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I had to drive from Naperville through I-88, some beltway 3 digit freeway, and whatnot, to catch I-57 going south, and I think it was Blue Island. I remember a street full of gas stations, liquor stores, and dive-type diners. I had to buy gas, and thought, "wow, where am I?" It instantly reminded me of Imperial Highway in Los Angeles, as it goes through Hawthorne, where the Beach Boys come from, also a working class community that is now largely Latino and black.
At any rate, any city that supports 2 big Catholic universities (DePaul and Loyola) such as Chicago says "big-time Catholic." That doesn't even include small schools like Mundelein et al.
I had to drive from Naperville through I-88, some beltway 3 digit freeway, and whatnot, to catch I-57 going south, and I think it was Blue Island. I remember a street full of gas stations, liquor stores, and dive-type diners. I had to buy gas, and thought, "wow, where am I?" It instantly reminded me of Imperial Highway in Los Angeles, as it goes through Hawthorne, where the Beach Boys come from, also a working class community that is now largely Latino and black.
I believe that you went to I-294 and that connects you to Chicago Ridge, Palos Hills, Alsip, Midlothian, Robbins and Crestwood. Many areas in there are working class and rougher. Robbins was (still is?) considered kind of dangerous and not really surprising if you saw many dive-y places there. Crestwood isn't much better (around the mall is OK but outside of that immediate bubble, at least when I was there, was kinda scary).
Some of the most vibrantly Catholic places are Southeast Asian. I can't remember the stats, but considering their size Southeast Asian Catholics were like way overrepresented in the priesthood. We had a Burmese priest in my mostly white parish once and Joseph Cao, who I think was the first Vietnamese-American Congressman or the first one outside of California at least, had attended a seminary or something for a time. Orange County, California looks to be quite Southeast Asian and quite Catholic. It's also quite expensive though. Kauai in Hawaii also looks quite Catholic and Southeast Asian, but I think it might also be expensive.
The Hispanic areas also might be more youthful than many "ethnic white" Catholic ones.
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Vapid??
