Чикаго қаласының Гегевиш ауданының тарихы мен қазіргі жағдайы

Community area in Chicago

In 1837, Hegewisch, along with the area that now composes most of the South Side of Chicago, was incorporated as part of Hyde Park Township. In 1883, Adolph Hegewisch, president of U. S. Rolling Stock Company, selected the area to build a company town. He announced his ambition to build two canals. The first would have shortened the Calumet River; the second would connect Wolf Lake with Lake Michigan. His plans were never realized due to a lack of capital. In 1889, Hyde Park Township voted to be annexed into the City of Chicago. A few years after the area was annexed, Adolph Hegewisch died and his company was absorbed into the Pressed Steel Car Company. Starting in the 1970s, employment in the steel industry began trending downward hurting areas that relied on steel mills. In 1980, Wisconsin Steel closed its South Deering mill, leading to high unemployment in the area. Further closures compounded this effect. During this decline, a variety of economic development projects were proposed. In 1990, Mayor Richard M. Daley proposed the Lake Calumet Airport, which would have resulted in the demolition of all of Hegewisch, along with portions of nearby Burnham and Calumet City. The airport faced staunch opposition from Hegewisch residents. After facing opposition from Illinois Senate president Pate Philip and concerns over the cost of the airport, Daley declared the airport proposal "dead" and focused on plans to expand O'Hare International Airport. Though Hegewisch suffered from the decline of heavy industry, the neighborhood did not witness the extreme devastation that other neighborhoods like South Chicago or Pullman did. Today, Hegewisch is a stable middle and working class neighborhood, with roughly average levels of household income, and below average crime and poverty (relative to the city of Chicago as a whole). A large number of city police and firefighters live in the neighborhood.

The northern border of Hegewisch is 128th St. Its eastern border is the Illinois Indiana state line. Its southern border is 138th street (Brainard Avenue) and its western border is (at various points) W Burley Ave, Torrence Ave, Bishop Ford Freeway. The developed land consists of 375 acres of single family residential housing, 34 acres of multifamily residential housing, 47 acres of commercial development, 308 acres of industrial development, 17 acres of institutional and 7 acres of mixed use development. There are 1,551 acres that can be defined as transportation and other. Hegewisch also contains Chicago's only trailer park. Harbor Point Estates, located east of Avenue F. The trailer park is built on the former site of a landfill. As of 2014, it contains 190 manufactured houses and 50 recreational vehicles. The area has been the site of multiple redevelopment attempts including a 2008 attempt at converting the trailer park into a 900+ unit subdivision and a 2014 at an expansion of the park. The former was cancelled after the subprime mortgage crisis and, as of 2017, the latter has yet to come to fruition.

Originally a Polish American community, the area saw new groups arrive starting in the 1960s; Greek, Jordanian and Mexican immigrants began to settle in the area. In the 2000s, the community saw an influx of Latinos move in. The community went from have a population of 2,820 Latino residents in 2000 to a Latino majority community with population of 4,887 Latino residents in 2014. According to a 2016 analysis by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, there were 9,371 people and 3,558 households in Hegewisch. The racial makeup of the area was 42.5% White, 4.4% African American, 0.2% Asian, 0.6% from other races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 52.4% of the population. In the area, the population was spread out, with 25.3% under the age of 19, 18.6% from 20 to 34, 17.8% from 35 to 49, 21.5% from 50 to 64, and 16.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. The median household income was $50,000 compared to a median income of $47,831 for Chicago at large. The area had an Income distribution in which 26.6% of households earned less than $25,000 annually; 23.4% of households earned between $25,000 and $49,999; 17.2% of households earned between $50,000 and $74,999; 13.5% of households earned between $75,000 and $99,999; 11% of households earned between $100,000 and $149,999 and 8.2% of households earned more than $150,000. This is compared to a distribution of 28.8%, 22.8%, 16.1%, 10.7%, 11.3% and 10.3% for Chicago at large. The top employing industry sector in Hegewisch is manufacturing (47.5%). Flex N Gate, which provides bumpers to the "Big Three," will begin production near the Torrence Avenue Assembly Plant in 2019. In March 2017, it was announced that CRRC Sifang America would be manufacturing the new 7000 series cars for the Chicago "L" in Hegewisch. The union hall for UAW Local 551 is headquartered on Torrence Avenue. It is also home to Calumet Harbor Lumber Company, the last surviving saw mill within the Chicago city limits, a distinction it has held for over a quarter century. Manufacturing is followed by wholesale trade (19.7%), retail trade (11.1%), accommodation and food (5.2%) and finance (3.9%). Almost two thirds of the workers in these fields reside outside of Chicago. The top 5 employing industry sectors of community residents are manufacturing (12%), public administration (10.9%), education (10.8%), healthcare (10.6%) and retail trade (8.5%). Nearly half of the workers in these fields reside outside of Chicago.

Hegewisch is part of City of Chicago School District #299 and City Colleges of Chicago District #508. Virgil I. Grissom and Henry Clay Elementary Schools serve Hegewisch students. George Washington High School in East Side serves Hegewisch students as well as students in nearby South Deering. The nearest City Colleges campus was Olive–Harvey College in Pullman. A high school diploma had been earned by 82% of Hegewisch residents and a bachelor's degree had been earned by 18.2% of residents. The below average availability of public transit leads to its regular use by only 16% of Hegewisch outbound commuters. 80.80% of commuters drive either alone or in a carpool. For much of the latter half of the twentieth century, it was dominated by Ed Vrdolyak, who served as the Democratic Ward Committeeman from 1968 to 1987 and Alderman from 1971 to 1987. The current alderman is Peter Chico, who has served since 2023. In the 2016 presidential election, Hegewisch cast 1,962 votes for Hillary Clinton and cast 1,135 votes for Donald Trump. In the 2012 presidential election, Hegewisch cast 1,944 votes for Barack Obama and 1,015 votes for Mitt Romney.

Hegewisch is currently served by Our Neighborhood Times, a bimonthly newspaper headquarters in Hegewisch and widely distributed throughout the neighborhood. Between 1997 and 2012, Hegewisch was also served by the South Chicago based Southeast Chicago Observer. The paper was distributed in Hegewisch, albeit to a lesser extent. Both papers come out on even numbered weeks.