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IMO their is no reason that LA, Philly, or Houston shouldn't take this title away from Chicago, I hope someday maybe one of them do
If any city takes the title of murder capital away from Chicago, its going to be Philadelphia. No other US city could ever come close to the level of poverty caused destruction that we saw in Chicago in 2016. Philly's the only one that could beat Chicago in total numbers, anyway.
It's a shame that when we want Chicago to not be seen as the worst, we're indirectly hoping that another city will be seen as the worst. It's ugly, but some city has to hold that dubious distinction. Frankly I don't think Chicago should have that distinction. It's too big and world class. When our 3rd largest city is known as the murder capital of America, it's not just an embarrassment for that city, it's an embarrassment to our entire country.
If any city takes the title of murder capital away from Chicago, its going to be Philadelphia. No other US city could ever come close to the level of poverty caused destruction that we saw in Chicago in 2016. Philly's the only one that could beat Chicago in total numbers, anyway.
It's a shame that when we want Chicago to not be seen as the worst, we're indirectly hoping that another city will be seen as the worst. It's ugly, but some city has to hold that dubious distinction. Frankly I don't think Chicago should have that distinction. It's too big and world class. When our 3rd largest city is known as the murder capital of America, it's not just an embarrassment for that city, it's an embarrassment to our entire country.
...any more embarrassing than when D.C. held that distinction and continues to have homicide rates at approximately the same level as Chicago?
If any city takes the title of murder capital away from Chicago, its going to be Philadelphia. No other US city could ever come close to the level of poverty caused destruction that we saw in Chicago in 2016. Philly's the only one that could beat Chicago in total numbers, anyway.
It's a shame that when we want Chicago to not be seen as the worst, we're indirectly hoping that another city will be seen as the worst. It's ugly, but some city has to hold that dubious distinction. Frankly I don't think Chicago should have that distinction. It's too big and world class. When our 3rd largest city is known as the murder capital of America, it's not just an embarrassment for that city, it's an embarrassment to our entire country.
Ya probably, I thought Philadelphia would b a good replacement, mostly because it's Murder Total's are usually already on Par with Chicago's.
& ya ur right I know that, just that when a City is that big/ World Class, u don't want it to be, (Which is the point I was trying to make), as Safe as it is, (Relative to Philadelphia already), I think just the size of the City itself, makes u wish for it to be more like say a NYC, or a LA, or a Toronto, or London, or Paris type of crime u know? (Especially since it's so close to Toronto already & the 2 are Effectively Sister Cities). On the whole I think this is another reason I want Chicago to do well, because I like how close the 2 Cities are, it's nice to have 2 World Class Cities located on the Great Lakes less than 2 Hour's Apart (Flight Distance), it's like a Dream for Urbanites when u think about it.
& on the whole I dunno about an embarrassment to the entire Country, (I wouldn't go that far though), it's still the USA, the USA is more than just a few Cities, but I do get what u mean though.
I think Chicago is close to becoming safer and more world class. I think the next 5 years will see Chicago finally fall below 400 annual homicides for the first time since 1965. When the world hears that Chicago's safer than it was in the 1960s, everyone will forget about Chicago being the "murder capital" of America, and it will be taken seriously like New York, leading to further growth, making it even safer. New York was once refered to the same way in the 90s, and now everyone wants to live there.
Houston and Philly are more iffy. Especially Philly. Unfortunately being relatively close to New York doesn't change the fact that Philadelphia has the highest poverty and murder rates by far among the country's biggest cities. Philly and Chicago have both long had extremely disadvantaged black populations. The difference is Chicago's black population is declining rapidly while Philly's is growing, and poverty + boredom = crime.
Houston can probably be compared more easily to other cities like Dallas, New Orleans and Atlanta. That's a huge migration corridor, and poverty and drugs move from one city to another. Houston has a bigger crazy southern party dynamic than Dallas so the trend will probably be towards more violence than Dallas. Houston also doesn't seem to be very much more world known or world class than Dallas.
