Chicago Analysts, Do You Feel Safe?
Do you all feel safe in the city? Moving there soon ….
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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!
I heard a lot of bake offs happen on O block, analysts usually have to stay strapped with the glizzy to protect their MDs
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
Lol good luck getting a gun in chiraq
Just pick up one from one of the 50 dead bodies that pop up any given weekend
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.
I would recommend the BDs instead (Broker Dealers)
BYU?
Kinda sounds like crowd sourced Mafia
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
Lil Reese got shot in river north
Lil Reese is also the one of the top 5 biggest targets in Chicago history. Unless OP has a history of killing and violence that Lil Reese does than that literally doesn't matter. FBG duck got shot on Michigan Ave. Bringing up those two is like saying Dallas isn't safe because JFK got shot in Chicago terms.
Just dont get caught in traffic with a bunch of bad bitches packed in a maxima and you should be fine OP
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!
Has been discussed on the forum a bunch. A few points as a lifelong and current Chicago resident:
My outlook is at this point, you don’t feel unsafe, but you don’t feel safe. Put another way, I think many men are still walking back from bars north of the loop and not caring, but I personally will Uber when it gets dark out and find going for a run late at night no longer an option. All that said, the major rioting and incidents that occur are usually coming out of enormous gatherings of teens. It’s scary because these gatherings are at places like the bean or north beach, which are supposed to be wealthy and safe areas and now have been experiencing these mass gatherings, but ultimately if you see a gathering of several hundred people amassing, you prob want to leave that area and you will be fine.
Having grown up in the Midwest and spent many days and nights w/ family members who were lifelong Chicagoans, it's always been the south side youths causing 90%+ of the violent crime. It's just gotten steadily worse over the years and after BLM started making them feel self-righteous they've just kept venturing further north with their hood antics. It's really sad to see it happen to what's otherwise a wonderful city, clown politicians aside. Agreed that the new Mayor does not inspire much confidence.
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
Lol, are you paid PR for the mayor? There is objectively more crime and the city is objectively less safe than it was. Clearance rates for all crimes have collapsed, police have withdrawn given hostility towards them and the belief that even if they arrest people the prosecutors will just let criminals walk. It’s the same story in cities across America in the post BLM era.
Question. What is it that I said? In your own words
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...
I want to add that I am very much pro-more policing and acknowledge that there are issues with general safety. A big pain point for me is safety on the el (specifically red and blue lines) after dark.
I don't want anybody coming at me for some dumb BS. There are problems but if you have your wits about you... You're gonna be fine
I've made a vow to never ride the red line past 10pm even during the day it's hit or miss who's going to be in your cart.
But agree with above poster, Lincoln Park you can get away with being out later because you have DePaul and a good amount of families are there but still need be on your guard, with people, etc.
how about south loop?
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.
Lol. It's not overblown by conservative pundits. This is typical liberal gaslighting. Crime is up since the BLM riots. Liberal DAs are releasing violent repeat offenders, and Johnson explicitly is calling for "rehabilitative" means of punishing criminals. We also have seen the videos of Black teens from the South Side wreaking havoc. This is reality, not Fox news propaganda.
The white homicide rate in Chicago is lower than the white homicide rate of the US overall.
That's because it's 1 particular group committing almost all of the violent crime amongst themselves and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who you're supposed to avoid like Ebola when you're living there long enough. Homicide rate might be lower sure but I assure you, if they had accurate stats on muggings/armed robbery (which are grossly underreported because people know police will do nothing) it's much higher.
That's because most of these crimes are committed by Black Americans. Their crime rate is far higher than that of other racial groups. This is true nationwide. It's a huge problem and a major security threat.
Why don't these banks and funds relo out of Chicago?
Because it's the third largest metropolitan area in the country by economic production. Are you asking this question for real?
Actually Chicago is now the 5th largest metro GDP (behind NY, LA, SF, and Washington). It is also the 4th largest population center (after NY, LA, Washington). As much as I like Chicago, it doesn't have the critical mass of people / economic activity of NY/LA/SF to warrant keeping so many banks there.
Metropolitan GDPs (posted in another thread):
Metropolitan Populations (by CSA):
1. NYC: 22.3M
2. LA: 18.6M
3. Washington 9.9M
4. Chicago: 9.8M
5. San Francisco: 9.6M
6. Boston: 8.4M
Citadel did. At least partially.
As others have said, the violence here is pretty targeted (teens killing other, specific teens mostly, with the occasional stray bullet catching a rando). It seems like a huge issue now because people are actually paying attention to it and reporting on it (to get clicks and make $) but for a city this size, the murder rate isn't actually that bad. It's on par with Richmond VA and below the murder rates in STL, NOLA, Detroit, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Memphis, etc. Hopefully the new mayor can get some alternate pathways opened for those kids that are trashing the city and their lives but if you're not one of them, your safety and wellbeing increases exponentially.
Safety is pretty simple at night. Don't hang about in unorganised crowds, don't talk to beggars/gangsters, lock your car doors while you're driving, take the first train car or any car with 2+ (normal) people on it, carry pepper spray, and don't fight people over your stuff.
Most of the chicken shits yowling about "Chiraq" are from the suburbs. They scream in terror if you play Stevie Wonder above a whisper and only go to the city 1-3x per year for holidays and birthdays (and gush about how awesome it is the whole time they're here). They have no useful perspective, talk to residents of the city if you want to know how things actually are and how to be safe.
You are obviously a liberal who voted for Biden and supports BLM. Yeah bro, having a lower crime rate than freaking St. Louis really is a great assurance!
Liberals don't take crime seriously. They either blame it on "systemic racism" or "conservative propaganda."
Wow all these "teenagers" and "hooligans" and "youths" from the South side, i wonder what demographic lives there!
13%
in Chicago it's 33%
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
Is the source "trust me bro?"
Nah. The source is local news coverage and data.
I live in the loop and regularly go for a walk/bike past midnight. Just mind your business and be cool
Bro is playing with his life. I'd honestly try to do those rides in the morning
Adding to the above and commenting on what a few people have said:
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:
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.
What’s going on with SF? And what are areas to avoid?
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?
Not bad overall -- quite safe during day, probably wouldn't walk around much after dark tho. Same could be said for the Loop/River North now tbh. South Loop isn't as popular bc it lacks bars/restaurants
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