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Old 07-08-2015, 05:24 AM
 
Location: Chicago, IL
8,851 posts, read 5,790,621 times
Reputation: 11467

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Unfortunately Chicago has developed a reputation for violent crime that will stick with the city until it drastically changes. The sheer volume by raw numbers make for big headlines, so the media reporting will continue to highlight these large "weekend" or "holiday weekend" totals.

NYC and LA are both much larger, and they have drastically reduced violent crime. Comparing places like parts of the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens to how they were in the 90s to how they are now, and it's night and day. DC is another city that had its violent crime drop exponentially since the 90s, mostly through gentrification and tougher/smarter policing. It used to have the "murder capital" nickname.

Then you look at the bad neighborhoods in Chicago, and they have stayed bad for a long time. It hasn't improved like other cities. It's not about the media having it out for Chicago specifically. In the 90s, NY, LA, and DC were all stigmatized by the media. They have all gotten drastically safer.

People like to always point out that the crime in Chicago has decreased, but it's still not good. It's like scoring a 60% on your tests for years and saying "at least I didn't fail." Until the city admits that the crime numbers are bad, and a serious problem we are still going to see them all over the media and in films like CHIRAQ.
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Old 07-08-2015, 07:59 AM
 
Location: Chicago
6,359 posts, read 8,772,447 times
Reputation: 5869
what a sad, f'd up society we are. we attach importance to the type of murder rate we have in Chicago's inner city not out of concern over the out-of-sight and out-of-mind basically non-people (largely of color) and the effect on them, but over how our city is perceived and how it stacks up against LA and NY.

the sad truth is that the Chicago That Works (and indeed this very much describes the downtown area, the lakefront, much of the North Side and certainly pockets on the South and West works very well for those who a part of it and those areas of violence, poverty, and dissarray might well be on another continent. And those who live and are part of The Chicago That Works, in all honesty, are little affected by third world Chicago other than the bad publicity it gives our World Class City. How nice it would be for us, I suppose, if that killing was left unreported..in a vacuum. If a gang killing on the West or South Side goes unreported, did it really happen (anymore than that tree that fell with no one around to hear it made no sound)?

this is all about image, not about people and certainly not about the tragedy of their lives but their effect on us and how we are perceived.
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Old 07-08-2015, 11:13 AM
 
Location: Chicago
4,745 posts, read 5,537,343 times
Reputation: 6007
Quote:
Originally Posted by edsg25 View Post
what a sad, f'd up society we are. we attach importance to the type of murder rate we have in Chicago's inner city not out of concern over the out-of-sight and out-of-mind basically non-people (largely of color) and the effect on them, but over how our city is perceived and how it stacks up against LA and NY.

the sad truth is that the Chicago That Works (and indeed this very much describes the downtown area, the lakefront, much of the North Side and certainly pockets on the South and West works very well for those who a part of it and those areas of violence, poverty, and dissarray might well be on another continent. And those who live and are part of The Chicago That Works, in all honesty, are little affected by third world Chicago other than the bad publicity it gives our World Class City. How nice it would be for us, I suppose, if that killing was left unreported..in a vacuum. If a gang killing on the West or South Side goes unreported, did it really happen (anymore than that tree that fell with no one around to hear it made no sound)?

this is all about image, not about people and certainly not about the tragedy of their lives but their effect on us and how we are perceived.
Name another so-called "World Class City" that has a murder rate comparable to Chicago's? Also, you have to look at the bigger picture. Other cities have similar poverty rates yet managed to become more livable places as a whole. Until Chicago does that, it's not truly a world class city in my book.
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Old 07-08-2015, 11:32 AM
 
Location: Upper West Side, Manhattan, NYC
15,331 posts, read 23,790,230 times
Reputation: 7419
As DRover said, it's a big city that will produce big raw numbers. So in the case of homicides, it produces the most of any city lately. They will play to the hoards of math/statistic stupid people out there who don't realize you have to compare rates/percentages across dissimilar sized sets, not raw numbers. To be honest, I don't expect many people in the media to even understand this. I've dealt with enough executives who were supposed to be smart who didn't even understand these simple concepts. I've come to the conclusion that most people are complete idiots when it comes to this.
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Old 07-08-2015, 11:39 AM
 
Location: O4W
3,744 posts, read 4,762,630 times
Reputation: 2076
It just gives people something to talk about. Plus people love negative news. Most people would find the story of 55 people being shot a better story than reading about 55 kids picking up trash this weekend
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Old 07-08-2015, 04:10 PM
 
