In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Getting Things Done Civic Engagement in Action Introduction This chapter attempts to set the scene for a larger discussion of informal social control by surveying the community activism landscape in Beltway. Informal social control cannot take place without community engagement , and it is worthwhile to assess the community health of Beltway in the early 1990s. For the most part, as I illustrate, Beltway at the time was a place where issue-driven community activism happened episodically. The two cases that I detail, and the contrasting personalities that came to embody the respective concerns, reveal how successful community activism happens, while at the same time indicating some necessary and suf- ficient conditions for the new parochial strategies of informal control. Community activism often needs a champion, someone to lead and personify a cause. Both examples here have such people, and they offer a useful contrast in terms of personality and levels of involvement in community affairs. Barbara Cremaldi is a soft-spoken mother of three who lives in the western part of Beltway. She is a stay-at-home mom, and, being quite reserved, is not what you might typically call a community activist . Jane Pratt looks and sounds more like an activist. She has a busy style, is constantly on the go, and is a regular contributor to public meetings in the neighborhood. Jane knows that sometimes to get things done for your neighborhood you have to go to meetings, organize petitions, muster support, and be prepared to slog it out with administrators, politicians , and bureaucrats. In terms of the archetypal activist, then, Barbara and Jane are different. Despite the contrast, the two women have a great deal in common. Both are mothers of young children and, as such, are emotionally invested in making sure that Beltway and its institutions serve the community well. Both women are passionate about the causes they believe in, and both are willing to go the extra mile in pursuit of their goals. The stories of their personal crusades to get things done in Beltway 3 31 can tell us a great deal about the neighborhood in the 1990s, and these narratives serve as a backdrop for the story of crime and its control. Successful grassroots activism is rare without assistance from established institutions and individuals who can parlay people power into a positive outcome. With this in mind, it is useful to take an inventory of what kinds of institutional support were available to activists in Beltway in the early 1990s. Organizations in Beltway I have alluded earlier to the fact that Beltway is replete with organizations and is well served by local politicians. The people in the neighborhood can take advantage of ties to two aldermen and their ward organizations, as well as area residents who are city workers in the police department, municipal services, fire department, or park district. In addition, at the time, a U.S. congressman lived nearby and served as one of the ward’s Democratic committeemen.1 Also in the early 1990s, the other ward committeeman was acknowledged as one of the most powerful men in Illinois state politics. Community activists often call on the assistance of aldermen , a friend in the police department, or congressmen for support with a project. For example, the commander of Police District H, Henry Rusnak , talked about how well the local political machine works and how he utilizes the aldermen in his area in order to get things done: Now over in Beltway you have two aldermen, young men, both smart. Now if I have a problem that I need their help getting done, like it would take me for ever to do it through the channels downtown, I just call ’em. Once I have to get some new lights put in at Fairfield Park, there’s a lot of gang activity there and they figured that if there were more lights there, [if] it was lit up more at night, then the problem would go away. Now if I call up the electric company department and say that one of my officers has a bright idea [sic], they’ll just sit on it and do it whenever. Now I call up [Alderman Gaudio] and say: “Can you get this done for me?” He says: “Sure, in about three or four days.” And it’s done, no fuss. That’s the way it should be. Rusnak’s comments demonstrate how it is possible in Beltway to tap into local and...

Share