Pastor and Project H.O.O.D. founder Corey Brooks talks about liberal policies that 'nuked' Southside Chicago into a 'devastating culture of dependency.'

After the Civil Rights victories, many folks on the South Side of Chicago expected things to get better. It was already a solid working class community with a grocery store, a delicatessen, and other small businesses. Instead the liberal policies that came out of the post-60s era nuked us into a devastating culture of dependency.

The one thing that always strikes me is that not one new building since the 1960s has been built in my neighborhood. McDonalds left years ago and so did Walgreens. Both structures sit empty. The projects which take up most of my neighborhood have declined precipitously since its days of providing apartments to working-class families. Nobody owns anything. So the gangsters claimed ownership and renamed the projects after their friend who was gunned down: O-Block.

That is why I consider it a miracle that I along with my staff at Project H.O.O.D. have been fortunate to start the building of a nearly 100,000-square foot Leadership and Economic Opportunity Center. To see the construction, the cranes, the daily arrival of construction materials, the cement poured and on has been nothing short of amazing. We are not just building a center but a symbol of hope.

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