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Chicago's Block Clubs: How Neighbors Shape the City
What do you do if your alley is strewn with garbage after the sanitation truck comes through? Or if you’re tired of the rowdy teenagers next door keeping you up all night? Is there a vacant lot on your block accumulating weeds, needles, and litter? For a century, Chicagoans have joined block clubs to address problems like these that make daily life in the city a nuisance. When neighbors work together in block clubs, playgrounds get built, local crime is monitored, streets are cleaned up, and every summer is marked by the festivities of day-long block parties.
In Chicago’s Block Clubs , Amanda I. Seligman uncovers the history of the block club in Chicago—from its origins in the Urban League in the early 1900s through to the Chicago Police Department’s twenty-first-century community policing program. Recognizing that many neighborhood problems are too big for one resident to handle—but too small for the city to keep up with—city residents have for more than a century created clubs to establish and maintain their neighborhood’s particular social dynamics, quality of life, and appearance. Omnipresent yet evanescent, block clubs are sometimes the major outlets for community organizing in the city—especially in neighborhoods otherwise lacking in political strength and clout. Drawing on the stories of hundreds of these groups from across the city, Seligman vividly illustrates what neighbors can—and cannot—accomplish when they work together.
In Chicago’s Block Clubs , Amanda I. Seligman uncovers the history of the block club in Chicago—from its origins in the Urban League in the early 1900s through to the Chicago Police Department’s twenty-first-century community policing program. Recognizing that many neighborhood problems are too big for one resident to handle—but too small for the city to keep up with—city residents have for more than a century created clubs to establish and maintain their neighborhood’s particular social dynamics, quality of life, and appearance. Omnipresent yet evanescent, block clubs are sometimes the major outlets for community organizing in the city—especially in neighborhoods otherwise lacking in political strength and clout. Drawing on the stories of hundreds of these groups from across the city, Seligman vividly illustrates what neighbors can—and cannot—accomplish when they work together.
- GenresNonfiction
312 pages, Paperback
Published September 6, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 15, 2023
This book was a scholarly examination of the history and behavior of Chicago block clubs, how they formed, and what they did after that. I wasn't really sure what to expect when I picked this up; I know, vaguely, that my block has a block club, and a neighborhood I used to live in had a somewhat more expansive organization that held cleanups several times a year and a summer block party, but Chicago really is a city of neighborhoods and those neighborhoods can differ a lot.
Anyway, this book really bears that out; because block clubs have been so extremely different in origins, composition, and aims over the past century, the author organizes the book by broad theme in terms of the block clubs' aims and actions rather than chronologically. At first I found this a bit disorienting but as I kept reading I realized that it would not have been at all coherent as a chronological history. The themes overlap somewhat -- a glance at the table of contents may make you wonder what differentiates "Protect" from "Regulate" -- but the first chapter, Protect, was definitely something I was specifically looking for for fiction-writing research, being a discussion of both the Black neighborhood block clubs that formed with the aim of racial uplift during the Great Migration, and subsequent white neighborhoods' block clubs that formed with the express purpose of keeping Black residents out. The last chapter, Regulate, certainly talks about those themes -- as does nearly every page in the book, because you can't talk about Chicago without talking about racial and class divisions/conflict -- but focuses more on block clubs creating and attempting to enforce expectations of behavior in public and semi-public spaces within the neighborhood, with many different approaches to violence prevention, which was relevant and interesting to me now as a Chicagoan.
One thing I really appreciated (both as a history nerd and as a present-day Chicagoan who wants the best for her city) was all the discussion of how different block clubs formed, and the various different parent organizations that sought to establish block clubs and how they went about maintaining and/or trying to influence the resulting block clubs. (I did not realize how involved the Chicago Police Department was in this area, for example.)
I also really liked that the author outlined her research methodology. To no one's surprise I am a nerd and I like knowing about people's research processes, so that was interesting even if I'm not personally going to be doing that kind of research anytime soon.
I liked this book, but I am not sure I'd recommend this book to anyone who isn't deeply a Chicago nerd; I imagine it might also be useful/interesting to someone looking to get involved in some kind of community organizing, but I don't have much personal experience with that. Although now that I think about it, I recognized some of the group dynamics from various fannish/internet communities I've been in, where, while we share a hobby, not everyone is necessarily friends, but we're all trying to maintain and regulate an internet space where we spend much of our free time.
Anyway, I think I will, as the author suggests, consider neighboring. I like most of the neighbors I know, and I love my city, and I couldn't go to my block club's Earth Day cleanup last year, but maybe this year they'll do it again.
Anyway, this book really bears that out; because block clubs have been so extremely different in origins, composition, and aims over the past century, the author organizes the book by broad theme in terms of the block clubs' aims and actions rather than chronologically. At first I found this a bit disorienting but as I kept reading I realized that it would not have been at all coherent as a chronological history. The themes overlap somewhat -- a glance at the table of contents may make you wonder what differentiates "Protect" from "Regulate" -- but the first chapter, Protect, was definitely something I was specifically looking for for fiction-writing research, being a discussion of both the Black neighborhood block clubs that formed with the aim of racial uplift during the Great Migration, and subsequent white neighborhoods' block clubs that formed with the express purpose of keeping Black residents out. The last chapter, Regulate, certainly talks about those themes -- as does nearly every page in the book, because you can't talk about Chicago without talking about racial and class divisions/conflict -- but focuses more on block clubs creating and attempting to enforce expectations of behavior in public and semi-public spaces within the neighborhood, with many different approaches to violence prevention, which was relevant and interesting to me now as a Chicagoan.
One thing I really appreciated (both as a history nerd and as a present-day Chicagoan who wants the best for her city) was all the discussion of how different block clubs formed, and the various different parent organizations that sought to establish block clubs and how they went about maintaining and/or trying to influence the resulting block clubs. (I did not realize how involved the Chicago Police Department was in this area, for example.)
I also really liked that the author outlined her research methodology. To no one's surprise I am a nerd and I like knowing about people's research processes, so that was interesting even if I'm not personally going to be doing that kind of research anytime soon.
I liked this book, but I am not sure I'd recommend this book to anyone who isn't deeply a Chicago nerd; I imagine it might also be useful/interesting to someone looking to get involved in some kind of community organizing, but I don't have much personal experience with that. Although now that I think about it, I recognized some of the group dynamics from various fannish/internet communities I've been in, where, while we share a hobby, not everyone is necessarily friends, but we're all trying to maintain and regulate an internet space where we spend much of our free time.
Anyway, I think I will, as the author suggests, consider neighboring. I like most of the neighbors I know, and I love my city, and I couldn't go to my block club's Earth Day cleanup last year, but maybe this year they'll do it again.
October 18, 2021
A well researched investigation into the way block clubs have played an important form of local community organization in Chicago. My only complaint is I ultimately just didn't find the topic as interesting as I initially thought I would.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews