By: Matt Rosenberg
The ongoing North Side crime wave in Chicago brought three armed robberies on one day this week to Edgewater on the city’s North Side. The incidents were among a string of recent crimes in or adjacent to the community – including a drive-by shooting in the popular Asian restaurant district on Argyle Street in Uptown, and the shooting of a 17-year-old outside a CVS drugstore on Broadway. John Holden is an Edgewater community leader who has lived there or in adjacent Uptown for 35 years. He told Wirepoints each report “separately is disturbing, and all coming at once makes you start to wonder about the overall public safety profile of the area, which previously had been pretty solid.”
In the 20th Police District, which encompasses most of Edgewater, the Chicago Police Department’s Week 33 crime summary shows that “Part 1” major violent and property crimes are up 40 percent for the year-to-date versus 2019, compared to 16 percent higher citywide. In the 20th, thefts are up 118 percent, motor vehicle theft 44 percent, and robbery 35 percent. The 20th is just one of five police districts bordering Lake Michigan where many major crimes are rising sharply from the pre-Covid, pre-George Floyd baseline of 2019. We’ll get to that shortly.
Holden underscored his concerns. “In about the last week we’ve now gotten three public safety alerts from the alderman’s office on very disturbing public safety matters. One was a shooting in the parking lot of a nearby drugstore, one involved a series of armed robberies on one of our most pedestrian-friendly business strips in the ward, and the other involved a mid-day drive-by shooting in the most popular restaurant district on the north lakefront…These are things that happened in broad daylight, more or less. That adds an element to unnerving you. Am I going to get a stray bullet just walking into the CVS? We have overall a very safe community but we have to be cognizant that could change at any time.”
Holden is a local community group president, former Chicago journalist and top City Hall aide under mayors Daley II and Emanuel – and he says the biggest crime concern he hears about in Edgewater has to do with declining passenger safety on the CTA.
“I know people who work downtown and commute from Edgewater…and they are not using the Red Line because they are terrified of just the general conditions…We’re in the midst of a $1 billion-plus rebuild of the infrastructure of the Red Line up here and a lot of people are wondering, are people ever going to go back to it if we don’t see a major turnaround in this situation?”
Criminal case outcomes data needs to be liberally shared by officialdom
Holden also accented the importance of courts and the city sharing outcomes data on local crimes. Are perpetrators even identified and apprehended? And if yes, what then? He says, “Whatever happens to any of these cases, you never hear anything more past the initial episode.” Of the CVS shooting which involved two juveniles, he said, “Whether this case would be thrown out in court, or not prosecuted, is the kind of thing we should be asking ourselves. Absolutely, the community should be made aware of what’s going on with these cases and, if necessary, get pulled into the process of court advocacy or whatever it takes to make sure that these kinds of matters aren’t swept under the rug.”
The baseline of reported crime in lakefront communities is growing. Rogers Park, to Edgewater’s immediate north, is covered within CPD’s District 24. Through Week 33 of this year versus the same period in 2019, thefts are up 77 percent, motor vehicle thefts up 48 percent, aggravated battery up 43 percent, shooting incidents 22 percent higher, robbery up 20 percent, and all major reported crimes up 23 percent. Only burglaries are down.
South of Edgewater lies Chicago Police District 19, including the city’s neighborhoods of Uptown and Lakeview. In District 19 for YTD 2022 versus 2019, combined major crimes are up 31 percent. Motor vehicle theft is up 82 percent, robbery 54 percent, and thefts 43 percent. Robbery is the category in which CPD places armed vehicular hijackings – carjackings. To break them out separately you have to filter through a comprehensive city crime database, as we did last month.
Additionally in the 19th, murders have more than tripled and shooting incidents have doubled, but the raw numbers are relatively small.
In District 18 – or Lincoln Park, the Gold Coast, Old Town, Streeterville and River North – motor vehicle thefts are up 132 percent versus the same stretch of 2019, shooting incidents up 106 percent and criminal sexual assaults 56 percent, but all major crimes are just 3 percent higher due to drops in robbery, aggravated battery, and theft.
