Chicago Analysts, Do You Feel Safe?

I don't know how you would feel safe in Chiraq

Not felt safe a day since Lori Lightfoot left.

Heard Chief Keef rides with his boys in track hawks protecting IB analysts!

Just open carry to work. Want to make sure you mean business. Especially in a suit you could be a fed for all they know, so no one will mess with you

Hey- totally understand your concern and wanted to give my two cents and hopefully alleviate some of your worries. I interned in Chicago last summer and I’m returning full time soon. I decided to be proactive about my personal safety and signed up to join a group called the GD’s (Good-Deeds iirc). They’re a group focused on protecting the public interest and their members, and by paying them a portion of my salary indefinitely they make sure that I stay out of harm’s way. I’m Mormon, so I’m already used to the concept of giving a portion of my salary to those who take care of me, and it really does feel good to give back to the community.

Hope that helps! Good luck.

If you live in river north, gold coast, or Fulton market you'll be fine. I love the city and haven't had any issues. Much cheaper and cleaner than nyc

Yeah

Echoing what another intern said. Your best bet would be joining some of the finance associations or cliques and making sure you know what areas to avoid. A few groups that come to mind include "GDK" (Good Deed's & Knowledge), "BDK" (Business & Data Knights), among others. You'll have to make sure you yell this out to make sure the public knows not to mess with you whenever you get on the subway or anytime you're walking alone on the streets. Good luck in Chiraq!

Yes. People talk about how dangerous the city is but it really isn’t. Outside of about 5 neighborhoods you’ll never be in, the reason why there seems like there is more crime is because people are paying attention to it more

I just find it amusing how Chicago went from bad (Lightfoot) to worse. How bad is it that I miss Daley lmao.

Bump!

Im not concerned about safety unless it's after 8pm in the loop. At that point I just Uber out of abundance of caution. But even then Ive walked home from the office and felt completely fine.

Yeah parts of Chicago are bad, but you won't be close to them. Frankly safety concerns online and in the news are overblown and are from people who don't live in Chicago. So, their opinions are worthless lmfao

If you stick to River North, old town, gold coast, Lincoln park, Lakeview, west loop you'll be perfectly fine...

Does anyone know how to banks in the area are affiliated with the gangs? I heard Brown Gibbons Lang and BMO have ties to the GD's whereas William Blair and Baird have ties with the BD's. Does it affect office culture at all?

I heard of a Polish MD getting murdered in his luxury condominium's garage in a car theft attempt. My vibe of Chicago is people get violent really quickly. Uber everywhere to be safe. Avoid confrontations, say sorry and walk away. Applies to NYC too.

I've worked in downtown Chicago for about a year now (also my college is here) and I think the safety concerns are, at times, a bit overblown (mainly by conservative pundits). I do not think that Chicago proper (i.e., the majority of the loop) is any more or less safe than any other city center. Of course there are places where you need to keep your wits about you, but that is not a unique thing to do when living in any city. 

The recent mayoral elections may be a slight cause for concern - Lightfoot was voted out and replaced by her ideological carbon-copy, Brandon Johnson, a Chicago PS schoolteacher and union activist. Johnson ran on the platform of increasing taxes and decreasing/repurposing the police budget when Chicago has had record homicide levels and assaults. There is little reason to believe that any of his proposed social programs will be effective in reducing violent crime. 

If I had to suggest anything pick a neighborhood in the river north area or west loop. Avoid printer's row, and avoid public transit whenever possible. CTA trains are especially dangerous (I've had some very scary experiences and my friends have been threatened). I do like Chicago because it is easy to traverse by foot and bus. 

I would suggest signing up for the "Citizen" app, as it is always accurate, timely, and useful. If something crazy happens you would be the first to know. 

Hope this helps. 

The white homicide rate in Chicago is lower than the white homicide rate of the US overall. 

Why don't these banks and funds relo out of Chicago?

Wow all these "teenagers" and "hooligans" and "youths" from the South side, i wonder what demographic lives there!

I've only been accosted once in a major US city and it was in River North, Chicago. Other than that one incident I haven't really had an issue. I don't live in Chicago but I've visited pretty frequently. Just Uber everywhere if you're paranoid about taking certain L lines. 

