prietolindo said:Are there any Dominican communities in Chicago?
deelt said:Yes it is relatively large and organized. There are a number of organizations
to get involved with Casa Dominicana and Dominican-American Midwest Association. They are fairly organized and host an annual Dominican event for the city. The Chicago area has the highest percentage of Dominican-Americans, may who are small business owners and professionals, such as Rafael Nunez-Cedeno, a linguistics professor at UIC. Do look him up and get active with DAMA. If interested you can send me a PM. Let me know how I can best assist you.
joyce jimenez said:I live in the suburbs of Chicago and I know of at least 5 dominicans that live in Chicago. MY ex-husband, and my 2 stepchilren, and my three kids. I know I probably dont count, because I am an american, even though I lived in the DR for 10 years.
KenoshaChris said:I've lived in the Chicago area all of my life. I'd be surprised if there were 1,500 Dominican families in the Chicago metropolitan area. I know of two Dominican families north of Cook County up to Kenosha County. Yes, you have the "Dominican Club" in Chicago, but its just a bar in Humboldt Park, not a real club. This white boy ain't go'in anywhere near Humboldt Park. That'd be as stupid as me going to Jackson Heights. Given what I do for a living here and my language ability, I'd certainly know of more Dominican families around there than I do if those Dominican families were around. Other than baseball players, they just aren't around here. Why not? Because they weren't to begin with.
KenoshaChris said:I've lived in the Chicago area all of my life. I'd be surprised if there were 1,500 Dominican families in the Chicago metropolitan area. I know of two Dominican families north of Cook County up to Kenosha County. Yes, you have the "Dominican Club" in Chicago, but its just a bar in Humboldt Park, not a real club. This white boy ain't go'in anywhere near Humboldt Park. That'd be as stupid as me going to Jackson Heights. Given what I do for a living here and my language ability, I'd certainly know of more Dominican families around there than I do if those Dominican families were around. Other than baseball players, they just aren't around here. Why not? Because they weren't to begin with.
Don Tomas said:Actually there are 1610 Dominicans in Chicago as of the 2000 Census, probably higher 4 years later. Great site I found listing Dominicans in the US.
http://www.nd.edu/~iuplr/cic/ethnic_place_htmlfiles/5_dominican_place.html
deelt said:I was actually looking at that general region which is all of IL, MI, and IN, but I'll double check my figures. I'll get back to you on this.
Based on my findings the Dominicans in the region are spread out, more educated, and thus can afford to live outside of city limits. I lived in Chi-town for a few years and I met many dominicans. IL region also has the highest percentage of Dominican adult citizens in the country, yes even higher than NY. Most dominicans there are either in private industry or business owners but tend to be DL.
Chicago is the mosts racially segregated city in the country (proven and by personal experience). So Yes Humbolt park is special like that. And just like you are unwilling to step into Humbolt Park are many Dominicans that don't really go beyond their 20 block radius. This is why ya'll don't know where the other Dominicans are at.
There are actually two Dominican clubs: Casa Dominican (which you are refering to) and Dominican- American Midwest Alliance.
CubsBrs1 said:Deelt,
I'm curious why you think that more affluent people live outside the city. I live in the city, and my impression is that it's more expensive to live here. Most people move out to the suburbs to get more for their money (land, sq. ft., etc.). Additionally, do you have anything to support your claim of Chicago as the most racially segragated city in the country? I'd be interested to see that in a study. I live near Uptown, and it's one of the most diverse areas I've ever seen. It's nicknamed Chicago's United Nations.
If anyone knows of a good Dominican restaurant in Chicago I'd be grateful for the tip...
ChynaRed said:Anyone know of any Dominican hair salons in the chicago or surrounding suburban area?
deelt said:Hi Cubs,
While I respect your perspective, I have lived in the North side in the late 90s and I did see MAJOR segregation there in terms of night to day changes by crossing a street. Also, one of the multiple degrees I have is on Urban Planning so I've read a bit on the subject.
The subject of Chicagos segregation and the occupation of inner city are subjects very well covered through research. The dynamic of all inner cities is that the more expensive land is dominated by the lower-income folks. It's a worldwide phenomenon of industrialized countries (and even some not so industrialized). This is why the (more recent) gentrification trend is so bittersweet. Cities need people with higher income but it really comes at the cost of people with limit to minimal income that can afford to commute in to the city. It cost much more to commute from Aurora/Schaumber than from Belmont to the Loop.
Latinos are driving a lot of the migration trends in Chi-town. Here is a a new study being conducted at Harvard. The exec summary touches on some of the driving factors. Page 17 shows the very clear and obvious delineation between the white population and where everyone else lives:
http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/research/metro/Final Chicago Paper Part 1.pdf
I have a book that also breaks this down in terms of public service provision and it's also pretty deep. But in terms of research a few years ago a study was done on the population of the South side. One of the major findings was that a significant percentage of this demographic had never been to the Loop.
This finding was compared to two or three majoy cities with a similar demographic, population and economic make-up.
If you want to read on the subject you can check it out from a historical perspective:
Citation source: http://enceladus.isr.umich.edu/race/historicalstudies.html
Arnold R. Hirsch, 1982. Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago: 1940-1960. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Books by Spear and the Chicago Commission on the Riot provide detailed information about the strategies used to produce the first or World War I ghetto in Chicago. After World War II, different strategies were used to prevent racial residential integration. Hirsch does a marvelous job of describing the various federal, state and local policies that made certain that blacks and whites would seldom live together in metropolitan Chicago
Another book that discusses it was in terms of community level impact Rules of Radicals by Saul Alinsky and Going Public my Michael Gecan. It was the impetus to finding of the oldest grassroots organization called Industrial Areas Foundation.
happy reading :glasses: ,
D