Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Crime Rates at an All-time Low for the Near South Side

Image from Chicago Tribune

A reader writes:
I was happy to see that YTD crimes are at an all-time low for the near south side:

http://crime.chicagotribune.com/chicago/community/near-south-side 
(scroll down to the line graphs)
That's encouraging.  Doesn't mean stuff doesn't happen in our neighborhood, but it seems like the trend is going in the right direction.

(Hat tip:  PD!)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, actually compared to other neighborhoods liked Lincoln Park, etc. safety in the South Loop and Near South is very good. However, we can't settle for less and see things change.

When looking at the data on key point is evaluating the impact of closure of Ickes Public Housing, and if the number of crime events that happened there then shifted elsewhere, which may make the overall data look better, but could explain why other South Loop neighborhoods feel like they experienced an increase in criminal activity.

An area that needs to be discussed is the desire by some, to increase Section 8, Public Housing, or whatever 'affordable housing' canards that some politicians want to go back to. These don't work, so why do they want to go back go creating these criminal training grounds?

Anonymous said...

Well "all-time" low is an overstatement (this data doesn't support that claim), but "lowest level for at least a decade", yea.

Anonymous said...

It's also worth noting that the chart seems to show the actual number of crimes, rather than crimes per thousand people. I believe that if this showed crimes per thousand people, since the near south side has increased inpopulation significantly since 2000,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_South_Side,_Chicago the drop would be even more pronounced.

Anonymous said...

My first year in south loop:
Building broken into 3x.
Spare tire stolen from car 2x.
car wheel hubs stolen 1x.
one broken car window.
bike stolen 2x, once from building bike room (break in caught on tape) and once from building garage.
2 muggings outside my building (not me TG)
Tons of dog Sh#! every where...

I am a positive person so I try and take it all in stride. That being said from my perspective things could be better.
Maybe with the new development @ Clark & Polk, the new Jones and British schools and increased foot traffic we may see a few more badges in the SL hood.
Still happy in the SL but hope for better...


Anonymous said...

I've been in the South part of the South Loop for 7 years and worst I've had is a bike tire stolen from a locked up bike in our garage and my phone swiped out of my bag on a crowded bus that just happened to be in the South Loop at the time it happened.

Curious how many of those did you file a police report on?

Anonymous said...

Three. First one a B&E that included theft of bike from locked storage room (caught on tape)CPD didn't want tape just took a report. Second one a theft of spare tire and rim from car (parked on same same block as B&E). Third one a theft of bike from secured garage (same address as B&E). Will file a forth one tomorrow as I have just discovered the hubs missing from my car as I was walking home this evening (1 parking spot away from last rim theft and in front of the B&E building). Must have gone missing last night; I used my car yesterday.
Honestly the thing that really grinds my gears the most is all the dog Sh#~ every where!
Lots of griping about green space on this site but all you see in every green space is Sh#~

Anonymous said...

off by one make that 5

Anonymous said...

Well I've lived in the South Loop for 8 years and have never had any problems with theft - not my bike, not my car, not my home.

Also, on the dog shit issue, you do realize it only takes 1 or 2 dog owners ( with dogs pooping at least twice a day) to litter an area with poo. Find those people, fix the problem.

Anonymous said...

Seems like crime is up, but I think that's because our community alert system is so good. We hear about more crime, sooner. Agree about dog sh!t being big issue. Especially with so many kids living and attending daycare or school in the SL. Health hazard as is dogs not on leash. Isn't that what dog parks are for? Heck, even have them go on the sidewalk. But grassy parks where kids play and use slip and slides in summer? Nasty.