Elmdale & Magnolia...how safe is this block? (Chicago: neighborhoods, high school)

[Swisha2k]

I'll be moving to Chicago next month and I found a place on this block. How concerned should I be regarding safety? Is the Thorndale Redline safe?

[Drover]

1) Not terribly.

2) Relatively.

As always, standard disclaimers apply: this is an urban environment, anything can theoretically happen anywhere, even the "good" neighborhoods are generally not as safe as white-bread suburbia, keep aware of your surroundings, try to avoid walking alone late at night, et cetera.

For your reference, this is the Edgewater neighborhood. That should help you gather information about the general area.

[Lookout Kid]

The Thorndale Red Line stop has a lot of traffic from the nearby Senn High School, and the gangbanger teenage thugs that go along with any non-selective CPS high school can be a problem there before/after/during school hours. However, part of Senn has been converted into a military academy, so that has reduced the teenage thug population a bit. Thorndale itself also has some drug dealing hotspots.

[Feeling Brackish]

I'm not as familiar with the area as some, but a friend of mine lives less than a block from that intersection and it never struck me as particularly dangerous. She's lived there for years and never run into any problems.

[Swisha2k]

thnx guys. I'll investigate that block some more; anyone else care to chime in?

Further, I read that staying west of Broadway is a good idea, hope this holds true in that area.

[mycrows]

I've never lived around there, but for what it's worth I went through that exact intersection today and it seemed like a really nice area. Your post sounds like maybe you haven't been able to visit yet, and if that's the case I think the neighborhood will make a really good first impression on you. The African restaurants along that stretch of Broadway are wicked good, too.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Swisha2k

thnx guys. I'll investigate that block some more; anyone else care to chime in?

Further, I read that staying west of Broadway is a good idea, hope this holds true in that area.

It's true that in that immediate area, west of Broadway is nicer than east. But there's not really enough serious trouble around there any more to make "east v. west of Broadway" a particularly meaningful distinction in terms of safety or general quality of life. Some of the strips east of Broadway were a little skeevy even as recently as 3 or 4 years ago, but it's pretty much been reduced to a couple of problem buildings here and there, mostly east of Broadway.

Strangely enough, a few blocks north of of Thorndale it's the exact opposite prescription: east of Broadway is better than west.