COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COMPETING AGENDAS ...

over commercial life, the use of the street, and the meaning of local history. While the
middle-class defines liquor stores and decaying parks as dilapidated “eyesores,” the
unemployed perceive these spaces as places where they can “hang-out,” meet up with
friends, and share information. The unemployed and lower-income residents, who
usually do not participate in neighborhood activism, therefore, do not speak on behalf of
themselves to tell their story from their perspective. The increased policing of public
spaces, such as liquor stores and parks, disrupts the daily routine and security in the lives
of the lower-income residents. In sum, public space 16 in the neighborhood can be
described as places that are characterized by conflict and social control, where
individuals are policed. This public discourse thus reveals people’s sense of their rights
to the city. 17
In Oak Park, community groups with diverging perspectives on social change are
involved in neighborhood activism. Their agendas for change overlap, creating social
conflict in the urban landscape. A local Neighborhood Association, composed of newly
arriving middle-class residents, is working to revitalize the neighborhood through
projects focused on economic development because its members believe that
development will rid the neighborhood of crime and ‘blight’ and will ultimately improve
the community. A women’s group takes a more moderate stance, and works to facilitate
change from the ‘ground up,’ and has an agenda to help empower women in the
neighborhood. Alongside these efforts, a local neighborhood labor association follows a
Marxist ideology and practices ‘radical’ politics. They feel the poor can be helped only if
resources are distributed evenly by the government and believe capitalism is the stem of
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