Physical Barriers Defining Chicago Neighborhoods

In the novel The Great Gatsby, a book focused on economic classes in the 1920s, two neighboring communities are the setting for the story. Separated by a bay, the community of West Egg on one side and the community of East Egg on the other. West Egg is a neighborhood filled with "new money" and is much less fashionable than East Egg, where all of the glamorous, old money resides. Throughout the novel, the difference between the two are strongly emphasized, each town virtually defining the characters residing in it.

The separation between the communities is by a vast, gorgeous bay, which prevents the two neighborhoods from mingling. I found this description to be extremely similar to the city of Chicago and its neighborhoods of Hyde Park and Englewood. Hyde Park is a neighborhood that houses the prestigious University of Chicago, and is known as a well-respected, sought out upper class community that is virtually all white. To the west of the community is Washington Park, which is a large community park which separates itself from Englewood: a community that is made up of over 98% African Americans and is considered the most dangerous neighborhood in the city and the most dangerous in the country in 2010. My American Studies class actually drove through the neighborhood of Hyde Park, through Washington Park, and into Englewood. Through this experience, we really got to understand the extreme differences between the two communities.

Many believe that this park, like many other natural barriers within the city, are purposefully created to separate different communities. This is to prevent violence in the upper class neighborhoods inflicted by their neighbors and to prevent the converging of the communities. Do you find that physical barriers have an overall positive outcome on the city? Is it detrimental to the two communities? Is it racist or unfair?