Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Winter 2015 | Page 20

largest single project in Chicago. With goals of revitalizing the community
and spurring job growth, plans for the project include the construction
of retail stores, affordable homes, and park and recreational opportunities.
He expects that one of these new buildings “will probably earn the
most Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) points of
any building in history,” he says. Beyond solar panels, the rooftop will be
leased to Gotham Greens for the largest rooftop greenhouse in the world,
generating 100 tons of leafy greens on 70,000 square feet—something that
would normally require 30 acres of farmland.
The addressing of food deserts is another trend that excites Doig.
Thanks to his initiative, one of Chicago’s poorest and most violent
neighborhoods, Englewood, will soon get a Whole Foods grocery store
that will partner with a community college to teach residents the basics of
healthy cooking.
“There are vast areas of the south and west sides of Chicago that lack
access to healthy food,” says Doig. “It’s both an economic and social
justice issue. How do we bring fresh food to these communities? You can
do it through farmers markets and mobile food trucks.” As a developer,
however, his focus is on “bringing in higher quality stores so it’s more
sustainable year-round.”
David Wu ’86 is most excited about the steady stream of immigrants
to city centers. His Pui Tak Center, which serves new immigrants in
Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood with English classes and other
services, trained 1,200 people last year. “When you talk about cities, the
gentrification of the central city gets a lot of attention,” he says. “But in
every city, immigrants are renewing the city in the neighborhoods.”
John Daniel Green ’87, M.A. ’92, who founded and then directed
Emmaus Ministries in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood for two
decades, has moved to Akron, Ohio, where he was introduced to a
mentoring program called Bridges Out of Poverty.
“We still live in a stratified class society, and in lower rungs from
guttural poverty to survivable poverty to working poor, how you treat
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people, money, and time is different at each level,” Green says. “This
program gathers and mentors people through changes in class as they rise
out of poverty. It goes back to the basic principle of discipleship.”
Another trend Green favors is the increase of mixed-use settings.
“Cities are continuing to get away from previous designs to ghetto people
along economic lines,” he says. For example, Akron Public Schools has
torn down and rebuilt every elementary school into “communitylearning centers” that partner with different nonprofits.
“I hope what is on the horizon is larger structural change in cities as a
whole instead of just the neighborhoods that ‘need’ it,” says Howell. “I
hope to see a more united conception of urban development that requires
radical policy shifts, recasting how we think about ‘good places’ and who
are the ‘deserving and undeserving poor.’”
However, community development in urban settings requires more
than latching on to the latest trends.
“Half the battle is just staying the course and being faithful day in and
day out,” says Johanon. “We are entering into people’s pain—acting as
their advocates, their intermediaries, being the hands and feet of Jesus. We
don’t have time to [chase trends]—we are in triage all the time.”
A Lasting Commitment
Alumni currently involved with urban issues are encouraged that
Wheaton’s recent changes, including the forthcoming Center for Urban
Engagement, will keep increasing their ranks. They offer advice to help
students serve their cities for the long haul.
“The Bible begins in a garden, but it ends in a city,” says Green, quoting
Ray Bakke, a leader in Christian urban engagement. “The world is
urbanizing on so many levels. We need to get urban ministry done right if
we’re going to see the gospel continue to [penetrate].”
According to Green, Wheaton in Chicago has lasted 15 years because
the program isn’t a commuter program, rather it is “based in community.”
Wu adds that not only presence is required, but patience as well.
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