What Are The Bad Sections of Chicago? (Oak Park: neighborhoods, high school)

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by katrose

Avengerfire you are right crime is everywhere no matter where you live and its not that the people in my neighborhood who is committing crime its the outsiders. Yes and I am planning on moving, maybe I am looking for a place that doesn't exist anymore. Maybe I am living in the past as a kid when we didn't have to lock our doors and we always felt safe. I quess I don't like Chicago and never did, we moved here from another state when I was 12yrs. old and this was the first time we had to have our doors lock and not allowed to roam around like I use to. And the first time I got jumped and beaten, boy did I learn quick on how to defend myself. I didn't want to offend anyone who lived here there whole life and love it here. My husband was born and raised in Chicago and this is his whole life. So I won't be writing anything bad about Chicago again I will keep it to myself. Unless its about Daley, stroger and the governor now that is a whole new ballgame.

There are many safe neighborhoods in Chicago on the North Side. I've lived here for years and rarely had any problems. No, I probably wouldn't let a child roam free all day, but you shouldn't do that in any big city--or the suburbs for that matter. In terms of large American cities, the "safe" part of Chicago is larger than the entire area of most others. For instance, the population of Gold Coast, Old Town, Lincoln Park, Lakeview, North Center, Ravenswood, and the Northwest Side combined is about the same as the population of the entire city of San Francisco.

[Humboldt1]

Marquette Park,

I disagree with many of your points. To say the southside is cleaner than the northside is complete BS in my opinion given all the abandoned steel mills and heavy industry. The Des Plaines River is certainly more polluted as it approaches the south from all the pollutants thrown in by heavy industries. As far south as Crete or Frankfort this may be true but even by Steger it is not a clean situation. Orland Park, Tinley Park, and far south places such as Manhattan are clean for the most part, but that is like Lake Zurich or Libertyville. (Yes, mundelein, waukegan, and gurnee are polluted but they are the exception, not the rule on the northside).

To say blacks own the southside is true in that population wise blacks represent a majority in many neighborhoods. Ownership-wise I do not see this the case as many blacks are renters. Though many blacks own their homes and businesses as well as some commercial properties, the majority of ownership of properties (especially commercial) is not black. If you choose to argue this point I am happy to come up with some hard numbers to support this.

Right or wrong, including the south south, I do not blacks economically dominating the whole south side though blacks certainly do dominate in select neighborhoods.

I will do some research on garfield park and austin and see who owns those neighborhoods, though I have some italian friends who own several hundred units in garfield park.

[staylor21]

I agree with MarquettePark. I don't think people should take his review as being homophobic, racist or anti north-sider. But generally speaking that's how the majority of those demographics view the southside. And being a card caring member of the gay community I can tell you for sure that if you're gay and living on the southside then you're probably not visibly "out". Even the liberal oasis Hyde Park is not as comfortable for a gay person as say the north side neighborhoods of Andersonville or Lincoln Park would be.

Additionally I get so frustrated when people ask if a neighborhood is bad or good by name only. i.e. "is it dangerous to move to Bronzville"? The truth is that Chicago neighborhoods are so large it'd be better to ask or research on zip codes. One zip code in Bronzville you wouldn't want to live in but the other zip codes in the same neighborhood is not only safe but has large mansions going for astronomical prices.

@gilmona1
60624 WOULD NOT be a good neighborhood for a single white female. But if you did decide to live there you wouldn't be hassled because criminals tend to avoid doing anything to white people that would cause the police to come down on them, stopping their flow of business. I think the more appropriate question is would you be comfortable living in a high crime area until it flipped? 60624 is gentrifying with younger white people moving in but I haven't met a single white female there yet.

[cap1717]

60636? Please evaluate

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by cap1717

60636? Please evaluate

No,no,no. Dont move there. No. Its been evaluated a thousand times here. Do a search.

[isjeepin]

Mage, St. Bernard area is horrible. very high crime, as this is the Englewood area. Hyde park, maybe, but better than around St. Bernard. Much better in Beverly.

[godzillinois]

Hey all, moving to the city for the first time and I just found this great forum!

My roommate used to live in the Northside right next to the Gold Coast somewhere, not exactly where I want to live. Lookin to spend $1000 or less a month for a 3 bedroom or a big 2 bedroom with equally sized rooms and so far all I've come up with is stuff in the Logan Square area.

