Anger rules the mean streets that set Barack Obama on road to power

The Times ^ | 1/16/2008 | Tom Baldwin in Chicago

[bruinbirdman]

On the far south side of Chicago, separated by more than 20 miles and a vast chasm in wealth from the city's soaring skyline, is a collection of squat brick buildings where Barack Obama says he found his calling.

The President-elect has said that he learnt more from the locals when working in the Chicago
projects than they learnt from him. Those who remember him say that he made little impact

The Altgeld Gardens public housing project reeks of decay, fear and despair. At the only shop serving its 2,000 homes, water pours in from the roof on to sodden cardboard below while a high Perspex barricade protects staff from assault and cheap merchandise from theft.

Lincoln King shuffles in with snow on his boots and Mr Obama's name stitched in big letters on his hat. He is 49 but looks a lot older as he carefully counts out his money for a six-pack of beer at ten in the morning. Did he know that the President-elect worked here in the mid-1980s? “No.” Does he care? “I don't remember him.” Will having a black President make any difference? “This place don't change much. Same old s***.”

Mr Obama says that he “grew up to be a man” and received an education at Altgeld Gardens “better than anything I got at Harvard Law School” - where he retreated after working these mean, dark streets.

Now, as he prepares to be sworn in as President, this blighted housing project may become both a symbol of the challenge and a test of his success in healing America's divisions. Mr Obama devoted more than 150 pages of his first autobiography, Dreams From My Father, to a chronicle of his efforts as a community organiser here. As the future

[Moonmad27]

Your “pencils” post sums Zero up perfectly. Thank you for that!