What Are The Bad Sections of Chicago? (Lincoln, Washington: condos, violent crime)
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I am thinking of moving to Chicago, and I don't want to know the really safe neighborhoods, I would probably get too many responses, lol, so can you just tell me what sections of town to shy away from? I want to be as close to downtown as possible.
Also Edgewater is not that great of an area. It might have a lot of cheap condos; but, it also has gangs that hang around Thorndale and Bryn Mawr. My husband and I lived in Edgewater for around fifteen years and would never move back there.
A nice area in Chicago is Budlong Woods. It has mostly homes; but, there are some condos too. Unfortunately the high school, "Mather" used to be top rated but not anymore if you have high school kids.
In fact all schools in Chicago are bad except for the elite schools like Payton and Whitney Young. Another nasty topic. Thank goodness my son doesn't need to attend Chicago schools anymore. He graduated from Kenwood in 89 - great when he went there but look at it now.
Fact, Northside has higher prices than same items in the Southside
Fact, Northside has all "yes all" the best bars, clubs, live theater, Cubs, Art, Museums,
Fact, Northside being smaller (size) has substantially more people, cars, congestion
Fact, Northside has more violent crime (checked google and US Census Websites)
My Take
The northside of chicago, to an outsider can best be described as a super sized version of North Hollywood CA, Palo Alto CA, Cadilac MI, or Hoboken NJ, I really dislike the north side of chicago, because of its lack of breathing room, typical brick bungalow/single family homes on a regular city block, are few and far between. Streets are narrow and have little or no parking, unless you want to pay, or walk. Newbies to the area will notice almost everything costs more versus southside, Chicago in general has higher prices on everything unless your from Los Angeles, New York.
We can all agree that all Chicago Public Schools suck with the exception of Whitney Young, Jones Commercial, Morgan Park, Bogan, and Lane Tech.....
The Southside
The southside of chicago can best be described as super sized version of Spokane WA, Detroit MI, Baltimore ME. Southside is younger than the northside, neighborhoods are unfortuneately grouped by race primarily, and wealth secondary. Residential buidings taller than 100 feet, dont exist, majority of homes, have parking, grass, cleaner air, wider streets and substantially more breathing room.
I have learned not to get to riled up, when I see someone bashing the Southside, I have learned over the years, being a Cable Guy, why we dont get along too well, I have lived in both parts of town, and when I resided in the northside my overall quality of life and health declined, and day to day life situations were more difficult and stressing. Living on the southside is better than the northside especially if your low on funds and want to own instead of rent, there is an open and unrestricted feel to this area.
I may get banned or edited for these next remarks, allow me to apologize first if I offend or upset anyone
The City of Chicago and its alleged bad areas, are only bad, if you know some important details, from the person describing "A bad area"\
If you are White, above the age of thirty, married or single any income, The entire southside is bad,
If you are Hispanic any age, any income, married or single, The entire southside is the American Dream come true
If you are Black single or married, over the age of twenty five, middleclass income or higher you already know you own the southside, and let me say thankyou for allowing me to live in your southside
If you are employed or soon will be employed by the City or County, you must live in the southside otherwise you will be uncool and laughed at
If you are Gay, the entire southside is very bad for you.
If you are an artist, musician, or actor, the entire southside is very bad for you
If you are an enviromentalist, tree hugger, and lover of nature the entire southside is heaven for you and welcome........
If you are a young black college student the entire southside is the mecca of African American History, and the birthplace of some of the most respected and influential black leaders of our century
If I skipped any particular demographic, or cross section of American populus, its because you or they dont live here..........
In closing, when moving to chicago, a handy tip for discovering the truths and falsities of a particular area of the city, search by zipcode, ask find or bribe a Chicago Cop for info, ask find or bribe a Cable Guy (Me) for info, You would be amazed how informative and honest Southsiders are, if properly motivated
I have posted several articles on what is considered the best area of Chicago, zip 60655 60643 southside of course, do a search using my handle on this site
[cut]I'm white, above the age of 30, and know lots of people in my demographic that live on the south-side. Hell, I even know, gasp, gay artists that live on the south-side (is that too much for your clearly homophobic mindset, gay people who live in the south-side). [cut] There are parts of the south-side and great and safe, and parts of the northside that are not, and there are family friendly sections of both [cut].
