As I drive up Princeton Street, I couldn’t help but think about the cruel irony of the street’s name. A name it shares with one of America’s oldest institutions of privilege, power, and wealth.

This street runs as a kind of middle track between the Dan Ryan Expressway and the Norfolk Southern freight train tracks. If you were doing one of those ESPN feature profiles of a young athlete from the “mean streets” of Chicago’s south side, the landscape of this street on this morning is the video footage you would see: gray skies, bordered up homes, vacant lots, few businesses.

As I waited for the event to begin, I watched the comfortable conversation between pairs and small groups of people as they made their way to their preferred rows.

Next to me, a 3-4 year old boy politely steps into a conversation between two women discussing pre-kindergarten registration:

“Can you please top talking to my mommy?”

Both women laugh. This child looks comfortable in this space. He has been here before many times. He recognizes faces, they recognize his. He seems cared for and cared about. I think about who he will be 10 years from now, 20 years from now, will this building still be a place where he is recognized, welcomed, loved, and cared for?

The journey continues in the Fuller Park neighborhood on the south side, at the corner of 45th and Princeton.

Intro Theme Music: Victory Lap by QSTN ft. Mecca:83
Background Music: http://www.bensound.com/

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