By: Matt Rosenberg
Chicago will again exceed its 2019 baseline for homicides, illustrating the city has yet to recover from an ongoing storm of violence touched off after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis in 2020. Not only homicides but sharp hikes in motor vehicle theft, theft, carjacking, and other crimes are leading to trouble for the city as business leaders – including recently McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski – continue to question the city’s viability.
The backdrop is not encouraging. Through September 16th, Chicago has suffered 514 homicides, assuring the city will exceed the 528 homicides reported for the last pre-Covid year of 2019.
Of this year’s homicides to date, 61 have been victims aged 18 or younger, so that subgroup too will exceed the 2019 total of 66. The only good news is year-end totals will likely be below 2021’s outsized results.
All of this is according to data from the Cook County Medical Examiner based on homicide incidents that took place in the City of Chicago.*
Of this year’s homicide victims so far, 78 percent of the victims have been black, 16 percent Hispanic, and 5 percent white. From 2018 through 2021, the racial distribution of homicide victims was almost exactly identical, within one percent of each group’s results so far this year.
Crimes across the city
According to Chicago Police, reported citywide major violent and property crimes through Sept. 11 of this year were up 38 percent over 2021 and up 19 percent over 2019. Shooting incidents, thefts and murders are each up a third versus the same stretch of 2019, and car thefts almost 75 percent. Through Sept. 11 in the city’s 1st police district, the South Loop and near South Side, crime is up dramatically compared to 2019. Likewise in the 19th, or Lakeview, on the North Side, where motor vehicle theft, theft, and robbery have spiked. In the 18th, or the North Loop and Lincoln Park, the overall rise in major reported crimes is less great, but car thefts and criminal sexual assaults are up sharply.
Those statistics have an impact on perceptions about the city’s future. Chris Kempczinski, the CEO of Chicago-based McDonald’s Corporation warned political and business leaders that without a plan to deal with the city’s persistent crime problem, the company will have to rethink staying here.
In his speech to the Economic Club of Chicago, Kempczinski called himself Chicago’s biggest booster and noted the company’s annual economic contribution to the city exceeds $2 billion. But he added, “if McDonald’s were to ever leave Chicago, that’s $2B a year that would go away – permanently. Our tax base would erode, our public and private institutions would weaken, and the dynamism and confidence that have defined Chicago for generations would suffer.”
Recruitment of executives is getting harder due to Chicago’s crime and a growing reputation as a place that’s unsafe, Kempczinski said. More than that, he added, “outsiders sense vulnerability. I’ve heard from other mayors and governors who have made their case to me for McDonald’s to relocate our headquarters to their cities and states. And if I’m getting those calls, you can be sure other Chicago companies are as well.”
The city’s fading reputation results in no small part from daily news reports of disturbing crimes.
Friday, a 12-year-old shot by two men for no apparent reason remained in critical condition. Wednesday, two Chicago children were shot inside their homes within several hours. Seven teens were among the 28 wounded last weekend. Recent fatal shootings in Chicago have included public school students after the recent start of classes following summer break. Two Shurz High School students were wounded in an ice-cream shop shooting on the third day of classes in late August. Two weeks later, a 17-year-old Kenwood Academy student in Hyde Park was shot dead on lunch break after an argument with people in a car. In August, seven children were shot in just 17 hours in Chicago.
Over Labor Day weekend, 55 people were shot in Chicago, including 11 killed. In one day last week, 16 were shot, 3 fatally. The day’s violence included a mass shooting on the South Side that claimed 2 lives and wounded 7. This was in Washington Park, a stone’s throw from the University of Chicago, after two groups got into an argument. Nearby in the park at the same time, contestants were playing in an anti-violence group’s summer softball league.
Downtown and in the West Loop four tourists were among the victims of armed robbery crews that have been sweeping across the city’s upscale neighborhoods all year long. Sixteen armed robberies were reported over two days and in one instance after police identified a group of suspects, they were ordered by supervisors to stop their vehicular pursuit, due to risk mitigation concerns. Last week the film crew of the TV drama “Chicago Fire” suspended their work due to a shooting. Earlier in the summer filming for “Chicago Med” was disrupted by gunfire, and a hurled explosive device stopped filming of “Justified: City Primeval.”
