Maywood, Illinois (Oak Park, Bellwood, River Forest: for sale, high crime, how much)

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

This is pretty much how I feel about the entire city of Minneapolis. The self-righteous finger pointing from that city is nauseating.

Of course, it doesn't really explain the hardened urban commies like my Alderman (Helen Shiller) or any of the activists we have up and down the North Lakefront.

Well, they certainly speak to certain audiences and their antics keep them in power and attention don't they? Some people know how to take advantage of opportunities to both play to white guilt and the ingrained suspicion of everyone and everything that prevails in certain low income communities. It's an easy "win win" for people of a certain mindset. Unfortunately, it comes at the expense of the opportunity to really reform urban areas.

[Venom]

Originally Posted by bungalowdweller

I'll throw in my 2 cents. A friend of mine and her husband bought in Maywood and own a huge two story house with a double lot within walking distance of the Metra on Broadway at Melrose Park. The house was a fixer-upper.

They are a black couple with 5 children. He is a professional who grew up in Maywood, she's a stay-at-home homeschooler. They are both highly educated people.

My friends have poured money into their house to make it a home. They built a garage. They installed privacy fencing around the lot. They had to remove at least three trees. Alot of moolah to make it nice for the kids. You all get the picture.

Two years ago, someone began dealing drugs in front of their home. The dealers are brazen. They KNOW that my girlfriend is there all day. She has been fighting this tooth and nail. She's called the police ad nauseum. She's written and spoken with Kimberly Lightford (is that the name of the state rep.?) She's even VIDEO-taped the drug deals!!! What more can one person do?

A few months back, the cop who runs the Neighborhood watch or whatever they call it there told her that she may as well "get USED TO IT". That there was "nothing they (police) could do" about it. That every town has these problems!

Now she wants to sell. She's in that house all day with those children and things are so bad that she can't sit on her front porch. The cops won't do a thing!

She doesn't want me to visit her anymore because she's afraid for me coming into the community---she thinks I'd be targeted. (I'm white.) As it is, the only time I ever visit is in the day, not any more.

This is a disgrace. These are good, honest, decent people who have helped to improve the block they live on. Why should they have to live a life staying away from their front windows? And WHERE are They going to go? With 5 kids she needs a bigger house. In the past they lived in Aurora but the husband works downtown so they want to stay in the near west suburbs. Whites and Hispanics can pick up and move anywhere. Outside of Oak Park, where else can a black family go that isn't more of the same (like Bellwood)?

I really had hopes for Maywood because of its location and affordibility but I think its too far gone. It's a disgrace.

This is all true.
I've witnessed drug deals too. I don't bother doing anything because nothing will be done anyway. There's many people in Maywood trying to do good, but it goes unnoticed or unheard.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Venom

This is all true.
I've witnessed drug deals too. I don't bother doing anything because nothing will be done anyway. There's many people in Maywood trying to do good, but it goes unnoticed or unheard.

It really is amazing how just a handful knuckleheads can effectively ruin a neighborhood or community. So many neighborhoods and communities would improve vastly if you could just round up a specific 10% of its residents and lock them away in prison or toss them on a desert island. Police indifference or outright corruption sure doesn't help either; but in the case of mere indifference I can understand how some cops tire of rounding up the dirtbags only to see a new crop of dirtbags spring up right behind them, and consequently feel like they're not accomplishing anything.

[HWilliams77]

Unfortunately, I don't think there is any hopes for Maywood...it is a HELL HOLE. I would however live in Oak Park or River Forest...and I have lived in Forest Park and it was ok. You just know the boundaries of your area and try not to cross into No-Man's Land. Maywood is the PITS...most of the people (not all...and sorry to generalize) are dirtbags.

[At1WithNature]

Originally Posted by HWilliams77

Unfortunately, I don't think there is any hopes for Maywood...it is a HELL HOLE. I would however live in Oak Park or River Forest...and I have lived in Forest Park and it was ok. You just know the boundaries of your area and try not to cross into No-Man's Land. Maywood is the PITS...most of the people (not all...and sorry to generalize) are dirtbags.

hey the dirtbags have to live somewhere and birds of a feather flock together, thus the harveys, maywoods, etc.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by At1WithNature

hey the dirtbags have to live somewhere and birds of a feather flock together, thus the harveys, maywoods, etc.

The problem is that there are just too many dirtbags in the Chicago area. And we can't build a jail large enough or a criminal justice system efficient enough to take them all in. Perhaps an Australia-style penal colony could work?

[At1WithNature]

LOL...i heard iceland went bankrupt. we can purchase that island for pennies on the dollar and ship them all there.

[ItsMeBitches]

Maywood is one of the hardest suburbs in Chicagoland. It only has like 20,000 people and averages as many murders as Aurora, Rockford, and Joliet. Maywood and Harvey are the roughest.

[Humboldt1]

I disagree with you about that stunt River Forest police pulled having the black man in handcuffs with his stolen merchandise on display. If the police were allowed to do more of this, sure Jesse Jackson would get upset, but there would be less crime. Less folks from Maywood and Austin would have the guts to rob areas like River Forest and Oak Park. You don't see ghetto blacks walking the streets in River Forest and this is because the police do not allow it. You do see this in Oak Park, especially as you approach Austin.

[bungalowdweller]

Originally Posted by Drover

It really is amazing how just a handful knuckleheads can effectively ruin a neighborhood or community. So many neighborhoods and communities would improve vastly if you could just round up a specific 10% of its residents and lock them away in prison or toss them on a desert island. Police indifference or outright corruption sure doesn't help either; but in the case of mere indifference I can understand how some cops tire of rounding up the dirtbags only to see a new crop of dirtbags spring up right behind them, and consequently feel like they're not accomplishing anything.

And what bugs me is how the powers that be ignore everything and then 20 years later their kids "discover" the area and make hand over fist. Meanwhile, the few who are decent live like there's a war on. Security systems, dogs, locking every window, every door ALL the time. Make certain they're in the house at night----NEVER go out at night. Don't walk down their own streets because they can't. Talk about crimes against humanity!

What about the civil rights of the law-abiding?