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I had a friend visit from Sweden who literally thought everyone in Chicago was running around with guns like some 1800's Western.
The media does a great job at misrepresenting cities.
That's sad - did they end up visiting Chicago? What were their thoughts? I have met about 50 people from Europe and Asia through my friend's work who have all had to do training in Chicago for two weeks. They all told me they thought Chicago was like that too and were shocked when they spent time there how nice it is and how the areas they were in (not just downtown) felt pretty safe.
Thing is that most of the homicides and shootings are anything but random. Now, there's random, innocent people who get caught up in it sometimes and that sucks. People need to educate themselves more about the gangs of Chicago and why this violence exists, but also the economic history of the last 25 years of the city how it shifted from industrial to more white collar. Also the history of the housing projects and how tearing down some of the notorious projects kind of screwed things up for other parts of the city.
This is a good read on some of the reasons for the uptick in violence in these areas. It is a sad reality. I ran the numbers last night - comparing YTD thru 10/13 in 2016 versus 2015. Of the 77 community areas in Chicago, 41 of them have actually recorded either fewer homicides in 2016 versus the same time period in 2015 or the same. The population of those areas is literally 50% of the city. Meanwhile, Just five areas are responsible for an increase of over 100 homicides alone even though only 8% of the population lives in those areas. I had a conversation last night with a friend about it - originally from Colombia and moved to Chicago in the summer. She literally thinks that most of the shootings/homicides are actually just random people shooting one another. I had to show her numerous articles about gang retaliation, drug markets in various areas, etc before she started to listen. It's sad, but she thinks that the shady people who sometimes hang out in the Loop are looking for people to kill. I guess in a way since she grew up in Colombia during bad times it could have impact in that way and not trusting anyone.
I try to tell my overseas friends as much as possible DO NOT FOLLOW the media. Every single city has high crime areas, no matter how nice the perception of the city is. Whether it's Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis or Minneapolis, Boston and Seattle. They all have bad/good areas.
On a sidenote, I remember not long ago some people telling me nobody overseas is gonna know about Philadelphia in terms of name recognition yet here we are, got a friend from Sweden who wants to visit there solely because of a tv show (Fresh Prince). This forum is not gospel by any means.
I try to tell my overseas friends as much as possible DO NOT FOLLOW the media. Every single city has high crime areas, no matter how nice the perception of the city is. Whether it's Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis or Minneapolis, Boston and Seattle. They all have bad/good areas.
On a sidenote, I remember not long ago some people telling me nobody overseas is gonna know about Philadelphia in terms of name recognition yet here we are, got a friend from Sweden who wants to visit there solely because of a tv show (Fresh Prince). This forum is not gospel by any means.
Did they end up visiting Chicago though? I like when that happens because it kind of shows people like "oh things aren't what they seem" - obvious the numbers are true, but case in point - there's more to it than just labeling most of the city as that (now, what is DRIVING it is another story - that can come from all over the region)
Yeah - don't even get me started on the other thing The things discussed here are often times complex and people over complicate it (for example, someone claiming that city A has more international tourism and therefore must be better than city B - that's not automatically true for any city around the world. It just means there's better "marketing," or in your example - a famous TV show talking about it).
Did they end up visiting Chicago though? I like when that happens because it kind of shows people like "oh things aren't what they seem" - obvious the numbers are true, but case in point - there's more to it than just labeling most of the city as that (now, what is DRIVING it is another story - that can come from all over the region)
Yeah - don't even get me started on the other thing The things discussed here are often times complex and people over complicate it (for example, someone claiming that city A has more international tourism and therefore must be better than city B - that's not automatically true for any city around the world. It just means there's better "marketing," or in your example - a famous TV show talking about it).
Unfortunately we are the only ones who care enough about the numbers and research to be on here to discuss it.
The overwhelming majority of people out there don't really care. They're going to view things how they want to. (that's kind of like Trump's whole campaign -- tell them what they believe despite facts telling the contrary, and look at the support he's gotten from that approach)
He did know that Chicago has a large Swedish area. He knows a lot about history and whatnot. I still had to tell him to tone it down a notch when he was asking about getting shot in Harlem in front of a bunch of black people while walking down 9th from Columbus Circle.
There is a great big world out there for sure. He said there are areas of cities in Sweden where locals like him are now allowed to go in because immigrants will target native Swedes. It's quite sad, but I tried to explain to him about cities across America.
We're a massive massive country. Over 320 million almost. Chicago is almost 10 million in the metro area, which is more than your country (to him). Chicago is gorgeous. He'd love it. It's no ****ing Aleppo by ANY means. It is sad though the dichotomy of good/bad areas and the gun violence. Black or white or latino or asian or native american, etc. nobody deserves to live in a place like that.