At any rate, it would take years for any of these cities to come remotely close to the level of safety found in New York.
I think Chicago is fine already, tbh, I'm glad it's below the 400 Mark & I hope it stay's there as it pushes more & more closer to 300 a year or less. (I'm not sure how Covid19 is affecting the rates but I'm sure it's playing it's part also).
& I agree with you, Chicago is slowly becoming the type/ sort of City I'm taking more seriously as well, I'm in my Early 30's now, so if I don't take bigger risk's in life or consider moving to the US (within the next 10 years), then tbh I don't think I'm ever going to.
(Not that I don't like Canada & Canada doesn't have a bright future/ alot going for it too), I just think I'd regret my life if I didn't consider traveling to the US more & more (as I get older).
The US simply put just has more opportunities overall & as nice as Canada is as a Country, is just too small a market overall & Money is important for ur Quality of Life too. (As my Mom often tells me).
& ya I know/ realize that Chicago's Black Population is Falling/ Declining Rapidly, (This might b part of the reason why the Crime is going down too as much as I know Black Americans will hate to admit), & no I'm not a racist tbh I'm Black myself, I just find it frustrating how their are problems in the Black Community in the USA & few will admit or talk about many of them.
Tbh Chicago's Black Population right now is big enough for me to begin with anyway's tho, It's still slightly above US Averages & the City is big enough to start with so no complaints from me there.
& ya I think I noticed that about Houston as well, tbh almost no US City Terrified me more than Houston for some reason, (I know it's an Irrational fear in general), but it could b the whole Texas Factor, in reality I should probably b more afraid of Cities like Saint Louis, or Baltimore, but I'm not for some reason.
Dallas is definitely safer than Houston though, (But again not by much).
& ya ur probably right, probably 10-20 year's b4 u see Safety all over the state, (Not to talk of the US in general), Philly will likely take among the longest IMO, I think Philly's big Black Population is another factor, but if u can raise the Wealth of it's Black Middle Class then I suppose anything's possible right? After all Atlanta also has a Big Black Population but it's Crime Rates are lower than Philly's tho.
Do u think their might b a difference in how safe I'd feel based on my race or not such a big deal in @ least the safest parts of the City/ Area? Overall I checked TheTrace's Website, (An American Website Highlighting Gun Violence in the US, & it makes it look like the Safest Part's of Chicago are anything East of O'Hare, & South of Evanston (To the North), kinda like the City/ Chicagoland Suburb Cut off, & everything South of Elmwood Park, as Ghetto/ Dangerous, (Or @ least less safe than the places u showed that had a Population just Shy of 1.3 Million total). Anything South of Elmwood Park I'd assume is the Westside, (& so the Crime is Higher), but still not as bad as the Southside, (@ least not yet/ in raw numbers), this year I'd imagine that the Crime in the Westside of the City is a bit lower than usual, (Because of Covid19), but the Southside ones are just as bad as they've always been, (Certainly not really worse as Chicago's Crime has been trending downwards for a while to begin with), but Certainly the Southside is the Worst part of the City for sure, it's notorious/ known for this even in Hip Hop Music.
& lol actually Chicago is more of my type of City than LA to begin with, (Yet even with it's Winters), I just adore the Skyline & honestly I like my 4 Season's, (+ I already know it's more affordable but I prefer it to LA mostly for the Urban Setting, LA is too spread out for me & it's very Car Reliant, I wish the City had better Transit).
I actually think the West Side is worse usually these days. The data I gave you is from this year - and so far there's some areas that are reporting less homicide than usual there. The south side is a really big area physically. I mean, if you are just there to eat somewhere, the chances of you seeing a really violent crime is slim to none. A lot of this stuff is clustered too within the neighborhoods so there's that. Some areas are less widespread with this stuff than others.
