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There have now been four murders in Logan Square this year, as in the past ten days, even though violent crime has been going down lately in the area and Chicago as a whole.
The Tribune thinks Logan Square is going through an identity crisis between its gentrifying aspects and poorer residents. They postulate that since gentrification has been making its way slowly westward, that gang violence is likewise being pushed further west, creating simultaneously "a hot neighborhood and a crime hotspot." It's a good explanation, but where did they find the residents they interviewed? They spoke to a man who will not let his children play outside anymore and is planning on moving out of Logan Square by the end of the month based on the murders, and a woman who's lived there for four months and had no idea that there had even been any shootings. Based on our lives in the area over the past few years, these aren't exactly your run-of-the-mill residents.
It's incredibly sad that four people died. It's also incredibly sad that more than 400 people were murdered in Chicago in 2007--and that that's a record low in the last 40 years. This just in: There is gentrification in Chicago, and there's also murder.
Image via Incendiarymind
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They are probably reacting to the fact that, according to a well-known crime website, in 2007 there were six murders in Logan Square all year, whereas, at this rate, by the end of 2008, there will be something close to 200. I'd probably make a run for it, too.
Maybe if they went somewhere other than the Starbucks to ask people their opinions...
Maybe if they went somewhere other than the Starbucks to ask people their opinions...
Yeah REAL Chicagoans stick it out when their neighborhood becomes a gang war zone!
I live in Logan Square. Streets is hard son!
A2: Kindly remove your head from your ass. Murder rates aren't just a numbers game. The murders this year might be the only ones that LS sees all year. 200 murders? Christ, I smell white panic coming off you in waves. Get a grip or go on Craigslist rants and raves with all your fear-mongering bulltwaddle.
You have a recession economy (more poverty), unusually warm weather (more people on the streets at night) plus the usual mix gentrification butting up against old neighborhood dividing lines. Unless all these murders are connected (they aren't) this is a variance. Should patrols be beefed up, more active community policing and proactive community programming? Of course. But Jess nailed it, there are murders and there is gentrification. Drawing connections that aren't there peddles papers and panic.
Yeah, real Chicagoans DO stick it out when their neighborhoods become gang war zones because real Chicagoans can't just up and leave at the drop of a hat. My parents couldn't leave Rogers Park ten years ago when a turf war was heating up between the Kings and GDs and I wouldn't either.
My neighborhood is my neighborhood, and most neighborhoods are safe for the people that live there. Sometimes shit gets a little hairy. Big fucking deal.
Its simple, gentrification pushs different gang members into the same area.
and
Matty, I have the copy right on using the word "son"
on Chicagoist,son!
Get your own word, you Dave Chappel wanna be
Yea AJ stir clear, between my( harder) faction and Matty's faction, the streets is hard, son, keep out son. This means you, son!
Obviously the 200 murders statistic was facetious. I am not really addressing Logan Square particularly as much as the, to my mind, asinine idea that people should just suck it up and deal with it and not want to move if their neighborhood suddenly becomes a gang-infested war zone.
This reminds me of when people would say "Oh, that area's not so bad, you just have to be street smart." As if the problem of random violence is all in your attitude!
Uh, I guess it is a "big fucking deal" for the people who are dead.
A2: What part of Downers Grove do you hail from? Because you're coming across like a terrified suburbanite.
"if their neighborhood suddenly becomes a gang-infested war zone."
Because gangs and drugs just appear in the night like fucking batman. Please. You have nary a clue how urban decay/renewal works do you?
Logan Square is one of the hottest landgrabs in the city right now. Scads of new development drives gang crime into different areas. Gang territory getting crossed raises tensions, violence ensues. It's horrible that young innocents like that 15 year old in the trib story, occasionally get caught in the crossfire. But what are the residents going to do, run for the hills or fight for their neighborhood. There are solutions, temporary and permanent. If lots of people run away you get a WORSE situation as the suddenly empty neighborhood become...you guessed it...gang-infested war zones. See White Flight in, oh, every major American city in the 1960's-1980's as an example. Logan Square has not shortage of strong community groups who will take an active role in dealing with this crime. What they don't need is fear-mongering idiots driving away the capital investors who have been spear-heading the community resurgence.
Back to the burbs with you.
Ugh. I am not bored enough to get into a long-winded pseudo-academic debate with you, but your histrionic post is way off.
Secondly, you are assuming a lot about me, much of it wrong, but all of it irrelevant, so I won't bother to address it.