Unknown shooters pursued a man and woman in a vehicle chase to the Morgan Park police station on Chicago’s Southwest Side where one was killed and another wounded as the shooting continued. One bullet went through a police station window. No one was apprehended. A marijuana dispensary’s security guard fatally repelled an ax attacker with gunfire, and the security detail of a suburban mayor in Chicago fired at armed robbers who’d just hit an Apple Store in Lincoln Park. In an ongoing Chicago public transit crime wave, would-be knifing victims have begun knifing their attackers on CTA trains.
But Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says crime is down and worries are exaggerated.
In recent push-polling done on her behalf, one question asked respondents to indicate how convinced they were by the following statement: “While media and the mayor’s political opponents cynically highlight every tragic instance of violence to stoke fear, the fact is shootings are down 18 percent from last year and homicides are also down 18 percent. Although there is much more work to do and the court system doesn’t do enough to keep violent offenders off the streets, the progress is real. Lightfoot’s approach is working.”
Asked about Lightfoot’s ongoing emphasis that murders and shootings this year so far are down from last year, South Side activist Tamar Manasseh, founder of Mothers Against Senseless Killing, said, “Just because you said there was less (crime) doesn’t mean it’s less…it didn’t drop so much where the average person would see a difference. You saying it’s not as violent as it was last year, but yet every single day (online), I’m seeing new and improved ways of people being murdered in Chicago. I’m sorry. That does nothing for me.”
In fact, as Manasseh notes in passing, official crime data and actual crime occurring are not the same thing. Wirepoints recently found that, nationally, 60 percent of non-murder violent victimizations and 66 percent of property victimizations are not reported, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Additionally, the weekly Chicago Police Department crime summaries don’t include weapons charges plus a range of other offenses that police nationwide are now supposed to be surfacing under a new system called the National Incident-Based Reporting System.
Chicago’s weekly crime summaries also hide, within the category of robberies, the crime of carjacking. As of July this year, carjackings were on track to reach a 22-year high.
What’s to be done?
In his speech, Kempczinski accented the need for unspecified public-private partnerships to combat crime.
Unfortunately, he stayed away from the transformative role of school vouchers, and the role of parents, a topic which proved a third rail for him in 2021. In a private text message to Lightfoot then after two fatal shootings of children, both of which involved poor parental oversight of the victims, he stated, “…the parents failed those kids which I know is something you can’t say. Even harder to fix.”
That earned him fierce blowback from gatekeepers of public dialog, who called his remarks “ignorant, racist, and unacceptable.”
Nonetheless, Kempczinski was on to something. Whether our public conversation will be allowed at any point, to plumb the economic importance of married two-parent households and the influential role of fathers, is one key to whether Chicago can regain its footing.
If such topics remain barred from mainstream political and public debate, Chicago may well remain violently riven by “a system of willful neglect” propagated by both parents and the city’s leadership.
*Chicago counts only murders, not all homicides, and excludes murders within city limits that occur on state expressways in shootings there, so its numbers are somewhat lower than the Cook County ME’s.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- McDonald’s and the Crisis of Chicago – Wirepoints in the Wall Street Journal*
- The scream and Chicago’s “Great Unraveling” – Wirepoints on The Chicago Way with John Kass
- Chicago not a “hellhole,” but the facts show it’s a living hell for far too many people
- Chicago crime statistics: Even worse than you think
A set of state lawmakers want to extend CPS’ current school closing moratorium to February 1, 2027 – the same year CPS is set to transition to a fully-elected school board. That means schools like Manley High School, with capacity for more than 1,000 students but enrollment of just 78, can’t be closed for anther three years. The school spends $45,000 per student, but just 2.4% of students read at grade level.
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.
We are living in a post truth world where facts, reason and common sense have all been replaced by lies, feelings and stupidity. Rosenberg and Wirepoints providing the former, Lightfoot, Pritzker and their army of fools championing the latter. I wish the business leaders would wake up, stand up and show up for Chicago they way they did in 1973 with Chicago United. That group was led by all the top CEO’s and tackled the city’s problems together with City hall. Kempczinski is on the right track but his first foe is PC. He’ll never get anywhere if he doesn’t… Read more »
And Lightfoot’s reply is again a dismissive sneer. Stats can be manipulated, but, anyone with half a brain can tell you that things have changed dramatically in this city.
