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Comment by rolltiide | Hacker News Reader

What do you say about the people that love Chicago and swear by how much fun it is [in college and for happy hour]

Just part of a privilege divide?

A third of the city is very safe. The guy you're replying to went to U Chicago which is notoriously surrounded by not safe areas that are depopulating and falling alart and not dissimilar to what people think of as Detroit.

Edit: For example our murder victims are predominantly male black and young. There are a lot of neighborhoods where the murder rate is crazy near 100 murders / 100,000 people per year and a bunch of neighborhoods with 0 https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-chicago-homi...

Judging all of Chicago based on Hyde Park is like judging DC based on Anacostia, or San Francisco based on the Tenderloin. Every large city has certain neighborhoods with high crime, unfortunately. One of Chicago’s just happens to host a world class university. It’s just a very narrow and unflattering view of an entire metropolitan area. Everyone I know who lives in Chicago laughs at all the national press proclaiming it a war zone, it just doesn’t match up with the lives experience of so many people. Now, I think that points to a larger issue of inequality and socioeconomic segregation, but nonetheless it just isn’t reality that all of Chicago is a wasteland.

They shouldn't laugh. Gang violence in Chicago won't impact them and doesn't change how nice a city Chicago is to live in if you're wealthy and if you want to run a business; it is one of the great US cities. But it is also other things, at the same time. The violence in Chicago is no joke. I live just outside the city, in Oak Park, which is across Austin Blvd from the (rough) west side of Chicago. Black kids in Oak Park have friends in Austin --- why wouldn't they? It's across the street! --- and if they go hang out with their friends in Austin, they get shot.

The safe parts of Chicago are very safe. The dangerous parts of Chicago are, for residents or people who could be mistaken for residents, a calamity and a legitimate national embarrassment.

do non-black kids in oak park have friends in Austin that they go hang out with and get shot in the process?

Not that I know of.

There is a well known story of an African chemistry PhD student at UChicago in the last decade who had just defended and was shot to death in a robbery right next to Midway Market. One of the perps got 120 years.

I was riding on an airplane back to Chicago after visiting Dallas. As the plane took off, the woman next to me started crying uncontrollably. Sometime before takeoff, she had just learned that her husband was murdered. I got the f_ck out of Chicago.

I was robbed in Chicago twice, once successfully, once not. A person was murdered on my street corner, probably because the perpetrator thought they could get away with it because of the victims skin color and the way they looked.

I would say to those college kids that they probably don't get out enough. Perhaps they live in a far northern suburb, removed from the problems of the city

What part of the city did this happen in? The robbery part.

By don’t get out enough you mean... don’t venture into dangerous neighborhoods?

these takes on Chicago are tiresome and false. Sure, there is crime in Chicago, but plenty of crime in SF or Oakland as well. The city is doing quite well, lots of new construction, new restaurants, 3% unemployment. The state has fiscal problems that will get resolved over time.

Privilege and race. Of the 235 homicides so far this year in Chicago, just 10 of the victims were white: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-chicago-homi....

Likewise, a lot of the health issues are the result of poor nutrition, lead paint, and lead in the tap water. Middle class people live in more recently renovated houses, have more grocery stores nearby, and can afford water filters or bottled water.

> Of the 235 homicides so far this year in Chicago, just 10 of the victims were white:

Race statistics for victims. Do you also have them for perpetrators?

I would also be interested in this

poor nutrition...have more grocery stores nearby

FWIW, it's not clear that the former has much to do with the latter.

https://www.npr.org/2010/12/15/132076786/the-root-the-myth-o...

You did hit the nail on the head, it is privilege divide largely. There’s a handful of ‘bad’ neighborhoods where nobody goes if you have any option not to. It’s kind of disgusting that that’s the state of things, but outside of those few areas, it’s a beautiful city.

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