Chicago doesn't look that bad.

[kasuke06]

Similar to drugs, unions, terrorism and immigrants of different faiths, aye.

only three of those things are actively bad. the other one usually brings some interesting stories.

[lockedout]

It looks the same as some of the places around here except there's more groups of people hanging around being loud.
What causes the city to get a bad reputation?

I've been subbed to this guy for awhile now. He goes to all the hoods.

[Draco-Onis]

Okay, having so many murders is okay because there are a lot of people in the city. This idea also flies in the face of people saying that the murders are only happening in small and easily avoidable areas of the city. If it were just the idea that more people = more murders, the murders should be happening everywhere.

Are you new to the concept of cities and neighborhoods or something? I mean even small towns have bad neighborhoods that you avoid cities just have it on a bigger scale.

[Celista]

I live in Chicago. I have traveled the length and breath of the city at this point. It's a really nice city.

Those 'south side' neighborhoods are tiny. Like only a few blocks of rundown area. But one block over there may be gated communities, million dollar homes, starbucks and so on.

I have been to Lamron at night, I've bought hickey-spic with mild sauce through bulletproof glass and rode the Red line end to end at 3 am, danced in the parks on 16th, traded tamals for tacos on Cermak and went straight Paisa in cheap ass "bars".

The city is actually pretty well maintained and relatively safe. If you are not looking for it, it probably won't find you very often.

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I live in Oak Park and take the Green line home often from south of Chinatown. I stop and get BBQ at Coleman's in Austin a lot on the way home.

It's lit.

I lived literally directly across from the police department in Oak Park (which may or may not explain why I never had any safety issues). Right before I left Chicago, I lived a bit further north, near the library.

I was looking at real estate in Oak Park recently and saw a cute condo for sale right off the green line. Always loved that neighborhood. One of my professors in undergrad had a martial arts studio right there for years, and I spent a lot of time at the close-by coffee shop (forget the name, not sure if still open).

If I were to move back to Chicago it would be to move to Oak Park or River Forest. I went to undergrad at Dominican.

[Nellise]

even the "burbs" the ones well outside of town in Will county and Dupage are being robbed,raped, home invaded regularly. In a state where self defense is frowned on, even punished.

Don't make shit up. I live in a southwest suburb (generally considered the lower class area), still in Cook County. It has over 50,000 people. In the last year for data I can easily find (2015), there were no murders, 1 rape, 11 robberies and 32 burglaries (in other words, it has very little crime compared to most cities its size). This is a city with tons of shops and restaurants so its robberies and burglaries are higher than most of the nearby towns.

[Draco-Onis]

Don't make shit up. I live in a southwest suburb (generally considered the lower class area), still in Cook County. It has over 50,000 people. In the last year for data I can easily find (2015), there were no murders, 1 rape, 11 robberies and 32 burglaries (in other words, it has very little crime compared to most cities its size). This is a city with tons of shops and restaurants so its robberies and burglaries are higher than most of the nearby towns.

You are replying to an alt right poster you aren't going to convince him with facts maybe if Richard Spencer said it

[Spiffums]

Because most US cities like Miami, Los Angeles, DC, etc had their days of rampant crime in the 80s and 90s. Chicago is one of the only major cities to see violent crime increase in recent years.

Memphis is trying it's best to give them a run for the money.

[Draco-Onis]

I'm just saying those two concepts don't make sense together. If the reasoning for having such a high pure count of murders is simply higher population, those murders should be happening everywhere in the city, or they should be happening where the population is specifically higher. Otherwise, people are just trying to explain away an actual problem with talking points that contradict each other.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you only use per capita rates to look at the problem, you are purposely dumbing down the many factors that go into the unfiltered data, which points out that Chicago has WAY too many murders compared to anywhere else you can go in the country.

Per capita rates are the only way to look at the problems objectively, of course there are still problems but math does not care about your feelings. And Chicago doesn't have way too many murders compared to anywhere else in the country plenty of cities are beating them or giving them a run for their money.

You are basically saying you rather live in the city of 100 with 50 murders instead of the city 1000 has 200 murders because 50 < 200.

[Deleted]

It looks the same as some of the places around here except there's more groups of people hanging around being loud.
What causes the city to get a bad reputation?

had a stop over at chicago one on the way to sanfran and i was shocked at how dead all the vegitation was. it was just a sea of dead brown rainy smoggy ugh. it looked like a city from the walking dead. comming for a very green land like england it was a shock to see

[Tiwack]

only three of those things are actively bad. the other one usually brings some interesting stories.

Actively bad in the sense that some people decided they're bad right before saying "Belieeeve me!"
Only terrorism is bad of the things listed imo. Interesting stories on unions just showcase how we've moved nowhere in two millennia and power corrupts. Even the best message can be subverted to have people working against themselves with the few bad apples spoiling the bunch continuously in the spotlight. You rarely remember all the good work in the face of a major fuck-up sadly. Just look at the Catholic church or Hollywood these days. Unfortunately powerful positions attract people who want to abuse it as-well as people who want to do good with it...

Only thing to fear is fear itself. Conclude for yourself what is good and bad and do your own research if the only one you believe in is yourself. Confirmation bias is a bit of a mind-fuck so good luck finding objective sources. They don't exist but some come closer than others and being able to detract biased comments is a valuable skill everyone should learn. Opinion is good until it clouds judgement and muddles the facts..

[Nellise]

had a stop over at chicago one on the way to sanfran and i was shocked at how dead all the vegitation was.

That's called winter.

