I have felt like I’ve been posting too many pictures of east of Grand Boulevard lately, so I thought I would get up to the northwestern reaches of the city, to areas such as Wells-Goodfellow. I feel torn every time I photograph this neighborhood; it is in bad shape, but there are still obviously thousands of people who are still working hard to make life better up this way.

So as I post these pictures of vacant, boarded up houses, I want my readers to realize that for every one I see that’s abandoned, there are plenty of houses that are occupied.

Then why are most of the houses in this post vacant then, if there are healthy blocks? I guess it comes down to the random path I take, and unfortunately, during this visit, I saw more of the bad in this area than the good. But realize, behind every abandoned house, there is a story, tinged with the continued systemic racism in this country, perhaps a violent crime, and most certainly the loss of hope. Why are we content to ignore the suffering of Wells-Goodfellow?

Perhaps on a more positive note, one thing I did learn is that the neighborhood has a much older past than some might realize. I find the old wood frame houses scattered amongst the brick houses fascinating windows into a rural past, when farm fields and orchards filled the landscape. Sadly, it feels rural on many streets again.

Wells-Goodfellow always seems like it was just solidly middle class, without row after row of mansions like we see in some neighborhoods. But here and there, an interesting house such as the one below appears in the dense foliage.