| head south in her direction. She appreciates the university’s interest in her work. But when a school says it has to grow to stay in business, Davis knows what that means for places like Woodlawn: “That’s telling me I’m coming for you. I need what you’ve got in order to live.” The university talks about “campus community partnerships,” but Davis does not think such a thing exists with UChicago: “This is like Santa Claus, and I’m gonna write the list, buy the gifts. And then I’ll be damned if you’re not gonna like them. That’s not a partnership; that’s self-interest at a hyperbolic rate.” She believes that someone like Gates has successfully leveraged the university for his own needs. “But who owns his shit?” Davis asks with a huff. Given the university’s long history of exploitation, in her mind there is only one way that UChicago can invest in sustainable urban renewal: “They must devote their considerable assets in creating vehicles for the community to own itself.” She believes the university should create something like an endowment that could support technical assistance and help finance local developers. All the money that will be made revitalizing Woodlawn must benefit the local economy. In short, she said it should be Black money: “You want to be Santa Claus, right: that’s what I want for Christmas.” Anything else is what she called “rape and rescue.” Davis and her vision of a self-sustainable village in the majority-Black neighborhood of Woodlawn are compelling. It is |
walls and ceilings of the suburban mall. They have been supplanted by the “open-air enclosure,” a privatized public experience of socializing under the shadows of office and retail towers made of glass and steel. The “new” Harper Court, Chicago, Illinois, 2013. Photo by Leslie Schwartz Photography. Most shops became what Chicago Tribune writer Joel Hood described as “casualt[ies] of the growing pains of a neighborhood on the move.” Gone was the Dixie Kitchen & Bait Shop restaurant, a onetime favorite of Barack Obama, and the Hyde Park Hair Salon, which once trimmed the locks of Muhammad Ali, Obama, and Harold Washington, also did not make the “cut” of revitalization and was relocated. These community institutions were replaced with more-recognizable retail chains, including Starbucks, Chipotle, LA Fitness, and the Hyatt Place Hotel. But at the same time, elements of Chicago’s Black culture are alive and well. The Jamaican eatery Ja’ Grill, the clothier Sir and Madame, and the eclectic clothing and home-goods store Silver Room now occupy the court. Owner Eric Williams closes down the L-shaped commercial corridor every summer for the showcase event: the Silver Room Sound System Block Party. And the highly popular restaurant and music space, the Promontory, sits across the street in a former Borders bookstore. Now back from college, Dominique James told me that the graffiti wall is missed, but she certainly enjoys the new offerings surrounding Harper Court, especially the existence of Black businesses. “But which Black?” she asked. With eighteen-dollar burgers at the Promontory |
