Unless you've been living under a rock, everyone has heard about Chicago's murder crisis. Not a week goes by where you don't hear about dozens of mass shootings; 25 people shot, 50 people shot, etc. It never ends in the Chi. It's nothing new because Chicago has been violent since the 30's. I remember notorious gangsters like Al Capone, who was involved in a deadly gang war with his enemies. Chicago's violence is generational. Violence really took off when the projects were up: Cabrini Green being the notorious of all Chicago projects. Cabrini was located in a rich area of Chicago so that's why it got the most coverage. I think the reason why violence took off had something to do with tearing down the projects; when the projects were up, crime was concentrated. Whatever crime happened was confined to the projects & now they're gone, former residents from each project moved into South & West side neighborhoods and brought those tensions with them. Anytime you have rival neighborhoods coming together, there's bound to be trouble. I think about Chicago's situation and I need to pray for them. They are going through it. What can be done to clean up Chicago? First, city officials can enact strategies that helped New York slash it's violent crime by over 70 percent post crack-era. Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani adopted a no-nonsense approach to crime; clamp down on small crimes before they fester into major ones. Second (and I hate to say this), gentrification. Of every former ghetto that's been fixed up, crime has dropped considerably because the criminal element has been pushed out along with the poor. Rich buyers & developers move into the inner-city and buy up distressed areas and flip for profit. Lastly, the problems start at home. Kids follow their parents example & if they see their parents involved in thuggery, that's what they'll be drawn to based on their parents negative influence. Most importantly, kids need positive alternatives to the streets because if the gangsters are giving them love & support, that's where they go to. Murders peaked at 970 one year in the 70's. Then over a 3 year period in the early 90's, murders were 943, 931 & 928.
At this rate, Chicago might go back to the 900+ murder days of the 90's if city officials &
residents don't clamp down on the violence. Look at what New York has done, maybe Chicago needs to incorporate some of the strategies that helped NY become the safest big city in the country.
