Truth about Lincoln Park? (Chicago: low crime, school, live)

[Obamanation]

Hey HEY now, Historic Ybor City is awesome, but some areas surrounding it are pretty rough. But like you're saying about Chicago, it's amusing how the nostalgic-for-the-milkman types from the 'burbs are afraid of it.

I'm gonna venture a guess and say most crime in Lincoln Park is around bar closing time, and personal connections are involved.

[grapico]

Originally Posted by emathias

Yeah, that area near Weed and North and Clybourn has certain uses, occasionally (although I honestly can't remember the last time I needed - let alone wanted - to go there), but I think the vast majority of Chicagoans think of that whole area as one giant clusterf**k of poor planning and disorganized land use. The stores there are the kind where you want a car to haul things back with, but traffic is horrendeous. And even if you wanted to walk there, the sidewalks are among the least-pedestrian-friendly in the city among actual areas people might want to go.

As far as LIVING there, although there are a few areas there now to live, I wouldn't personally want to. I guess on paper it probably seems like a great place to live - some nightlife, a great grocery store in the area, Best Buy, lots of other stores, a Red Line subway stop. But the actual experience of living there seems like it would be pretty scattershot to me.

that whole area is an eyesore I agree, and poorly planned.

[izzystradlin]

Originally Posted by emathias

Yeah, that area near Weed and North and Clybourn has certain uses, occasionally (although I honestly can't remember the last time I needed - let alone wanted - to go there)

I go there several times a year to bet on horses. That area has the only OTB on the northside.

[odannyboi]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

I love how you make grown men beating each other into mush sound just so quaint.

It's one thing to be in a "fist fight" when you're 12. When you're an adult, you can cause serious damage pretty easily, the skull & brain are pretty delicate when hit with any kind of reasonably on-target object like a fist. That's why it's called "assault and battery."

Ok you are fishing.

Fist fights are still rare. Its freakin Lincoln park, not the wild west. Lincoln park is filled with young urban professionals (yuppies) and some college students mixed in. Crime is rare but it happens.

Again, I'd rather have a fist fight (because that means BOTH parties have a choice to be conducting misconduct) than some person from the projects holding up or assualting innocent bystanders (again, where one person is the offender and one is the victim).

I am really beginning to doubt that you realize what is around you. You claim to have grown up in the area and preferred it when Cabrini Green nearby? Huh?? Coupled with the fact that you call yourself "Chi Town" native. The only people I've heard call Chicago "Chi Town" were people that weren't from Chicago (like my friends in Seattle or California).

I grew up near North and Ashland (when it was GHETTO, street walkers and puerto rican gangs everywhere) moved away for 5 years then settled in Back of the Yards so I've been around ghetto thugs for a large portion of my life. I'll take a yuppie fighting over a parking spot over a gun toting thug anyday.

[ole69]

Aren't they more into slapfights around there these days?

[odannyboi]

Originally Posted by slow_nerve_action

What an annoying reply!

Yeah, I did four years at DePaul too....and there were plenty of overgrown frat boys from Big 10 schools...nobody said they were DePaul's. DePaul students, for the most part, were pretty mellow.

Did you live on campus at DePaul, or were you a commuter?

I was a commuter but hung out after hours quite a bit. Maybe I missed them. I see more hipsters than overgrown frat boys.

[nowincal11]

Instead of "Chi Town" I prefer City of Capone.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by odannyboi

Ok you are fishing.

Fist fights are still rare. Its freakin Lincoln park, not the wild west. Lincoln park is filled with young urban professionals (yuppies) and some college students mixed in. Crime is rare but it happens.

Again, I'd rather have a fist fight (because that means BOTH parties have a choice to be conducting misconduct) than some person from the projects holding up or assualting innocent bystanders (again, where one person is the offender and one is the victim).

I am really beginning to doubt that you realize what is around you. You claim to have grown up in the area and preferred it when Cabrini Green nearby? Huh?? Coupled with the fact that you call yourself "Chi Town" native. The only people I've heard call Chicago "Chi Town" were people that weren't from Chicago (like my friends in Seattle or California).

