A few days ago, longtime blog contributor Alan Hopewell mentioned in a comment that he had lived in Campito from 1971 to 1976.
That reminded me that I had this article about Campito in my files, which I figured I might as well post for those of you not familiar with that area. The article by Ron Porambo appeared in the Lorain Journal on August 15, 1966 and details the problems in the area at that time.
As the article notes, ""Campito” is a name thought up by people living on the outside or by a Spanish-speaking minority on the inside. The only real name for a place comes from the people who live and sweat there and these know it only as “the other side of 36th Street.” Some of these live in the dark, the “night people, and they know it as “when you cross 36th Street, you’ve got a good chance of making it.” The 17 square blocks across 36th Street sit alongside Lorain and there isn’t any wall to stop a spreading disease, hustlers, marijuana cigarettes, bootleg whiskey, or men who carry guns and all these things can come and go into the city every day and it’s time to think of it that way.”
I remember driving around that area, probably in the late 1970s, and being somewhat shocked by the appearance of some of the homes, which appeared to be only a little better structurally than packing crates. But a quick ‘Google Maps’ cruise around the neighborhood today shows nice homes and roads that are in better shape than the ones on the west side of Lorain where I grew up.
Here is the article.
