Schizophrenic Logan Square?

By Jess D'Amico in News on Jan 10, 2008 10:56PM

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