THE BIG RED SHIP

Every few episodes on CHICAGO PD, we film a scene at the old 6th District cop house on Maxwell Street, no longer anywhere near the dump it looked like decades ago, and I'm posting some interior shots of the history of the place. Currently it is occupied by the campus police, and don't get me started on the gentrification of "University Village". Check out YouTube for the theme to Hill Street Blues for scenes from when the area was still a ghetto with the only thing going for it was the Maxwell Street market.

HILL STREET BLUES & THE MAXWELL STREET NEW NORMAL

I took some screen grabs of YouTubes to reflect what the Maxwell Street area looks like today as opposed to when I attended UIC in 1980-1982. The younger people who attend Bad Grammar have no idea of the hustle and then the desolation and then the displacement to make what is now the quaint little "University Village". The wonderful thing about writers is that a place like Maxwell Street can never be lost.