We're Number One!
Proving once again that the South Side of Chicago is the baddest part of town, the post office has suspended service on Marshfield between 151st and 152nd streets. No courier wanted to be appointed to this round. They may put up with rain and snow, but not gunfire. Though that is the sort of thing that makes for swift completion.
I used to drive through this general area back when I was in law school. The South Side is interesting, because it's so run down now, but decades ago, before everyone starting moving north and west (and not letting African-Americans follow them too easily), it was the place to be. And you can still see the odd old building that gives you a hint of the glorious past.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:16 AM
5 Comments:
Amazing comment on the inability to bring order to some inner-city areas. I've been rewatching old Hill Street Blues episodes, and I was laughing at it's suggestion that the "Hill" was carved up into gang territories, and even the President couldn't cross these territories without permission of the gangs. When I lived on the South Side of Chicago, I don't remember it being that bad, but maybe I just didn't get out much.
I drove through the South Side on my way out west to go camping one summer in college. I wanted to stop in for some bbq. Stopped for gas and a kid about my age came over to wash my windshield with nothing more than a piece of newspaper from the trash. I said to skip the windshield and instead tell me where the best bbq on the South Side. He sent me to a storefront on MLK (I think?) with bulletproof glass thicker than my bank. I remember the brisket was mediocre but the sausage was some of the best I've ever had, despite the white bread it was served on. Can't say I've ever been back. Subsequent visits to Chicago have all been on business.
I once heard a great story about Hill Street Blues. They shot exteriors in a section of downtown LA that looked like a rundown midwesterns industrial city. Supposedly, there was some urban renewal planned and they paid the city to keep these blocks dirty. I have no idea if it's true, but I like to believe it is.
By the way, even in Hyde Park, there were places that served you food through a plexiglass carousel.
Funny that you almost never get that at food places in NYC, no matter how shaky the neighborhood. Liquor stores, definitely. But very very few restaurants.
Mr. G's Finer Food (Grocery Store and early employer of Chaka Khan and the Gumbel brothers, I'm told) had a security guard. at the front with a really bigass revolver on his hip.
NE Guy
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