Any parts of Logan Square I should avoid? How's Division at Campbell? (I think the closest main intersection to that is Division/Western.) I'll be seeing some more spots in Ukranian Village/Wicker Park area soon (although I have a feeling it's more Humbolt Park and borderline Ukranian Village/Wicker Park) and once I get their exact areas I'll probably ask for your opinions on them too. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Oh, I guess some good info to know is that we're both artists and I'm into going out at night and going to live shows.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by godzillinois

...Any parts of Logan Square I should avoid? How's Division at Campbell? (I think the closest main intersection to that is Division/Western.) I'll be seeing some more spots in Ukranian Village/Wicker Park area soon (although I have a feeling it's more Humbolt Park and borderline Ukranian Village/Wicker Park) and once I get their exact areas I'll probably ask for your opinions on them too...

Once you get the exact areas let us know.

[NearWestSider]

Originally Posted by godzillinois

How's Division at Campbell?

Is called "Paseo Boricua", its got a huge Puerto Rican flag, plus a bunch of murals portraying the opression and crimes against humanity the U.S. has perpetrated upon Puerto Rico over the years.

So if you can stomach the anti-American propaganda (which is everywhere), and you don't mind the "Humboldt Park is not for sale" bullcrap, it is actually a pretty cool neighborhood with some great (and reasonably priced) restaurants.

It also might help if you've spent some time in Puerto Rico. That way, you'll realize how far out of the mainstream the "independistas" of Chicago's Puerto Rican community are, and you won't confuse them for anything other than what they are: a tiny group of politically impotent wingnuts.

[IrisMGOK]

Originally Posted by MarquettePark

Fact, Northside is smaller than southside,

Fact, Northside has higher prices than same items in the Southside

Fact, Northside has all "yes all" the best bars, clubs, live theater, Cubs, Art, Museums,

Fact, Northside being smaller (size) has substantially more people, cars, congestion

Fact, Northside has more violent crime (checked google and US Census Websites)

My Take

The northside of chicago, to an outsider can best be described as a super sized version of North Hollywood CA, Palo Alto CA, Cadilac MI, or Hoboken NJ, I really dislike the north side of chicago, because of its lack of breathing room, typical brick bungalow/single family homes on a regular city block, are few and far between. Streets are narrow and have little or no parking, unless you want to pay, or walk. Newbies to the area will notice almost everything costs more versus southside, Chicago in general has higher prices on everything unless your from Los Angeles, New York.

We can all agree that all Chicago Public Schools suck with the exception of Whitney Young, Jones Commercial, Morgan Park, Bogan, and Lane Tech.....

The Southside

The southside of chicago can best be described as super sized version of Spokane WA, Detroit MI, Baltimore ME. Southside is younger than the northside, neighborhoods are unfortuneately grouped by race primarily, and wealth secondary. Residential buidings taller than 100 feet, dont exist, majority of homes, have parking, grass, cleaner air, wider streets and substantially more breathing room.

I have learned not to get to riled up, when I see someone bashing the Southside, I have learned over the years, being a Cable Guy, why we dont get along too well, I have lived in both parts of town, and when I resided in the northside my overall quality of life and health declined, and day to day life situations were more difficult and stressing. Living on the southside is better than the northside especially if your low on funds and want to own instead of rent, there is an open and unrestricted feel to this area.

I may get banned or edited for these next remarks, allow me to apologize first if I offend or upset anyone

The City of Chicago and its alleged bad areas, are only bad, if you know some important details, from the person describing "A bad area"\

If you are White, above the age of thirty, married or single any income, The entire southside is bad,

If you are Hispanic any age, any income, married or single, The entire southside is the American Dream come true

If you are Black single or married, over the age of twenty five, middleclass income or higher you already know you own the southside, and let me say thankyou for allowing me to live in your southside

If you are employed or soon will be employed by the City or County, you must live in the southside otherwise you will be uncool and laughed at

If you are Gay, the entire southside is very bad for you.

If you are an artist, musician, or actor, the entire southside is very bad for you

If you are an enviromentalist, tree hugger, and lover of nature the entire southside is heaven for you and welcome........

If you are a young black college student the entire southside is the mecca of African American History, and the birthplace of some of the most respected and influential black leaders of our century

If I skipped any particular demographic, or cross section of American populus, its because you or they dont live here..........

In closing, when moving to chicago, a handy tip for discovering the truths and falsities of a particular area of the city, search by zipcode, ask find or bribe a Chicago Cop for info, ask find or bribe a Cable Guy (Me) for info, You would be amazed how informative and honest Southsiders are, if properly motivated

I have posted several articles on what is considered the best area of Chicago, zip 60655 60643 southside of course, do a search using my handle on this site

Great breakdown - this is why it's good to get more than one perspective. One wonders, though, where do the black gays live, ideally?? On a serious note, in your opinion, if you knew of a single black middle-aged woman who was relocating to the Chicago area and wanted to live in relative peace and safety by herself, and could get good Chinese food, what part of town would you recommend for her?