I grew up near North and Ashland (when it was GHETTO, street walkers and puerto rican gangs everywhere) moved away for 5 years then settled in Back of the Yards so I've been around ghetto thugs for a large portion of my life. I'll take a yuppie fighting over a parking spot over a gun toting thug anyday.

So how often are you hanging out on 2250 N. Lincoln at 2 am on a hot summer night? Yeah, that's what I thought. Me, neither, but, as I have a friend who lives on that block I get the story.

You fall into the usual bad logical trap of either/or reasoning. It's not a question of "would I rather have a gun-toting thug or fist-fighting yuppie," obviously no sane person would choose to be hed up - but no sane person would choose to get punched in the face by some stupid spoiled idiot with a sense of entitlement who spends a few nights a week pumping iron in a sad attempt to try and get laid.

maybe the recent newspaper coverage on Daley's nephew has escaped you - that would be the 6'2, 250 lb guy who engaged in an "innocent fist fight" with some guy who was 5'7 and 75 lbs lighter (or something like that), and said guy is dead after one punch that led to him falling down and cracking his skull.

and yeah, I did grow up in Lake View and Lincoln Park- my point wasn't that I preferred Cabrini GD's over Big Ten meatheads, it's that life in LP didn't revolve around Cabrini & was nicer back then. Those folks were not the worldliest of people, and they rarely were out causing trouble, at least not north of Armitage (even Oz Park was fairly chill). But you still had loads of blue collar, Chicago-lifer types, we went with our parents to local bars like Kelly's where you knew the owner and everyone knew everyone, etc.

One day they'll gentrify even places like Back of the Yards, then you'll understand what it's like to see the good thrown out with the bad. Although Kelly's is still pretty cool.

[Jandur]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

and yeah, I did grow up in Lake View and Lincoln Park- my point wasn't that I preferred Cabrini GD's over Big Ten meatheads, it's that life in LP didn't revolve around Cabrini & was nicer back then. Those folks were not the worldliest of people, and they rarely were out causing trouble, at least not north of Armitage (even Oz Park was fairly chill). But you still had loads of blue collar, Chicago-lifer types, we went with our parents to local bars like Kelly's where you knew the owner and everyone knew everyone, etc.

One day they'll gentrify even places like Back of the Yards, then you'll understand what it's like to see the good thrown out with the bad. Although Kelly's is still pretty cool.

Cabrini "nicer" and "rarely causing trouble?" I didn't live in the city but I visited Cabrini several times 8-10 years ago I can promise you that it wasn't nicer back then by any means. It was a hell-hole.

I understand that people dislike the "Big 10 fratheads" on the north side, but equating them with violent gang-bangers is a stretch. I've been in LP for 2 years and I go out almost every weekend. I hardly ever see fights, which of course doesn't mean they don't happen, but they aren't some violent epidemic.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by Jandur

Cabrini "nicer" and "rarely causing trouble?" I didn't live in the city but I visited Cabrini several times 8-10 years ago I can promise you that it wasn't nicer back then by any means. It was a hell-hole.

I understand that people dislike the "Big 10 fratheads" on the north side, but equating them with violent gang-bangers is a stretch. I've been in LP for 2 years and I go out almost every weekend. I hardly ever see fights, which of course doesn't mean they don't happen, but they aren't some violent epidemic.

again, it's not a comparison in terms of intensity. it's a question of frequency. the reality is that most of Lincoln Park never interacted with anyone from Cabrini Green, much less got harassed by them. it is far harder to ignore the current breed of riff-raff, who have the added galootish tendency of not realizing they're thugs, albeit not very competent ones.

as for do I know Lincoln Park? white boy, please. I actually taught at LPHS and interacted regularly with many folks from the same addresses on Larrabee. a very small number were death row stereotypes - the other 99% were the usual gamut of people. unfortunately, cheap guns, decades of official neglect and black market profit levels put that small minority in an unreal position of economic and social leverage.

I was giving one of the kids grief one day for howling about "white people" this and white people that, and he looked at me in utter astonishment when I asked if he had forgotten I was white. He responded "you aren't white, you're Irish."

that was 1995.