I understand that this thread is primarly about crime in the areas surrounding UChicago, but your statement about Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore is patently false. Johns Hopkins Hospital is surrounded by high crime areas, but this is not true of the university (they are located in two different areas). The area to the north of JHU is home to much of the most expensive real estate in the city. The area to the west is a very trendy neighborhood that is popular with young people and artists, although there are still a lot of older long-time residents there. The neighborhoods to the south are also trendy and popular with young people and college students. It’s a little grittier than the areas to the west and north, but by no means is it a high crime area. The neighborhoods to the east would probably be considered less desirable than the others, but again, they are not high crime areas by any standard. Of course, crime, at some level, does still exist in all of those areas. This is true of any large city. Crime can happen in any neighborhood in any city. It happens in the suburbs too.
My point is that a lot of people in this thread are painting cities with a very broad brush. I understand that crime is currently a major issue at UChicago. If my child is accepted, we will visit and have some serious discussions. Nobody wants to put his or her child into an inherently dangerous situation. But seeing how JHU and Baltimore were mischaracterized in this post makes me question the validity of some of the information about UChicago. I fully understand that both Chicago and Baltimore have significant crime problems; however, the area around JHU is by no means a war zone. I suspect that the area around UChicago probably isn’t either.
Again, everyone thinks in absolute terms. We’re not asking to prevent all crime, just reduce it. Using remote learning as but one possibility, which I didn’t mention in the first place, will reduce trips around campus. Not zero trips mine you, but many trips. Less being outside, less potential for crime.
With $12.5 Billion in endowment, yes, I recognize a majority of it is restricted funds, UofC has to start thinking both inside and outside the box. It’s built and there, but some pretty bright students will not be coming.
This thread is going way off track. I am never a big fan of clickbait posts using murder in the title. I am going to temporarily close and see what the issue is.
Please stay on topic and avoid debate. Hyperbolic posts and descriptive actions of being shot, etc… are best left for a screenplay or novel. And remember the Forum Rules please. FAQ - College Confidential Forums
@70etoh I am so sorry that you are having to live what was supposed to be a college dream under such terrifying circumstances. As an alum and especially as a mom, my heart broke reading your post. I can only imagine how shocking, scary and stressful this time is for you and your classmates. And I ache for the families of those who have died.
I see there’s a lot of debate in this thread about the best response and I don’t pretend to know the answer. I hope the administration is able to make positive changes immediately to help students, staff and employees be safer in and around campus. And I hope they are providing you all with mental health support to help you grieve the loss of lives and process what has been happening.
The terror of your everyday life is, so sadly, what others in the larger community have lived with a long time, and is something we are seeing throughout many parts of our country. I hope admin can work with city leaders to address the crisis that has become increasingly desperate and is now felt by those who were normally very fortunate to not be touched by such violence. I can’t imagine trying to live your lives, what should be your idyllic college years, in this setting.
Thank you for reaching out to other kids and families on this forum to let us know what you are going through. You described a positive experience before this year’s violence. And it sounds like although things are at a dark place now, you’re not ready to give up and are making efforts to speak up and help change what is happening at your school and community. That is very empowering and will not only help yourself but will affect many around you now and in the future. I hope you can continue in those efforts.
I am not involved in alumni associations, but perhaps you and your fellow students can reach out to get more support there. I hope the mods allow you to continue updating us on CC too so we can learn from you and others who are there right now what is going on and whatever we do can to help you. More importantly, I hope you can get support to take care of your mental health so you can get through this most stressful time.
maureen - you are correct. Hyde Park has always has its crime problems. I ran with Ted Haydon’s U of C track club in the 70’s and 80’s and we knew darn well where not to run after using the university’s excellent track facilities. I recall the USA National championships in cross country - used to be a big event - in the 70’s being held in Washington Park and security shooing everyone away after the race - it was just not a safe place to be. I went on to college at a higher ranked D1 school on athletic scholarship - and U of C did not have such athletic subsidy opportunities. I clearly recognized it as the most rigorous school in the Midwest and saw lots of opportunity there. But even if I opted not to go the scholarship route, I liked my freedom and could not have been comfortable running in such a small area day by day. So it was not a match in any circumstance. My brother is a econ Phd and lived in Hyde Park and had an affiliation with the school. He loved the school, but just couldn’t swing the constant need for hyper awareness in Hyde Park, especially as he was with little training one of the best runners in the Chicago area. He moved to Highland Park. The problem with the recent crime wave is that there is no confidence now in making things better. I think the school has an existential problem right now - unfortunate as I think it one of the best institutions in the world.
So many issues have been brought up in this thread that it is hard not to go off track! Have family member that is on faculty at U of C(lives in Hyde Park), S1 almost went there, and have family that live in Chicagoland that i visit regularly, but I am not an expert on Chicago’s safety, or lack of it, so I will not add to that conversation.
One thing that I will say, is that, in general, Asians are getting fed up with being targeted in America. That this creep can kill a man who had done him no harm for a lousy $100 in goods is appalling.
What they should also do is hire some people, put them in a room, and fly drones above the area on a 12-18-24 hour basis for real time monitoring, obviously with a set of procedures that wouldn’t involve any invasion of the privacy of local residents.
