24-617: Greater Grand Crossing is one of the 77 community areas of Chicago, Illinois . It is located on the city's South Side . The name "Grand Crossing" comes from an 1853 right-of-way feud between the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway and the Illinois Central Railroad that led to a frog war and a crash that killed 18 people . The crash was the result of Roswell B. Mason (later to serve as mayor of Chicago) illegally constructing railroad tracks, on behalf of
48-1082: A "natural area" that underpinned Park's and Burgess's thinking has also been challenged. Chicago is traditionally divided into the three "sides" of the North Side, West Side , and South Side by the Chicago River. These three sides are represented by the white stripes on the Flag of Chicago . The city is also divided into 50 wards for the purpose of electing one alderman each to the Chicago City Council . These wards have at times generated identities similar to neighborhoods. Unlike community areas, wards are adjusted decennially to account for population shifts. Another method of neighborhood nomenclature in heavily Catholic neighborhoods of Chicago has been to refer to communities in terms of parishes . For example, one might say, "I live in St. Gertrude's, but he
72-477: A distinctive identity. Ernest Burgess , a colleague of Park's who shared his thinking, was crucial in creating and naming the community areas. Initially able to identify 400 neighborhoods of the city, he considered that number excessive and trimmed it down to 80 and thereafter 75 by grouping related neighborhoods into a single community area. The Chicago Department of Public Health wished to present local differences in birth and death rates; it worked with
96-450: A neighborhood or encompasses several neighborhoods, but the areas do not always correspond to popular conceptions of the neighborhoods due to a number of factors including historical evolution and choices made by the creators of the areas. As of 2020 , Near North Side is the most populous of the areas with over 105,000 residents, while Burnside is the least populous with just over 2,500. Other geographical divisions of Chicago exist, such as
120-432: A part of the culture of Chicago, contributing to its perception as a "city of neighborhoods" and breaking it down into smaller regions for easier analysis and local planning. Nevertheless, Park's and Burgess's ideas on the inevitability of physically related areas forming a common bond have been questioned, and the unchanging nature of the areas has at times been seen as analytically problematic with major subsequent changes in
144-456: Is divided into 77 community areas for statistical and planning purposes. Census data and other statistics are tied to the areas, which serve as the basis for a variety of urban planning initiatives on both the local and regional levels. The areas' boundaries do not generally change, allowing comparisons of statistics across time. The areas are distinct from but related to the more numerous neighborhoods of Chicago; an area often corresponds to
168-557: The 69th Street and 79th Street stations. Additionally, the Metra Electric line provides commuter rail service at the 75th Street station at the intersection of East 75th Street and South Chicago Avenue; the railroad crossing that gave the neighborhood its name. The Greater Grand Crossing community area has supported the Democratic Party in the past two presidential elections. In the 2016 presidential election ,
192-612: The "sides" with origin in the 3 branches of the Chicago River , the 50 wards of the Chicago City Council which undergo redistricting based in population movements, and the parishes of the Roman Catholic Church. The Social Science Research Committee at the University of Chicago defined the community areas in the 1920s based on neighborhoods or groups of related neighborhoods within the city. In this effort it
216-530: The 1920s the Social Science Research Committee at the University of Chicago wanted divisions that were more natural and manageable than the arbitrarily-designated and numerous census tracts. The sociologist Robert E. Park led this charge, considering physical barriers such as railroads and the Chicago River to form distinctive and consistent areas within the city, which he deemed "natural" areas that would eventually merge into
240-547: The Greater Grand Crossing cast 12,647 votes for Hillary Clinton and cast 233 votes for Donald Trump (96.68% to 1.78%). Despite Clinton's 94.60% margin of victory, it was only her 16th best finish in the City of Chicago. In the 2012 presidential election , Greater Grand Crossing cast 15,408 votes for Barack Obama and cast 89 votes for Mitt Romney (99.23% to 0.57%). Despite Obama's 98.66% margin of victory, it
264-492: The Illinois Central, across another railroad company's tracks. Due to the lack of safety at the crossing, trains made complete stops here and therefore industry developed around the area to cater to the railroad workers. The area was developed by Paul Cornell , the developer of what is now Hyde Park, Chicago , throughout the 1870s. Grade separation did not occur at the rail crossing until 1912. Greater Grand Crossing
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#1732779576052288-668: The University of Chicago, they have been used by other universities in the Chicago area, as well as by the city and regional planners. They have contributed to Chicago's reputation as the "city of neighborhoods", and are argued to break up an intimidating city into more manageable pieces. Chicago was an early adopter of such a system, and as of 1997 most cities in the United States still lacked analogous divisions. The areas do not necessarily correspond to popular imagination of
