But that was always the case. In the past, Hyde Park was always a safe place to be at any hour of the day. No more. Besides, poverty doesn’t excuse crime. Of course now we have an urban popular culture that glamorizes violence and mistreatment of women, so all the gangstas feel like they can do as they please with impunity, and sadly they are right. The animals that attempted to murder my friend were never arrested.
And I wouldn’t classify Hyde Park as a rich neighborhood. There are some mansions on the north end of the area, sure, but there is also a lot of working class housing and student apartments. Most folks on a professor’s salary wouldn’t be considered rich by any means.
Another strike against Hyde Park is the sheer annoyance of it all. You shop at the “Co-Op” because God forbid you enrich a capitalist pig to buy your groceries. Out in front of the “Co-Op” are the ever present radicals, trying to get you to sign some damn fool petition to stick it to the man. They were there 40 years ago and they are there today. The only thing that ever changes is the counter-culture fashion they sport. The bulletin board in the mall is still covered with notices for the next meeting of the Lesbian Communists. Not to mention, the student body of the U of C has to have the homeliest women of any major university in the United States, so maybe it is a blessing they tend towards lesbianism… The whole place reeks of it’s own twisted left wing provincialism.
Add in to that, many of the things that used to be good, Morry’s Deli, Harold’s, Ribs 'N Bibs, have gone downhill. When I visited last, Harold’s had moved down the street and had been closed by the department of health. The time before, the food was terrible, they seem to be cooking the chicken in the same oil as the catfish, and the chicken had a fishy taste that even the Louisiana sauce couldn’t cover up. Morry’s jumped the shark when they moved down the street as well. Ribs 'N Bibs is now priced beyond reason for what you get. Tai Sam Yon is no more. Retail on 53rd now caters to the blacks.
I dropped out of Kenwood High School (which was a waste of time in itself, a joke of an academic institution) in my second year just to get the hell out of there. I moved to California, took the GED at 16, enrolled in Junior College, and never looked back.
In short, I never liked Hyde Park, and it is worse than ever now, with the few pleasures that it did offer having greatly diminished over the years.