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Baltimore 5th year in a row over 300, currently sitting at 325. There is no hope for Harm City.
St. Louis is at 187 right now. To put things into perspective - Baltimore and St. Louis combined have 36 more homicides than Chicago at just 1/3 the population. Combined, that's a per 100K rate of 56.55 versus the per 100K rate for Chicago that's currently at 17.59. That's nearly 3.25X higher homicide rate than Chicago.
Very few pretend to say that there is no segregation or crime. I volunteer in the Austin neighborhood every month in a free lunch program, and am well aware of the crime on the west side of the city. However, you now have a mayor who is invested in solving the root of the problem, and a crime rate that has fallen precipitously the last couple of years. Our governor, who many poo poo as just another dem who is corruptible, just got a B+ grade from conservative and pro-business Crains Chicago Business on his efforts to improve the state of the State.
As far as random kids getting gunned down, that has more to do with our proximity to Indiana and its liberal gun laws than anything else. El Paso, Dayton, Orlando, Las Vegas, all have those who have been "gunned down". It is a sickness that is pervasive in our country.
Chicago a nightmare? I travel frequently and every single time I come back I am amazed at how nice, bustling, outwardly prosperous this place is. Illinois had a governor, Rauner, who was unable to govern and as a result there was a stalemate on a state level which made things worse. New ways to raise revenue and eat at the pension debt are being explored. I am not an undeserved "booster"; My eyes, and my senses as a transplant from the west coast tell me that Chicago is definitely not on the road to second tier city status.
I know it's so annoying and I think it has to do with multiple factors.
Before 2012 or so, all that people my age (1994) ever really associated Chicago with was the Midwest, the Sears Tower, The Bulls/MJ, Kanye West, and maybe some crime.
To us, New York City was the big tough city with the most crime and all the gangster rappers, and Detroit, Atlanta, Oakland, Los Angeles, and New Orleans all seemed more dangerous to us than Chicago. I mean, with Chicago's most famous rappers being Kanye, Lupe Fiasco, Common, and Twists, music didn't really do anything to add to Chicago's perception as a dangerous place.
Then in 2012, Chief Keef comes around with his dreads and his unintelligible lyrics, and everyone thinks Chicago is worse than Afghanistan even though it's murder rate is the lowest since the early 1960s. Obviously perception didn't change overnight, but this sparked something in the music industry that was new and fresh and teenagers liked it. Soon after, Chicago was becoming a hot bed for rappers like him. Chicago never really seemed to have a large presence in the rap industry, and now all sudden, it seems like everyday there's a new trending rapper from Chicago.
Chicago's murder rate unnecessarily skyrocketing by 50% in 2016 really sealed the city's fate IMO of its current worldwide reputation as being the most dangerous city in the US besides maybe Detroit IMO only drastic cutbacks in policing could have caused a city this huge to have a homicide spike this big from one year to the next. This factor alone wouldn't have led to the sensationalizing about Chicago's crime to this day as it reaches pre 2016 levels, but Donald Trump used Chicago's homicide spike as a rallying cry for his supporters during his campaign I imagine partly due to it being the birthplace of Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama, and probably just because he knew he wouldn't win the state anyway.
Since then, it seems like most people are unaware that the number of murders in Chicago has fallen by about 100 per year since 2016, what with even foreign news outlets continuing to develop articles and videos about Chicago's crime problem. Since Chicago was already developing an image as a very dangerous city even before the spike with about 430 murders a year, I think this perception won't truly become a thing of the past until the city can end a year with fewer than 400 homicides. The city came close to doing this several times, but it's always stayed above 400 since I believe about 1967. Either that or another city will have to catch up to and surpass Chicago in total homicide numbers because it seems like the media and by extension most of the country don't care about rates per 100,000 or what have you. It's all meaningless compared to total number for most people.
I believe that the city's is headed in the right direction however, and a lot of good news about the gentrification and cost of living is reaching people too. And remember, unlike other cities with reputations for crime, Chicago is actually a world class city with anything you can think of. This will continue to draw foreign investment and with that, Chicago will be headed down the same path as NYC, LA, San Francisco, Miami, and Boston. Low crime/ high cost of living.
Omaha is at 18 now. A 30 year old man shot to death in North Omaha yesterday. There have been 6 homicides in Omaha since Black Friday.. Happy Holidays ...
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IMO only drastic cutbacks in policing could have caused a city this huge to have a homicide spike this big from one year to the next. This factor alone wouldn't have led to the sensationalizing about Chicago's crime to this day as it reaches pre 2016 levels, but Donald Trump used Chicago's homicide spike as a rallying cry for his supporters during his campaign I imagine partly due to it being the birthplace of Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama, and probably just because he knew he wouldn't win the state anyway. 
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