Chicago has had a crime problem even before I covered the police department as a Daily Calumet reporter. However, back then it was considered safe to be in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, the Chicago Loop and North Michigan Avenue. Now it is not safe to be anywhere. In the late 80s to early 90s, I worked at Illinois Masonic Medical Center as media relations manager. That medical center is located in the Lakeview neighborhood, and none of us ever felt unsafe them. Not anymore. The mayor’s problem will only be exacerbated by Governor Fred Flinstones absurd move to do away… Read more »
The habit of leftist politicians to ignore or even encourage lawlessness while demonizing law enforcement is the perfect recipe for turning cities into dangerous playgrounds for criminals. Our cities will continue to decline into chaos and destruction as long as the good law abiding citizens allow it to continue. It’s time to make a stand and demand justice and vote these leftists out!
I have read this article and re-read it. I have no words for what is ahead of Chicago only prayers and tears.
“Crime wouldn’t pay if the government ran it”. Au contraire, it pays and it pays handsomely. The murderous results replayed in the statistics exhibited in Matt Rosenberg’s article, are a byproduct of the antipathy of the government ignoring crime ….. and its citizens. One party rule in any jurisdiction, county, state, or country is never a good thing. Couple that attribute with an encouraging and unengaged media complex and the attendant outcomes are somewhat axiomatic. Competition breeds better performance. With the police hamstrung by proxy and by decree, district attorneys who are unwilling or unable to pursue charges without the… Read more »
Never Ever vote for a democrat or anyone who looks like a democrat!
The annualized run rate for homicides is 720 for full-year 2022, based on the 511 recorded through September 16th … this is progress against the backdrop of the last two years, even if it still represents a 20% increase over the pre-George Floyd level of 604 recorded in 2019.
What accounts for this … ?
GET THE DEMOCRATS OUT!!!!! YOU CAN’T EXPECT A DIFFERENT OUTCOME WHEN YOU VOTE THE SAME PEOPLE OR THE SAME POLITICAL BULLCRAP IN !!!!
The claim by elected officials (read Lori Lightfoot here) that crime is not up flies in the face of what everyday residents and visitors to Chicago know to be true. You can no longer walk down the streets of Chicago, or even drive your car, without worrying that you could be mugged or hijacked. It is just a fact. And I’m talking about Michigan Avenue, and Chicago’s Gold Coast…let alone the South and West side of the city. If the police arrest someone (generally a teen, for a crime like a hijacking, or a mugging…nothing happens. The perpetrator is simply… Read more »
Everything Democraps say “flies in the face of” what people know to be true. Everything, seriously. Think about it.
Matt, great job on reporting crime in Chicago!
One correction, CPD police districts are known as: 1st District, 2nd District, 3rd District, etc.
Although, Chicago is close to the Hunger Games levels of violence, the police districts aren’t known as District 1.
It’s quite interesting to me to see how out of towners react when telling them of the incredible crime situation in Chicago. Just giving them two or three examples of the heinous, vicious crimes that are being committed in the Windy City has them shaking their heads and asking why I don’t move… If simply recounting two or three instances is adequate for them to question why someone would live in Chicago, and apparently is enough to dissuade them from even visiting in the future, Chicago is in a very bad place. One person asked me why don’t I move… Read more »
It is frightening. It is disheartening. It is insane to venture into the city of Chicago. My wife and I, both grandparents, are visiting from our home in Chula Vista, California near San Diego. We are visiting a sick relative who needs our help. My wife is not from here. She is not as familiar with Chicago as I am. We are staying in the far western suburbs. My heart was broken this morning. My wife was watching a segment on the TV news about the Taco Fest that is happening in Lakeview today. She said, “Let’s go!” We went… Read more »
Send Old Mcdonald back to the farm. None of this is reality, that’s what our LOL Big Stick Lorii says.
The great unraveling, to quote Matt Rosenberg. But come on, who knows more, the CEO of a multi billion dollar multi national, or someone that reminds me of Beetlejuice who’s running for reelection?
another issue is the people in power don’t want a strong armed middle class that is educated and cohesive. They divide us by race, politics, class, gender, sports teams etc. all by design
Murders in Chicago may increase 50% or double in 2023 due to the unsafe T Act. Crime will spill into the suburbs without a doubt
My last month paycheck was 13,500 dollars… All I did was simple 0nline work from comfort at home for 5-7 hours/day that I got from this agency I discovered over the internet and they paid me 95 dollars every hour.
