Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by globalguy on September 29, 2011 at 8:40am

Just a quick update on safety issues from Chicago's Finest and a Chicago murder rate map (by Police District) from 2009 I found in connection with the aforementioned Chicago Tribune article. Note, that if you bike through Austin and Garfield Park you're biking through the 11th and 15th Police Districts, two of the city's 5 most murderous districts.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on September 29, 2011 at 9:59am

Unfortunately, the 11th and 15th district have been among the city's roughest for years in terms of violent crime.   There used to be a lot of factory jobs in that area.  Back then, it was a lot more stable.  I'd love to see what a lot of our rougher neighborhoods could look like if we could get more living wage jobs there again.

da' Square Wheelman (aka garth) said:

Just a quick update on safety issues from Chicago's Finest and a Chicago murder rate map (by Police District) from 2009 I found in connection with the aforementioned Chicago Tribune article. Note, that if you bike through Austin and Garfield Park you're biking through the 11th and 15th Police Districts, two of the city's 5 most murderous districts.

Permalink Reply by Jamais716 on September 29, 2011 at 10:22am

Note, that if you bike through Austin and Garfield Park you're biking through the 11th and 15th Police Districts, two of the city's 5 most murderous districts.

I was unaware that districts could commit murder.  Please be careful when choosing your words; the neighborhood has a bad enough reputation already.

 

I'd be curious to see the results of their analysis and how many murders involved bicyclists who didn't know their assailants.  Also, I'd be curious to see it broken down to a level smaller than districts.  Neighborhoods can change over just a few blocks.

 

I live in Garfield Park. I bike to and from work downtown and sometimes I'm riding home at 9pm.  I've jogged alone in the park in the evening.  I've never had any trouble on bike or foot.  There's a lot of crap that goes on in the neighborhood, but last I heard, drugs and prostitution don't just happen to people minding their own business.  Reading the news stories about violent crimes in the neighborhood, I would say anecdotally that the murder victims are usually connected in some way to their assailant or else they were mistaken for someone connected to the assailant.  

 

I don't believe that a person with no connection to anyone in the neighborhood riding though at an average rate of speed is particularly at risk for murder.  I would say there's a decent risk for robbery but robberies happen in Lincoln Park too.  You can reduce your risk as long as you're moving.  It's probably safer ignore traffic signals after checking that it's safe to proceed and checking your surroundings before you might have to stop.  Another thing that map indicates is that cops on the west side have better things to do than ticket bikers. :-)

 

Permalink Reply by Corey Trager on September 30, 2011 at 1:51am

Relevant: "A Mugging on Lake Street":

http://www.chicagomag.com/core/pagetools.php?url=%2FChicago-Magazin...

Permalink Reply by Lanterne Rouge on September 30, 2011 at 8:41am

I used to live on Wilson, in Albany Park. That isn't what you should be worried about. In the warm months when the crazies are out, you should be more worried about Wilson between Clark and Sheridan. When I first moved to the north side from the south side, I made the mistake of rollerblading on wilson on a warm summer afternoon/evening. Never again.

BK said:

I originally thought this might be off topic, but it's not. It has been the heart of about 50% of the replies. It bothers me a lot when we have to alter our bike rides to avoid dangerous neighborhoods. Last Saturday I had to bike across town from Jefferson Park to Uptown via Wilson after dark. I told a friend where I was going and when I should be home just in case something went wrong. Wilson can be a little sketchy through Albany Park. I've only been in Chicago 2 1/2 years but I've heard people say Daley will leave the gangs alone as long as they don't cross certain boundaries, primarily in to the Loop area. Do you think Chicago is aggressive enough against gangs? I'd love to take Austin or Central south to the West or South side but I don't feel safe once I get South of Addison.

Permalink Reply by Lanterne Rouge on September 30, 2011 at 8:47am

Ah, sorry to make a post that is irrelevant. Didn't realize I was responding to an old post.

Permalink Reply by Shawn Evans on February 7, 2015 at 9:07pm

The blatant racism throughout this post is unbelievable.

I've been riding (by myself) most of the routes through the West Side since I got my job in Lakeview, and I can tell you they're all pretty much the same (same amount of time to get to work, same street conditions, etc.).

I haven't encountered any problems from 'the locals'.

But then, I look like a normal (white) person riding a common-looking upright bike, and not a weird 'other' in shiny clothes riding an expensive racing cycle. I don't 'invade' their neighborhood with all my buddies wearing their lycra 'colors' and helmet 'armor' like some ridiculous white gang.

If people see you as one of them, they're more likely to empathize with you. Something to think about.

Back to the topic, there is one route that is the worst, though. Wrightwood.

Not only is there a hill to climb, not only are there rail crossings at street level, not only are there dozens of speed humps, not only does the damn street end at Elston (stops going east, instead goes north to Diversey), beyond all of that, what's worse is the 'intersection' at Kedzie. Because it's not a real intersection at all. If you're going east, you have to go around. Except, when you want to continue going east, the car behind you expects you to turn on Kedzie, and gets mad when you don't. And if you're going west and you get the green light at Milwaukee, you think you can go through. But when you get to Kedzie, you find out they just got a green light also. Ridiculous. The worst 'intersection' in the city, and that's saying something. I know there are expensive plans floating around to fix this, but they sound complicated (and will cost zillions). Just build a ped/bike ramp over the damn thing.

Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on February 8, 2015 at 1:41pm

Good job bringing up a like 3 year ild thread to complain about it.

I will add that if you are going west as far north as Diversey you are not really going through the bad part of the West Side of Chicago; take Agusta, Chicago or Lake everyday for a few months in the summer and get back to me on how nice and peaceful it is.

Shawn Evans said:

The blatant racism throughout this post is unbelievable.

I've been riding (by myself) most of the routes through the West Side since I got my job in Lakeview, and I can tell you they're all pretty much the same (same amount of time to get to work, same street conditions, etc.).

I haven't encountered any problems from 'the locals'.

But then, I look like a normal (white) person riding a common-looking upright bike, and not a weird 'other' in shiny clothes riding an expensive racing cycle. I don't 'invade' their neighborhood with all my buddies wearing their lycra 'colors' and helmet 'armor' like some ridiculous white gang.

If people see you as one of them, they're more likely to empathize with you. Something to think about.

Back to the topic, there is one route that is the worst, though. Wrightwood.

Not only is there a hill to climb, not only are there rail crossings at street level, not only are there dozens of speed humps, not only does the damn street end at Elston (stops going east, instead goes north to Diversey), beyond all of that, what's worse is the 'intersection' at Kedzie. Because it's not a real intersection at all. If you're going east, you have to go around. Except, when you want to continue going east, the car behind you expects you to turn on Kedzie, and gets mad when you don't. And if you're going west and you get the green light at Milwaukee, you think you can go through. But when you get to Kedzie, you find out they just got a green light also. Ridiculous. The worst 'intersection' in the city, and that's saying something. I know there are expensive plans floating around to fix this, but they sound complicated (and will cost zillions). Just build a ped/bike ramp over the damn thing.

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