For Chicago and big cities generally, more police and cameras are plusses but won’t come close to solving the problem of violent crime. They need to do two big things: First, because few people (virtually none, probably) go from perfectly law-abiding to murder with nothing in-between, they need to give people some time in jail for more minor offenses; i.e., institute a “broken-windows” policy. And two, they need to stop catch and release. The police can arrest all the people committing crimes, but it won’t matter much if judges just release them back into the streets pending trial.
The 12,000+ Chicago police officers couldn’t stop the 4,104 shootings year to date, so I wish the additional U of C/Hyde Park officers all the luck in the world.
This isn’t a U of C problem, but the campus location is problematic.
If you’re a criminal would you rather mug someone that might also have an illegal firearm, or a soft target like a U of C student? Criminals are opportunistic. If they find themselves in a fair fight they’ve failed.
Hyde Park has improved considerably since the 70’s and 80’s! the university’s D3 athletic profile has also improved notably, although others can weigh in about cross country in particular. I’ve done the Chicago Half which begins and ends in and around Jackson Park - it attracted thousands my year. Most of us took public transportation to the race (the South Shore Line ran special trains but people also took the CTA) and no one was shoo’d away afterwards - we all hung out, changed, and ate and drank. It was pretty much just like after any large-scale road race.
My husband and I both run or walk extensively throughout Hyde Park for exercise whenever we are in town. My husband in particular has made a point to hit the pavement every day he’s been in town - and he was in for several weeks at a time this past summer in July and Aug helping to relocate our D who had just graduated and our older child who purchased up in Lakeview. And then I moved my son in late September. This unit is up in the N/W quadrant of Hyde Park only a couple blocks away from where Dennis Zheng was murdered. There were several very concerning incidents in the vicinity earlier this fall, but I’ve had no issues with walking down 53rd or Ellis and have felt perfectly safe on the streets in the daytime with one recent exception - when getting into or out of my car (as car-jackings have significantly increased).
Feelings of safety don’t necessarily match reality; however, that cuts both ways. Those who feel they must Uber to class during the day might be over-estimating the amount of violent crime that happens in those hours (although Supt. Brown is prudently expanding CPD presence during the daytime in Hyde Park as the increasingly brazen criminals have been more active during that time than they used to be). Taking the UGo or the 171/172/4 to campus should be practically as safe an endeavor as using Uber. Now I’m advising my son to take UGo and the CTA more and to Lyft at night. However, when I return to Hyde Park in a few weeks for my son’s concert, I do plan to get a long walk in. I don’t wear a laptop-compatible backpack, my IPhone and Apple Watch are pretty old and beat up, and I’m always aware of my surroundings. That’s been the case ever since I attended college in a large and crime-ridden community. It’s just part of understanding how to navigate your environment.
I graduated from U. of C. in the late 1980s. No students were murdered while I was there. I don’t remember any student suffering violent crime when I was there. Car services didn’t exist so everyone walked wherever. While nobody went south of the law school, plenty of kids would go west off campus to Harold’s Chicken Shack (or whatever it was called) and never have any problems. It is obviously many times worse now.
Broken-windows policing (more recently known as “stop and frisk”) became politically unpopular a few years ago. Interestingly, one large-city mayor who vowed to end it is being replaced by another who will likely re-introduce the practice, albeit in a modified form.
Supt. Brown wants to monitor and immediately respond to suspicious behavior in the area, including traffic violations. Those seem to be highly correlated either with crime or with the intent to commit.
It is many times better now. You are going off your personal experience, rather than the data.
Speaking of personal experience: I lived in Hyde Park for 7 years from the mid 80’s to early 90’s. I don’t recall a single murder (ETA of a student). However, many students were mugged and my husband’s car was stolen from outside our condo on 56th and Kimbark (they broke the steering column so left it with horn blaring in someone’s driveway so we were able to retrieve it from the pound). Car-jackings were quite the norm. I witnessed car chases and a few other thrilling sights on otherwise-quiet streets. In those days the popular Harold’s at least in the Econ dept. was the one down on 68th and Stony but I don’t doubt students ventured west as well - the HP Harold’s was the worst on the South Side. Harold’s on Stony might have been better but it was definitely more risky and we know a few who were mugged there as well.
I think the big difference now is the sheer number of guns on the street which is terrorizing much of the South Side. But Hyde Park, South Kenwood and North Woodlawn are a lot safer now. Woodlawn in particular is actively rehabbing and converting to condo’s. We know families who have purchased in the area.
Unfortunately, car-jackings are happening in many large metro areas. Where we live (Twin Cities) they have sky-rocketed. University City (home to Penn and Drexel) have had particularly bad incidents of car-jackings involving very young kids.
I never thought I’d see this problem raise its ugly head in the city of Chicago once much of the city gentrified. But it’s back. Most undergrads don’t own cars, fortunately, but probably a good number of grad students do. It’s so bad that we will not be giving our kid in Hyde Park access to a car anytime soon. A couple of years ago I’d have been open to the idea once he moved off campus.
More cameras. Huh.