MIS- Better Together

"This is one of the ironies of investing in social capital that we will see in some other stories, too: improvements that help bring members of a community together sometimes also disrupt or sever old ties."

My MIS is from Better Together. This stuck out to me because we have spent a lot of time discussing the benefits of libraries, but this was the first time we have really seen a negative reaction to a library. This addresses the Cabrini Green neighborhood in Chicago, which is a severely poverty-stricken area. Although the new library in this area has provided a lot of community and educational benefits to the neighborhood, it has also been part of a renovation of the entire area. While this is beneficial to the well-being of the run-down community, it has caused several of the Cabrini Green inhabitants to relocate away from their families and everything that they know because the neighborhood is becoming unaffordable. These unfortunate relocations of Cabrini Green tenants caused by the recent urban renewal projects is leading to a more middle class area. One unlucky resident reported, "As soon as it gets nice here, we all have to go." While the library continues to give back a sense of community to the neighborhood, it is also beginning to disrupt the community that has existed there for so long.