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I've been to Chicago several times, and nothing happened to me "yet". I walked around downtown, midtown, parts of China town with no problem. Why is Chicago associated with crime and murders? With any city there are good and bad parts.
Chicago has always been a rough town. That's not something new. The reason you hear so much about the crime in Chicago today is because of the high number of shootings that occur there almost on a daily basis and plus the fact that it's Obama's hometown, and plus Rahm Manuel use to be in Obama's administration and he left that that job to be mayor of Chicago. So Chicago is going to viewed by much of the media from a heavy magnifying glass. It's an issue the Republicans can blame on the Democrats. Also, the current mayor Lori Lightfoot is coming across as a crazy lady to the rest of America and she's not helping Chicago's reputation one bit. She's a news magnet. She always has drama. TV ratings go up whenever she's on tv. I could see her having her own reality series on Bravo.
Chicago has always been a rough town. That's not something new. The reason you hear so much about the crime in Chicago today is because of the high number of shootings that occur there almost on a daily basis and plus the fact that it's Obama's hometown, and plus Rahm Manuel use to be in Obama's administration and he left that that job to be mayor of Chicago. So Chicago is going to viewed by much of the media from a heavy magnifying glass. It's an issue the Republicans can blame on the Democrats. Also, the current mayor Lori Lightfoot is coming across as a crazy lady to the rest of America and she's not helping Chicago's reputation one bit. She's a news magnet. She always has drama. TV ratings go up whenever she's on tv. I could see her having her own reality series on Bravo.
Mayor of Chicago is very much the 2nd highest profile municipal office in the country. Higher than Mayor of LA. Maybe even higher than Gov of Illinois
407 murders in NYC
343 murders in LA
774 murders in Chicago
Considering the population size of those cities are in reverse order of that number, Chicago’s crime reputation isn’t exactly overpublicized, unless we’re comparing it to Buffalo or Detroit, and those cities have far less than even 1M people living there.
What I heard happened in the past ten years, was that the drug trade was destabilized.
Owing to its central location and transportation links, Chicago is a hub for the drug trade. Maybe ten years ago the authorities made a concerted effort to take out some higher-ups in the drug trade. This culminated with the arrest of El Chapo.
However that had the side effect of scrambling all of the turf boundaries that the gangs in Chicago had established to control their part of the drug trade. It became a free-for-all as gangs vied for turf and gang members vied to fill power vacuums.
Mayor of Chicago is very much the 2nd highest profile municipal office in the country. Higher than Mayor of LA. Maybe even higher than Gov of Illinois
We do not hear much on large city mayors if we do not live in that city. Unless the media hypes them. Those that use political bias as its main motive of 24 hour talking heads. They jumped on the Chicago mayor for the riot/looting last year and city Covid maskings, mandates and shutdowns. Mayor and Gov did work together on decisions.
Lately it was the Police vaccine mandate all over Fox news. NYC too. Chicago mayor more. Politics sells and we sall even the Politics forum threads on the Chicago mayor made and name-calling and demonizing in many threads in that forum.
I would need links Chicago mayor most powerful among mayors. It was the NYC mayor that got international attention and recognition. On multiple terms held it clearly was Mayor Daley Jr. for 22 yrs. Mayor Daley Sr. served 21 yrs and died in office. Chicago after mayor Daley Jr. Still had 3 one term mayors. So powerful is only as long as you get voted in and power not guaranteed by the dead voting either.
In a list of the best and worst city mayors. If you judge a city by good mayors. It is Detroit who according to this link. Has Detroit as the only big city with 2 mayors as among the best. Only Mayor Daley Sr. made the top 10 at #6 for Chicago. The worst mayor of all among cities in history by the link was Mayor Thompson who was mayor of Chicago for Prohibition and took money from none other than Al Capone. Chicago still boomed that era. Mayor Rizzo of Philadelphia was #2 worst. Boston's best mayor listed was mayor in the early 1800s.
Also factored in less-objective criteria, such as a city's historical importance as a regional capital. The historical big-fifteen were Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and St. Louis.
Really, what next can possibly be used in this thread for some point on bad bad Chicago? I look forward to it.
I keep saying that Chicago is the go and get it city on c-d.
Must mean it really is powerful on c-d too. At least all agree thru its booming times and less to many. It was a rip-roaring legacy city. But so was NYC. Some want to hype NYC issues. No one makes a City vs City thread on its mayor or issues and rise in crime.
I do not trust crime books especially for NYC is one city whose stats I do not trust in books showing true crimes in stats other then homicides. You only trust Chicago's homicides. I merely see NYC the same way. NYC though is further then Chicago in gentrification. That generally helps lower crime if the worst neighborhoods shrink considerably. Boston of course too.
Some who point a finger at Chicago and say unacceptable. Also can point to their principle large city like Houston and others. I once thought these booming cities cannot have declined older neighborhoods as hoods and look it. They are booming and all is new. They sure do.
