2 Miles

          

 It was a typical afternoon on the West Side of Chicago. A 12 year old Tony McNeal had just finished football practice in Seward Park, only a couple blocks away from his childhood home. Afterwards, a group of his teammates asked if he wanted to hang out with them and some local gang members. The boys were only in seventh grade, but desperately wanted to fit in with the older kids in their neighborhood. Their plan was to buy weed from the group, in hopes that they would let them stick around after.  Tony declined the offer, and despite ridicule, proceeded to walk home alone. Later that evening, the area his teammates were in was attacked by a rival gang. Two boys were caught in the violence. One survived, but the others injuries were fatal. “They weren’t even gang members,” Tony says, “just in the wrong place, at the wrong time, hanging around the wrong crowd.” Unfortunately, this was a common fate for inner city kids. 

            That was 34 years ago. Today, Tony McNeal sits on the 28th floor of Chicago’s Facebook office, as the Director of Engineer Recruitment. He’s traded in his basketball shorts for slacks and a button down, and sits at a large desk overlooking Navy Pier. His brown skin pops against a sea of white colleagues, while his large stature towers over the room. With a large set of deep set eyes, he holds a strong gaze – seemingly prepared for any situation. He exudes confidence, but assists his colleagues with an even keeled tone. It’s Aaways present, but never demeaning. One of his team members, Hyunsoo Shin, describes him as “a strategic leader who can see every angle of a situation and think through aspects that other people might miss.” However, what his coworkers don’t understand is that these attributes are instinctual. He’s climbed the corporate ladder, but only because of a unique set of street skills that set him apart from his competitors. He is a Cabrini Green kid, raised in a housing project that used to sit just just two miles away from the window behind his desk.

            Tony, along with his former teammates, grew up in the Cabrini Green Housing projects. To this day, it is known as one the most dangerous ghettos in America. “There was violence all around me.” he says, “There was always somebody getting shot or hurt by the gangs. That was common...very common.” In 1981 his mother Lily chose to move their family from her mother’s home to the projects when he was six years old. The family of four (including a younger brother Robert, and sister Tyesha) lived in a two bedroom apartment on the third floor. It was tiny, and hardly had enough space for everyone, but it was theirs. “I was just trying to get an apartment on my own at the time,” Lily says. She recalls the rent prices being low enough to afford as a single parent, and with three growing children this seemed like the best option for everyone. Their family stayed for a total of seven years.

            Though Cabrini Green was notorious for its crime rates, it still had a family friendly appeal. Before moving in, Lily learned that three of her girlfriends were also raising their children there. In fact, they were able to get an apartment right above her best friend on the second floor. “The building I moved to wasn’t so bad then.” Lily said. “You had to take whatever they gave you, but I wasn’t in that bad of a building.” She recalls everyone looking for each other, which created a strong bond between the mothers. With Tony being the eldest, she could also count on him to help out with his younger siblings when she wasn’t around. “He’s always been a smart kid.” she said, “Always used to take care of his sister and brother.”

            During the period that Tony and his family stayed in that apartment, a show called “Good Times” simultaneously aired on CBS. “Good Times” was a sitcom about a couple named Florida and James Evans who were trying to raise their kids in a fictionalized Cabrini Green. The show was beloved for its comedic plots and wholesome characters, but it was hardly an accurate representation of the projects. The Evans family lived in a small, but cozy space with a welcoming living room that all fans know and love. The set was simple but displayed warm beige walls, a large couch, and artisan rugs. 

            In actuality Cabrini Green was a lot less charming. The apartments were made of cold brick, and lacked any real walls with insulation. If anything, it looked more like a cage than a home. The buildings windows and balconies were lined with steel mesh, which effectively divided its residents from the outside world. However, the inside wasn’t much better. The buildings were filled with apartments, typically having three or four on each floor. They were poorly made and lacked much sanitation. As a result, the residents constantly battled roach infestations. “They would set off these bug bombs.” Tony recalls, “We’d have to leave the house for several hours and it would stop the problem...but they’d just come back after a couple of weeks. Those were just the conditions we grew up with.”

            Nevertheless, Lily would frequently decorate their home to make it feel more comforting. “I remember her painting it white,” Tony says, “I remember her painting it blue...I remember her painting it white with blue stripes in the creases. You could paint them, but they were still brick walls.” Though valiant efforts were made, Tony and his family were still stuck in the reality of an impoverished lifestyle. No amount of paint could mask it.

Lily was correct in that their building was one of the “better ones.” There was not much violence inside, but the complex was not a safe environment overall. The buildings were separated by color with red brick apartments on one side of the street and white brick apartments on the other. Each side had gangs to represent them, who were apart of a never ending turf war. “The Vice Lords were in the red buildings and the Disciples were in the white buildings,” Tony said, “…everybody knew that.” This aspect of Cabrini Green, is a major factor that Good Times left out. Though the Evans family lived in the projects, violence was rarely mentioned in the show. The Evans kids roamed freely, seemingly without many worries. Their fictionalized world was simple but safe, and they did not have to develop the same street skills Tony needed to survive. 

 With so many children living in the projects, an established set of street rules naturally developed. Babies and elementary kids were off limits. Tony’s younger siblings rarely encountered the same violence he did because of this. They primarily played inside on what was referred to as “the porches.” This area of the apartment was essentially a large slate of concrete, fenced in by metal wire. They were located at the base of each building, separate from the apartment but not actually being outdoors. While children congregated there to play, gang members remained outside watching the boundary lines like a militia. Before Tony joined the football team, Lily recalls him playing their constantly. According to her, this was where her kids hung out with their neighbors, learned how to play cards, and practiced roller skating. It was a safe zone.

However, once Tony started middle school, he aged out of this space. He and the older kids left the porches to play outside of their building. Every apartment had an area behind it with swings, mini park sets, and a small field of grass. This was a space where they had more freedom, but had to keep careful watch of their surroundings. Danger was imminent and as Tony recalls, “People would just break out running. You don’t know what’s going on, but you’d turn around and see a rival gang coming with bats and sticks…just trying to attack the kids playing baseball.” However, with this being a constant issue, fear wasn’t prevalent. Instead, everyone simply knew the rules. If you see your friends running, run first and ask why later. Don’t cross boundary lines. Be home before dark. And always look out for one another. This understanding was necessary and helpful in times of obvious danger, but nothing could’ve prepared him for the shooting of his teammates.

A year after the football incident, Tony and his family left Cabrini Green and moved into a nicer area. “I had more money so we went to a better neighborhood up north.” Lily says, “It was beautiful up there.” This is the home Tony and his siblings lived in for the rest of their upbringing, and he remembers it being a lot more comfortable than their former residence. Towards the end of middle school Tony’s grades awarded him the opportunity to attend a select enrollment highschool called Lane Tech. These are now known as test in schools, but back then the school board invited high performing students all across the city to attend their institution. The commute from his new house took two buses and lasted an hour and fifteen minutes, but it was certainly worth the trouble. The environment was tougher than his previous schools, but it exposed him to a world of opportunity.

From that point on, Tony proceeded to graduate with stellar grades and a basketball scholarship for The University of Illinois at Chicago. After graduating college he moved onto the corporate world, working at a variety of companies before he reached Facebook two years ago. Looking back on his experience, he attributes his determination and success to that fateful day in Seward Park. “That was a polarizing point in my life,” he said, “I became really sad but also certain about the value of being a leader instead of a follower...It also crystalized for me how I needed to chart a different course for my life.”