[Draco-Onis]

That's not what I said at all. That's what you are trying to shoe-horn a complex and real problem into without giving thoughtful explanation.

It is a thoughtful and complex problem from poverty, culture, drugs and violence which exists in a lot of cities and that we need to address. I am only addressing the scale of it compared to the rest of the country which is overblown by the right to score political points. Again there are real problems but it is obvious from the data that Chicago isn't the war zone the right would have you believe.

[Fencers]

I lived literally directly across from the police department in Oak Park (which may or may not explain why I never had any safety issues). Right before I left Chicago, I lived a bit further north, near the library.

I was looking at real estate in Oak Park recently and saw a cute condo for sale right off the green line. Always loved that neighborhood. One of my professors in undergrad had a martial arts studio right there for years, and I spent a lot of time at the close-by coffee shop (forget the name, not sure if still open).

If I were to move back to Chicago it would be to move to Oak Park or River Forest. I went to undergrad at Dominican.

I only live a short walk north west from the green line, past the park. But lived near Edison Park, in Dunning and Ravenswood too.

We just bought this house in Oak Park when my son was born.

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had a stop over at chicago one on the way to sanfran and i was shocked at how dead all the vegitation was. it was just a sea of dead brown rainy smoggy ugh. it looked like a city from the walking dead. comming for a very green land like england it was a shock to see

What vegetation- at the airport? O'Hare and Midway are surround by industrial parks.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I've only seen little parts of chicago not the whole city. Been close to navy pier I think once(If my memory is correct). Not much else.

[kasuke06]

Actively bad in the sense that some people decided they're bad right before saying "Belieeeve me!"
Only terrorism is bad of the things listed imo. Interesting stories on unions just showcase how we've moved nowhere in two millennia and power corrupts. Even the best message can be subverted to have people working against themselves with the few bad apples spoiling the bunch continuously in the spotlight. You rarely remember all the good work in the face of a major fuck-up sadly. Just look at the Catholic church or Hollywood these days. Unfortunately powerful positions attract people who want to abuse it as-well as people who want to do good with it...

Only thing to fear is fear itself. Conclude for yourself what is good and bad and do your own research if the only one you believe in is yourself. Confirmation bias is a bit of a mind-fuck so good luck finding objective sources. They don't exist but some come closer than others and being able to detract biased comments is a valuable skill everyone should learn. Opinion is good until it clouds judgement and muddles the facts..

Well actually, they're bad in the sense that they're bad.

Illegal drugs kill people in high doses, are utterly unregulated, and generally peddled by the kind of people who treat human lives even worse than the shittiest corporations. Terrorism we can agree on at least. And how can you argue that unions are a good thing when their massive pensions are bankrupting cities while promoting worse work standards? They had their place in pre-regulation industrial works, now that we have regulations in place to protect workers, and the methodology to instantly report anything to millions/billions of people, they're just choking any business they get their tendrils into.

But people from different religions are always interesting to talk to though.

[Ghostpanther]

It is a thoughtful and complex problem from poverty, culture, drugs and violence which exists in a lot of cities and that we need to address. I am only addressing the scale of it compared to the rest of the country which is overblown by the right to score political points. Again there are real problems but it is obvious from the data that Chicago isn't the war zone the right would have you believe.

But it does with the anti-gun rights left? They seem to want to use it often for the reason of easy access to firearms. :P

I do agree with your overall statement however. I spent a large part of my teenage years in Cleveland Ohio in a very rough, high crime rate section of town. Which as you said, was related to poverty, culture, gangs and drugs. This is true of just about every large city in the US and even in some smaller cities. Such as the one which is closest to me with 50,000 population. There are parts of that city you avoid. And for the same reasons.

[Themius]

Can we please remember that Chicago has a very large population and by per capita their murder rates are actually very far from being the top in the country?

[Slicer299]

It looks the same as some of the places around here except there's more groups of people hanging around being loud.
What causes the city to get a bad reputation?
[/QUOTE]

Probably the 600+ a year homicides, with another 500+ who get shot but don't die, despite having some of the toughest gun laws in the country. You're more likely to go to prison for using a gun for self defense in Chicago than the hundreds of murders who use guns to break the law.

Can we please remember that Chicago has a very large population and by per capita their murder rates are actually very far from being the top in the country?

Obviously you fail to grasp the fallacy of that statement. If a small town of a few hundred people has a single murder for the year, by your standards, that's worse than the 600+ people who have been killed in Chicago this year with 6 weeks left to go in the year. The number of homicides per capita in Chicago also fails to take into account the hundreds of other people who are shot but are lucky enough not to die from their wounds.

A single murder in a small population is NEVER worse than hundreds of murders some place else.

[Captain N]

Can we please remember that Chicago has a very large population and by per capita their murder rates are actually very far from being the top in the country?

That's been addressed and per usual Sulla started his bullshit about how per capita numbers don't tell the story. You know the typical Right Wing Conspiracy about how dangerous Chicago really is....

All this is missing is the gun law myth....*looks at the post above*....well there it is. Covering all the nonsense bases now.

[Nellise]

This is true of just about every large city in the US and even in some smaller cities. Such as the one which is closest to me with 50,000 population. There are parts of that city you avoid. And for the same reasons.

I interviewed for a job in Poughkeepsie, NY in 2000. It's a city of 30,000 people about 90 minutes from NYC on the Hudson river, so no big cities nearby that crime spills over from. The job was about 3 miles from the center of town, and I asked what kind of stuff there is to do downtown Poughkeepsie. I was told to stay away from that area because it had gangs. I was like wtf. (I did not take that job.)