Chicago is definitely a segregated city although a large section of the north side is actually very diverse, but I'm not talking about downtown, Lincoln Park, or Lakeview really. If I were worried about racial things but wanted to experience a lot of what the city had to offer while being in a diverse environment, I'd probably either live in Hyde Park on the south side, or I'd live on the north side in areas like Edgewater, Uptown, West Ridge, Albany Park, part of Lincoln Square, etc. Bronzeville, which was at one point in time the Harlem of Chicago is getting more diverse too and my favorite Senegalese restaurant in Chicago is there. For the record, Hyde Park+Kenwood is 42.6% Black, 36.2% White, and 10.5% Asian.
* Downtown: 15% Asian and 11% Black. Does actually have a little diversity, but still 65% white and only 20% foreign born.
* Lincoln Park and Lakeview: Not terribly diverse - 78.7% white. A lot of people just graduating college from midwestern schools move here and a lot happen to be white. The food offerings are more diverse than the people IMO but the racial diversity seems to be getting better slowly. Only 12% foreign born
* Uptown+Edgewater+Rogers Park+West Ridge+Albany Park: 22.2% Hispanic, 15.2% Black, and 13.5% Asian. 45.5% white. 300K people live in this area. Add another 42K for Lincoln Square which has diversity but doesn't necessarily reflect statistically in broad racial groups. People on the north side will talk about some of these areas as being "shady" and there are some pockets, but statistically crime wise they aren't really that bad. Much safer than almost anywhere on the west side and much safer than any of the high crime areas of the south side easily. Counting Lincoln Square, this area is 32.5% foreign born.
Uptown, Edgewater, and Rogers Park all have a number of African restaurants (Nigerian, Ghanaian, Somalian, Senegalese, and Ethiopian). West Ridge has Devon Street aka "Little India" as well as a number of Middle Eastern people. A lot of Assyrian people from Iraq, Syria, etc there. Uptown also has Argyle Street aka "Little Saigon" (Vietnam). Albany Park is very diverse as it has a lot of South and Central American people/food as well as Middle Eastern. What is left of the Koreatown is there too, although a lot of the Koreans moved awhile ago to suburbs north like Glenview, Niles, etc.
The western part of nearby Lincoln Square also has diversity - Thai population as well as a number of places to get authentic Korean food and some Korean bars. Lincoln Square is whiter statistically but there's a number of European immigrants who live there.
* Irving Park+Avondale+Portage Park: 156K people live here. 45.5% Hispanic and 6% Asian. These areas have a lot of foreign born people and Portage Park has a bunch of European born people.
The Southwest side does however have a ton of Mexican people, many born in Mexico (Chicago has about the same number of people born in Mexico as Dallas and Houston have for the record). There's a lot of Mexican culture and amazing Mexican food in those areas. On the west side, Austin+North Lawndale+East and West Garfield Park is 83.3% Black and 10.7% Hispanic (mostly in Austin but some in North Lawndale). Englewood+Greater Grand Crossing+Chatham+Auburn Gresham on the south side is 95.6% Black.
Quote:
Originally Posted by T007
Oh ok, & wow Shanghai eh, interesting, are u maybe Asian American by any chance? Just curious, I know I shouldn't really b asking because I guess race doesn't matter that much, but to some people they might think it does, (@ least when it comes to crime victimization), I'm Black for example, which is not only why Chicago interest's me so much, (Because I want to explore some of it's African American Neighborhoods @ least the Affluent/ Middle Class ones, not the Poverty/ Crime Ridden ones).
I'm not Asian American unless you count some part "west Asian" people as that LOL. I'm "White" acording to the Census, but my ancestors don't come from England or Sweden or anything like that. Put it this way - when I travel abroad to the Levant region (the area that is Syria, Israel, Lebanon, etc), Mediterranean, and Spanish speaking countries, people speak to me in their native language first always - then of course switch to English after realizing I barely know those languages.
Last edited by marothisu; 04-05-2020 at 10:53 AM..
I think Chicago is fine already, tbh, I'm glad it's below the 400 Mark & I hope it stay's there as it pushes more & more closer to 300 a year or less. (I'm not sure how Covid19 is affecting the rates but I'm sure it's playing it's part also).