[cut]
And as far as being employed by the city and where you live, I could give you a list of cops and firefighters a mile long who live on the northwest side, you simply don't know what you are talking about. The only thing we can agree on is that they probably don't live in Lincoln Park (regardless of what you persist on believing, despite all evidence to the contrary, is a very small sectiono of the northside), and can you blame 'em.
Last edited by Marka; 09-19-2006 at 09:21 AM..
Reason: personal attacks
I am not homophobic, I have gay clients who feel comfortable enough with me while in their homes, to speak openly and candidly about the south side of Chicago, and in their words, they compare the south side to Johannasburg South Africa, and simply refuse to live there,
Gay people moving to Chicago, shouldnt make the decision to live on the south side, because there are no gay clubs, only one bar, on 65th street, which is monitored by some wacky christian family group. If your looking for a North Holloywood, or Haight Ashbury district, you will not find it in the south side of chicago. I am not proud of my fellow south siders mainly white Irish, who have created this intolerant atomosphere but I say to you J33, of your gay friends how many of them are openly gay in their south side neighborhoods, how much time do they spend in their southside neighborhood, versus the amount of time they spend in the Boys Town Area,
Southside churches, and community centers, do not hold alternative lifestyle support groups, social functions, or even make an attempt to invite them into the fold, is this wrong, yes it is wrong,
I noticed you only focused on my so called homophobic personality, and nothing else, I would have thought my African American statements would have riled you,
Have you noticed my Handle, Marquette Park, do you know small children in Egypt, Austrailia, and Asia know of this place and what it used to signify not so long ago,
Do you ever go to the South Side Irish Parade, if so do you know who started that parade, I will tell you, My great uncle William Hennessey, former commander of the Gresham Police District, I was named after him...., and if you do your research, you will read in various newspapers, about the official mascot of the parade, the Killaloo Bird, a fictional bird, created out of cardboard, which sits in front of me as I type,
I know what I am talking about, as far as my city workers living on the southside comment, well you took that out of context, that was under my section titled my opinion, or my take,
I noticed your reply to me was cut to hell, for personal attacks, too bad, I would have enjoyed reading them, In the future if you would like to criticize or attack me personally, please feel free, to view my profile, and you will notice how easy it is to find me, contact me, and correspond with me
Let me just say in closing, If you want a near perfect, tolerant, utopian, multi cultural enviroment to live in, where knowledge, and arts reign supreme, then the North Side is thee place, as a fact most north side schools, produce more educated children than southside schools, I know Quigley North Class of 89, but I hate tall buildings, lack of parking, and overcrowding, so when choosing between a prison, (Northside), versus wilderness (Southside), I choose wilderness, after all I am a tree hugger,
Born and raised 15th ward Marquette Park, 8 th distric police, 12th ward sanitation, represented by my cousin, Speaker of the House of Illinois Michael J. Madigan, St Adrian Grammar School, class of 85,
The 'personal attacks' were pretty mild, nothing more than anything I've said before to you in another post in which we discussed this whole north/southside issue. I was honestly surprised they were censured. However, being that I've been warned by a moderator to keep my pie-hole shut, I will refrain from saying much further on this subject except to say that I find that all parts of the city have parts of them that are nice, and not so nice, and I simply find your opinions on the north-side of the city bewildering at best and am at a loss as to how you've come to them as it is, in my opinion, just as a large and varied part of the city as the south-side. As far as my comment on the gay issue, that was part of a larger opinion that I had, but again, wish for this thread to be a civil one so lets just that, yes, I do have some strong opinions on gay rights, as well as many other social and politcal issues, and occasionally I get riled up, and for that I apologize.
Oh, and I've marched in the south-side Irish parade as a child thankyouvery much, and was just there again this past year (I usually stay on the family side of Western though
I am thinking of moving to Chicago, and I don't want to know the really safe neighborhoods, I would probably get too many responses, lol, so can you just tell me what sections of town to shy away from? I want to be as close to downtown as possible.
The northside is the best. Avoid the southside - lots of bad areas.
