Which Comes First? Closed Schools Or Blighted Neighborhoods?

Closed Schools & Blighted Neighborhoods -- Which Comes First?
CHICAGO, IL - JULY 09: A dilapidated and vacant building sits around the corner from a Salvation Army center where Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel held a press conference in the Englewood neighborhood on July 9, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois. The Mayor and Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy announced an initiative to identify, secure, or demolish vacant buildings in the city to prevent gangs from using them as gathering places. The city has seen a sharp increase in gang-related violence in 2012. There have been 259 homicides in Chicago through June, a 37.8 percent increase from last year. There have been 16 homicides recorded so far in July. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL - JULY 09: A dilapidated and vacant building sits around the corner from a Salvation Army center where Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel held a press conference in the Englewood neighborhood on July 9, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois. The Mayor and Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy announced an initiative to identify, secure, or demolish vacant buildings in the city to prevent gangs from using them as gathering places. The city has seen a sharp increase in gang-related violence in 2012. There have been 259 homicides in Chicago through June, a 37.8 percent increase from last year. There have been 16 homicides recorded so far in July. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The blight surrounding Woods Academy, a Chicago public school in Englewood, is a common scene outside many other neighborhoods on the city’s South and West Sides.

Woods Academy was one of 129 schools flagged last week when CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett announced that nearly 20 percent of the city's 681 schools are eligible for closure.

The release of the school names has started another round of debates as the potential closures were more acute in neighborhoods already grappling with economic and violent crime issues, specifically the Austin, Humboldt Park, South Shore, Englewood, West Englewood and North Lawndale communities.

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