COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COMPETING AGENDAS ...

visible in the neighborhood at all times of the day and night. Liquor stores have many
visitors, bus stops are always occupied, and the front yards of homes are often filled with
people hanging out on couches. Because some people do not own cars or cannot afford
gas, the streets are busy with those who walk to their next destination or ride bikes and
the bus to destinations outside the neighborhood.
Although many individuals in the neighborhood are poor, barbecues are plentiful.
People have outdoor parties, and the parks are always filled with men playing basketball.
The low-income in the neighborhood often share rides, visit each other in their homes,
and invite neighbors to block parties. Residents are creative, using whatever means
necessary to sustain themselves. Poor residents share babysitters, food, and cars and
utilize available social services in the neighborhood, such as clothing provided by
churches and canned food provided by non-profit organizations. Families rely on each
other for shelter and many people have strong ties to their churches, which always seem
to be full on Sundays. The relationships formed by lower-income residents can be
presumed to be caused by “a lack of opportunity within disadvantaged areas” and
therefore “have resulted in a sort of adaptive strategy on the part of its inhabitants”
(Kubrin et al. 2006:1563).
Baptist, Catholic, and Presbyterian Churches, and a Muslim Mosque punctuate
the Oak Park landscape. These places of worship are consistent gathering places for
residents and their very presence provides a community backbone for the neighborhood
poor. Neighborhood churches often engage in their own forms of community action and
provide resources and services which the poor rely on for basic needs. Further, recent
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