Visit for more detail… https://indeedgold.blogspot.com
😂
One prominent memory of my life was during the 1972 Olympic Massacre in Munich, West Germany when 8 members of the Palestine Liberation terrorist group, Black September, killed two members of the Israeli team and took 9 others hostage.
As he reported the story, the late (truly) great, Jim McKay of ABC Sports at one point said as a machined gun terrorist was on the screen: “Some stories have no hope. This is one of them.”
Chicago is now (almost) in “no-hope” status.
“Lord, may the election save this city.”
If you think elections will save Chicago or Illinois, think again. It’s too late for that. Don’t let Wirepoints give you false hope. They mean well, but are you willing to risk your family’s safety and economic future on such a small chance of success?
What does an election mean in a one party city?
You see a number of alderman not running for another term. To be replaced by even more radical leftists.
Yes, the DSA communist faction of the Democrat Party will gain a significant number of seats in city council. And I expect them to nationalize the utilities, give away free water, redirect half the police budget towards UBI, implement a suburban commuter tax, and the continued neglect of downtown and the abandonment of the north side in favor of south and west sides. These are the positions the DSA has already taken so this is not hyperbole. When the city metaphorically burns to the ground afterwards, the DSA will still be unhappy, upset there are areas on the far NW… Read more »
Lightfoot and her spin machine are doing all they can to hide what is really going on in Chicago. Murders, crime, carjackings and other types of violent crime are killing Chicago like Kempczinski said. And he wasn’t wrong when he texted Lightfoot privately in 2021 about poor parental oversight. Chicago needs Paul Vallas as its next mayor. There is no other viable candidate.
Can the city be saved? It’s a question on so many minds. Rooting out the absolute corruption must be priority one. An outside, real court system must assist.
The good people in the city and state are permanently outnumbered so nothing will change. Even worse, the good people end up funding their demise because they’re outnumbered.
All anyone can do is to move to another state where the residents respect each other and the Rule of Law is enforced.
Our ancestors came here from far away lands, don’t be afraid to move to another state.
Ataraxis, yours is the voice of reason. Also, I would suggest Tennessee to those who haven’t decided to go down with the ship, but there are other good choices.
An instant raise for anyone who moves to TN from IL with your zero income tax!
Property tax is $2,000 in TN. In Illinois it was $7,000. (Similar houses)
Basically the same for me in NC.
More importantly, my property taxes don’t jump every year.
Since 2019 my property taxes have gone up $7.
I think the last couple years have proven we knew what we were doing. A world of hurt is coming for those that remain. Oh well, no longer our problem.
I could be but not by the crew that are killing it now. We need someone who won’t flinch when too may POC gangbangers are taken off the streets for a very long time.
Each time a business leaves Chicago, it gets harder to uplift the communitee and stop the violence… it’s almost like Chicago leadership doesn’t care.
The country has descended into chaos and anarchy. Chicago is ground zero. Lightfoot is the poster boy/girl of the movement to destroy the great experiment. If you vote for Democrats in 53 days, you are the cause. You are indicating that you approve and want more of the same.
Incidentally, I’m not a Republican.
Its good to see one of the business leaders break ranks and speak out. Finally. Chicago business is like a very small club that works with the city to sweep problems under the nicely designed flower beds of Michigan Avenue. Then, they return to their North Shore homes at night and make sure to turn on the security system once the family is home. Its all very polite.
Absolutely right on point. Problem is this a little too late maybe? They should have put Lightfoot and Pritzker on full blast for the draconian shut downs along witn the looting. They were afraid to say anything because they would be called racist. Chicago has paid a terrible price for their silence.
A CEO of a major company threatening to leave Illinois has to tell the Mayor of Chicago and Governor of Illinois what serious problems Illinois has. God help us!
To all the good people who read and comment at Wirepoints and cannot fathom why the city and state leaders are allowing Chicago and Illinois to turn Hell, please understand that this is all by design. Why does a thug live a life of crime inflicting pain on fellow human beings? Because they want to! The feelings of the victim are not even a consideration when they commit their crimes. Why do the city and state leaders take actions like enacting no-cash bail that will obviously harm good people? Because they want to harm good people! The feelings of the… Read more »
In a Wall Street Journal editorial today, “Firing Back at Jim Crow,” blacks are arming themselves because the cops can’t protect them.”More black Americans today are absorbing this lesson about self-defense if their gun purchases are any indication. Overall gun sales are way up in the U.S., but a National Shooting Sports Foundation survey for the first six months of 2020 reports sales to black Americans were up 58% over a year earlier. When the police no longer can guarantee public safety, as we see every day in too many American cities, a gun may be the only way for… Read more »
Yeah but if you shoot a criminal in a soros prosecutor jurisdiction, YOU’LL be going to jail.
