Amen, Pete. In Baltimore we experience the same stereotyping. Many place blame for that on The Wire, but the stereotypes of majority Black cities, Black neighborhoods and Black residents (especially youth) run much deeper than the Wire. Also like Chicago, there are waterfront and interior neighborhoods with very different, conditions and crime rates and perceptions of safety that are rarely acknowledged by the test of the country (or even our own suburbanites).
Now even in the most disadvantaged and historically most violent neighborhoods, the murder rate has been dramatically reduced to levels not seen in 50 years. Not by Trump and his troops, or Martin O’Malley’s zero tolerance policing but by a Group Violence Reduction Strategy modeled on public health approaches and concerted work from City Hall to the neighborhood grassroots.
Even though I mostly agree with this post, I don't think its quite fair to compare the best part of Chicago (North Lakefront) to other cities. Instead, it would make more sense to compare it to the good parts of other cities. So for example, how does its murder rate compare to Atlanta's Buckhead or New York's Upper East/West Sides?
Very fair point. The best I can do for now is compare city-sized chunks of Chicago with similarly sized cities. Chicago's entire lakefront population in 2024 (777,000) is comparable in size to all of San Francisco (821,000), or the north lakefront alone (605,000) with all of Atlanta (520,000). Perhaps that would be more accurate. But carving out segments of other cities is a time-consuming task.
In essence this exposes something I know about Chicago that I don't know exists in other major cities nationwide. Chicago has been gathering data by its officially designated Community Areas since 1920, when University of Chicago sociologists Robert Park and Ernest Burgess sorted 1920 Census data by 75 Community Areas. UChicago published a decennial Local Community Fact Book following the 1930 Census and continued through the 1980 Census. The Community Areas boundaries have remained almost entirely consistent since their beginning, with two exceptions: the annexation that led to O'Hare International Airport led to the establishment of the O'Hare Community Area (#76), and the Uptown Community Area (#5) was split in 1980 to create the new Edgewater Community Area (#77) when wealthier north Uptown residents wanted to contrast themselves from less-wealthy south Uptown neighbors. UChicago stopped publishing the decennial Local Community Fact Book in 1990, but in 2000 and 2010 it was picked up by local nonprofits.
Since 2015 the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, metro Chicago's MPO, has compiled annual Community Data Snapshots for its entire planning area -- for each of its 7 counties, 284 municipalities, and each of the 77 Community Areas in Chicago itself. Data is compiled by ACS five-year estimates, and compared against previous five-year estimates. I think it's an amazing tool that lets people see granular changes that otherwise get little notice.
I know this because I contributed to the development of the Community Data Snapshots when I worked at CMAP in the 2010s. I do know other agencies in other cities and metro areas analyze regions in a similar fashion, but I don't know if any other city or metro has such a long and consistent subarea analysis as metro Chicago has.
I definitely see your point about the difficulty in comparing cities below the citywide level. In NYC it isn't so hard (at least for crime) because precinct-by-precinct crime data has been available for a long time, and some NYC neighborhoods are big enough to constitute entire precincts. But I don't think that words so well for smaller cities like Atlanta or DC. In those cities, police zones are usually large enough to include a wide variety of neighborhoods, so you can't really isolate an affluent part of town.
Years ago I wanted to go to Chicago for college and was told the college in question was surrounded by slums. Perceptions, not reality. My friend lived in Hyde Park for years and it was fine, he now lives in Evergreen Park.
In the graf starting "How so?", I think the word "lower" should read "higher".
Can't quickly locate it but recently saw home-price increases by community area since 2020 or maybe it was 2015 -- the greatest current rise underway in the entire city is Bronzeville.
My best friend lives right off of 71st and Stony Island and we regularly go to Rainbow Beach. I have never been so much as approached. As a life long south sider (Beverly), I prefer the south side to pretty much anywhere else in Chicago. The racists get very quiet when the demographic they think should be scared tell them otherwise.
