What is life like in Chicago?

[Anonymous]

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?

[Anonymous]

My neighborhood (Andersonville) is super safe... We take nightly walks.

[Anonymous]

Shitty. It is very cold. The people that are happy there seem to be from there.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

Nah. I think people can be genuinely concerned or interested. Chicago is having an especially bloody summer, ever since the riots and protests. And crime has been increasing in Chicago over the last few years too. If you live in suburbia or a place like Denver, then these daily shootings can be really astonishing.

OP, to answer your question as someone who grew up in Baltimore, I suspect it's quite similar to Baltimore in that parts of the city have almost all the violence and crime, and other parts are very quiet and safe. And there's some gray areas. And once in a blue moon someone gets shot a bit too close to home.

[Anonymous]

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?

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

It's not really unlike any other city if you don't live in the south side (afflicted area).

It's obviously colder, less "green" in my opinion (trees, etc...) and a bigger city than DC is.

Yes, you can walk.

[Anonymous]

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.

Nah. I think people can be genuinely concerned or interested. Chicago is having an especially bloody summer, ever since the riots and protests. And crime has been increasing in Chicago over the last few years too. If you live in suburbia or a place like Denver, then these daily shootings can be really astonishing.

OP, to answer your question as someone who grew up in Baltimore, I suspect it's quite similar to Baltimore in that parts of the city have almost all the violence and crime, and other parts are very quiet and safe. And there's some gray areas. And once in a blue moon someone gets shot a bit too close to home.

Honestly, if someone lives in Chicago in some parts of the city or in the suburbs, it is really astonishing and shocking. Especially because it is happening so close but seems so distant from your lived experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not really unlike any other city if you don't live in the south side (afflicted area).

It's obviously colder, less "green" in my opinion (trees, etc...) and a bigger city than DC is.

Yes, you can walk.

I don't know that it really feels "less green" in more residential neighborhoods--there are a lot of older neighborhoods with single family homes (all those "bungalow" neighborhoods) or townhouses and leafy mature trees. Downtown feels more like a real big city, concrete jungle and all, but even that has Grant Park and Millennium Park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not really unlike any other city if you don't live in the south side (afflicted area).

It's obviously colder, less "green" in my opinion (trees, etc...) and a bigger city than DC is.

Yes, you can walk.

I don't know that it really feels "less green" in more residential neighborhoods--there are a lot of older neighborhoods with single family homes (all those "bungalow" neighborhoods) or townhouses and leafy mature trees. Downtown feels more like a real big city, concrete jungle and all, but even that has Grant Park and Millennium Park.

To be fair, we typically go in the winter and early spring, so I don't often have an opportunity to see it when trees are in bloom but it definitely felt more concrete jungle-y than DC does to me.

[Anonymous]

Armed men stormed into a drug rehabilitation facility in central Mexico on Wednesday, killing 26 men and gravely wounding five others.

What's life like in Mexico?

[Anonymous]

I grew up in Chicago but moved away for college. Violent crime is one of those things that happens on television, but you just shrug because it doesn’t affect you. Most of my friends and family who still live the the city proper have been the victims of crime (mugging, b&e, vehicle theft) and one witnessed a murder on her street corner. She decided it was time to move. It’s very neighborhood specific.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not really unlike any other city if you don't live in the south side (afflicted area).

It's obviously colder, less "green" in my opinion (trees, etc...) and a bigger city than DC is.

Yes, you can walk.

I don't know that it really feels "less green" in more residential neighborhoods--there are a lot of older neighborhoods with single family homes (all those "bungalow" neighborhoods) or townhouses and leafy mature trees. Downtown feels more like a real big city, concrete jungle and all, but even that has Grant Park and Millennium Park.

To be fair, we typically go in the winter and early spring, so I don't often have an opportunity to see it when trees are in bloom but it definitely felt more concrete jungle-y than DC does to me.

Sure I'm just saying this is Chicago:https://s3-prod.chicagobusiness.com/chicago-loop.jpg" target="_new" rel="nofollow"> https://s3-prod.chicagobusiness.com/chicago-loop.jpg which I imagine is what most people think of when you say Chicago.

But so is this:https://lifechicago.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/chicago-neighborhoods-suburbs-terminology-10.jpg

and this: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:East_Ravenswood_Historic_District_Chicago_IL.jpg

and this: https://c8.alamy.com/comp/KGKPDE/a-residential-street-in-the-lincoln-square-neighborhood-of-chicago-KGKPDE.jpg

and so on. And that is just within the city limits, not counting close in suburbs.