Better off to avoid going into the areas in the first place.
Just the other day, some food delivery driver had her car stolen, she comes out, sees someone trying to steal her car, so she fires her gun.
Driver gets away, car is gone, BUT THE VICTIM IS CHARGED WITH THE FELONY FOR TRYING TO PROTECT HER PROPERTY AND LIFE.
See how this works?
Do you have a link to this story?
https://cwbchicago.com/2022/09/food-delivery-driver-opened-fire-on-car-thief-at-popeyes-prosecutors-say.html Food delivery driver opened fire on car thief at Popeye’s, prosecutors say A food delivery driver opened fire on a car thief who stole her car outside a Popeye’s restaurant in Rogers Park on Monday afternoon, officials said. She is now facing a felony charge, but as for the thief, well, they have yet to be found. Monique Logan parked her car and ran into the chicken restaurant at 1959 West Howard around 2 p.m. When she came out three minutes later, someone was driving away with her vehicle. Prosecutors said Chicago police surveillance video shows Logan running out… Read more »
We used to know the importance of fathers in the home. We have forgotten to our detriment.
The mayor can bury her head in the sand if she wants. To claim that violent crime is down is absurd. The first role of government is to protect the populace from harm. If she continues to abdicate her responsibility small and large businesses will leave, and few new businesses will be established. That is not rocket science. The fact remains that black America and black Americans are in crisis and are the hardest hit victims of inept government. She needs to address that.
Of course she knows crime is up. She is lying to you.
She agrees with you: The first role of government is to protect the populace from harm.
You see the harm as crime.
She sees the harm as systemic racism as the harm because it disproportionately incarcerates black and brown people.
The first role of government is equity.
So she lets criminals run free because of the color of their skin. And that’s supposedly less harmful than incarcerating them.
Her plan is working.
no money to incarcerate, or for public services (ie police or anything else), cause of IL politicians pandering to public unions ….especially multi-million dollar pensions (at a young age)…IL is 51st in fiscal condition, behind Puerto Rico and your homes secure these pensions (thats why we have among the lowest home appreciation)
Matt, thank you for saying what we all know but often fear to say – this crime tsunami starts with family. It’s telling that Chicago’s Asian community, now 8% of Chicago’s population, commits no murders at all. Asians families are overwhelmingly 2-parent. 2-parent families give children a massive advantage and we should admit it and work to give every child a chance to grow up in a 2-parent family. I understand that this is difficult to achieve but we have to at least start talking about it.
This makes me so sad. Between the lack of necessary education (not propaganda) in CPS and the rampant crime, major and minor, which is left unchecked in the city and county (for which which I directly blame Ms. Fox and her puppet masters), I foresee the city I loved crumbling and slowly being destroyed and eventually erased, except for an eventual mention in some history book (There once was a city . . ) My own niece was almost carjacked at a gas station while attending to her baby in the back seat. It makes me incredibly angry. Stable families… Read more »
The only way to protect yourself & your family is to leave Illinois.
Already have.
I weep for my family and friends that remain and for the fond memories I cling to of a city that no longer exists.
You can’t change what you refuse to recognize. Black people are doomed because of black culture. Nobody invented it for them but certainly racists like Biden keep stoking it.
You manage to cover a wide range of important topics in this perspetive–but keeping the focus on crime, why is it impossible for Lightfoot to pull herself out of denial? She is allowing the city to fall to the criminals. Some might say, she is intentionally abetting the crimes herself. This soft stance on crime, combined with the failures of CPS to teach children to read, combined with too many single parent homes is a recipe for continuing failure.
Lori is not in denial. She is acutely aware of the problems. But she’s a progressive ideologue committed to her values, even if it means lying and deceiving you to get her way. Increased is crime is the end result of progressive policies. In fact, increased crime is the GOAL of progressive policies. Increased crime means fewer BIPOC in being incarcerated or punished for their crimes. Her entire policy positions are designed around ‘equity’. But equity, like communism, tends to get people really upset when they realize they were duped, and progressive policies have to be forced upon an unwilling… Read more »
I’m believing more and more democrats want the rise in crime only to finally realize its not a good thing and ride in on their white steed to save the day. It’ll be too late.
