ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the stage for addressing the question of whether any problem solving was going on and examines a range of problems in a cross-section of the city's neighborhoods. The overwhelmingly African-American beats studied were more varied than the Latino areas, reflecting the class and lifestyle diversity of Chicago's black communities. Once a predominately Polish community covering approximately 40 square blocks, Southtown was a community of African-American residents. The concerns discussed reflected the views of vocal participants—an important but, of course, small segment of the community—as well as the priorities of police who attended and took an active role in the conversation. In Norte, drugs were often mentioned in conjunction with concern about gangs. Based on resident rankings, physical decay was most pronounced in Fiesta, and the Latino fraction of the population was substantial in the five beats where worse problems were most prominent. More problems were mentioned in low-income areas dominated by renters and multi-family dwellings.
