The only way you wind up In a bad neighborhood is if you deliberately go to one. There are a ton of signs you pick up that give you the idea to avoid those areas when you get closer. That and you can just Google past chicago threads and see neighborhoods mentioned to avoid.
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So what is really going on in Chicago, gaf?
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CreepingFear
Member
Chicago is almost a perfect rectangle grid and has pretty good public transportation.
eddievanclaylen
Member
Thats 100% real, and its December. Imagine it in July.
While I'm sure this year is going to noticeably increase it, the murder rate per capita doesn't even have Chicago in the top 3 for 2015.
As someone who's lived here for years, I can honestly say I have never felt unsafe in Chicago. I hear more about the murders from GAF than I do of any of my colleagues/friends. If you visit Chicago, you're not (for any reason I can think of) going to end up in any of the areas heavily concentrated with gun violence.
Its not oversimplifying it at all. The four things you mentioned are all linked together, especially education since most school funding in Illinois is provided by property taxes.
KurtSloane
Banned
100% all this stuff .... but also have to be honest that there are a lot ot bad people out there that would be doing heinous shit no matter what.
Auto-Reply
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Still sounds crazy if you ask me, "My city is safe, just avoid the warzones!".
TheSpoiler
Member
I don't know. The perception of Chicago has always bothered me. It's definitely earned it, but I feel like people rarely ever contextualize the issue and just paint it as an unsolvable problem, which leads people on the outside and inside giving up on the city and the people afflicted. It's a small part of the issue, but I've always felt the narrative that you'll get shot anywhere in the city is the kind of mindset that leads to a "why bother" attitude.
Again, that isn't to say crime isn't a problem. It is. It's just that, outside of NeoGAF, when I tell people about Chicago's issues, they rarely ever want to listen to a sit-down conversation in favor of plastering it as a consistent warzone (I'm not saying people here are doing that, by the way).
I don't know how to explain this, but I feel like topics like this are such a great start and I wish more conversations would contain factual information and highlighting the biggest areas of cause. But Chicago's problems are lumped into an unrecognizable mess and thrown in the trash because "lol it'll always be like that".
I love my city, and there's some good in all this filth. I just wish people would be willing to really hash out the biggest issues instead of glazing over them.
Hopefully it doesn't sound like I'm deterring the conversation away from Chicago's problems or trying to soften the blow, because I love the honest discussion going on here. Just adding another tangent on things.
Again, that isn't to say crime isn't a problem. It is. It's just that, outside of NeoGAF, when I tell people about Chicago's issues, they rarely ever want to listen to a sit-down conversation in favor of plastering it as a consistent warzone (I'm not saying people here are doing that, by the way).
I don't know how to explain this, but I feel like topics like this are such a great start and I wish more conversations would contain factual information and highlighting the biggest areas of cause. But Chicago's problems are lumped into an unrecognizable mess and thrown in the trash because "lol it'll always be like that".
I love my city, and there's some good in all this filth. I just wish people would be willing to really hash out the biggest issues instead of glazing over them.
Hopefully it doesn't sound like I'm deterring the conversation away from Chicago's problems or trying to soften the blow, because I love the honest discussion going on here. Just adding another tangent on things.
the_batman
Banned
outsida
Member
The same thing was happening in the 70's, 80's and 90's though...
It's sad definitely. I only ever lived in the W/NW area of Chicago, but on the news everyday, you hear about Minorities in the South Side killing each other. On the other hand, you will most likely never have to visit those areas if you are a tourist. Just stick to Downtown Chicago and the North Side where all of the attractions are at.
Telosfortelos
Advocate for the People
My point was that the conditions that caused the situation aren't the same as those that sustain it. I definitely agree that education and job opportunities have to be present for these communities, but the violence in these neighborhoods is sustained by social conditioning that's created a new, distinct humanitarian crisis that may require a different set of solutions. The initial causes have to be tackled as well, and would be a massive humanitarian crisis unto themselves even without the accompanying violence.
Blueingreen
Member
There is this old documentary on YouTube about the now demolished Robert Taylor housing projects, it's astounding how a first world nation can contain such third world living standards in the inner city, truly tragic.
Three pages and no mention of hey jackass?
http://heyjackass.com/
http://heyjackass.com/
For the average person living in or visiting Chicago there's nothing to worry about. Many areas of the city are remarkably safe for a city that size. The problem is the poor areas where the gangs are located. These areas are basically forgotten along with the citizens residing in them. A lot of kids growing up on these areas have no choice but to fall in with a gang. The schools are shit, the people are poor, they don't report crime for fear of retaliation, the adults do not have access to good jobs (frequently due to past criminal charges) many kids have no parents because they are either locked up for drug charges, dead, or nowhere to be found. It's really a terrible situation and no one really truly seems to care about changing it. Probably because it's too hard.
I lived in Chicago for 10 years and still work in the city.
I lived in Chicago for 10 years and still work in the city.
The way they are doing it now? If you see the twitter accounts they are laughing and posting the pictures of dead bodies of their rivals. Like "you like talking shit like your little bro (pic of dead 16 year old with gunshot wounds lying on the middle of the street taken by killer)" and stuff of that nature.
There was some kind of marked uptick starting a few years ago right? When they started actually coining the term "Chiraq." Since then I've always wondered about why or what caused that uptick, but the news has never tried to get to the heart of it. I've been wondering if maybe there was a big gang shake-up at some point.
I think Vice did a piece on Chicago violence a few years ago and hinted at some events that may have had a big effect in the trends.
Yeah I think it was something like this. A lot of projects or schools got split up or reshuffled or something which messed up the social landscape and messed up a lot of kids' access to public schools. I don't know the specifics though.
I think Vice did a piece on Chicago violence a few years ago and hinted at some events that may have had a big effect in the trends.
Yeah I think it was something like this. A lot of projects or schools got split up or reshuffled or something which messed up the social landscape and messed up a lot of kids' access to public schools. I don't know the specifics though.
outsida
Member
I specifically meant the same killings where happening in the decades prior not the same exact way of showin of disrespect. But in previous years the way to show the disrespect was to spray paint it on a building wall or garage. So nothing is really new under the sun. The form in which it reveals itself has just evolved with the times.
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