Old Town/Goose Island Safety (Chicago, Lincoln: section 8, 2013, apartments)

[rlperkin]

Hi everyone. I am a 26 year old female who will potentially be moving to old town/Goose Island area. I just want to get a feel for safety from residents in this area since the Cabrini - Green towers were demolished. I Googled a lot about crime data, but most threads and articles are from 2012 and city - data is using 2000-2011 for their population data. I'm single and will be walking a dog at night, has this area become safer or less safe in the last few years? Are there any trends or crime hot spots? Thanks!

[NOLA101]

Cabrini Green is still there. Only the towers were demolished. The lowrise townhouses are still there, and still occupied. And many of the former towers residents are still living in the same neighborhood in new subsidized housing developments.

All that said, the neighborhood is safer than in the past. It does get quiet in parts, especially at night, so I would not walk around alone late at night unless you're on a major street (but that's true in most of the city).

[jonnynonos]

The housing developments west of Old Town are a nasty piece of work but I don't know them by a street by street basis, which is really all fr hat matters.

As far as Goose Island it is entirely industrial and commercial, so I hope you aren't moving to it.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by NOLA101

Cabrini Green is still there. Only the towers were demolished. The lowrise townhouses are still there, and still occupied. And many of the former towers residents are still living in the same neighborhood in new subsidized housing developments.

This is kind of misleading. A vast majority of the units present at Cabrini Green were in those towers and demolished. The only thing that really remains are the row homes, which represented something around 15% of the overall units of the projects. Last time I checked (mid 2013), over 70% of those row home units were vacant. There were only a few hundred people living there which is still the case today.

The CHA actually vacated people out of over 400 of those row home units claiming they would renovate them. As of mid 2013, they'd only renovated about 25% of them which caused a bunch of those people to sue the CHA then. Scattered around are a few hundred others, but the VAST majority of the residents do not live near there any longer. Some may have moved to the Marshall Field Garden Apartments in Old Town (which was semi recently sold to a developer - Related), but those have also existed for awhile.

Case in point, of the 15,000 residents at its height for C-G, less than 1000 still live in the area. and I'd be willing to put that number under 500 right now. The row homes represent somewhere between 500 and 600 units of over 3600 total that were there. Many of the row home units are vacant to this day.

[rlperkin]

Originally Posted by jonnynonos

The housing developments west of Old Town are a nasty piece of work but I don't know them by a street by street basis, which is really all fr hat matters.

As far as Goose Island it is entirely industrial and commercial, so I hope you aren't moving to it.

Can you elaborate on this? I am looking at a place near the intersection of Evergreen and Halsted which would be the west side of Old Town.

[jonnynonos]

Originally Posted by rlperkin

Can you elaborate on this? I am looking at a place near the intersection of Evergreen and Halsted which would be the west side on Old Town.

There are a number of housing projects with relatively high crime...offhand I would guess they are bounded by the train, Division and Clybourn; Sedgewick and Cleveland seem to be the main problem areas. Check out the Red Eye Homicide Tracker under Near North Side. It seems your location is somewhat removed but I would definitely ask someone who lives around there...business owner etc.

I have walked through there many times and to me it is kind f hard to tell what is what because the projects are actually nice construction!

[emathias]

Evergreen and Halsted will be absolutely fine. There is so much new development in the vicinity that a lot of people simply are slow to understand the radical change the area has undergone. You won't have any problems living there. The only "public housing" still near there (as in closer than about 1/2 mile) is senior housing. There are some section 8 units mixed into some of the new developments, but the problems of Cabrini Green simply no longer exist in that part of the city. And while technically "Goose Island" or "Old Town," that area has more ties to Lincoln Park than to Old Town. There are still some semi-public-housing type buildings (technically private, but bound by covenant to serve a similar economic demographic to public housing) on Sedgwick, but that's nearly 1/2 mile away and not really particularly relevant to Evergreen and Halsted. The aforementioned rowhouses are also over 1/2 mile away. 1/2 mile may not sound like much, but in Chicago it makes a huge difference.

[jonnynonos]

Originally Posted by emathias

Evergreen and Halsted will be absolutely fine. There is so much new development in the vicinity that a lot of people simply are slow to understand the radical change the area has undergone. You won't have any problems living there. The only "public housing" still near there (as in closer than about 1/2 mile) is senior housing. There are some section 8 units mixed into some of the new developments, but the problems of Cabrini Green simply no longer exist in that part of the city. And while technically "Goose Island" or "Old Town," that area has more ties to Lincoln Park than to Old Town. There are still some semi-public-housing type buildings (technically private, but bound by covenant to serve a similar economic demographic to public housing) on Sedgwick, but that's nearly 1/2 mile away and not really particularly relevant to Evergreen and Halsted.

Do you live there? I don't. My best friend does. I asked him about it as early as last year and he said it is still pretty bad.

Just curious where you're getting your information from.

No one is talking about Cabrini Green.

[jonnynonos]

Here is an article addressing the situation.

SPECIAL REPORT: School's Closing, Gang Feud Fuel New Fears In Old Town - Chicago - DNAinfo.com Chicago

[emathias]

Originally Posted by jonnynonos

Do you live there? I don't. My best friend does. I asked him about it as early as last year and he said it is still pretty bad.

Just curious where you're getting your information from.

No one is talking about Cabrini Green.

I live a little south of there, I walk and ride my bike through the discussed area frequently.