Foreclosure map: 'A total gut-punch'

Sometimes a photo or graphic is worth far more than a thousand words, as demonstrated on the home page of the Southwest Organizing Project's web site. The map they used to show the spread of foreclosures across the 60629 ZIP code area is what one of my colleagues calls "a total gut-punch." It makes very clear that the wave of foreclosures represents a tremendous threat to Chicago neighborhoods.

Neighborhoods and housing organizations are mobilizing to strike back, with help from the MacArthur Foundation, designing a wide variety of programs and outreach to help people keep their homes and to get boarded buildings back into productive use. Urban affairs writer John McCarron is working on a story about the problem and local responses, which we'll link to as soon as it is public.