<p>The Maroon's recent articles indicate lots of violent crime in the area around the school and state that students want improved safety measures.
Do any of the current students wish to comment? Thanks.</p>
<p>I'll comment. Yesterday i walked to a gas station two blocks off campus and feared for my life. The area outside tthis campus is frightening, but the school does an incredible job training students how to get around to the good neighborhoods, and we always travel in herds. The security is very tight, there have been no frightening incidents, and the maroon occasionally lies.</p>
<p>I often walked through surrounding neighborhoods alone this summer and encountered no problems. It is not safe to go around in the dark though.</p>
<p>You're in a major city, you have to be careful. Personally, I grew up in NYC so my main complain was that you can be alone on the street at night which I find disconcerning. I'm guessing you went to the gas station on 60th, I wouldn't recommend going too far in that direction from campus it definately seems a bit sketch over there... I always lived between campus and 53rd in the woodward, greenwood street area and felt perfectly safe 99% of the time.</p>
<p>Ican speak as a parent of a first year last year, and as one who has lived in Hyde Park since June of this year.</p>
<p>First, to comment on varsity's filling station post above: The only filling station two blocks from campus is at 60the and Cottage, which happens to be right on the edge of some of the worst neighborhood in Chicago. Varsity must be a first year, as few older students head in that direction, there is no reason to do so.</p>
<p>Hyde Park is a curious place, an oasis of middle class tranquility surrounded by more downmarket neighborhoods. It is fair to say, however, that north and south of hyde park/kenwood, things are undergoing a radical transformation. The problem lies to the west of the campus, and particularly to the southwest. These neighborhoods are tough. But there is no reason for anyone to go into them, and they are no worse than the neighborhoods surrounding many other urban universities, such as Columbia, Penn, Hopkins, Berkeley etc. </p>
<p>For some reason, many folks tend to equate neighborhoods of some color with lack of safety. If one stays away from the western edge of Hyde Park, the part near Cottage Grove and Drexel Avenues, one is probably at no greater risk than, say, a student attending Harvard.</p>
<p>Hyde Park did have a spurt of renewed criminal activity last spring and early summer. The activity received lots of press. It also has had a spate of gang related shootings on the western edge by Cottage Grove, hence my warnings above. </p>
<p>Still, students DO go places, and they do so after dark. And they do so with little risk, if they use common sense. All streets are very well lit. The school has an extensive bus system, and subsidises several CTA runs. You MUST use bike locks, and not leave things lying around, but this is true most places.</p>
<p>Hyde Park is not Ithica. It is not Oberlin. It is not Ann Arbor or Madison, Wisconsin. It's an urban environment. Someone with no experience in such a setting DOES need some practice in reading the environment. IF you want complete safety, it is not your place. But no city would be.</p>