Location: Chicago
6,359 posts, read 8,772,447 times
Reputation: 5869
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chicago South Sider View Post
Name another so-called "World Class City" that has a murder rate comparable to Chicago's? Also, you have to look at the bigger picture. Other cities have similar poverty rates yet managed to become more livable places as a whole. Until Chicago does that, it's not truly a world class city in my book.
name one major, first class city in advanced nations like those in Europe or the Far East that has a murder rate comparable to American cities, here in the land of the gun. I don't suspect that New York or Los Angeles hold up well against nations in the world where guns are controlled and where life is not the wild west. it's a a global world so we're competing with all those other places.

Obviously I am more than unhappy with Chicago's murder rate, but I find the issue far more national than local and, as noted, neither NYC or LA should see any pride in their homicide rates; nothing admirable in either.

it's a matter of degree….and whether it is NY, Chicago or LA or whether it is St. Louis, Baltimore, or Detroit, it stinks.

South Sider, you place most of the blame wherever you want. Me? I put the lion's share of the blame on the good, ol' USA which, by your standards, truly doesn't measure up to a "world class nation". and whether or not you think that is the case, sadly (considering its my nation and i love it), I do.

Toronto and Chicago are often talked about in similar terms. Toronto's got one thing that Chicago doesn't have: Canada. That's why its homicide rates will never look like our own.
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Old 07-08-2015, 05:25 PM
 
Location: River North, Chicago, Illinois
4,620 posts, read 8,125,407 times
Reputation: 6321
Quote:
Originally Posted by NealIRC View Post
I wonder if Chicago's segregatedness plays a role, too.

Or maybe because these news companies do not like the past 2 mayors.
Chicago and New York have, despite rumors to the contrary, similar levels of segregation.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chicago South Sider View Post
Name another so-called "World Class City" that has a murder rate comparable to Chicago's? Also, you have to look at the bigger picture. Other cities have similar poverty rates yet managed to become more livable places as a whole. Until Chicago does that, it's not truly a world class city in my book.
New York's or Los Angeles' crime rate and Chicago's crime rate are closer to each other that New York's crime rate is to Paris, London or Tokyo. Are you saying New York and LA aren't world class?
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Old 07-08-2015, 05:46 PM
 
12,999 posts, read 18,819,508 times
Reputation: 9236
Chicago is the largest city in "flyover" territory. The media is mainly interested in NY and LA, as well as DC. They don't like to go to Chicago and hope you won't either.
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Old 07-08-2015, 05:48 PM
 
379 posts, read 782,971 times
Reputation: 250
These kinds of stories make for good ratings because they fit the public's perception of Chicago being crime-ridden. I grew up in Chicago, and every time I tell that to people who live in the San Francisco Bay Area, they envision that I grew up surrounded by gangs and guns. In reality, I grew up very boring, safe suburbs, and my relatives in Chicago proper all live in lower-crime neighborhoods than where I live now in San Francisco. This isn't in any way meant to minimize the crime issues that exist in Chicago, but in cities like San Francisco, where safety is more block-by-block, many people I talk to don't understand how much easier it is to avoid the most serious crime issues in Chicago.
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Old 07-08-2015, 06:39 PM
 
Location: CHICAGO, Illinois
934 posts, read 1,431,917 times
Reputation: 1670
I agree with most of what's being said. I think a portion of Chicago's violent image comes from the media feeding people what they want to believe (Democrats are the devil, cities are evil, America is going to hell, etc)...rather than informing them, the media affirms them by using Chicago as some sort of whipping boy. Chicago was villainized in its early days, and I think it's an image it's never quite overcome. There's a really good section in the Encyclopedia of Chicago called "Crime and Chicago's Image" that talks about the relationship:

Quote:
...the city's reputation was a matter of myth and symbol. For Chicago—in its booming growth, unrestrained energy, and sometimes explosive conflicts—symbolized for many the promises and perils of America's urban future. In its “excessiveness,” one writer on crime explained, Chicago “is like other American cities—only more so.” The myths of Chicago crime were compelling because they spoke to larger concerns—about morality, economic competition, ethnicity, sexuality, the pursuit of pleasure, and its dangers.
^^Maybe some of that is still true today. That aside tho, I think this city and this country in general needs to work on our crime rate.
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