His favorite city in the world is Berlin. I told him he would like Philadelphia. Its kind of like Berlin. Artsy, edgy and loaded with history.
He did know that Chicago has a large Swedish area. He knows a lot about history and whatnot. I still had to tell him to tone it down a notch when he was asking about getting shot in Harlem in front of a bunch of black people while walking down 9th from Columbus Circle.
LOL! That area is nice too, and Harlem has big time gentrified. People have no filter sometimes with stuff, or lack the understanding to know when to shut up. My parents used to live in southern Sweden in the 1970s for a year btw, so hearing this is funny. They had told me a lot of things back in the 70s about how some people there think of America. My parents were actually thinking of never coming back and becoming Swedish citizens .
Funny too. I have a friend from Norway who I had met over in Europe. He literally thought America was full of burgers, hot dogs, and soda. He visited LA, SF, and NYC and his world was turned upside down. I had to remind him that there's people from all over the world in America and in the major cities it can be very diverse with not only people, but what types of food you can get. He had no idea because he listened to the media too much and his stereotypes of the typical American.
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We're a massive massive country. Over 320 million almost. Chicago is almost 10 million in the metro area, which is more than your country (to him). Chicago is gorgeous. He'd love it. It's no ****ing Aleppo by ANY means. It is sad though the dichotomy of good/bad areas and the gun violence. Black or white or latino or asian or native american, etc. nobody deserves to live in a place like that.
His favorite city in the world is Berlin. I told him he would like Philadelphia. Its kind of like Berlin. Artsy, edgy and loaded with history.
It's pretty sad. My girlfriend's parents visited Chicago from Shanghai a few weekends ago. They had actually told my girlfriend that they were afraid for me because they kept seeing reports in China about the violence in Chicago. Then they visited, and now they want to live in Chicago because of how beautiful they thought it was and they felt safe (and had excellent Chinese food believe it or not from the region they grew up in (NE China - the largest city in that region is sister cities w/Chicago, which is where my girlfriend's dad is from)).
It's all about personal experience in the end. I think the more you travel around the world, the less you listen to the media about things. There are many cities around the world that are painted as not safe or whatever, but the reality in many of them is anything but that (you know like how the media tries to tell you that if you go to Mexico City, you're going to be kidnapped).
Humans stereotype and generalize by nature unfortunately, which only compounds what the media is portraying.
It's almost as if Chicago isn't allowed to be a beautiful city.
Somehow there are people that think Philadelphia is closer to Gary than to Boston in terms of appearance. It blows my mind. Philadelphia is a typical dense, historic, urban Northeast city.
It's almost as if Chicago isn't allowed to be a beautiful city.
I know - I originally moved to Chicago for purely job reasons. I used to grow up calling it "**** cago" - no joke. My mom did too (she's originally from NYC). Then I moved to the city and was shocked at how nice it was in a lot of areas and how what I'd heard about it was probably really old stereotypes (it was). My world was turned upside down and maybe it's one reason why I try and call out how ridiculous this stuff is because I was once one of those people 10+ years ago too.
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Somehow there are people that think Philadelphia is closer to Gary than to Boston in terms of appearance. It blows my mind. Philadelphia is a typical dense, historic, urban Northeast city.
Philadelphia is a nice and cool city. I think it's one of the most underrated cities in the country.
I had a friend visit from Sweden who literally thought everyone in Chicago was running around with guns like some 1800's Western.
The media does a great job at misrepresenting cities.
What do you mean exactly, there are people in Chicago that don't carry a gun to defend themselves? I'm from the Netherlands btw, and we think the same as the Swedish.
What do you mean exactly, there are people in Chicago that don't carry a gun to defend themselves? I'm from the Netherlands btw, and we think the same as the Swedish.
?? I would assume 80% of the people in Chicago DONT own or carry guns. Most of the people who have guns are criminals and shooting other criminals who have guns. It's not everyday normal people shooting or being shot 90% of the time. It's very isolated among specific communities, as in most places in the USA.
?? I would assume 80% of the people in Chicago DONT own or carry guns. Most of the people who have guns are criminals and shooting other criminals who have guns. It's not everyday normal people shooting or being shot 90% of the time. It's very isolated among specific communities, as in most places in the USA.
I wish that was true for Chicago but fair amount of everyday people have been shot. Think about it , 3,000+ shot.
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The things discussed here are often times complex and people over complicate it (for example, someone claiming that city A has more international tourism and therefore must be better than city B - that's not automatically true for any city around the world. It just means there's better "marketing," or in your example - a famous TV show talking about it).
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