And then there’s District 1 on the near south lakefront which runs from the Chicago River downtown south to 31st Street. It remains a big trouble spot this year. So far in District 1 for this year versus 2019, motor vehicle thefts are up a stunning 284 percent, shooting incidents are 183 percent greater, robberies are up 41 percent, criminal sexual assault is up 31 percent, aggravated battery is up 15 percent, and overall reported major crimes are 37 percent higher.
Only theft is down in the 1st, marginally. There’ve been 10 homicides through Week 33 this year in District 1, 400 percent more than the two in 2019.
The data can lead only to one conclusion. Chicago needs competent political leadership more than ever. And at City Hall and in Cook County and state government, the aim should be to empower police, prosecutors, and judges, rather than weakening them.
Tragically, violent, deadly crime is now expected and all too commonplace on Chicago’s South and West Sides – where three were murdered and 10 shot last Wednesday alone. Then came three mass shootings yesterday Friday, also on the South and West Sides. They were in the neighborhoods of Washington Park, Back Of The Yards, and East Garfield Park.
Now add in the ongoing spread of crime along the lakefront. If all of this continues – and it shows no signs of stopping whatsoever – the city sinks deeper into purgatory. Never quite fully extinguished; but also neither whole nor really set right.
Appendix
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Illinois state’s attorneys demand changes to no-bail law
- Chicago crime statistics: Even worse than you think
- New 2021 Chicago data shows 400,000 high-priority incidents where dispatchers had no police available to send
- Read the BGA’s report on Chicago’s overblown anti-violence programs
- The tentacles of city crime spread across Chicagoland: Here’s why
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Accountibility is sadly lacking, and citizens must determine where that originates and who is participating in it. Then they need to exercise their right to vote those people, and/or the people they answer to, out of office. The old addage that you can’t expect new results when you continue to do the same old thing applies.
When Donna More is posting on JohnKassNews.com we all should be very concerned. I would submit she is a traditional democrat, a Chicago Style Kennedy Democrat. Unfortunately, she is now in the minority in her very dangerous political party. https://johnkassnews.com/for-public-safetys-sake-hold-people-accountable-on-crime-abandon-comfortable-inaction-not-the-tools-of-criminal-justice/ This is not the Democrats of old, these are the Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dorhn, Saul Alinsky types who inculcated Obama with this poisonous “it must destroyed in order to remake it” philosophy of governance. I saw how dangerous they were a long time ago, unfortunately not many else did and out of white guilt they voted for the perfectly packaged… Read more »
Good post, Mr. Rosenberg… but, incredibly sad, and worse: “There is no hope.” Why? Because when the government – the very institution entrusted with power by the populace to protect society – fails to do so … and worse, justifies its inaction morally … then chaos and evil have free reign. And, until the adults resume leadership – (aka law and order judges and prosecutors) – who will give impetus to return hope to the police – we truly are within “A Clockwork Orange” Society. Voting has consequences, Chicago. In the words of Donald J. Trump: “Vote for Republicans. What… Read more »
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Communities will need to implement their own private safety patrols. Otherwise, move.
Alternative Police are on their way.
Or as they call it in 3rd world countries. Your local militia.
Yes but Kim Foxx will prosecute the local militias or private safety patrols for using self-defense. Just as other woke prosecutors have done. No one is coming to protect you. Realistically, if you got charged for defending yourself, you’d have to travel to a red state jurisdiction, and plead to the attorney general or local red DA who would use you as example and refuse to extradite you back to Chicago. It would be all over Fox News.
Here is the key line from Matt Rosenberg’s article: “Chicago needs competent political leadership more than ever.”
I doubt that Chicago will ever get competent leadership. It might be forever mired in crime due to the ignorance of its people and the “presstocricy” that aids, abets, and promotes the most foul of politicians.
You get what you vote for.
Many of us have red lined the entire City of Chicago. We never go in now.
What a truly tragic state of affairs in a once great American city. We may well be headed the way of Detroit.
People in Chicago voted for this, over and over, and will vote for it again. If you want safe neighborhoods, move.
