Walking around Chicago's poorer neighborhoods as a Canadian tourist (Lincoln: rent, amusement park)

[scottyr]

I am from Canada, and although i realize that Toronto has a far lower crime rate than Chicago, there are still a few blighted spots in Canada's biggest city. I love to walk all sorts of neighborhoods to really get a feel of a city...and i have walked several poor neighborhoods in Toronto during the daytime and did not feel threatened at all...most of the people causing crimes in those areas do so at night and usually kill only people they know from rival gangs or people who mess up a drug deal...an average-looking Jewish guy walking around their neighborhood during the afternoon is'nt going to even register on their radar.


I was wondering if Chicago is the same way. If i come as a tourist, but dressed in normal street clothes, no camera, etc...and just walk around the townhouses near the former Cabrini Green, will i be harassed? I was watching a youtube tour of north Chicago and the guide said he would not get out of his truck in that neighborhood even during the day.

I can't imagine a neighborhood so close to Lincoln Park being so hostile during daylight hours...what reason would anyone in that area have for hurting or killing some random man taking a walk at 2 in the afternoon? I just don't buy it....Toronto has drug-addicted unemployed people who are Third Woirld refugees, but they never bother the average Canuck walking around Toronto in the daylight because they have nothing to gain by doing so...what should make the denizens of Cabrini Green or the Southside any differant?

And if you say that i should not walk these neighborhoods...i must ask , what will happan? Will i be teased because of my light skintone? Will i be mugged, spat on, Maimed? Killed?

[ajolotl]

I still like to do this periodically, mostly on the south side. As long as it's daytime you are unlikely to run into any problems. It does help thought to have a sense of when not to head in a certain direction. It's hard to explain this to someone, so hopefully you can sense it yourself.

Cabrini Green is nothing these days. Every yuppie in the city is at its edge for their daily needs.

[Manigault]

I 've been in some of the poorer areas in Chicago during the day and there are usually tradesmen walking about who do not appear to be residents of the area. However, I would not dawdle -- it makes one appear to be law enforcement or a target.

[Snowden Is Cold]

I was just around Cabrini Green last week and didn't feel unsafe at all. There are a lot of people around there during the day, and it is a small area, so you can get out pretty quickly.

I've been considering riding my bike around some poorer areas of the south and west sides. Do people do this? Are there safer routes to take, like say the boulevards?

[chet everett]

The "town homes around Cabrini Green" are now pretty darned expensive and the area is no long particularly blighted. That said I find the OP's desire to see the area up close rather odd and frankly distasteful. Folks that routinely live in blighted or crime ridden area are not like an exhibit at the museum of sociology or the zoo...

Odds are that some yokle that took the wrong bus to the wrong part of town would get little kids hassling them, older folks asking them if they need directions and low tier toughs trying to provoke em. Not exactly a ride at an amusement park, but not smart either...

If you want to get confused for law enforcement rent an older domestic sedan, but then the hassle you will get is from real law enforcement.

[Irishtom29]

I think this jasper just wants to display his high horse.

[rickh1954]

This reminds me of an aquaintance of mine who loved to travel. He took particular delight in taking his camera and "documenting" life in some of the favelas and shantytowns in South America. He would then present his slideshows at any opportunity back home. I marvelled at his complete lack of empathy with his subjects. I wish I could say it all ended badly for him, but as far as I know he never received the beating he deserved.

I've never considered strolling through the neighborhood of disadvantaged people to be entertainment.

[Chicago60614]

If you wanted to walk around Cabrini for the reasons you stated - you've missed that boat by 5 or 10 years. There are 4 of the highrises left, and they're not even grouped together, and they're more vacant than not. 9 years ago I was very concious and a little nervous in the area, but today you don't really realize what use to be.

It's mosty redeveloped, and the core of the issues have disappeared. I'm not sure it would really be worth your time to go out of your way to look at a redeveloped neighborhood.

[tb4000]

Whenever I see white people that are obviously not from that neighborhood walking around an impoverished place, it does appear like they're treating it as a zoo.

[5Lakes]

The rough areas in Chicago are much worse are more brightened than the bad spots in Toronto. If you walked around the bad areas in Chicago you may feel threatened, and if you are white you will stick out like a sore thumb. Like others have mentioned, Cabrini Green is not the ghetto it once was.