Call in the National Guard! (Chicago, Springfield: condo, public schools, pricing)

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Steve-o

I welcome them, too. It might take a few military-trained, M-16/M-4 carrying National Guard members to scare the living crap out of the criminals.

Has anyone lit the Batman skylite yet?

It was lit last week. I'm not kidding.

http://media1.suntimes.com/multimedi...0.imageContent

[Avengerfire]

This moron Blago is going to cause Chicago to lose the Olympics singlehandedly.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by ManheimMadman

"But Bond took issue with the governor's contention that crime is "out of control" in Chicago, pointing out that if the current murder rate holds in the city, 2008 may end with fewer than 500 homicides and that it is expected to be one of the least deadly years in the city in the last 40 years."

Is this true? Maybe it's because I've been much more in tune with Chicago because I plan to make a move, but it seems like there has been a lot more violence.

It's true, but with an asterisk: 40 years ago, there was half a million more people in the city than today. Nonetheless, during the city's worst crime days in the late 80s and early 90s, it wasn't unusual to have nearly a thousand murders a year. In 1993 there were well over 100 murders in Englewood alone. The crack epidemic nearly brought a lot of cities to their knees.

[aragx6]

This is what the media does (esp. in the summer!)

Remember the summer of the sharks (when shark attacks were actually down)
or the summer of the child abductions (when there were actually fewer than average child abductions)?

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by Drover

It was lit last week. I'm not kidding.

http://media1.suntimes.com/multimedi...0.imageContent

No frickin way.



I have to admit thats kinda cool though.

[MannheimMadman]

Originally Posted by Drover

It's true, but with an asterisk: 40 years ago, there was half a million more people in the city than today. Nonetheless, during the city's worst crime days in the late 80s and early 90s, it wasn't unusual to have nearly a thousand murders a year. In 1993 there were well over 100 murders in Englewood alone. The crack epidemic nearly brought a lot of cities to their knees.

Oh wow. So Englewood is doing pretty good right now. They have 11 murders in the last six months and 14 in the last nine. That's actually a pretty good decrease!

[CarolinaBredChicagoan]

Originally Posted by ManheimMadman

Remember, the bulb burnt out and can't be replaced due to budget cuts

I love that this got repeated. W00t.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

I guess some of the formerly majority-white neighborhoods on the South Side are getting worse. But this is more than made up for by the improvements in formerly dangerous neighborhoods like Bronzeville, the "South Loop" (whatever that means), and Pilsen. It seems to me like poverty and crime are being pushed out of the city center and more towards the periphery and south suburbs.

In some ways it's being shuffled around, though the City is definitely less violent than it used to be. The drop was most pronounced in the 1990s. In '92, we had 943 homicides. After 1997 or so, it began to drop. I don't think it's a concidence that this roughly correlates to the widespread gentrification we saw during the housing boom.

So even if some neighborhoods gained and others suffered the City on the whole is still considerably safer than it was even 15 years ago. Even if it continues at its present pace in 2008, I doubt we'll even come close to where we were in 1992.

[Drover]

I would agree that the loss of quality Southwest side neighborhoods is "more than" made up for by the cleaning up of places like the South Loop and Bronzeville -- if those places were anywhere near as affordable as the Southwest side neighborhoods that have either succumbed or are in danger of doing so. If would be nice if we could have both yuppie playgrounds and decent but affordable neighborhoods. And I'm sure it's of little value to the Brighton Park holdouts that, hey, at least a Bronzeville has shiny new $300K condos.

[tablemtn]

It is safer, but Chicago's homicide rate is still more than double that of New York City, and nearly three times the national average. That's just unacceptable, no matter how you look at it.