Just a sort of double-standard. Being in Suburban Houston.
LOOK AT YOUR OWN MAIN CITY's stats.
................................................ Violent crime ......... Property crime ................ Total crime
City ............... Population ------ per 100k people ------- per 100k people ----------- per 100k people Chicago ------- 2,714,017 ------------ 943 -------------------- 2,983 -------------------3,926
Philadelphia ----1,559,938 ------------ 909 --------------------- 3,097 ------------------- 4,006
Phoenix ------- 1,555,324 -------------- 699 -------------------- 3,315 ------------------- 4,014
San Antonio -- 1,439,358 -------------- 708 -------------------- 4,324 ------------------- 5,033
San Diego ---- 1,374,812 -------------- 362 -------------------- 1,883 ------------------- 2,244 Houston ----- 2,240,582 ------------- 1,072 ------------------ 4,319 ------------------ 5,392
Where did it say Houston’s above criticism. I was speaking nationwide. When I say revolving door, it most applies to Houston as well as other cities. Legitimately over 100 homicides in the last 3 years by folks who were out on bail for a previous crime often violent. Houston’s almost if not just as bad as Chicago, except we’ve got less cops covering more area, so crime is only lower because we have slightly less violent criminals.
It's really apples to oranges when you compare Toronto and London with Chicago. I'm not saying guns equate to crime, but in a way it kind of does. They have federal gun laws compared to the US.
Guns play a role but that’s still an excuse. Toronto is safer in absolute numbers and most Homicides there are committed by guns. London which doesn’t have the same laws still has criminal gangs with Guns. It’s policing strategies at the core of things. Many third world countries cities have lower homicide rate than the average American city. Even a country like El Salvador due to policing tactics (I’ve heard some were questionable by Americans law), decreased their homicide rate by a factor of 5, in five years. Going from just over 105 per 100,000 to 20 per 100,000 or less.
It's really apples to oranges when you compare Toronto and London with Chicago. I'm not saying guns equate to crime, but in a way it kind of does. They have federal gun laws compared to the US.
Guns play a role but that’s still an excuse. Toronto is safer in absolute numbers and most Homicides there are committed by guns. London which doesn’t have the same laws still has criminal gangs with Guns. It’s policing strategies at the core of things. Many third world countries cities have lower homicide rate than the average American city. Even a country like El Salvador due to policing tactics (I’ve heard some were questionable by Americans law), decreased their homicide rate by a factor of 5, in five years. Going from just over 105 per 100,000 to 20 per 100,000 or less.
To keep on topic, Chicago can definitely do this, with modern technology and an actual desire to treat crime as endemic issue. It will decrease. We don’t treat crime like a pandemic in this country, even though crime is stacking as many bodies as a pandemic. It’s not just Chicago, like I said it’s a problem the majority of major U.S cities face. Even the ones labeled safe only qualify by U.S standards.
407 murders in NYC
343 murders in LA
774 murders in Chicago
Considering the population size of those cities are in reverse order of that number, Chicago’s crime reputation isn’t exactly overpublicized, unless we’re comparing it to Buffalo or Detroit, and those cities have far less than even 1M people living there.
Yup. This is spot-on and the reason it is so highly publicized. It's the 3rd largest US city, and has significantly higher violent crime than the 2 largest US cities (combined). No matter what the "rate" is and even if it is lower than several other cities, the total numbers statistics compared to 2 cities that have a significantly higher population (NYC almost 3 times, LA almost 2x)....to have higher violent crime than them COMBINED is an insane statistic.
Some who point a finger at Chicago and say unacceptable. Also can point to their principle large city like Houston and others. I once thought these booming cities cannot have declined older neighborhoods as hoods and look it. They are booming and all is new. They sure do.
Just a sort of double-standard. Being in Suburban Houston.
LOOK AT YOUR OWN MAIN CITY's stats.
................................................ Violent crime ......... Property crime ................ Total crime
City ............... Population ------ per 100k people ------- per 100k people ----------- per 100k people Chicago ------- 2,714,017 ------------ 943 -------------------- 2,983 -------------------3,926
Philadelphia ----1,559,938 ------------ 909 --------------------- 3,097 ------------------- 4,006
Phoenix ------- 1,555,324 -------------- 699 -------------------- 3,315 ------------------- 4,014
San Antonio -- 1,439,358 -------------- 708 -------------------- 4,324 ------------------- 5,033
San Diego ---- 1,374,812 -------------- 362 -------------------- 1,883 ------------------- 2,244 Houston ----- 2,240,582 ------------- 1,072 ------------------ 4,319 ------------------ 5,392
Houston gets the same notoriety as Chicago do when it comes to crime the only difference between Houston and Chicago is Chicago's infamous reputation is more national. Houston's reputation is more local. Trust me people outside of Houston that live in this part of the country and especially Texas don't speak highly of safety in Houston.
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They sure do.