The North and Nortwest side are seeing officers reassigned to the CTA and Southside . It isn’t fair to law abiding tax payers in those areas . Wait until the New Year when Gov Pritzkers no cash bail goes into effect and watch the crime spike.
Take note folks. The people who live in Chicago DON’T CARE.
They pay no attention to this crime stuff, they DON’T CARE.
They love the democrats who are in office and have no interest in Kim Foxx being incompetent, don’t have any interest in the no bail disaster that’s coming. Have no idea or could care less about rising crime because most of them are not affected. The bottom line, they DON’T CARE. So, let them suffer, let them be victims because I DON’T CARE.
Nice job speaking for everyone, not all that live in Cook county are that moronic.
When 80% of cook county’s residents are that moronic then it’s very fair to lump everyone in with that group.
If you are part of the 20% and don’t like it. Pack the UHaul and leave crook county.
Perhaps I should have been more specific in citing Democrat voters as the problem but Cook/County/Chicago votes solid democrat in the 90% range my posting was pretty much in target. Perhaps i should have been more specific in naming air headed Democrats as the problem.
Kim Foxx lost the Chicago suburbs to Pat O’Brien by a thin margin, 45% to 48% https://www.cookcountyclerkil.gov/elections/results-and-election-data/election-results A closer look at the details show that the low crime suburbs the furthest away from Chicago voted against her at the highest margins, while the closer suburbs with higher crime voted for her at the highest margins. I hate to put it this way, but the reality is that people voted along racial lines – not because of Kim Foxx’s race, but because Kim Foxx has made the election about race and criminal justice, which is extremely unpopular for white residents who… Read more »
I am afraid you are absolutely correct. I hate to agree but you are using data. Data doesn’t lie. 38% in New Trier Township, unbelievable. 38% voted for Kim Foxx. Job for life.
It’s the same 38% of partisan Democrats that look at the disaster that is Joe Biden and tell the pollster that give him a strongly favorable job approval. Heck 40% of the country looked at Jimmy Carter’s disastrous 4 years and voted again for him hoping for another 4 years of high inflation, disastrous foreign policy, and economic devastation.
Prove it
But I am afraid they are actually that stupid. Many regular folk have this guilt and they have a flawed belief system in thinking that criminals can be rehabilitated. Never going to happen. Jail is not supposed to be fun, its penance for failing society. If you have failed society and just can’t seem to live among the rest of us who are civilized, then you are a MENACE to SOCIETY. Very simple. If jails are 80% black offenders them fix the cultural problem within the African American community!!! Faith, the 10 commandments, rules, morality, values, all this really matters.… Read more »
I agree, almost everyone I talk to say “Just part of living in the city.” It’s especially common among young folk under 30 who have never experienced anything else.
That’s when you know a Chicagoan has reached peak Ignorance & closed mindedness.
It’s all true, the crime on the Red Line got really bad in 2020 with the birth of the Red Line Raiders. They made Red Line crime a sport. The Red Line has always been dicey, but nothing like this. Same with Edgewater & Uptown. Those areas have always had a cast of characters. But not like this. This is people coming from the South & West Sides to commit crime. It’s a full time job, travel the city & rob all day. The Blue Line is getting just as bad and crime in the neighborhoods along the Blue Line… Read more »
This is insane. Pretty soon, you won’t even be able to walk to the store. It’s only going to get worse. Criminals belong in jail. Not out walking the streets on IBonds. Only to commit more crimes. Those that can leave, will do so in short order.
The greatest influence and largest export coming out of Chicago is crime. I’m not surprised at all by the increasing numbers of violence and crime in the Chicago suburbs. We live in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 250 miles away from Chicago and the majority of our increased crime rate is from people with a direct Chicago connection. While some of the influx of people coming to Cedar Rapids are Chicagoans trying to get away from the violence and crime, many others want to maintain and spread their drug addled, violent gangsta lifestyle.
