Comment by MollyRealized | Hacker News Reader

Comment by MollyRealized | Hacker News Reader

Having resided in Chicago since 1997, I've observed how the city's image, known as Democratic since the 1940s (our last GOP mayor), gained national significance with the onset of Obama's campaign and presidency. This relevance was partially due to Obama's Chicago roots, leading to a dramatic change in the city's portrayal by a more radicalized Republican party.

Since then I've seen Chicago depicted as a dangerous, gang-ridden city, a portrayal that doesn't align with my firsthand experiences. I reside near Uptown, an area frequently labeled as one of Chicago's riskiest neighborhoods and coincidentally, a predominantly African-American district on the North Side. Yet, I perceive it as secure as the suburban regions I grew up in.

As a result, this personal experience has fostered skepticism towards outside news coverage about Chicago, especially those entangled with coverage on topics one can count upon to be politically polarized.

Just my $0.02, but perhaps weightier than usual due to the long-term of it all.

I lived in Uptown in 2010-2011. I thought the violence was over-hyped, although you could often hear gunshots at night. I suspect the area is probably even more gentrified now.

Having just done five years in the Cook County Jail though I got to see first-hand the sheer amount of gang-related crimes that were being committed. I feel that as a white guy I am applying some sort of filter to my reality which avoids me hearing or knowing about most of the violence in the City, which is predominantly Black-on-Black violence.

Parts of the City are very segregated though. I live in Chatham neighborhood on the South Side now and most days I am the only white person I see here. They call me Mr Detective. I'm routinely told this is an extremely violent neighborhood, and I keep hearing about shootings and deaths, but somehow my reality filter means I miss seeing any of it in person. I keep being told that it is too dangerous and I shouldn't live here. This is the friendliest neighborhood I've lived in in Chicago. Everyone here on the streets greets you as you go by.

Chicago is a weird, messed-up city. Plus the weather is nuts.

Thundersnow, tornadoes, feet of snow, freezing rain, 105 F days. What's not to love about the weather?

This comment seems to be contributing to the exact problem it is complaining about. You are rambling about politics and racism, neither of which are mentioned in any way, shape, or form in the linked article.

Well, HN is kind of famous for veering off topic. It has its pluses and minuses.

This is not HN specific. People only read headlines so they can't say anything about the actual topic at hand but they want to say something so they say something tangentially relevant.

Is that the case here? Sometimes people have something they want to get off their chest. Some of the more interesting HN conversations start that way. As well as the more boring ones like ranting about ads on the website where the article appeared.

You'll have to pardon me. It's Saturday afternoon and I'm just idly reading the comments on this topic.

It's explicitly against HN guidelines:

Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes.

<https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

Off topic comments belong at the bottom of a thread.

I am saying this because I find it interesting that news coverage of Chicago outside of Chicago often involves some sort of defect or problem, cumulatively building up to impressions that the city is badly run or in bad shape - something most long-term city residents don't see at all.

For a counterpoint, I had several friends move to Chicago over the years. I met up with some of them and their new Chicago friends. They were swapping tips for how and where to hide valuables like their laptops in their apartments when they went out because they had all been burglarized so frequently.

My close friend was burglarized 3 separate times one winter. Once while he was home (so technically robbed, I guess). They even took his winter coat.

Every city has good parts and bad parts. You sound like you live in a good part. Doesn’t mean that bad parts don’t exist.

I was last in Chicago back in 2013, so my experience may be a bit stale.

I was walking all over the Loop at 2AM and felt completely safe. It was refreshing. I'd never feel safe doing that in my home city (Richmond, VA).

Granted, the Loop is the CBD, so it's probably inherently safer than other parts of Chicagoland, but it's still rather amazing to me to feel so comfortable in the country's third largest city.

How visitors "feel" when walking around has about zero correlation with how safe they actually are. I would bet we could find visitors to Richmond, VA who "felt safe" walking around areas you wouldn't be caught dead in after dark.

Most people care far more about feeling safe than being safe.

The loop is actually one of my least favorite places to be at night. Everything closes by 9 since no one lives there and then it's like a creepy ghost town.

Lived in Edgewater from 2000-2010. It was rough. They found a body in the dumpster right across the street from my condo. I would never live there with kids. Austin was rough too. If you stopped at lights, your car would have a mob of people around it.

I live adjacent to Austin and commute through it (and Garfield Park, and Humboldt Park) every day, and in 18 years of doing so not a single person has ever approached my car when it was stopped at a light or pulled over at the side of the road. Your car will not in fact get "mobbed" when you stop at lights.

My parents left Chicago in 1974 because it was becoming unsafe. A group of youths killed the corner magazine shop owner where they bought comics. It has only gone downhill since then. My dad had been groussing about Michael Madigan since 1975.

If your idea of Chicago history begins with the 1940s, you need to do some homework. Ever heard of Al Capone & Eliot Ness?

> known as Democratic since the 1940s ..., gained national significance with the onset of Obama's campaign and presidency

No, it gained "national significance" with the 1968 Democratic Convention, the Martin Luther King marches in Cicero in the 60's, and the Weathermen riots of 1969.

As for your "perceptions" they might be more persuasive if accompanied by some crime maps.

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