COMMUNITY ACTIVISM IN OAK PARK: COMPETING AGENDAS ...

“neighborhood” as one where they live close to family members and friends and there are
within walking distance to markets. A “community,” from their perspective, entails
having family and friends nearby that they can trust and ask favors from. They want to
live in a community where they can roam freely.
The “disorder” defined by the middle-class in Oak Park is associated with
“blight,” vacant lots, youth walking in the street, people walking in the street at night,
drug use in the parks, and loitering in front of liquor stores. This disorder is a problem
for middle-class residents. Further, in people’s minds certain public places are tied to race
and class, which sharply reinforces their beliefs about disorder in the neighborhood. That
a large number of minority men frequent liquor stores in Oak Park, ride their bikes
around the neighborhood, and hang out in parks serves to reinforce beliefs that disorder
in the neighborhood is produced by minority men. This belief guides many of the police
in Oak Park to target minority men in the community. Sampson and Raudenbush
(2004:323) state, “disorder is part of a larger cultural narrative or generalized stereotype
that is tightly bound up in American cities with racially and spatially understood
meanings.”
Forming Oak Park Neighborhood Latinos
While living in Oak Park, I attended Neighborhood Association meetings to learn
about the revitalization of Oak Park. But I also participated in creating a community
group which allowed me to gain further insight into why people create such
organizations.
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