What is life like in Chicago?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are so many killings, I wonder what life is like for people living in those communities in Chicago. Is it like life anywhere else, but they just know not to go out at night? Or are the killings not random, so it’s just like life anywhere else?

OP, you’re either a troll, super lazy, or both. All the information you’re asking for is readily available online.

I’m neither, just sheltered. I’ve always lived in suburbia, and the only thing I know about inner-city is from movies or a few books. Can you share real pieces of information describing what daily life is like in this type of area?

This American Life did a really good feature on high school kids who lived on the West Side of Chicago in a neighborhood highly affected by shootings several years back: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/487/harper-high-school-part-one

Maybe this is what you are looking for? It describes kids trying to go through their typical high school lives with drama like who is going to take me to prom with gun violence/gangs in the background. It talks about the trauma many students go through but you can also tell they are just teenagers.

Thank you, yes, this is the type of thing I meant! I didn't have the name handy, so didn't reference it before, but I read There are no Children here several years ago, and I'm fascinated (and heart broken) over the real life stories of what some people have to face. But that story was 30 years ago, so I was wondering if things were the same, or how they may have changed. I'll watch your link. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in the Chicago area. My parents live near Northwestern University and are about 15 miles from downtown and four miles from the city limits. Where they live could not be more idyllic leafy suburbia with big old houses and pretty streets and a cute downtown. I have friends who live in various neighborhoods in the city.

The truth is the violence happens mostly in a few neighborhoods on the West and South Sides, and there is pretty much no spillover into other neighborhoods where most professional families live. There are a few gentrifying neighborhoods that get require a bit of vigilance, like any other city environment--comparable neighborhoods in DC are no different. But mostly there is such a deep history of residential housing segregation in Chicago that neighborhoods with the worse intractable generational poverty feel isolated. Most people are not walking around being afraid of randomly getting shot unless you live in one of those neighborhoods. In the neighborhoods where the violence happens most of the killings are gang related and targeted, but occasionally someone innocent gets shot like a very tragic example of a 7 year old who got in the crossfire this weekend. It really feels like two cities sometimes. You could be out in Lincoln Park at the Zoo and completely ignore what is happening on the West and South Side.

I think the comparison to Baltimore is reasonable, but Chicago is a much larger city/metro area with a larger job market. The numbers of wealthy or even middle class areas that don't feel "affected" by the very poor areas are more numerous than in Baltimore. There are a lot of structural reasons that make the gun violence so intractable, one being Chicago being a transit hub in terms of rail and highway transit which means that it has the perfect infrastructure for distribution from Mexican cartels geographically. Another being that parts of the South side border Indiana, so any gun control laws the city or state makes are pretty unenforceable when you can just get a gun from a gun show in Indiana.

With regard to living there, yes it is cold and miserable in the winter. It is also an architecturally stunning city with the Lake and the river going through it, and in many ways a beautiful world class city.

All of this, as someone who went to Northwestern for undergrad and then lived in Chicago for ~three years after graduation. I'd move back in a heartbeat. The bolded is especially true vis a vis the comparison to Baltimore. Chicago is SO much bigger and Chicagoland is sprawling.

[Anonymous]

The south and west side of the city are a huge problem due to drugs and gangs fighting over turf. The rest of the city is pretty safe and in the summer is the best city to live in in the US. Before the virus people would flock to the city from the suburbs due to all the festivals and street fairs. Also, the lakefront is magnificent as are the city parks. From May thru October people live outdoors but the winters are long and cold. I’ve lived in Chicago and DC and I’d take Chicago in a second. Sports, art, and nice Midwest people.