What has happened to LaGrange Park?

[agallan]

Guys come on, nothing to see here. While one can't be sure that there will be no future decline, white flight, or worsening of LGP in the future, that is not the case now and almost certainly has NOTHING to do with a few anecdotal remarks here.

Someone observed a few occurrences of behavior which, while perhaps annoying, may not really be markers for a neighborhood getting worse (loud music some of which had profanity, the possible smell of weed [which I am not a supporter of personally but it is hardly a world-ender]). The same things examples could be found in literally any town, from Hinsdale to Winnetka. But then the OP (and I'm not blaming you OP) justifies this by saying it has been getting this way for the past several years.

It's more likely that this reflects cognitive bias of heavily weighting recent events in creating an overall impresion about something, rather than complete data. One type of that is called "availability heuristic". It's human nature, but doesn't mean it is correct. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heuristic

Now, LGP (and other similar towns) do have a relatively high % of apartments/rentals. Not sure if any are subsidized or not. But regardless, it is not uncommon in these generally low-ish crime level town for there to be an uneven distribution, where the majority of the town is very low crime and the area around the apartments has some crime. Don't know if the OP lives in apartments, but if so that could be biasing the view of the whole town.

If you're thinking about buying property, I don't think a single post like this should dissuade you given the availability of lots of positive data!

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by agallan

Guys come on, nothing to see here. While one can't be sure that there will be no future decline, white flight, or worsening of LGP in the future, that is not the case now and almost certainly has NOTHING to do with a few anecdotal remarks here.

Someone observed a few occurrences of behavior which, while perhaps annoying, may not really be markers for a neighborhood getting worse (loud music some of which had profanity, the possible smell of weed [which I am not a supporter of personally but it is hardly a world-ender]). The same things examples could be found in literally any town, from Hinsdale to Winnetka. But then the OP (and I'm not blaming you OP) justifies this by saying it has been getting this way for the past several years.

It's more likely that this reflects cognitive bias of heavily weighting recent events in creating an overall impresion about something, rather than complete data. One type of that is called "availability heuristic". It's human nature, but doesn't mean it is correct. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heuristic

Now, LGP (and other similar towns) do have a relatively high % of apartments/rentals. Not sure if any are subsidized or not. But regardless, it is not uncommon in these generally low-ish crime level town for there to be an uneven distribution, where the majority of the town is very low crime and the area around the apartments has some crime. Don't know if the OP lives in apartments, but if so that could be biasing the view of the whole town.

If you're thinking about buying property, I don't think a single post like this should dissuade you given the availability of lots of positive data!

I agree that there is almost certainly a whole lot of "cognitive bias" at play with the OP and his nodding along neighbor. The "data a hand" is very likely NOT part of any longer trend.

That said there have been several NEW apartment complexes added to the offerings in La Grange and the surrounding towns. Many of these have "condo level" finishes and such. The fact is when places with nicer amenities become available a fair number of people living in the OLDER existing units say "hey for extra $90 it might be nice to be in a taller building with more modern HVAC system, a kitchen with up to date appliances and designated parking spots all CLOSER to the La Grange train station and the many restaurants. So the owners of the existing complexes lose some percentage of their quietest most affluent tenants and end up renting to folks who have a stretch a little hard to afford even a basic place. It does not take a complete turn over of the complex to leave the impression that "things are worse" when the largely invisible moderately upscale tenants are replaced by folks with more limited means. For tenants of limited means if they are leaving a town or city with truly AWFUL schools it also ought not come as any surprise that the kids are probably a little less than thrilled to leave behind all their old friends and move to a place that is academically A WHOLE LOT better for them. It is not a stretch to guess that even if they were among the "best behaved" kids in a rougher area they might try to portray themselves as willing to be more rebellious in a new setting where new classmates are eager to believe stereotypes...

Eventually I suspect that the older developments will have their landlords do some upgrades to capture more upscale tenants but that is not an "overnight" kind of thing and often involves complexes being sold from one REIT to another get maximum impact from the upgrades...

[prhill]

Then how come it was once so nice here? There was not disturbances at all let alone every single day like there is now. I did not have to worry about walking down the street here in the past and hear music being blasted saying kill the white man.

I would never see a lady have to cross the street before in fear and then have people yell at her calling her a **** and a *****. I did not have people walking toward me and stop and try to intimidate before.

I did not have to see groups of people smoking a crack pipe before. These things and everything else described earlier and many other things were NOT part of this town for years Now it is. That is a HUGE difference. Others have already moved out and more are getting ready to leave. I tried to tell them it is just a bad phase and to stick it out. They told me it will get worse. They were right and I was wrong

The fact that some of you think these acts are NORMAL is scary as hell and were NOT normal around here before that is a fact

[agallan]

Look, it sounds like you have some bad-news neighbors. That doesn't mean the town is in decline. In fact, the citydata Crime statistics for La Grange Park (attached) show a pretty significant DECLINE IN CRIME over the last decade. Their aggregate crime score has decreased from 126 in 2005 to 31 in 2015. Even if you look at non-violent crime like theft, it is way down. And it is actually lower than its more affluent neighbor La Grange which scored 72 (and yes it is on a per-capita basis).Both of the scores are low, I'm not saying La Grange is any less safe but just to show you a comparison. As Chet mentioned earlier, if you're in a rental community (not sure that you are), there's going to be higher turnover and always some bad apples.

[prhill]

Not just neighbors though as I have said I walk a lot and see this all over. It is not just me as I have mentioned others have moved out even going back to last year as they do not like the changes they have seen