What Are The Bad Sections of Chicago? (Cicero, Berwyn: low income, fit in)

[Southside Shrek]

Originally Posted by NSH

worst neighborhoods (do not drive through day or night)
Riverdale, Roseland, and West Pullman.
bad neighborhoods (ok to drive through during the day but at night forget it)
Englewood, Eastern Morgan Park, Marquette Park, Pullman, East Chicago, Brainerd, Gresham
Good Neighborhoods (crime rate comparable to north side neighborhoods)
Garfield Ridge, Clearing, Scottsdale, Chatham, Auburn, Bronzeville, McKinley Park, Western Morgan Park, Mt Greenwood, Washington Heights, Hegewisch.
Destination Neighborhoods (top tier neighborhoods that are consistently rated with the best in the city)
Hyde Park, South Loop, Bridgeport, Beverly.
St Ignatius is in the very popular University Village Neighborhood in the South Loop and is consistently rated as one of the top private schools in Chicago. Tests to get in are tough.

NSH
is it safe to take the El from around 63rd and Ashland to downtown Chicago? I have a buddy who once lived on the Southside near 79th and South Ashland who wants to reminisce by taking an El ride.

[Drover]

Oh, that's a LOVELY area... reminisce quickly, preferably by car, and then move on...

[Southside Shrek]

Originally Posted by Drover

Oh, that's a LOVELY area... reminisce quickly, preferably by car, and then move on...

Drover
he's down in Florida and wants to come up to Chicago after the Bears win the Super Bowl. He really wants to take that El trip from the Soutside downtown. aren't there police and security guards at El stations and also riding along?

oh yes, where can he park his late model car near the station at 63rd and Ashland where it will be safe and secure?

[Drover]

Every once in a great while there are security guards riding along. But they're unarmed rent-a-cops and probably useless in an actual situation. The plain truth is that probably nothing will happen, but 63rd and Ashland is a rather rough part of town and if anything is going to happen, it will be there or possibly on a train headed there.

If I were him I wouldn't leave the car sitting there. I'd park somewhere around the Lake and Ashland station and ride the Green Line from there. There's usually some parking available near that station. Just make sure to catch an Ashland/63rd train instead of a 63rd/Cottage Grove train.

Something tells me your friend is old-school and hasn't been back to his neighborhood in quite a while. He might not like seeing what has become of it.

[Southside Shrek]

Originally Posted by Drover

Every once in a great while there are security guards riding along. But they're unarmed rent-a-cops and probably useless in an actual situation. The plain truth is that probably nothing will happen, but 63rd and Ashland is a rather rough part of town and if anything is going to happen, it will be there or possibly on a train headed there.

If I were him I wouldn't leave the car sitting there. I'd park somewhere around the Lake and Ashland station and ride the Green Line from there. There's usually some parking available near that station. Just make sure to catch an Ashland/63rd train instead of a 63rd/Cottage Grove train.

Something tells me your friend is old-school and hasn't been back to his neighborhood in quite a while. He might not like seeing what has become of it.

thanks Drover. have you recently taken the Soutshdie El from around 63rd and South Ashland all the way downtown? I know it travels through Englewood.

by the way, he's white who went to Calumet High School and maybe should have a travel companion along with him.

[NSH]

shrek over the summer i was taking the ashland bus from 95th st to the green line stop at 63rd pretty regularly. It was in the morning and I would assume this would be the safest time of day. 63rd and ashland isn't the roughest part of town but it is still pretty bad. I would recommend your friend travel with a buddy though.

[NSH]

as far as parking goes. I would have him park in beverly in one of the commuter lots on 95th st and walk down to ashland and catch the bus to englewood.

On the return trip from the loop skip the cta and take the metra rock island train back to beverly.

[Octogirl23]

@Roz - My comment was directed at the username Marquette Park ,not you. Oak Park has one of the best school districts in the country, and so does the town I live in River Forest. And there was nothing in my original post that was not true.

[KCWKEN]

What do you all think of Downer's Grove? Safe area?

[Drover]

Downer's Grove is typical middle-class white-bread suburbia. Good area.