As crowds roared inside the United Center over the past week , with Democratic organizers joining together to build enthusiasm for the party’s nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris for president, the whole spectacle has been nothing short of a “nuisance” for Dee Henderson. Henderson’s back porch directly faces the large arena that was designated as the convention’s hub of late-night political speeches and events. The tall steel fencing put up by officials around the center almost touches the above-ground pool where her grandson likes to swim on hot summer days.
“They caged me in,” said Henderson, who has lived behind the United Center for the past half-century in one of the last single-home residential buildings on the block. On Thursday , the final night of the long-anticipated convention, while Harris gave a speech in front of tens of thousands inside the arena and millions around the world, the 66-year-old — like most other West Side neighborhood residents — stayed home. The convention, though just several feet away from her backyard, could not have seemed farther away, she said.
She said she knew there were protests Monday afternoon because she could hear them from her back porch. Her house is less than a mile from a park adjacent to the United Center where protesters scuffled with police officers in riot gear after momentarily breaking through the security perimeter. “It sounded like they were getting into it,” she said.
“Like a fight.” In .