This is my only point--I'm not attempting to address the entire history of urban decay here on Chicagoist--and the reason for the sarcasm in my post: I think the post suggested that the man who plans to leave the neighborhood was somehow overreacting. (How do you know he's white, by the way? Couldn't this be black flight? Or Hispanic flight? Seeing as you're a sociologist, you should know about the examples of that which have taken place.) In my experience, it is a pretty normal reaction to want to get the out of Dodge if you see things are going down the toilet, and I wouldn't turn my nose down at anyone who did.
I do think the man in the post was being a tad irrational. He decided to move to the area because of low rent. He should've done some research to see what kind of crime was committed in the area if he wanted to move his whole family there. The murders are horrible, but don't represent a trend overall of the neighborhood.
You are probably right, but I guess everyone has a different level of risk tolerance.
That guy mentioned in the story is a car messenger that moved about a mile or so south from Kilbourn Park -- he probably didn't think he needed to do "research" just to move 9 blocks. He's certainly a much different demographic than the young woman sitting in Starbucks reading Michael Chabon, give him a break.
And yes, the desire to keep your kids from all harm does probably sometimes seem "irrational" to those that don't have any...
A2 - Things are quite the contrary out here. It's not going down the toilet, as has been said several times before, the neighborhood is gentrifying rapidly even in this terrible real estate market. People put up with the crime almost no matter what. I dunno how or why, but we do. No one is moving to the suburbs from Logan Square other than poorer families who have been priced out of there homes.
You can check the crime stats on my block (milwaukee and spaulding). There's almost no crime whatsoever out here.
5 Years ago that was a different story. And in 5 years west logan square (if anyone wants to live out there, it's kind of boring looking) will be all but devoid of gang activity as well.
Also re: Rogers Park. My family stayed in east rogers park all through the late 80s and 90s. They never sold and there apartment is worth a fortune now cause of the lake views. For better of for worse the city is pricing poorer families out of the city or farther west and south.
Oh I should qualify my "no crime whatsoever" comment with personal experience. One 15 year old tried to mug me. I am 6'3 and 200 pounds. I told him to beat it and he did. Another time some kids made fun of me cause i was white.
You have to be on your guard out here, especially for women, but yes, being street smart and taking precautions can make the difference between being mugged and being safe.
By - Your cat is adorable! Mine looked just like him as a kitten!
"I smell white panic coming off you in waves"
I need that on a T-Shirt. +5 to simp...
"Ugh. I am not bored enough to get into a long-winded pseudo-academic debate with you, but your histrionic post is way off."
Said the coward to his shaking boots.
I grew up near Lawrence and Kimball, not the best area but it was all right. I moved to rogers park in 2003 and the worst thing that happened to me was the snow-parking. The suburbanites I worked with thought I was jumping over bodies and hookers just to get in in the morning. Most of my neighbors were black and hispanic blue collar folks. Yeah, there were definately areas you did not want to walk around late at night or alone (morse avenue is pretty awful) but the perjorative that RP was some kind of wasteland was crap.
I moved to Logan square in 2006 and have loved it. The only neighbors on my block I don't know are the white people hiding in their condos who only come out in cars or to take their dogs to shit. On Cinco De Mayo I grilled with my landlord and over Christmas my Polish neighbors brought everyone sweets. These are good people, many of them here for generations. They're already struggling with gentrification (they assumed I was just another rich white kid with an attitude and I had to work hard to get past that) and these killings don't make things easier for them.
So when I read some asshole's fear-mongering bullshit (and don't hide behind "it's sarcasm" cowboy up and own your words) it pisses me off. These people fight for their neighborhood. They fight for a place they can afford where their kids can play outside. They're not going to turn tail and run, because the alternatives (the burbs, being scattered away from their community) are awful.
As for black flight/hispanic flight, you just don't know your ass from a hole in the ground do you? White flight was the white communities moving to enclaves in the suburbs and reorganizing their economies outside the cities in response to the migration of millions of african-americans. Black/hispanic flight just ain't reality. Now tell me more about psuedo-academia sweetie.
So much street cred attested, so much cool lost.
I would like to point out that there is an outward flow of successful blacks and hispanics that is an extension of what ethnic communities have always done in Chicago. As the second and third generations improve their lot, they tend to migrate away from the old neighborhoods and into the suburbs. Part of this is the usual generational self-determination, but part of it is a reaction to the crime, gangs, and black markets. It's a huge problem not missed by the residents here and elsewhere.
With gentrification this is changing to some degree and many ethnicities are skipping the city in the migration, especially central Europeans and South Asians, while Bronzeville is (was?) getting a makeover by blacks moving back in and gentrifying the old neighborhood.
