What about Rockford?

Dan Goldstein took a trip one week ago, 65 miles south of Madison, to Rockford, Illinois. I decided to visit the area around 6th Avenue and Kishwaukee St, where I spent an interesting weekend during Sep or Oct 1982. In '82, Rockford's Near South Side was a moderately prosperous, predominently "white" working class district, bounded on the South and West by some highly productive industrial areas, and other manufacturing areas that appeared to be suffering from 1981-82's "Reagan Recession." I didn't detect many signs of active manufacturing last Monday, but we'll get to that in a minute. Good news about Rockford? The "Sixth and Kishwaukee" area is now much more "racially integrated." The Bad? It's now a "mixed" district that appears to be populated mainly by poor people. Strolling down Kishwaukee, a major traffic artery, I saw Hispanic people drive by in their cars. I passed by two young black men leaving a market, one carrying a 12-pack of beer. I passed a house (could it have been the one I stayed in?) whose white inhabitants cast me a wary glance - it's possible they were in the midst of an alcoholic reverie. In general, it was obvious quite a few vacant lots now occupy the space where houses and apartment buildings once stood, and many of the surviving residences have windows boarded up, or show other clear signs of disrepair/abandonment. I'm currently attempting to find enlightening digital pics of the area. http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_40420.htm#51-0000