Amen, Pete. In Baltimore we experience the same stereotyping. Many place blame for that on The Wire, but the stereotypes of majority Black cities, Black neighborhoods and Black residents (especially youth) run much deeper than the Wire. Also like Chicago, there are waterfront and interior neighborhoods with very different, conditions and crime rates and perceptions of safety that are rarely acknowledged by the test of the country (or even our own suburbanites).
Now even in the most disadvantaged and historically most violent neighborhoods, the murder rate has been dramatically reduced to levels not seen in 50 years. Not by Trump and his troops, or Martin O’Malley’s zero tolerance policing but by a Group Violence Reduction Strategy modeled on public health approaches and concerted work from City Hall to the neighborhood grassroots.
Even though I mostly agree with this post, I don't think its quite fair to compare the best part of Chicago (North Lakefront) to other cities. Instead, it would make more sense to compare it to the good parts of other cities. So for example, how does its murder rate compare to Atlanta's Buckhead or New York's Upper East/West Sides?
Very fair point. The best I can do for now is compare city-sized chunks of Chicago with similarly sized cities. Chicago's entire lakefront population in 2024 (777,000) is comparable in size to all of San Francisco (821,000), or the north lakefront alone (605,000) with all of Atlanta (520,000). Perhaps that would be more accurate. But carving out segments of other cities is a time-consuming task.
In essence this exposes something I know about Chicago that I don't know exists in other major cities nationwide. Chicago has been gathering data by its officially designated Community Areas since 1920, when University of Chicago sociologists Robert Park and Ernest Burgess sorted 1920 Census data by 75 Community Areas. UChicago published a decennial Local Community Fact Book following the 1930 Census and continued through the 1980 Census. The Community Areas boundaries have remained almost entirely consistent since their beginning, with two exceptions: the annexation that led to O'Hare International Airport led to the establishment of the O'Hare Community Area (#76), and the Uptown Community Area (#5) was split in 1980 to create the new Edgewater Community Area (#77) when wealthier north Uptown residents wanted to contrast themselves from less-wealthy south Uptown neighbors. UChicago stopped publishing the decennial Local Community Fact Book in 1990, but in 2000 and 2010 it was picked up by local nonprofits.
Since 2015 the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, metro Chicago's MPO, has compiled annual Community Data Snapshots for its entire planning area -- for each of its 7 counties, 284 municipalities, and each of the 77 Community Areas in Chicago itself. Data is compiled by ACS five-year estimates, and compared against previous five-year estimates. I think it's an amazing tool that lets people see granular changes that otherwise get little notice.
I know this because I contributed to the development of the Community Data Snapshots when I worked at CMAP in the 2010s. I do know other agencies in other cities and metro areas analyze regions in a similar fashion, but I don't know if any other city or metro has such a long and consistent subarea analysis as metro Chicago has.
Michael, sorry for the very long reply. But I think you just gave me a great idea for a new post.
I definitely see your point about the difficulty in comparing cities below the citywide level. In NYC it isn't so hard (at least for crime) because precinct-by-precinct crime data has been available for a long time, and some NYC neighborhoods are big enough to constitute entire precincts. But I don't think that words so well for smaller cities like Atlanta or DC. In those cities, police zones are usually large enough to include a wide variety of neighborhoods, so you can't really isolate an affluent part of town.
Years ago I wanted to go to Chicago for college and was told the college in question was surrounded by slums. Perceptions, not reality. My friend lived in Hyde Park for years and it was fine, he now lives in Evergreen Park.
In the graf starting "How so?", I think the word "lower" should read "higher".
Can't quickly locate it but recently saw home-price increases by community area since 2020 or maybe it was 2015 -- the greatest current rise underway in the entire city is Bronzeville.
Thanks for the heads-up! It's been fixed.
My best friend lives right off of 71st and Stony Island and we regularly go to Rainbow Beach. I have never been so much as approached. As a life long south sider (Beverly), I prefer the south side to pretty much anywhere else in Chicago. The racists get very quiet when the demographic they think should be scared tell them otherwise.