What are the clues? (Chicago, Phoenix: crime rates, home, neighborhoods)

[pnwmdk]

When I lived in Phoenix, I knew the areas to avoid by certain tell-tale signs.

The bars on the doors and windows.

The razor wire topped fences.

The locked gates to get into businesses.

Graffiti.

Lots of buildings boarded up and vacant.

The cops driving fast and ignoring traffic.

So, in Chicagoland (specifically, suburbs), what are the physical tell-tale signs of areas to avoid? The areas where you'd want to avoid, to not have your car ripped off, your home broke into, etc, etc?

And don't say "affluence". I'm not affluent and never will be.

[Ophidian14]

I would say people just standing around and loitering.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by Ophidian14

I would say people just standing around and loitering.

If they are wearing suits and looking at the river maybe they are on lunch downtown...

High heels and cups of iced Starbucks on Michigan Ave, probably the harmless "ladies who lunch"...

If they look like they are waiting to deliver a controled substance and are not in pharmacists lab coats that is another story...

The OP sounds like they are hoping to get clues in residential areas and the best clue in the region is probably found on things like ISBE Interactive School Report Cards. High income and high performance schools go hand in hand...

[nikitakolata]

Originally Posted by pnwmdk

When I lived in Phoenix, I knew the areas to avoid by certain tell-tale signs.

The bars on the doors and windows.

The razor wire topped fences.

The locked gates to get into businesses.

Graffiti.

Lots of buildings boarded up and vacant.

The cops driving fast and ignoring traffic.

So, in Chicagoland (specifically, suburbs), what are the physical tell-tale signs of areas to avoid? The areas where you'd want to avoid, to not have your car ripped off, your home broke into, etc, etc?

And don't say "affluence". I'm not affluent and never will be.

The list you provided works in Chicago suburbs too. You can tell easily while riding the Metra West line which areas are nice and which aren't so much by looking for those same things.

[pnwmdk]

Well, Chicago itself is relatively easy to figure out, thanks to the CPD's interactive crime map. You don't even have to drive around and look for the clues

I've found other "crime maps", but they're not so granular as is that one. Most have largish "averages" by political division and they contradict some of named "good" suburbs here in the forum. Some listed as good have relatively high crime rates, some spoken of as horribly bad have merely average numbers. Some not mentioned have numbers that just flat our scare you.

The averaged maps aren't all the useful, as I know that some places border a high crime area on one side and yet, the other appears to be very much affluent or least, obviously nice neighborhoods.