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Current Issue

Fast-Track Deportations

Thousands are being deported without a chance to appear before an immigration judge.

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Chicago Area Beefs Up Its Borders

May, 1998 The use of gates and other barriers in the city and suburbs has proliferated, The Chicago Reporter found. And examples abound. In 1993, Chicago city workers built a guardrail separating the city's far North Side from the south side of Evanston. The Village of Oak Park sent a permanent message to its big-city neighbor: 13 cul-de-sacs since 1964.

Table of Contents

Chicago Area Beefs Up Its Borders

Not everyone flees when faced with racial or economic change, increased crime or infuriating traffic. There are those who stand their ground. They hunker down, fortress up or circle the wagons.
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Dropout Rates Still Plague Public Schools

Rui Kaneya

Chanel Polk knew the grim statistics all too well. All around her, people were dropping out of high school because of pregnancy or simply a lack of interest, while others figured they were better off working. But Polk, 18, hung in.

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Evanston Divide: The Short Life of –'Bernie's Wall'

It was 2 ½-feet high, made of metal and ran four city blocks down the center of Howard Street, from Kedzie to North Francisco avenues, with no openings for cars or pedestrians. In its abbreviated life, it became known as "Bernie's Wall," a reference to 50th Ward Alderman Bernard L. Stone, who inspired it.

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The Saga of Barricades

Physical dividers can be traced to ancient times. In the United States, St. Louis built the first gated communities in the 1890s.> Read More

Evergreen Park Cul-de-Sacs: For Friends or Foes?

Last August, southwest suburban Evergreen Park built cul-de-sacs along seven residential streets that face Chicago's southern border. Village officials say they closed off the streets after residents complained of too much traffic, but critics say the barriers have another design: to keep African Americans out of the predominantly white suburb.> Read More

Falling Through the Cracks

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