Chicago Black specifically target Asian and international students. It’s ridiculous that the city ain’t doing shit

I live in the loop and regularly go for a walk/bike past midnight. Just mind your business and be cool

Adding to the above and commenting on what a few people have said:

• Don’t think fears are overblown, it’s just not so dramatic that you will get shot walking down the street in broad day light. People just don’t understand the issue.
• The problem is the CENTER of the entire city is having riots and shootings. Minus really Lincoln park and more northern areas, there aren’t really completely safe areas of the city anymore. This is a change from historically crime being very isolated to the south side. This would be like Times Square having numerous shootings and riots or back bay in Boston. The area where major finance firms are was having continuous issues with crime—that’s messed up. People are fine with crime in a city proper if it stays in impoverished areas, but when wealthy people and businesses have it in their backyard, that’s a different story.
• Guy who bikes and runs alone at night, odds are you will be alright, but you are taking unneeded risk. You might be less willing to do this if you were a business leader, woman, or had a family and young kids

The city is having a problem where businesses don’t feel like the city can protect them from their employees getting mugged if they leave late at night. This paired with not great tax and political outlook of Chicago and the state of IL is causing people to leave the city and going forward new businesses won’t choose Chicago as a place to begin their business. All that said, the reality is the following:

• The loop and River north are getting increasingly dangerous and people don’t want to live there. This contrasts with them previously being highly desired areas. 
• Old town, west loop, Lincoln park are becoming more desired destinations because they provide a buffer from the south side kids creeping up and throwing their riot parties in the loop or doing muggings or shootings in the center of the city
• New businesses will not come to Chicago and smart young people will not choose it as a city to raise a family. Businesses that have historically been in Chicago will either leave the state entirely, or they will move to the suburbs of Chicago because it just isn’t worth the hassle of crime and an anti business political climate. If you can have a headquarters in like Skokie or Arlington heights or some other burb and you avoid many of the issues people will move.
• All the above said, Chicago is still the ~3rd biggest metro area with northwestern and the university of Chicago as well as their business schools and other professional schools. It has so many things going for it and so much infrastructure that the city will continue to be the Midwest hub, it just will change concentration and decentralize because the crime really is bad enough to prompt businesses and people to move (you just won’t get shot going for a walk at 9am).

Fwiw, the same thing is happening in San Francisco, but it seems SF is a little farther in the future on the timeline with areas like Sacramento and Sunnyvale getting an influx of people leaving the city proper because they don’t feel safe.

I do not like being in any big city, but Chicago makes me very uncomfortable. Not safe imho to walk around and you never know what someone will pull on you. Did you see those teenager riots last weekend? And this is coming from myself who is former army special operations. If you're out, keep your head on a swivel.

I'll chime in here. I was born and raised in Chicago my entire life. And south side Brighton Park, not suburbs of Chicago. I am first generation of my family and we weren't poor, but weren't well off either. In high school, our freshman year class was about 600 students and it dwindled down to ~400 by the time we graduated. Back in high school, we had a real gang problem where I would be afraid that I was going to get jumped either in the hallways or on the CTA just for looking at someone "in the wrong way". It wasn't until I went off to college that I found some glimmer of what life could be like to not have to walk around in fear and could let my guard down.

I'm in my mid-30s now and I do pretty well for myself. I consider myself very fortunate whereas 90% of my fellow classmates from high school are getting by just ok. About a year ago, there were a ton of carjackings and random people would get robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight. These carjackings were not centered around specific neighbors, crime did not discriminate any neighborhoods. You would hear about it on the news about how it impacted the nicer neighborhoods like West Loop, Wicker Park, Bucktown and Lincoln Park. At the time, I definitely did not feel safe walking around and thought enough was enough. In my old neighborhood, a few teenagers attempted to carjack an off duty police officer and the police officer shot and killed one of them while the other 2-3 were caught and arrested, yet they were not charged with any crime at the end of the day. I recall e-mailing Kim Foxx's office demanding to know why charges were not pressed but of course they did not respond.

I have no idea what are the crime stats today compared to a year ago. I did deactivate my social media accounts because I found a strong correlation between my anxiety and social media. One could argue that crime still exists whether I bury my head in the sand or not, but honestly, I just feel so much better without it. I do think that the media blows things out of proportion. The teenagers rioting in the Loop made me feel more annoyed than threatened with my life. I do believe these kids deserve to get the cuffs slapped on them as we need to set examples that there are consequences to your actions. But I would not believe anyone that tries to paint a picture that you will get shot randomly walking around minding your own business in one of the neighborhoods I listed above.

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hey guys, I see a lot of comments about it being neighborhood dependent, and if you stay in River North, Lincoln Park, then it's safe. the thing is that these neighborhoods are kinda pricey. some apartments there have NYC prices (while still being in Chicago). what do you guys think of South Loop? there you can get beautiful 2 bedroom for $3k. is South Loop unsafe?