Washington Park showcases tree
Leaders reflect on neighborhood’s recent progress
Harold Cain stood on the fringes of a slender sweep of grass in Washington Park, counting the minutes until the 30-foot Christmas tree in front of him would gleam with the hundreds of icicle lights woven around its branches.
At 63 years old, the lifelong resident of the Washington Park neighborhood had never been to a tree-lighting ceremony, he said. He was not aware of any taking place nearby — until this year. Last Sunday evening, Cain was among at least a hundred people who flocked to a road median on West Garfield Boulevard and South King Drive to celebrate the neighborhood’s first tree-lighting ceremony in recent memory.
“It would have played a big part on a lot of people, because Christmas only comes once a year,” Cain said in reference to not having a neighborhood Christmas tree while growing up. “This here? This will make up for some of it.”
The ceremony was hosted to shine a bright spot in a year marked by the coronavirus pandemic and social upheaval throughout the country, but it also represented the evolution of a neighborhood that has banded together through ups and downs, resident and Washington Park Chamber of Commerce CEO Donna Hampton-Smith said.
She described the tree as a love letter to children of the South Side after decades of government disinvestment led to overgrown vacant lots and storefronts buttressed by bulletproof glass. Her neighbors deserved the same level of holiday cheer as downtown, where Millennium Park has had a treelighting ceremony for over a century, she said.
“When children see Christmas trees and Christmas decorations in their community, they feel that they matter,” Hampton-Smith, said. “They begin to feel that they are treated equally and there’s no discrimination. There’s no separation.”
Last year, Hampton-Smith spearheaded planting a smaller tree in the same location, but it was mysteriously mowed down before the lighting ceremony could begin. Nevertheless, she wasn’t fazed, and her organization mobilized to erect a tree nearly fourtimes as tall thisyear.
Neighborhood change, block by block
Four years ago, residents in the community of Washington Park wondered whether they were on the brink of an economic revival. Then-President Barack Obama was mulling where on the South Side to deliver his upcoming library and museum, and the historic but wanting Washington Park was a top contender.
Some residents argued their neighborhood and its swaths of empty land had potential beyond just being the physical site of the nation’s first Black president’s legacy — it would be an engine to rejuvenate a South Side community that was partof the story of Chicago’s Black Belt, where a wave of Black people migrated fromthe South to start anew in the 20th century.
But it was not meant to be. Obama announced later in 2016 that the center would be in Jackson Park near Woodlawn, and residents such as Hampton-Smith were crestfallen. Just years ago, the area had been passed over as a potential site for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
“I was upset, to be honest, and I was upset because we worked so hard,” Hampton-Smith said about the presidential center location. “We got the word out … so it was definitely a switcheroo.”
Hampton-Smith still believes the center’s proximity will lead to an influx of businesses and residents in Washington Park, but she will be working to ensure the Obama Foundation keeps “a pulse on the community” when it comes to promoting jobs
With or without high-profile prospects such as a presidential center or the Olympics, Washington Park residents are taking matters into their own hands when it comes to beautifying their neighborhood, they say. And it starts small.
The playground on Washington Park resident Mary Sillah’s block on East 58th Street and South Indiana Avenue was chained up because of safety issues, she said. It was a structure her three children had dashed around when they were young, but over the years the grass had grown wild, threatened to overtake the structure. Gang signs and slogans were spray-painted on the sidewalk leading up to a purple slide brimming with leaves and dirt.
But in the spring Sillah helped resurrect the Washington Park Neighborhood Watch Group, which she now cochairs. After the organization collaborated .with the chamber of commerce to receive a grant from the South East Chicago Commission, volunteers spruced up the lot in September, offering families a spot to safely gather after being cooped up for months during the pandemic.
The group of about 60 other residents also plans community events such as a Halloween candy giveaway. It attends community policing meetings and organizes regular walks together to report disrepair to the city.
“When you speak of government, I think governments think in terms of numbers and statistics, dollars. How much money is being spent,” Sillah said. “When you speak of community, it’s more personal. You get to knowyour neighbors. You have concern for your neigh-bors. … We can’t replace community involvement.”
‘Start changing the little things’
Across the South Side, residents are leading similar projects to fight government disinvestment with a hyperlocal focus. The community group My Block My Hood My City mobilized in 2018 to string up twinkling Christmas lights along the houses and gates of South King Drive, sparking a tradition that this year stretches between 35th and 115th streets.
“How would you feel if your whole worldview was neglection and negativity?” said Ernesto Gonzalez, marketing manager of My Block My Hood My City. “You’d be traumatized if in Lincoln Park, you had to scream over 3-inch glass to order your coffee. … It’s not what living is about. But if you start changing the little things, bit by bit the youth will see it and they will adapt to it in a positive way.”
Young children huddled near the front of the crowd during Sunday’s tree-lighting ceremony, most of them quietly absorbing their surroundings as adults chanted, “Three, two, one,” before turning on the switch. Golden light splashed their faces, and there was a splitsecond pause before cheers and singing ripped through the air.
Standing a few feet from the base of the tree, 1-year-old Jordan Crowder craned his neck back as far as itwould go to see how high the red and silver baubles reached.
“I feel good that they decorated the area,” his brother, 14-year-old Johnathan Williams said. “We need more holiday decorations, and we need more love like downtown.”