Well researched article and the truth laid out correctly. Let’s look further thought. In the 20th Dist, primarily a middle-class area, property crimes and robbery are soaring because it is a target rich environment. The 19th District is spiking in all categories. Why? Because it used to be 2 Districts (019 & 023) and because of the merger is large in size and grossly understaffed. The 001st District has seen spikes across the board since the riots, except for theft, which is down, simply because most of the stores are closed or gone because they have been looted so often.… Read more »
No worries, especially if you’re a member of the privileged white class. Like taxes and rats in the alleys these are just facts of life for the benefits of living in a world class city. Besides, most people will only be touched superficially by these random acts of violence of largely disabused black youth. So shut up, eat your vegetables and you’re welcome (paraphrase of our Democratic leaders).
Do you live in Chicago? Or are you a white privileged liberal from Evanston? Or, even worse, a North Suburban brat that had an all expenses paid pad in Lincoln Park courtesy of mommy & daddy for a couple years & now you feel qualified to tell people born & raised in the city how to live? Go back to Winnetka, eat your granola & leave us alone.
Live in Bronzeville and have worked in the inner city most of my life, so try again. I’m also tired of small percentage of violent youth and young adults repeatedly victimizing mostly though not exclusively black citizens and walking away scott free only to do so again and folks like you demonizing anyone who calls it like it is.
while violent crimes are only a small percentage of youths, a large percentage of the youths are involved in crime in general:
https://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Young-Black-Americans-and-the-Criminal-Justice-System-Five-Years-Later.pdf
• Almost one in three (32.2%) young black men in the age group 20-29 is under
criminal justice supervision on any given day — in prison or jail, on probation or parole.
These statistics are just heartbreaking–from afar, but imagine living through these threats daily! My mother lived for over 20 yrs in several of these districts,–safely. It is long past time for mayor Lightfoot and Police management to recognize the job the Police are tasked to do, and allow them to do their job. Enough of this “imagining” a better world~! Face reality and lock up the criminals, Kim Foxx!
Trajectory and momentum matter. Once crime accelerates more people turn to crime to get their piece of the pie. What counterforce is there to slow it down now? The police are afraid to arrest, they’ve lost immunity and get no respect from the mayor. I don’t blame the police for any “quiet quitting” might be happening.
When the police do show up unless there is bodily harm no report is filed and victims are told to go to the district and file a report to sit the incident at the Ritz last weekend
I helped build this city it is hard to watch it being destroyed
Thanks for ur diligence in reporting
It’s all right there for all to see. Unfortunately, the Main Stream Press in this Town act like they are the custodians of secrecy what’s more alarming is the number of kids 17 AND UNDER WHO HAVE BEEN KILLED AND SHOT SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR 40 HAVE BEEN MURDERED, AND OVER 215 have been WOUNDED, the overwhelming majority of the SHOOTERS ARE CHILDREN THEMSELVES. Chicago’s THUG Gangs HAVE ADHERED TO WHAT I CALL THE PLAYSTATION MENTALITY OF KILLING-IF YOU ADDED THE CARJACKING TO THE MIX WHICH ARE OVER 3 THOUSAND IN LESS THAN 20 MONTHS ONE CAN SEE… Read more »
I moved to Chicago in 1978 and was in awe of this big, wonderful city…..no longer. My wife and I stick to the burbs and refuse to go downtown until this Mayor, who is opposed to working toward any possible solution to our horrendous crime problem here, is gone and is just a bad memory….and takes her AG with her!!
The Chicago of the 70s was a LOT worse than it is now. I recently spent awhile finding crime states from the Balandic / Byrne years and I was shocked. I too do not remember a Chicago in the 70s being as bad, but it was.
Failed leadership. Thanks for cultivating these facts….the figures speak volumes,
I’ve been saying it for a while now. Lightfoot and her sock puppet Brown have to go!
Very important reporting – thank you !
When (not if) the previously-unscathed neighborhoods like Sauganash, Jefferson Park & Edison Park fall prey like Edgewater & Rogers Park have apparently done, then you know we’re around the bend. I thought about moving from the ‘burbs to Sauganash at one point–it’s that nice. But if were a property owner there now, I’d be all over the neighborhood watch group and Next Door, trying to get people excited about keeping the crime out. What comes after that? Vigilante justice. That part of the overall chaos is not far off the way we’re trending.
