A DANGER ZONE in Suburban Chicago | Sauk Village, Illinois

Sauk Village is starting to show the early stages of a long economic downfall. The cities population peaked at nearly 11,000 back in 1980. Since then the population has dipped to around 9,500, with the strongest decline coming since 2020. There might not be as much abandonment and blight in Sauk Village today as there is in Harvey, Chicago Heights or Ford Heights, but I believe that there will be in only a matter of time. I explain why in this video.

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[ChrisHarden]

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EVERYTHING THAT I USE IN THE FIELD:

WHAT I USE AT HOME:


SOCIAL MEDIA & CONTACT INFO:

DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you. As an Amazon Associate I do earn a small commission on qualifying purchases. As always, thank you for supporting my channel!

[paulnelson]

Cheap crap lol. That may be true but homes built in the 60's and '70's are going to last longer than homes built today.

[rainmant]

I grew up there in mid 70's to late 80's. It was quite a different place.

I think the two main blows were the recession in 1980, and allowing section 8 housing. When I lived there was 2 grocery stores, 2 pharmacy's, 4 fast food (McDonalds, Burger King, Dairy Queen, and Pizza Hut).

The 7-11 on the corner of Torrence and 223rd was a great place. The owner would camp out on the roof, to drop a bucket for donations for united way, shriners, etc. There would be carnivals, and a circus.

Every July 4th the village would have a firework display. There was no crime, no murders, etc. You could get a ticket for jay walking across the street. The post office was inside a Zenith TV store.

I graduated from Bloom Trail in the late 80's. The school was predominately caucasian, and had classes in Auto Body repair, Graphic Arts, and Drafting. It also had it's own team (Blazers) and colors (Blue and Gold). In physical education it offered swimming, archery, weight lifting, wrestling, and even ping pong.

Very sad to see how it has declined, just in the last 10 years, let alone 45.

[williamdavidson]

I patrolled the Cook County forest preserve for 30 years and I watched Sauk Village go from bad to worse it was a nice place

[skatee]

Thanks for the effort in this video. Yet another excellently produced post.

[Hoosier-uw]

Excellent video and researched very well !

[martelmccoy]

Wow great video Chris!!! I lived in Matteson with family and had a girlfriend in SV whom I frequently stayed with there. We lived in a mini mansion SV in 2020 and the Water 💦 was horrible, needless to say we always drank bottled water. I had no problem with walking the streets early morning or evening unlike Chicago. I’m surprised that you didn’t show the better built homes in the neighborhoods there. I enjoyed traveling down Sauk Trail Rd from Matteson to SV but never knew the history until now thanks to you. I would always go to Dyer and Shervillle Indiana to shop. You brought back memories. I can say that there’s a lot of good people there I encountered and I enjoyed the forest preserve there. Thank you for sharing this video!!!

[chrystallee]

There's a few horse ranches in Sauk Village. They used to cater to the Horse Racing Track in Crete but, it stopped racing horses a few years ago. They still function with stable services.

[fratzogmopars]

Those south suburbs were nice until the WWII vets died off and their baby boomer kids moved out to farther south west suburbs and beyond. Corruption and decay are now king now in those towns. It is creeping west across Cicero avenue now.

[albertsancho]

Thanks for this video, Sauk Village was my childhood. I graduated from Bloom Trail in 2014 and I used to live right behind the school at the deer creek estates subdivison you see at 28:21 behind the football field. There almost all the groceries stores and shops closed down and I watched Sauk Village went into a decline during my time there. It went from 55% white in 2000 to 60% black in 2020.

[ronsenzel]

The village was a good place to grow up in the 80’s. It had a thriving little league program full of kids and families. The baseball fields behind Wagoner school were great. The town has gone to shit for the most part. Even McDonald’s couldn’t survive. But, a lot of people living there back in the 80’s have many good memories - stopping at Peppermint Palace on the way home from Rickover, fireworks on July 4th at St James, the bike derby at Wagoner ( which I won in 4th grade, lol ), little league parade, hide and go seek, ding dong ditch and parents not worrying about their kids being out after dark. I took my kids there to show them where I played baseball as a kid. It was bittersweet. The ball fields, fences and stands were all there but the entire area - 4 baseball fields - were completely covered in weeds 3 feet high. I’m glad. Got out 30 years ago.

[DLeadVox]

I was wondering if you were going to do Sauk Village! Here it is!
Your not wrong about Dyer. It's nice there and yeah, you can get the same house in Dyer for 1/2 the price and 1/6 the yearly taxes.
Thanks Chris. For the tour, insight and history.
Oh, your not wrong about 80/94 either...

[laurafoote]

interesting video, thank you for sharing!

[johnnystengel]

We called it the ill vill back in the early 90s. Great video spot on the history.

[billwilson-esyn]

I grew up in Hammond ('54 - '77). My family went there when it started to boom in the 1870's and 1900 to build homes and police the drunk Germans. There used to be working truck farms in and around Calumet City, Lansing, South Holland. Sauk Village was a farming community with a little business district along Rt. 30. The Federal Government had a German POW camp in Thornton Township called Camp Thorton. The POWs worked for the German and Dutch farmers so many returned after the war to live there. In 1967 a friend found an old map from 1944 showing where various industries were located out in that general area so we rode our bicycles out there to see what was left. Our parents said those factories popped up overnight then were torn down just as fast after the war ended. All that cheap looking housing are prefab homes that popped up overnight. Six years later we got jobs at the steel mills so now rode motorcycles around the outskirts of Chicago to check out the rapidly growing urban sprawl then the babes at the taverns in the older villages. Those moving out there were white and just wanted to live further away from smelly factories and in new neighborhoods instead of where they grew up. There still was s fair amount of open farmland in that region when I moved to Texas in 1977. Was surprised at how much had been developed when I returned in 1979 to get my motorcycles. Was surprised again in 1981 when I came to work on two of my mother's rent houses in Hammond. Drove around the Region being shown all of the boarded up businesses and homes. Stopped by that bar by Dyer to chat with the owner. He said nobody seems too concerned since they're collecting unemployment with some working for cash on the side. I stopped paying attention to what was going on up there after that stay. My mother sold her properties to live in a trailer park community in Resseler when Hammond home prices rose due to the influx of Cook County residents.

[craignovy]

I know this is a video but the narration alone is really superb. It was far better than any economics, urban planning or humanities lecture I ever heard in and out of college. The facts can sometimes be painful but if they are not stated accurately and intelligently the possibility of correcting course, both individually and collectively, goes way down. Very well done Chris. The video totally backs the narration and OMG I was thinking of far east Indianapolis too! 👍👍👍

[tucox]

Another cool video. Keep the series up

[ThePeggyj]

Great video. Loved your Tiffany Henyard comment. Bawaaaha

[ForrestGump]

If you ever do a piece on Lansing, IL I would HIGHLY recommend reaching out to a man named Jeff White. He’s a high school teacher and literally teaches a class called Local History. Great source of knowledge here.

[jasonhsu]

Question for everyone: If you were the mayor of Sauk Village, what would you do to avoid ending up like Ford Heights?