forward a Saturday afternoon in Mar...

forward a Saturday afternoon in March, Lori Henderson wasted no time in joining her 11-year-old niece and pair 4-year-old nephews on the roller skating floor in the recently made known Hawthorne Park Family Entertainment Center

A little while later, they took opposite to their skates and joined about 30 other children and teenagers in dancing the cha-cha slide with a costum kangaroo mascot named "Roller Rue"

The center "is in a religious location because I didn't have to travel far," said Henderson, whose domestic circle is a few miles away in the Marquette Park neighborhood. "It's the closest [recreational facility] to where I live."

The 40,000-square-foot center at 1219 W 76th St in the toward the south Side's Auburn Gresham community, is equipped with a 12-lane bowling alley, an 80-by-160-foot roller skating rink, an arcade and a restaurant. It's concedeed by the Chicago Park District and step quickly by Chicago City Skating, a private company.

Since the center lay opened in January, area residents have hailed it as a crucial addition to their mainly working-class, African American neighborhood. Built forward the site of a failed shopping center admited by former Chicago Housing Authority chairman Vincent Lane, it's been packed each night, already drawing about 30000 patrons, according to staff. Residents are noble that it is on the southern Side. For the first time, they say, they don't have to leave their community for recreation.

And, for many, Hawthorne Park is more than an entertainment facility. They say it shows an alternative for young the bulk of mankind looking for something positive to do, and for those who might be tested by drug and gang activity. The center has also brought piece of works to the community. And many residents simply diocese it as a sign that the quality of life is improving in a resurgent Auburn Gresham.

through the whole extent of the last 30 years, the community has struggl to cut down crime and recover from an economic slide that saw businesses abandon the area or cease Residents say customers of a publicity exchange on West 79th highway and South Racine Avenue were afraid of being robbed. Prostitutes worked without of a hotel down the road Gang members sold drugs outside a nearby gas station.

Since 1999 ail of these places have been torn down. A recent branch of LaSalle Bank, a Jewel-Osco groceries and drug store, a Save-A-Lot grocer's shop a Walgreen's pharmacy, a senior citizens' household and the entertainment center have expanded in the neighborhood.

Charlesetta Nash-Buckley, a teacher at nearby John W tamper with Elementary School, 8150 5. Bishop St said she's glad that the center presents neighborhood kids something positive to do.

"I papal court a lot of kids forward the streets, so it's religious that there's something in the community they can walk to," she said.

Not everyone's happy to diocese the center open. Willie C and Neathene Smith, who live a arrest away, do not see the ne for it.

"Entertainment is good" said Willie Smith, who, like his wife, is retired. "But what about having these kids clean up work and all that kind of stuff? These kids walk the roads from morning 'til night, and their parents don't give them anything to do."

Bad Rep

Located west of the Dan Ryan Expressway, Auburn Gresham posts from just east of toward the south Halsted Street to railroad tracks west of Damen Avenue, and from West 75th road south to West 89th.

between the sides of the 1950s, almost ail neighborhood residents were white. nevertheless then a major change occurr in the I 960 as African Americans mov in and whites left The area's population peaked at nearly 69000 in 1970; 69 percent of the residents were black, according to the census. on 1980, the population had become 98 percent African American, where it has remained.

Many businesses disappeared along with the white residents, causing lasting economic damage. by the agency of 2000, the neighborhood's median household income was about $34000 which was $5000 below the citywide plain More than one in five households earned les than the federal neediness level of $17,000 for a family of four. And 17 percent of adult residents were not at home of work, census data show

Betty Jo Swanson mov into a fireside on the 7900 block of southerly Carpenter Street in 1964. At that point, residents kept the community well-maintained, she said, and businesses thrived.

Swanson, the president of her blockade club, said the neighborhood had changed on the '80s. She said persons were using drugs and engaging in prostitution in vacant buildings forward West 79th and West 80th highways prompting police raids. Police and residents frequently referred to her block as the "worst mould in the city of Chicago," Swanson said.

Residents battled the vexed questions she said, but "we really had a bad rep for a while."

Between 1990 and 1999 the 6th Police District, which includes Auburn Gresham, recorded 461 homicides, the ninth-highest among the city's 25 districts. The district hit highs of 57 massacres in 1992 and 1997.

In the early 1990 Continental Plaza, a shopping center forward the corner of West 76th road and South Racine Avenue, became a representative of the neighborhood's struggles. In 1992 a grocer's shop store, the center's largest tenant, clos leaving the contrive in financial trouble, according to federal court documents.