There’s no vigilante justice. In this county, they’ll charge you for protecting yourself if you fight back against a protected class. Look at what happened in Park Ridge last week – an off-duty police officer saw a kid with brown skin WITH HIS SON’S STOLEN BIKE IN HIS HANDS, so he jumped out of vehicle, pinned the kid down, and accused him of theft. Only when it was allegedly cleared up, did he get off the kid. Now, the off-duty police officer has been charged with two FELONIES even though he didn’t hurt anyone, the family is accusing him of… Read more »
This is a great example, if you’re not the right color, you just need to look the other way on small crimes. I could even understand a crime victim who doesn’t testify against a criminal in order to avoid repercussions.
Hi Matt, I’m wondering why we need a private security card at the CVS across the street from my unit. Even though the homeless come in there and cause trouble, too me it just doesn’t look right, just an invitation to more trouble. On the Northside, 2 blocks from Loyola University? Yes, we had the shooting outside the CVS of the 17 year old. We need a more positive mind set, not a security guard.
What you need is a bunch of Chicagoans voting for every conservative they can find. Then empowering the police and the judicial system to make sure crime does not pay in Chicago. Then and only then you may have a chance to revive it.
Fine if a positive mindset works for you. I’d probably feel safer with a Kevlar vest and weapon.
Maybe you can use the positive mindset to reimagine public safety. In the meantime most would prefer more security guards.
Well there it is……
Clearly, Chicago is the city for you
Growing up by loyola beach Morse beach and Howard beach I’m the 70’s it was a thrill to go there with large group of friends
Now I wound not even stop my car near the lake front
We have heads of government who govern with blinders on
My wife and I moved into the south loop 8 years ago. It was then a great place to live. You could walk anywhere at all hours of the day and night and feel relatively safe. Then the riots happened. Now there’s an underlying feeling of tension in the air all the time, especially after dark. Almost 30% of downtown businesses have fled and it’s not safe anywhere anymore. Now when we venture out we’ll usually take the L if it’s still light, but always UBER or LYFT after dark. I love this city and want it to turn around,… Read more »
Unfortunately I think you are right. Without any political will and voters who brought this on themselves by voting strongly in favor of Kim Foxx, I just don’t think its going to get any better. We are witnessing the slow death of one of America’s great cities. There is no utopia that the progressives envision, in order to fulfill their dream, they need to destroy everything. This is what the country will eventually look like if they have their way.
To be honest, I’m not sure if this is what voters want. Kim Fox’s supposed vote turnout and vote totals in the hellhole communities are so high it would make Putin blush. She twice received 80%, 85% or 90%+ of the votes in black and brown communities, the very same communities that she is harming the most with her soft on crime approaches. The only two conclusions from this observation is that black and brown people are REALLY REALLY happy with her soft on crime policies, or, she’s found a way to rig the vote in these communities, and her… Read more »
Kim Foxx knows that most of her voters will have or know people with criminal backgrounds. So of course she gets the votes. She’s not a good DA but she’s not stupid either.
John, that uneasy feeling you have right now is exactly what the progs want. You’re really not wanted by them and the sooner you and the wife are gone the better.
I must ask the question. Do those in power not see, or do they choose not to see? And what prevents them from doing their job? Oh that’s right governor Pritzker signed a bill in the middle of the night to do away with cash bail coming soon to a neighborhood near you in January. It was interesting to look at those numbers indicating the rise in many crimes. Hey guess what? Come January it’s going to double and triple. And it will be bad. Those who allow what is happening will continue to happen. Duh! There is no detriment.… Read more »
The politicians know who is voting for them and they base their decisions on that.
Yes. Soft on crime is wildly popular in the city and low income suburbs. Kim Foxx wins them with margins that would make even Putin blush.
Not on the Gold Coast, trendy Michigan Ave or the Loop but already this weekend 2 mass shootings (5 or more shot in one incident) have happened. 10 shot with 1 dead will not even be a blip on the radar of the national news. A day and a half left for the weekend so the possibility of 1 or 2 more is a good bet.