& I agree with you, Chicago is slowly becoming the type/ sort of City I'm taking more seriously as well, I'm in my Early 30's now, so if I don't take bigger risk's in life or consider moving to the US (within the next 10 years), then tbh I don't think I'm ever going to.
(Not that I don't like Canada & Canada doesn't have a bright future/ alot going for it too), I just think I'd regret my life if I didn't consider traveling to the US more & more (as I get older).
The US simply put just has more opportunities overall & as nice as Canada is as a Country, is just too small a market overall & Money is important for ur Quality of Life too. (As my Mom often tells me).
& ya I know/ realize that Chicago's Black Population is Falling/ Declining Rapidly, (This might b part of the reason why the Crime is going down too as much as I know Black Americans will hate to admit), & no I'm not a racist tbh I'm Black myself, I just find it frustrating how their are problems in the Black Community in the USA & few will admit or talk about many of them.
Tbh Chicago's Black Population right now is big enough for me to begin with anyway's tho, It's still slightly above US Averages & the City is big enough to start with so no complaints from me there.
& ya I think I noticed that about Houston as well, tbh almost no US City Terrified me more than Houston for some reason, (I know it's an Irrational fear in general), but it could b the whole Texas Factor, in reality I should probably b more afraid of Cities like Saint Louis, or Baltimore, but I'm not for some reason.
Dallas is definitely safer than Houston though, (But again not by much).
& ya ur probably right, probably 10-20 year's b4 u see Safety all over the state, (Not to talk of the US in general), Philly will likely take among the longest IMO, I think Philly's big Black Population is another factor, but if u can raise the Wealth of it's Black Middle Class then I suppose anything's possible right? After all Atlanta also has a Big Black Population but it's Crime Rates are lower than Philly's tho.
Uhhh, Black Americans talk about problems we face in our communities obsessively. To the point that so many of our people solely blame Black people for being in the predicament a lot of our communities are in instead of spreading some of that blame around more so with the system designing these ghettos for some of our people to reside in in the first place.
Chicago's crime and lack of economic opportunities have drove a Black migration out of Chicago for the past couple of decades. The declining crime rate in Chicago might not be linked to the exodus of Black people. Not every city in America with a significant amount of Black people face the level of crime that cities like Chicago/Philly/Baltimore face for various reasons. Certain cities don't have that level of segregation/corrupt politics/ lack of economic opportunities that create violence on the level of Chicago.
And how is Houston the most terrifying city you've been to in America? You have to really go out your way to become a victim of crime in Houston. Unless your talking about the car culture and freeways terrifying you. I worry more about getting into a car accident in Houston than becoming a victim of crime. Even though the same rule of "going out your way to get into trouble" applies in Chicago too( just like most American cities) those areas with high violence are still more dangerous than the worst areas of Houston.
As far as the Texas factor, exactly what is the Texas factor? That sounds like a bunch of preconceived notions about the state based on media misinformation. Dallas and Houston are much safer generally than cities like Baltimore and Saint Louis.
Anyway, i'm curious why exactly would a Black Canadian want to move to America? I know Canada isn't perfect and has it's own set of problems when it comes racism but America is a whole other animal.
I think Chicago is fine already, tbh, I'm glad it's below the 400 Mark & I hope it stay's there as it pushes more & more closer to 300 a year or less. (I'm not sure how Covid19 is affecting the rates but I'm sure it's playing it's part also).
& I agree with you, Chicago is slowly becoming the type/ sort of City I'm taking more seriously as well, I'm in my Early 30's now, so if I don't take bigger risk's in life or consider moving to the US (within the next 10 years), then tbh I don't think I'm ever going to.
(Not that I don't like Canada & Canada doesn't have a bright future/ alot going for it too), I just think I'd regret my life if I didn't consider traveling to the US more & more (as I get older).
The US simply put just has more opportunities overall & as nice as Canada is as a Country, is just too small a market overall & Money is important for ur Quality of Life too. (As my Mom often tells me).
