West Humboldt Park Is One Of America's Biggest Open-Air Drug Markets: What Does That Mean For Residents?

Life In An Open-Air Drug Market

In mid-March Chicago experienced one of its most violent periods in recent history--67 people shot and 18 slain in a single week of unseasonably warm weather. Mayor Rahm Emanuel was on a ski vacation at the time, but the Monday after he returned he held a press conference in west Humboldt Park to issue a challenge to residents: it's time they took back their neighborhood.

"The gangbangers and the gang members and the gangs do not own this city--we do!" the mayor proclaimed at Harding playlot, 3917 W. Division, which had been spruced up with fresh wood chips and a mowing for the occasion.

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