War of the Suburbs

If you want to make people in a neighboring town foot-stomping mad, what could you do? Here's a sure-fire way: Put up a barricade between the cities. Think this sort of thing doesn't go on? It happens all the time.

It's happening now in suburban Chicago, where the neighboring cities of Hammond, Ind., and Calumet City, Ill., are in nasty dispute because Hammond wants to close off access along State Line Road, which forms the border between the two. Why? Hammond officials say it's because their residents are seeing a rash of property crimes and suspect the criminals are driving in from Calumet City.

This, of course, infuriates Calumet City residents. "The thought of having my access to my car mechanic, to my eye doctor, to the little grocery store, to the little churches . . . we just couldn't see that cut off," an 80-year-old resident told the Chicago Tribune. And what about Hammond's fear of Calumet City's criminals? She hooted, "There are just as many thieves in Hammond as Cal City."

The real reason for the proposed barricade, some Calumet City residents say, is that their city has a more diverse population. As one pointed out, the two places have lived side by side for years without significant problems. "The only thing that's changed is that African-Americans have moved in," he added. No, it really is about crime, Hammond's mayor insisted. "This has nothing to do with race," he told the Tribune.

After Calumet City angrily refused to allow Hammond to build a six-inch curb-like barricade along State Line Road's median, Hammond officials are considering other ideas, including adding a lane on the Indiana side and placing the barricade there or turning some of Hammond's westernmost streets into cul-de-sacs, to prevent Calumet City residents from getting very far into Hammond.

Hey, but at least a six-inch curb is discrete. There's nothing subtle about the bright orange gates and five-foot barricades that the Miami suburb of Southwest Ranches has erected to keep out residents of neighboring Pembroke Pines. The dispute: Not crime but traffic, say Southwest Ranches residents. According to one city council member, leadfoot suburbanites from Pembroke Pines roar through rural Southwest Ranches, where families keep horses and ostriches. "They're running over our animals," he told the Miami Herald. "They've aimed at people getting mail."

Pembroke Pines residents are offended, of course. "It makes us feel like our neighbors don't like us," said one whose house looks out on the padlocked barricades. It also slows emergency vehicles, others pointed out.

Footnote: So what are these barricades really about? Probably not about crime or traffic, said one professor of conflict resolution who was interviewed by the Herald. Those are usually excuses for something deeper, a fear or dislike of others' lifestyles. "You can't sue people because their lifestyle is different than yours," she added, "but that is actually the concern most of the time."