& ya I know/ realize that Chicago's Black Population is Falling/ Declining Rapidly, (This might b part of the reason why the Crime is going down too as much as I know Black Americans will hate to admit), & no I'm not a racist tbh I'm Black myself, I just find it frustrating how their are problems in the Black Community in the USA & few will admit or talk about many of them.
Tbh Chicago's Black Population right now is big enough for me to begin with anyway's tho, It's still slightly above US Averages & the City is big enough to start with so no complaints from me there.
& ya I think I noticed that about Houston as well, tbh almost no US City Terrified me more than Houston for some reason, (I know it's an Irrational fear in general), but it could b the whole Texas Factor, in reality I should probably b more afraid of Cities like Saint Louis, or Baltimore, but I'm not for some reason.
Dallas is definitely safer than Houston though, (But again not by much).
& ya ur probably right, probably 10-20 year's b4 u see Safety all over the state, (Not to talk of the US in general), Philly will likely take among the longest IMO, I think Philly's big Black Population is another factor, but if u can raise the Wealth of it's Black Middle Class then I suppose anything's possible right? After all Atlanta also has a Big Black Population but it's Crime Rates are lower than Philly's tho.
Chicago doesn't have under 400 homicides. Hasn't had under 400 since the 1960s as I stated. It's pathetic, I know, but New York didn't even fall below 500 yearly homicides until about 10 years ago.
And Atlanta still has about the same murder rate of not higher than Philly, just that Philly has 3.2 times the population of Atlanta, so the total number is much greater. This unfortunately is why the entire media (liberal *and conservative) turned on Chicago when it had 750 murders in 2016, because that was the most of any US city.
Chicago doesn't have under 400 homicides. Hasn't had under 400 since the 1960s as I stated. It's pathetic, I know, but New York didn't even fall below 500 yearly homicides until about 10 years ago.
And Atlanta still has about the same murder rate of not higher than Philly, just that Philly has 3.2 times the population of Atlanta, so the total number is much greater. This unfortunately is why the entire media (liberal *and conservative) turned on Chicago when it had 750 murders in 2016, because that was the most of any US city.
Why wouldn't all media not report Chicago's spike in 2016 and even programing on it?
Problem was when it was labeled by some a reason to blame one political party as ruling higher crime cities and a President having lived in this one city in particular.
It became Politically thier proof to keep slinging it as all to blame on thier opposing political party. That was more then just a reporting of this spike and trying to gather why.
Stats vs populations. Give another perspective and gangland murders by far in certian highly segregated neighborhoods another.
Chicago still managed to have most perspective visitors realize. It is not a total war-zone to avoid. Certian neighborhoods by far yes. Thus city's tourism continued to greatly increase as it was thru this new century each year and its Core to continue its building boom and population increases including its ourward gentrifying.
Sadly, tourism will be hurt greatly this year Nationwide. Crime may continue as it seems any bit of drop will probably be temporary. But the 2016 level spike for Chicago. Hopefully never come back. No one expects a huge drop anywhere.
Even NYC has seen increases, that may have only a tempory drop in this crisis? Philly too. Sadly, near Chicago's. Though Philly is considerably lower in population.
Crime in fast growing sunbelt cities also has had its growth along with population. It is a National scourge and surge overall. Even past drops inching upward in many cities.
Chicago doesn't have under 400 homicides. Hasn't had under 400 since the 1960s as I stated. It's pathetic, I know, but New York didn't even fall below 500 yearly homicides until about 10 years ago.
And Atlanta still has about the same murder rate of not higher than Philly, just that Philly has 3.2 times the population of Atlanta, so the total number is much greater. This unfortunately is why the entire media (liberal *and conservative) turned on Chicago when it had 750 murders in 2016, because that was the most of any US city.
And I wish people would realize there are other measurements of crime beyond murders, and the majority or murders are isolated in location and perpetrators. Chicago has unfortunately been the scapegoat for years and Philadelphia gets picked on more than other large cities.
There are actually people who though Chicago wasn't safe to visit because they would get shot...
Yet you have DC....
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