How many arrests is too many or is this the culture of Chicago? (resort, violence)

[ChiNaan]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

The irony about the South Side is that often it is the people who think they're tougher than nails who actually have the thinnest skin.

I'm pretty sure that's true on all sides of town, and in all towns, for that matter.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

I'm pretty sure that's true on all sides of town, and in all towns, for that matter.

Sorta. What I mean is that the South Side has been known as the bad-ass side of town since the founding of the City, cemented into history on the St Valentine's Day Massacre. That does impact where the transplants feel comfortable, just in my experience.

[Chi-town Native]

Perhaps if old Leroy Brown had been from the North Side...

[ChiNaan]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

Sorta. What I mean is that the South Side has been known as the bad-ass side of town since the founding of the City

Meh.

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

Perhaps if old Leroy Brown had been from the North Side...

I once heard that song years ago, at an overpriced restaurant on the South Side....I think it was either Bridgeport or Hyde Park...surrounded by a bunch of yuppies..."the baddest part of town"...The irony was almost too much to bear.** I don't think Mr. Croce had spent much time in Chicago apart from hotels and the venues he played. It's always funny to me when people refer to The South Side as if it's a specific little neighborhood or part of town, anyway, since it's at least half of the city.

**Edit: This was before I lived in the city, by the way, and it was glaring even to me.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

Meh.



I once heard that song years ago, at an overpriced restaurant on the South Side....I think it was either Bridgeport or Hyde Park...surrounded by a bunch of yuppies..."the baddest part of town"...The irony was almost too much to bear. I don't think Mr. Croce had spent much time in Chicago apart from hotels and the venues he played. It's always funny to me when people refer to The South Side as if it's a specific little neighborhood or part of town, anyway, since it's at least half of the city.

The South Side is absolutely more blue collar, and people who do manual labor for a living areindeed generally tougher than their white collar desk worker counterparts. It is indisputable the South Side has the tough reputation, and it's justified. But sure, plenty of wimpy folks down south and plenty of touch blokes up north.

[ChiNaan]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

The South Side is absolutely more blue collar, and people who do manual labor for a living areindeed generally tougher than their white collar desk worker counterparts.

I guess. I'm just saying that, like most generalizations involving half of a major city, it's incredibly overstated and not really even worth mentioning. Or, in other words, meh. Anyone who knows Chicago knows there are poor, working class, middle class, and wealthy areas in both halves of town. (Well, maybe not many truly poor areas left on the North Side today, but historically there certainly were.) It's lazy to ignore subtle realities in favor of sweeping generalities.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

I guess. I'm just saying that, like most generalizations involving half of a major city, it's incredibly overstated and not really even worth mentioning. Or, in other words, meh. Anyone who knows Chicago knows there are poor, working class, middle class, and wealthy areas in both halves of town. (Well, maybe not many truly poor areas left on the North Side today, but historically there certainly were.) It's lazy to ignore subtle realities in favor of sweeping generalities.

Maybe - but you're not actually proving your point. If we agree that blue collar work and white collar work do tend to result in different neighborhood cultures, it stands to reason that it's not a given that two halves sides of a City (and the South Side is far larger, which is another element) will likely not be identical, given that industrial areas are zoned that way.

I can show you a map of the North Side that I'm intimately familiar with (including working the census in 1990) and can show you massive tracts that went from industrial hardscrabble to totally gentrified. The South Side always had more of a blue collar element, and that's only been exacerbated in the past 30 years. You're talking to someone who actually remembers seeing freight trains run down Lakewood from south of Fullerton to the factories at Diversey in the 70s.

But it's not just about rich and poor. Poor people aren't necessarily tough, they're just poor. The tough I'm talking about is what comes from people who are slaughtering, butchering, welding, jackhammering, etc. Physically tough, the way an old piece of meat is.

[ChiNaan]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

Maybe - but you're not actually proving your point.

I'm not trying to prove a point. I'm stating facts. There is a difference.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

I'm not trying to prove a point. I'm stating facts. There is a difference.

Not trying to be argumentative, but I really don't see any relevant facts you've brought to the table here.

I don't like ridiculous sweeping generalizations, but there are exceptions to every rule and this is one of them.

The City's zoning map is what I consider relevant - anecdotally, I'd say the difference between the crowd at a Comiskey ball game (I refuse to call it by its corporate w**** name) and one at Wrigley says it all.

[Chicago South Sider]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

But it's not just about rich and poor. Poor people aren't necessarily tough, they're just poor. The tough I'm talking about is what comes from people who are slaughtering, butchering, welding, jackhammering, etc. Physically tough, the way an old piece of meat is.

Poor people may not be any tougher, but they are more violent. It doesn't take much "toughness" to shoot somebody.