Areas of Chicago suck. The majority of Chicago is great, and generally very safe. (It also doesn't reek of garbage and urine like Manhattan). You're pretty saf

Areas of Chicago suck. The majority of Chicago is great, and generally very safe. (It also doesn't reek of garbage and urine like Manhattan). You're pretty safe, maybe safer than national metropolitan cities in Chicago if you don't go to certain areas, such as the generalized west and south sides. Even then, the violence is even more localized than those generalizations. Yes, homicides in the city limit are the worst in the US. Work in the loop? Probably will never have a problem (I think homicides in the Loop are like 1% or less of the city total). Last I can think of that wasn't at a festival in Grant Park was a murder/suicide where a white-collar employee shot his boss then offed his self a few years back). I worked in the Loop between 2004 and February of this year and I never had a single time where I even felt threatened. I never even got mugged, even while stumbling obviously drunk to the Metra. The Loop is very heavily patrolled. The real homicide problems are in the very poor neighborhoods on the west and south sides well away from the financial district/Loop. Gentrification in the last 15-20 years has pushed those neighborhoods even further away from the Loop. In short, homicide's not the big problem it seems in Chicago (yes, it's a problem - but not a city-wide problem - it's a neighborhood issue).