color against each other in this city, some, like RAGE’s Asiaha Butler, feel that getting there will be difficult: “Unfortunately we’ve been taught to be divided.”