Happy Holidays from the best P55 City!

As the calendar year wraps up I figured it's a good time to blog a few of my general thoughts. I guess this notorious Chicago winter has started, and being from New England, I am not really intimidated by the low temperatures and snow, but what has surprised me is the way lifelong Chicagoans respond (mostly by complaining). Not that New Englanders don't complain also, but I've always thought of a rough winter as a badge of honor. I don't know, as one of Steve's long john-sporting roommates, I've been enjoying the sport of getting pumped to go out in these brutal temperatures. The air tastes better, and that cold certainly wakes you up in the morning.

(Speaking of sports, I've also become the office goat for football jokes, given that the Patriots came to Chicago and stomped the Bears last week.)

Anyways, this city is the best. The community out here has been tremendous, with the connection and seminar network of UChicago and Northwestern fellows making for a fine assortment of companions. I know our phenomenal Thanksgiving potluck was a success, and I look forward more school-spanning social events in the new year. When you are in school, you have the particular advantage of having thousands of people in your age range and situation in life to draw on, but in a city you have a random assortment of whoever you can find. The larger fellowship community out in Chicago at least gives you that common ground with a bunch of interesting folks.

This is certainly an interesting time to be here, with the mayoral race heating up. While I can't offer a prediction, I might make a few general observations. Chicago is a very segregated place, by both race and class, and what has surprised me these last few months is how people from certain parts of town have literally no idea what is going on in other parts. The average Lakeview resident for example has no idea what is going on in Lawndale, the neighborhood on the West Side I work in, and vice versa. So I wonder how this territorial city is going to be held together in the next regime, and what role identity politics are going to play. But hey, I've only been here four months, so I'll leave the political forecast to the pundits.

My organization is an interesting little place, and I cannot be happier to come in to an office where every morning people ask me how I'm doing, and they seem genuinely interested in the answer. While the mundane frustrations about non-profit organizations are certainly present, and do pile up from time to time, it is the few times when you can see the direct impact of your work that make it all worth it. I didn't know much about workforce development or ex-offender re-entry before coming to the North Lawndale Employment Network, but I'm glad to have learned as much as I have. I'll end this post with a little anecdote:

My other roommate, Mike (a fellow from last year who stayed on as an employee of NLEN) and I are transit pals, naturally, except on nights when he works late. Occasionally, coming out of work, we'd see this one guy, who would always ask us for change. We kept turning him down, but eventually saw this one guy enough times that we got to talking about our jobs, and encouraged him to come in to our Resource Center and look for work. He told us, "But I've got a felony background," which is of course, NLEN's specialty. Just this week, I'm happy to say he started work. I guess it's important to keep those types of stories in mind, when the routine is getting me down.

Happy holidays, everybody. Looking forward to a great 2011 in a city in the midwest, best city in the whole wide wide world.