COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COMPETING AGENDAS ...

Chapter 6
ANALYSIS
In Oak Park, a number of community groups are working to improve the quality
of life for residents and improve the quality of the neighborhood through various means.
They are implementing revitalization projects, creating grassroots projects for women
and children, and organizing the poor. Similarly, non-profit organizations are
undertaking their own efforts to serve the poor, by providing long-term and emergency
services for needy residents. The agendas of these groups vary, but revitalization
projects, which focus on ridding the neighborhood of “blight” and community
“problems,” are gaining the most momentum and attracting participation of residents in
the community. But, while many residents believe these projects will have positive
outcomes for the neighborhood, certain dilemmas have been exposed through community
activism. These “dilemmas of activism” center on: 1) who will actually benefit from
these improvement projects and 2) how to alleviate the negative effects on lower-income
residents in the neighborhood.
Rights to the City
Harrington and Merry (1988:713) claim that, “symbols of community
participation, represented by concepts such as neighborhood justice and community
justice, are not merely masks for state power but are expressions of it.” Thus,
neighborhood justice and efforts of community activism work to merely mask the social
inequality that exists between residents in gentrifying neighborhoods such as Oak Park.
These dilemmas of activism expose the inequality of residents and reveal that some
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