This is different from what is called "white flight" which was a panic largely orchestrated by white ghetto lords (spread panic, buy cheap, subdivide, rent for more than the mortgage). There's a nice description in American Pharoah (iirc, my copy is on loan). But, to enlarge the point, the successful south side Irish and north side Germans and Jews had been making their mark by moving out into the suburbs already. This was the housing stock that the initial wave of black (and other) new residents occupied.
Years ago, I used to drink with a cook that came here from Mexico. He owned a two-flat that had his nuclear family and some extended family. When gentrification came to his neighborhood, he was thrilled; it meant that he could sell to a developer and buy something in a suburb with living space and good schools.
The point being that the urban fabric in which we live and participate, regardless of how long we've lived there, is an immensely complex organism. The thing to get upset about is not the Tribune's bad attempt at a human interest story, but the loss of both affordable housing and professionals raised and made in the community.
Actually, the makeover in Bronzeville is becoming more mixed these days. I've met folks who purchased around 35th and State who ae surprised to see caucasians flocking down, rehabbing old homes, and moving in.
Logan Square is basically a bedroom community suburb anyway.
Heading to work? You're leaving the neighborhood.
Heading out w/friends? You're going elsewhere.
Hitting a decent grocery store? Off you go!
Nice restaurants? Bye!
Don't get me wrong. It is a great neighborhood to live in. And it does have some good stores, friendly places to eat/drink, and nice scenery. But so does Naperville, Oak Park, Plainfield, etc..... It is a little bit gritter, but that hardly changes the suburban similarity which brings the post-college crowd there.
Simple:
I think you better do some reading; Detroit has been hemorrhaging its black middle class for a decade and continues to do so.
I explained my only issue with the post was the snide tone toward the guy that was leaving the neighborhood. The author explained her point and I said, yeah, she was probably right, but I am not going to look down on the guy.
Rogers Park and Logan Square are huge neighborhoods. Obviously, a resident's experience in logan square varies greatly depending on where they actaully live. Just because your little nitch of the neighborhood is quaint, cozy, and on the upswing doesn't mean that some bad shit isn't happening less than a mile west, which is the whole point of the trib article. I'm glad to see people on here that are logan square proud (I lived there myself for four years), but that doesn't mean the neighborhood is perfect or that every square inch is "safe." I'm curious about how many of the people posting on here from logan square actually live more than a few blocks west of kedzie?
"live more than a few blocks west of kedzie?" I jog from Kimball to Pulaski every other day.
I'm not saying every square inch is safe. Just saying it's not a jungle out here or anything.
"I think you better do some reading; Detroit has been hemorrhaging its black middle class for a decade and continues to do so."
Beat me to it. Black flight is definitely real.
"I think you better do some reading; Detroit has been hemorrhaging its black middle class for a decade and continues to do so."
Beat me to it. Black flight is definitely real.
It is a little bit gritter, but that hardly changes the suburban similarity which brings the post-college crowd there.
Give me a break. When I moved to Logan Square, it had the best combination of price, safety and proximity to the El. Quit trying to sound like you know shit.
Gentrification and murder??
I'm outta here!
Hey Suburban Tower, again you're not just wrong
but stupidly wrong. Google Lula's Cafe, Streetside or Cafe on the Boulevard, Maria's, Weegee. Hot Spot, Just to name a few great bars and resturants including the two sushi resturants. Do you ever think before you speak? Oh that's right you can't think.
yea stay in "friendly places to eat/drink" with "nice scenery", like "Naperville" and "Plainfield", that's where you belong
p.s I'm not talking about tower 18 either
First off, thanks for publishing my photo. It's always an hour to appear on here or certain other Chicago sites which will remain nameless.
Sears Tower, do you even live in Logan Square?
You do realize that we have some of the best concert venues in the city in our boundaries in the Congress Theater and the Logan Square Auditorium not to mention many of the smaller venues on California, Fullerton, and others (and the immortal Fireside Bowl)?
We also have a bevvy of restaurants mentioned above that the whole city flocks to.
As far as bedroom community goes, you've obviously never been to Johnny's on the square or in Logan Square Park in the summer (or the Two-Way Lounge or Whirlaway for that matter). There's a very vibrant community here of long time residents and newcomers alike.
I get the sneaking suspicion you must be one of the people who want to hang out all the time in Ukrainian Village but won't admit to it here. Well, if you want to hang out in Ukrainian Village, get out of Logan Square and just move to Ukrainian Village. We don't want you here anyhow.