312-435: The area notorious for its poor living conditions. Some of these discrepancies are due to names that were common at the time of the adoption of community areas but have since been supplanted by others. The static nature of area boundaries is one of their benefits, but is also problematic at times such as when expressways were built in the mid-20th century and divided neighborhoods without area boundaries adapting. The concept of
336-451: The area was 1.1% White , 96.2% African American , and 1.5% from other races . Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.2% of the population. In the area, the population was spread out, with 32.4% under the age of 19, 17.6% from 20 to 34, 18.6% from 35 to 49, 19.5% from 50 to 64, and 12.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35.2 years compared to 34.3 years. The CTA's Red Line provides 24/7 service to Grand Crossing at
360-772: The boundaries of the community areas. O'Hare was created from land that was annexed by Chicago in 1956 to control O'Hare International Airport . Edgewater was separated from Uptown in 1980 as residents considered being joined to it a detriment to obtaining aid for local improvements. In addition to these two there have been minor changes due to further annexations and additions to the Lake Michigan shoreline. The areas are used for statistical and planning purposes by such professions as assessors, charities, and reporters. Shortly after their development they were used for all kinds of statistics, including movie theater distribution and juvenile delinquency. Although developed by
384-547: The committee to produce the list of 75 community areas, which were divided into 935 census tracts. After the community areas were introduced, the University of Chicago Press published data sorted by them from the 1920 and 1930 Censuses , as well as a citywide 1934 census to help collect data related to the Great Depression , in what was known as the Local Community Fact Book . With
408-505: The exception of 1970 (whose data was published in 1980 ), it continued this publication for every subsequent census through 1990, expanding in the 1960s to also cover major suburbs of Chicago. The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning continues this work by periodically publishing "Community Snapshots" of the community areas and suburbs, the most recent being data from 2018 published in June 2020 . Only two major changes have occurred in
432-513: The neighborhoods. For example, the Pilsen and Back of the Yards neighborhoods are much better known than their respective community areas Lower West Side and New City . In the case of New City this was a deliberate choice; Burgess opted for the less common "New City" to name the area as "Back of the Yards" carried a stigma after the publication of Upton Sinclair 's The Jungle (1904), which made
456-628: The next two decades, African Americans began moving into the neighborhood from the overcrowded Black Belt and that's when Grand Crossing's White residents began to move out of the neighborhood. During the 1950s, the Black population of the neighborhood rose from 6% to 86%. According to data from the 2014-2018 American Community Survey compiled by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning , there were 30,805 people and 12,230 households in Greater Grand Crossing. The racial makeup of
480-449: The railroads; and Park Manor, the last of these smaller neighborhoods to develop, had residents who were predominantly of east-coast Yankee stock. At the start of the twentieth century, portions of Greater Grand Crossing like other neighborhoods in Chicago made the transition from open space and farmland to bungalow neighborhood . By the 1930s, the railroad workers residing in the neighborhood were joined by Swedes and Italians. Throughout
504-470: The some of the areas' urban landscapes, such as the construction of expressways. During the 19th century wards were used by the Census Bureau for data at the level below cities. This was problematic as wards were political subdivisions and thus changed after each census, limiting their utility for comparisons over time. Census tracts were first used in Chicago in the 1910 Census . However, by
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#1732779576052528-424: Was historically a railroad suburb made up of five, independently developed, older ethnic neighborhoods. The Grand Crossing and Brookline neighborhoods were predominantly made up of German immigrant craftsmen, farmers and factory workers; Essex had residents of English, Irish and Scottish immigrants who worked for the railroads; Brookdale was settled mostly by Chicago-born residents employed in the building trades and by
552-473: Was led by sociologists Robert E. Park and Ernest Burgess , who believed that physical contingencies created areas that would inevitably form a common identity. Except for the addition of two areas ( O'Hare from land annexed by the city in 1956 and Edgewater 's separation from Uptown in 1980) and peripheral expansions due to minor annexations, the areas' boundaries have never been revised to reflect change but instead have been kept stable. The areas have become
576-505: Was only his 11th best finish in the City of Chicago. The Oak Woods Cemetery , established in 1854, is located in Greater Grand Crossing. Since 2006, Artist Theaster Gates has redeveloped several buildings in Grand Crossing as art and community centers. The community has since been redeveloped in slow progression and will be an historic landmark for future generations. Community areas of Chicago The city of Chicago
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