Part of a larger national trend of non-prosecution of property crimes. The largest increases shown in the article’s tables are property crimes. Many district attorneys in urban areas do not want to prosecute these crimes and judges do not want to do more than token sentences when prosecuted. In CA, if you steal less than $950 it is a ticketed misdemeanor so they are not not generally reported. You can walk out of a drug store with a bag of stolen goods without any legal fear. Chain store security guards will not attempt to detain you because if anything goes… Read more »
This afternoon, I was in a large suburban retail store for my weekend shopping, and I saw two obviously out of place masked young men walking around with large, seemingly stuffed full backpacks and no cart or basket. No one dared stop them or ask any questions for fear of being racist, and themselves being accused of a hate crime by Kim Foxx. Lord knows how much stuff they stole.
A few years ago, I was in a store in Edgewater, near the train station, when two police officers came in. I thanked them for their service and asked them how things were going. They told me they had been assigned to the Englewood area, and had recently been transferred to the Edgewater area, where they thought things, crime-wise, would be better. But they said that recently they had engaged in a foot race to capture someone who had just committed a crime, and they ran down the street and he went up a fence and a handgun dropped out… Read more »
Folks, there’s no help coming from those whose #1 job is to maintain public safety. They’re actually the cause of the problem. Think LL, Kim and Evans and Dart and Democratic Party pols in general. Their policies have made it so that nobody wants to be the proactive Chicago Police. Oh, they’ll still show up after the crime to take a report.
Thankfully there’s the 2nd amendment. Get a piece, learn how to use it and treat it like your American Express card.
Don’t leave home without it!
Not usually, I listen to the police scanner and more often than not, I hear them say to tell the victim to go to the police station the next day and file a report. They give them a case number and leave.
Another great article by Mr. Rosenberg.
The big question for John Holden, “an Edgewater community leader”.
Are you going to continue voting for Democrats? It was your votes and the votes of your neighbors that directly caused the increases in crime in the city. You are only getting what you voted for. Until you and your neighbors recognize this, things will only get worse. The only alternative is for you to move someplace that’s safer like I did, and guess what, my neighbors and I don’t elect woke Democrats.
You reap what you sow.
Kudos Matt for taking so much time to amass this info now I wish everyone would try and share it on as many platforms as possible to wake the sheeple.
Is it any wonder that people are fleeing the city? Can the city recover? Will Chicago voters boot Lightfoot? Foxx? Unlikely. The public unions determine who will run the city. Because who runs the city agrees to sweet uniion contracts with the public unions. The same is true for the State of Illinois. As someone else said…it is very difficult to put the toothpaste back in the tube (not impossible), and would require a return to policing and sentencing that is unlikey in a “woke” world.
The neighborhoods that any chamber of commerce would brag about and put pics from in their brochures. The destruction will be the legacy of the DNC, Lori Lightfoot and Kim Foxx.
How can chicago ever recover? How do you put the toothpaste back in the tube?
You can’t until the voters vote all out one clean sweep with a fire hose. No other way. Maybe it’s time to try voting in conservatives
Liberals in IL live in such a bubble that the idea of voting conservative to them is completely foreign, if not entirely repulsive to them. Liberals in most communities in northern IL can go for days, or weeks, or even months at a time without knowingly encountering a conservative. They likely have distant conservative family members they no longer or rarely talk to but beyond that, everyone they work with, associate with, live with, or date is far left uber liberal. There’s no chance they’ll ever just all collectively wake up one morning and say “Hey I think I’ll vote… Read more »
There is no way I would vote for a liberal socialist, same way chicagoans will not vote for anyone but that. I accepted that I was never going to be happy in Illinois and left.
I’s simply about distance from this Jungle. I was astounded to hear that Naperville is one of the safest communities in the country. Escape & Distance seems the only salvation. Waiting for Law & Order in this city,…. you might as well wait up for the Tooth Fairy
Ahhhhhh, diversity, such a wonderful idea.
Diversity would be fine, provided the participants shared just ‘one primary/core value’.
‘Do No Harm’
You’d think that’d be easy …
Lots of Diverse votes, keeping the clowns in office, causing lots of harm!