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> gunshots rang out one day as he was leaving work. Two bullets from a drive-by shooter pierced his head and left him permanently blind Only in Chicago could y

> gunshots rang out one day as he was leaving work. Two bullets from a drive-by shooter pierced his head and left him permanently blind Only in Chicago could you read this and conclude that giving out monthly checks is the solution to the city’s problems. I recently left Chicago. The main reason was that with a young family the crime was just too scary. I don’t have a strong opinion on this program, I was happy to pay taxes in Chicago, and I was certainly not eligible for it. But I will observe that the tax base that is needed to fund it will continue to leave due to crime.

brewdad 4y ago
It's been a while since I lived in that part of the country, but I was under the impression that the crime in Chicago is largely confined to a few neighborhoods that the taxpayers you mention would never go to anyway. For most Chicagoans. crime is something you see on the 10 o'clock news.
- ghiculescu 4y ago
  That wasn’t my experience. I lived in wicker park. Someone had their motorbike stolen at gunpoint outside my kitchen window. This was monthly (or more often) news https://abc7chicago.com/amp/chicago-carjackings-bucktown-carjacking-crimes-crime/12579190/ https://abc7chicago.com/amp/chicago-carjackings-bucktown-car...
  - tptacek 4y ago
    Chicago leads the nation in carjackings, but they've spiked in most big cities in the US --- they quadrupled in NYC and Philly (which has a comparable number to Chicago per capita). They're lower in New York, but it's harder to drive in New York than in Chicago, so that tracks. I think this is probably a city phenomenon more than it is a Chicago phenomenon. Aside from vehicular hijacking, crime in Chicago for the typical HN reader is not a huge issue; it might actually be less of an issue than it is in San Francisco, for instance (not that SF is any kind of gold standard). Obviously, for a large group of people who will never read HN, crime in Chicago is a nationally-historic disaster; if you lived in Chatham, fleeing to any other city to escape crime would make a lot of sense.

brewdad 4y ago

It's been a while since I lived in that part of the country, but I was under the impression that the crime in Chicago is largely confined to a few neighborhoods that the taxpayers you mention would never go to anyway. For most Chicagoans. crime is something you see on the 10 o'clock news.

ghiculescu 4y ago
That wasn’t my experience. I lived in wicker park. Someone had their motorbike stolen at gunpoint outside my kitchen window. This was monthly (or more often) news https://abc7chicago.com/amp/chicago-carjackings-bucktown-carjacking-crimes-crime/12579190/ https://abc7chicago.com/amp/chicago-carjackings-bucktown-car...
- tptacek 4y ago
  Chicago leads the nation in carjackings, but they've spiked in most big cities in the US --- they quadrupled in NYC and Philly (which has a comparable number to Chicago per capita). They're lower in New York, but it's harder to drive in New York than in Chicago, so that tracks. I think this is probably a city phenomenon more than it is a Chicago phenomenon. Aside from vehicular hijacking, crime in Chicago for the typical HN reader is not a huge issue; it might actually be less of an issue than it is in San Francisco, for instance (not that SF is any kind of gold standard). Obviously, for a large group of people who will never read HN, crime in Chicago is a nationally-historic disaster; if you lived in Chatham, fleeing to any other city to escape crime would make a lot of sense.