Different perception of crime in Chicago? (Lincoln, Riverdale: crime rates, home, safe neighborhoods)

[citylove101]

As often as I've visited the city, it seems to me that there is a wholly different perception of crime in Chicago than in my hometown--and maybe other big cities as well--and it has nothing to do with the raw numbers of serious crimes or crime rates.

Chicagoans I've talked to tend to beleive that crime is incredibly random and that bad things can happen anywhere in the city to a far greater degree than what I've heard here in NYC. Here, most people figure that if you're in a decent nabe your worries about crime are sharply diminshed. Stay on the Upper East Side or Riverdale or Park Slope and you don't really think about it too much.

But in Chicago it seems as if people feel the threat and talk about it no matter where they go, from Rogers Park to the Gold Coast to Beverly (not just those specific nabes, just using them as examples). Chicagoans don't just worry about crime in "bad" neighborhoods, your Austin or Englewood, say, but in almost every neighborhood--so much so that the worry about geting mugged/robbed/raped/shot seems far more pervasive.

For Chicagoans who've been to other cities and can compare, is my perception of this right or am I totally off-base? Does Chicago worry about randomized crime a lot more than other places?

[knitgirl]

I think you see a lot of people ASKING about crime in general in Chicago on this forum, but honestly, besides normal city street smarts, I never was that concerned about crime. I lived in Ravenswood and Lincoln Square for about 10 yrs and never had a problem.

[Chicago60614]

Been here 10 years and never had any problems. People get freaked out because as in all places you're going to have your random attacks, and the media really goes after anything that happens downtown or the north lakefront, while ignoring the thousands of robberies and assaults on the south and west sides.

People talk about it more maybe than in NYC, but at an individual level when you're out drinking on a saturday or going to work/back - people who live in the safer areas of the city don't actually sit around freaking out about being attacked.

[Jandur]

I think it depends on the person. I'll be the first to admit that when I am walking around Gold Coast at 3am I never feel the least bit unsafe. Now could something happen? Sure, it's a big city and stuff happens. But beyond that slim possibility I don't think there is much to worry about in the safe neighborhoods.

There are a lot of negative nancies on this board who try to make things seem like they are worse than they really are.

[SpikeDurden]

I'm sure you're just as likely to get mugged in NYC's upper east side as you are in Chicago's Gold Coast. The chances are slim, but obviously exist. I think Chicago just has a harder reputation because of the 80s and 90s and huge gang population and it's been trying to shed that reputation since then. NYC's reputation from the 70s has definitely been shed long ago and Chicago is still trying.

I walk around by myself at night all the time and very rarely do I feel uncomfortable. And I live in a nice area on the north side.

[ajolotl]

There seem to be a lot of people in this country with a weird visceral disgust with cities in general and the type of people who live in and advocate for them. Certain themes arise again and again about city people: their "socialist" obsession with public transit, fascination with coffee shops and apple technology, general "liberal agenda", acceptance of deviance, general effeteness, etc. I've noticed that these people love to wildly inflate and exaggerate anything bad that happens in the city-- it's always the beginning of a trend where everything "is going to hell in a handbasket", every neighborhood is about to "turn", it's all caused by permissive liberal attitudes and agendas, is inherent when there are too many black people, etc. All reason and perspective get thrown out the window and it's just say whatever time ("i'll visit lincoln park next time I find myself with a tank and a security escort").

Anyhow, I think most people that live in reasonable neighborhoods in the city feel pretty safe and don't obsess over crime (and aren't too affected by it). The ones who are the loudest live in the suburbs and have some kind of weird agenda. Never fully understood it.

Of course it goes both ways -- lots of anti-suburban snobbery and stereotypes that aren't warranted. But that's a different conversation.

[chet everett]

The media in Chicago has little else to talk about. In NYC there are a lot more celeb stories and they spend time talking about national politics.

Daley had local politics all neatly rubber stamped and that made City Council a lot more boring than back in the Harold days.

Crime is thus ALWAYS the lead story and the media fans the flames.

I like my iPad and my Starbucks, riding Metra and even enjoying the nicer things Chicago has to offer. That said my work has been in the 'burbs for the past few years. Crime is lower (had cars broken into every Chicago neighborhood) but that is not the same as feeling I need a tank, just makes it easier to justify $45 parking as part of my budget for driving in...

[andywire]

I was initially surprised how safe I felt walking around late at night during the weekend. I am fully aware that bad things can and do happen all the time, but a little street smarts go a long way. If one is going to worry about what could happen all the time, than it's hard to live life to the fullest.

I believe Chicagoans have, as a whole, come to terms with the reality that crime often is random, and any one of us could potentially be victims. It's nothing new really, crime is a pervasive element within society, and it always has been. Today, police have much more effective strategies of dealing with it, but they cannot be everywhere at once to prevent it. As such, it is up to us to always be aware of our surroundings, and do the best to avoid being victims.

[soulful]

Crime in this city is very random and not generally a concern to me unless I am out very late in an isolated area.

I think many crime fearing posters are newcomers to the city or potential visitors who hear the horror stories about isolated incidents. It's an odds game, like all of life.

[AmosBanks]

I don't have the link to it, but every district has crimes listed on line, all the way down to home invasion. Crime is everywhere in the city and it just depends on which ones the media decided to hype. Right now they are all over the mobs jumping people on Michigan Ave. They tried to tie it into the Flash Mob theft rings, but this is different.