Violence and crime are the norm now. We’re desensitized to it due to the magnitude of the problem. Those of us in the suburbs though are starting to see the spread of moral rot into the outlying areas. It started with blatant organized retail theft of high end stores, but carjacking and shootings have followed. People better speak up, and more importantly, vote for candidates that share their values of law and order. I do think Chicago is a lost cause, but it doesn’t need to be that way outside of that hot mess. Put the hammer down on violent… Read more »
Is there any safe place anymore? Sadly until the people have enough and change whom they support nothing will change. Please keep up the great coverage.
Seems like Oakbrook where McDonalds used to be headquartered was much safer than the West Loop where they are now. If this CEO cares about his employees and the company, he should move back.
They moved from Oak Brook, to Chicago, because the corporate ‘group think’ at the time was that Fortune 500 companies HAD TO be in urban areas to attract younger, millennial workers.
Kind of reminds me of the ‘clear’ phase during the mid-90’s. Every corporation decided, at the same time, that all of their products required a ‘clear’ version for about 2 years until people realized, wait, this is stupid.
I remember this era, others probably do not, because it was so short, and such a failure. but that tends to be how things are.
That type of group think often results from having high priced consultants come into the business and opine on what needs to be done. They peddle the same garbage to any company that will pay their ridiculous fees. Saw it happen a few times. Never any value add but senior management could tell the board of directors they were working on a new plan.
While some of the fixes mentioned have potential, significant results won’t be seen for at least a generation or two. I’m not saying they shouldn’t proceed, but more immediate results are desperately needed to make this city more livable again & less fearsome. Yes, I’m talking to Kim Foxx & all those in power who support allowing criminals back on the streets with little or no jail time, who support theft without consequence under a given dollar amount, who will not allow good police to do their jobs. Remember the “broken windows” concept where even the smallest of crimes have… Read more »
It’s been over 50 years since the riots in the 1960s that devastated parts of Chicago, and those neighborhoods have still not recovered. Chicago will need 100 years, if ever, to recover from the current devastation. For comparison, Detroit in 1960 had the highest per capita income in the world. Look at it now. Detroit is the window into Chicago’s future. The Chicago area does have geographical advantages as a transportation hub that the Detroit area did not have, but the lawlessness will move transportation related companies away from the city core. None of the things that need to change… Read more »
We are seeing this in Evanston. Vagrants and homeless are flocking here from Chicago, knowing that the local libtard government will welcome them. Now we have a severe panhandling problem, increased mayhem and crime. Evanston’s response? Placing a dozen porta – potties downtown for their use, and ramming a homeless shelter into the midst of a dense residential area (The Margarita Inn, just west of downtown). Gangs are on the increase. Many of us are furious about this deliberate destruction of a once – nice area, but to no avail…
When I was a kid in the 1960s, going to downtown Evanston was so cool. So sad to see it devolve. Increased crime can kill off any area in no time. Once crime takes over and the vibrancy is lost, it’s all over, and it’s never coming back. Many examples like this in the city and suburban neighborhoods over the last few decades.
Evanston is unfortunately led by many of these foolish progressives who could careless about the impact. They strongly believe that this is the only way by tearing everything down to then rebuild into a utopia that will never be. No common sense for public safety for families and children. Then again, they believe in destroying the nuclear family as well. Reasoning with these people is like trying to have a conversation with Stalin or Castro. The Marxist mindset is an absolute cancer. Evanston is ground zero for this stupidity. Many with advanced degrees, high net worth, think they know what… Read more »
All we can hope is that these people who are too smart for their own good have a meet up with Karma and get a lesson in reality.
It’s as though no one has ever read any history… Utopia is grand in theory, but human self-interest is never factored in…
The Greek root of Utopia is “no place”.
