Despite disinvestment, a longtime West Sider has stayed put with the help of block clubs

Helen King sits in her dining room in Chicago’s West Garfield Park neighborhood. She’s been living in the home for more than 50 years and chuckles at the couch and lampshades covered in plastic. “Can you imagine that color if I didn’t have plastic on? All the kids and stuff,” she said. King raised her children here with her late husband Harry. She takes pride that her couches are still their original shade of yellow. “Alexa, play Ray Charles,” she said as she walked over to the kitchen. The…