Living in Mr. Obama's Neighborhood
CHICAGO, USA --Foreign and national journalists have been a fixture lately in Hyde Park, my neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, and the neighborhood where Barack Obama, President-Elect of the United States, and his family lives. He actually lives in Kenwood. Hyde Park and Kenwood are so connected that we call the area where he lives Hyde Park-Kenwood. I live eight blocks East of his home and three blocks East of where he gets his hair cut. He sometimes exercise at Regents Park, which is a few yards from where I live.
Today I walked by the barber shop on my way to the pharmacy. No journalists were in the shop interviewing Zahir, Mr. Obama's barber. I only saw four customers when I passed by the shop around 11 a.m. Mr. Obama got a haircut today, but Zahir cut it at the Regents Park apartment of his Mr. Obama's friend Mike Signator. On election night, Zahir also went to Mr. Obama.
The shop is now a tourist stop and a security risk for Mr. Obama because the front is all glass.
As I neared Kimbark, the street I would turned south on to get to the pharmacy, I could see police cars in the distance blocking the street. That meant I was not far from Greenwood, the street Mr. Obama lives on. It is not easy getting onto the street, not even for his neighbors, without showing identification and having an acceptable reason for being there. Hopefully, it will get better for residents when Mr. Obama moves to the White House. As for me, I'm far enough east that I'm not inconvenienced by having a U.S. President in the neighborhood.
