Business Booms in Bronzeville

A parade of black-owned enterprises are starting up or moving into the once-booming, then-failing, now-booming-again Chicago black neighborhood. Median home values have skyrocketed 170%. The South Side neighborhood is culturally rich in jazz, blues, and black business history, but fell on hard times when middle-class blacks fled in the 1960s.

Living in Chicago metro, I can vouch for Bronzeville's transformation. Dicey parts remain. However, buppies are renovating gorgeous turn-of-the-century brownstones on the main Dr. King Drive. Condos sell for $200,000+. Great to see black folks building up more of our own neighborhoods, instead of chasing white folks everywhere.