Wow lots of negativity today about the southside! Well, don't believe it. In fact, if the Olympics are held in Chicago the ceremonies will be held in Washington Park, on... you guessed it! The southside.
Fact, Northside has higher prices than same items in the Southside
Fact, Northside has all "yes all" the best bars, clubs, live theater, Cubs, Art, Museums,
Fact, Northside being smaller (size) has substantially more people, cars, congestion
Fact, Northside has more violent crime (checked google and US Census Websites)
My Take
The northside of chicago, to an outsider can best be described as a super sized version of North Hollywood CA, Palo Alto CA, Cadilac MI, or Hoboken NJ, I really dislike the north side of chicago, because of its lack of breathing room, typical brick bungalow/single family homes on a regular city block, are few and far between. Streets are narrow and have little or no parking, unless you want to pay, or walk. Newbies to the area will notice almost everything costs more versus southside, Chicago in general has higher prices on everything unless your from Los Angeles, New York.
We can all agree that all Chicago Public Schools suck with the exception of Whitney Young, Jones Commercial, Morgan Park, Bogan, and Lane Tech.....
The Southside
The southside of chicago can best be described as super sized version of Spokane WA, Detroit MI, Baltimore ME. Southside is younger than the northside, neighborhoods are unfortuneately grouped by race primarily, and wealth secondary. Residential buidings taller than 100 feet, dont exist, majority of homes, have parking, grass, cleaner air, wider streets and substantially more breathing room.
I have learned not to get to riled up, when I see someone bashing the Southside, I have learned over the years, being a Cable Guy, why we dont get along too well, I have lived in both parts of town, and when I resided in the northside my overall quality of life and health declined, and day to day life situations were more difficult and stressing. Living on the southside is better than the northside especially if your low on funds and want to own instead of rent, there is an open and unrestricted feel to this area.
I may get banned or edited for these next remarks, allow me to apologize first if I offend or upset anyone
The City of Chicago and its alleged bad areas, are only bad, if you know some important details, from the person describing "A bad area"\
If you are White, above the age of thirty, married or single any income, The entire southside is bad,
If you are Hispanic any age, any income, married or single, The entire southside is the American Dream come true
If you are Black single or married, over the age of twenty five, middleclass income or higher you already know you own the southside, and let me say thankyou for allowing me to live in your southside
If you are employed or soon will be employed by the City or County, you must live in the southside otherwise you will be uncool and laughed at
If you are Gay, the entire southside is very bad for you.
If you are an artist, musician, or actor, the entire southside is very bad for you
If you are an enviromentalist, tree hugger, and lover of nature the entire southside is heaven for you and welcome........
If you are a young black college student the entire southside is the mecca of African American History, and the birthplace of some of the most respected and influential black leaders of our century
If I skipped any particular demographic, or cross section of American populus, its because you or they dont live here..........
In closing, when moving to chicago, a handy tip for discovering the truths and falsities of a particular area of the city, search by zipcode, ask find or bribe a Chicago Cop for info, ask find or bribe a Cable Guy (Me) for info, You would be amazed how informative and honest Southsiders are, if properly motivated
I have posted several articles on what is considered the best area of Chicago, zip 60655 60643 southside of course, do a search using my handle on this site
I am looking to move to chicago and no one seems to tell you like it is. I know that you stated that living in the south side is not so bad, but as you discussed earlier, a single white female, this may not be for me. Do you know any areas in the North that you would consider safe for a single white female? I have been looking at 60624 what do you think of this?
60624, is the west side, the oldest black community on the planet, next to Africa, the home of the most famous pimp, The Bishop, Home of the most dangerous El Train The Lake Street El, aka the green line
I recommend 60655, 60632, anywhere near Midway Airport, or west of it,
DeWhite population: 363
Black population: 44,765
American Indian population: 55
Asian population: 48
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander population: 5
Some other race population: 176
Two or more races population: 235
pending on where you work, and how much are u willing to travelWhite population: 363
Black population: 44,765
American Indian population: 55
Asian population: 48
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander population: 5
Some other race population: 176
Two or more races population: 235
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Southside is not as bad as you have heard