The hyper-vigilance is exhausting. We just finished updating a home in the northwest suburbs that we have rented out for the last 40 years, prepping it for sale. It’s too big for just the two of us, it needs a family. But while spending 5 days/week out there over the last 5 weeks, the ease of mental stress was so evident. It has definitely gotten our wheels turning…
Karen D, You nailed it, hyper vigilance is what I was referring to. It’s just exhausting. And it’s no way to live. Best of luck to you in whatever comes next. I’ll give you the reverse situation here in semi-rural North Carolina. After I moved in, one of my neighbors told me, “just remember that most everyone driving a pickup you see is armed. If someone were to be stupid enough to try to rob your wife in a grocery store parking lot, 4 guys in pickup trucks would pull up and point a gun at the perp.” We have… Read more »
I am truly mystified that the simple basic tenants of law and order have ceased to exist! If your intent is bodily harm, you should be punished. If you resist arrest , you should be prosecuted. These are simple ways of maintaining law and order in a WORKING criminal justice system.
Everyone who possibly can should flee Chicago now before the Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act goes into effect on January 1st. I think Chicago will see crime like it’s never seen before. The SAFET Act will completely eliminate cash bail for the majority of defendants charged with criminal acts. In addition, the busloads of unvetted migrants being off loaded is frightening. What i saw was all young males, not families, not children, just men. My heart hurts for this city.
I live 10 blocks from White Sox (Rate Field) Park. Had two free tickets to a night game this week. While I enjoy day games, the prospect of walking home in my neighborhood at night unarmed led me to watch the game at home. It’s sad that I am uncomfortable leaving my house when dark unless it’s in an automobile.
With all the information in this article, it’s now even harder for me to understand the mayor and her supporters. I guess it’s too hard to try to find a way to fix the problem so… deny, deny, deny. Will she really convince enough voters that things are looking good here and to vote for her? I have to believe her motives run deeper, much deeper.
The modest decrease in homicides this year is more a credit to skilled EMS and trauma surgeons rather than something for CPD superintendent Brown to boast about. Sadly Chicago is insidiously becoming a more dangerous city to live in and calling this out is not racist, ignoring it though is.
I live 90 minutes from Chicago and visit the city twenty to thirty times per year. I’ve always been cautious as required but until these past two years Ive never been afraid. I am now. The spike in violent crime has made me rethink my desire to visit Chicago. From many here in Michigan I’ve heard that they won’t be back. Sad for those of us that love Chicago. Business and tourism are vital. Picture the city without them.
I can’t see an answer. I can’t understand the safe t law requiring no cash bond. I can’t understand politicians who dance around real issues. I can’t understand those same elected officials scream racist. If everything is racist than nothing is racist. I can’t understand, and couldn’t understand defund the police. I can’t understand a mayor who states crime isn’t bad yet requires eighty plus officers to guard her. Why does she need so many? It has been spoken about and written about lack of two parent homes. How do we change this? How do we get fathers to stay?… Read more »
As a young man growing up in the 50’s, grandpa had forty DeMars Grill restaurants, all of which were mostly Edward Hopper like joints. Small, easily operated and scattered about the entire city. Forty diners and a partner to operate each of them. As the only grandson, I fantasized about my eventual bequest. No one could have imagined the destruction of Chicagos’ ethnic neighborhoods. But by the time I was twenty five…. each and every one had been closed, as the various European migrant families ‘got the hell out’ of the city, escaping to the northern suburbs. Now when I… Read more »
Loved your coffee shops. I think the one I frequented was in East Rogers Park? Always an oasis for the neighborhood.
Devon Avenue, Morse Avenue or Howard Street ?
White Flight …I can’t imagine why ????
More blacks have left the city in the past two decades than whites.
Yes, sadly our city IS at stake. With the clear erosion of society, it’s time for God fearing people to get clarity on how to correct it. Our lives are now a reflection of painful reminders of generations who built this great city. We are losing it. It has been degraded and destroyed by politicians, school unions, media who are frauds and charlatans. Time to take a stand, there is no greater city than Chicago.
He should have never left OakBrook.
Hoping for positive change but the trend is so obviously in the wrong direction. Thank you for all your good work though. Very important that people see what’s going on.
In the United States, for example, significant differences in out- of-wedlock births exist among major social groups. While the national average for the United States in 2014 is 40 percent, the proportions of births out of wedlock for whites are 29 percent; Hispanics, 53 percent; and blacks, 71 percent.
Great stories about the DeMar Restaurants, used to go to the one in Blue Island. Hispanics are still coming for a better life and the numbers show massive increases from Central and South America to the US. Spanish will be important as a language and Chicago will eventually have majority Latino control. The times of the European white are sunsetting. With that exit comes a different set of values, some I agree with and some I want to be far away from.