# Is Chicago "out of control" and is it a sanctuary city **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Tags:** vacation-travel\ **Created:** [August 20, 2025, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chicago-out-of-control-and-is-it-a-sanctuary-city/1022334 "2025-08-20T19:07:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2025, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chicago-out-of-control-and-is-it-a-sanctuary-city/1022334/81 "2025-08-24T10:42:34Z")
Well, note that: > Gov. JB Pritzker said Saturday state officials have not sent nor gotten any requests from the federal government about offering assistance amid reports the Pentagon is planning a military deployment to Chicago that could send a few thousand National Guard troops as soon as September as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to crack down on crime. > **[Pentagon planning military deployment to Chicago in coming weeks, report says](https://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/2025/08/23/pentagon-military-deployment-chicago-report-pritzker)** > > The Washington Post reported Saturday that Defense Department officials have been planning for weeks to deploy federal troops to Chicago. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2025, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chicago-out-of-control-and-is-it-a-sanctuary-city/1022334/82 "2025-08-24T22:57:48Z")
But nothing official wrt travel warnings for visitors at this moment. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2025, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chicago-out-of-control-and-is-it-a-sanctuary-city/1022334/83 "2025-08-25T21:00:59Z")
The Illinois Governor ought to start trolling the President by asking why he is not deploying troops to harder-hit-by-crime Memphis. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2025, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chicago-out-of-control-and-is-it-a-sanctuary-city/1022334/84 "2025-08-25T21:11:44Z")
[Moderating] This is borderline. Memphis being harder hit by crime than Chicago is a fact. What the Illinois governor ought to do is not. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2025, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chicago-out-of-control-and-is-it-a-sanctuary-city/1022334/85 "2025-08-25T21:16:57Z")
The FQ seems to have been answered, right? It’s a sanctuary city and it’s not out of control. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2025, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chicago-out-of-control-and-is-it-a-sanctuary-city/1022334/86 "2025-08-25T21:28:27Z")
I’m not sure “sanctuary city” is really anything but an RW slur / snarl term. Yes, there is a reasonably agreed definition, but the purpose of the term is to be hate-filled propaganda. And there’s nothing factual about that stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2025, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chicago-out-of-control-and-is-it-a-sanctuary-city/1022334/87 "2025-08-25T21:39:19Z")
Let’s dig a little deeper into the data. > [@pulykamell](#): > > If you sort by violent crime, Chicago is #92 highest on that chart. Click to the right of “Aggravated Assault” where it says “Total.” That “total” is for violent crime per 100,000. Chicago is #48 when sorted overall by yearly crime rates per 100,000. (That’s the first “total” column when reading from left-to-right. That includes property crimes and arson, I guess, as arson doesn’t seem to be sorted in either the violent crime or property crime categories.) To be complete, Chicago is #71 in arson, and #41 in property crimes. I’ll sort by violent crime and present #1, #10, Chicago, and the safest city on the list. | Number | City | Total Crime | Violent Crime | Pop | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Memphis, TN | 9456.19 | 2501.28 | 613,207 | | 10 | Dayton, OH | 5707.53 | 1139.2 | 134,857 | | 92 | Chicago, IL | 4029.75 | 539.85 | 2,638,698 | | 200 | Worcester, MA | 16.48 | 16.48 | 212,425 | | | | | | | | Chicago vs Memphis | | 42.6% | 21.6% | 430.3% | | Chicago vs Dayton | | 70.6% | 47.4% | 1956.7% | Crime data is pretty noisy and somewhat error prone. But the percentages indicate that the perceptions reported in the OP are ignorant. Chicago has a fifth of the violent crime of Memphis and moreover half the violent crime of the city ranked #10 on the list. The Worcester data is suspicious (violent crime=total crime): I suspect an [artifact](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artifact_(error)) of some kind. Let’s look at number 190: Gilbert, AZ has a population of 277,527, a violent crime rate of 132.24, and a total crime rate of 1103.68. It has a quarter of the violent crime of Chicago and 1.4% of the violent crime of Memphis. The perceptions of the OP’s friend are not unusual, but they are wildly at variance with the underlying reality. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2025, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chicago-out-of-control-and-is-it-a-sanctuary-city/1022334/88 "2025-08-25T22:10:06Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I’m not sure “sanctuary city” is really anything but an RW slur / snarl term. Yes, there is a reasonably agreed definition, but the purpose of the term is to be hate-filled propaganda. And there’s nothing factual about that stuff. No, that’s not true. It means a city where the local law enforcement will not cooperate with federal authorities on immigration matters, and potentially even has explicit laws protecting undocumented immigrants. It’s not like “woke” which is weaponized as a slur meaning “stuff I don’t like.” Sanctuary city does have a factual description, even if the details differ between cities. Cities like Chicago, San Francisco and Portland describe themselves as sanctuary cities, it’s not just right-wing media using the term. RW media might consider the concept of protecting immigrants to be evil and therefore use it in a hate-filled manner, but that’s about them, not about the term itself. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2025, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chicago-out-of-control-and-is-it-a-sanctuary-city/1022334/89 "2025-08-25T23:07:00Z")
> [@Paul McCartney Fanatic](#): > > Even the Magnificent Mile on North Michigan Avenue is 75% vacant. They can’t even rent upper level office space. Setting aside that she has her ‘facts’ wrong, this is quite simply part of a much larger macroeconomic trend, spurred by things like COVID, Work From Home, and e-commerce. It’s far from a Chicago-specific issue. Three cites: > **[2024 Commercial Real Estate markets Trends](https://beyondcommercial.com/cre-market-trends-whats-hot-in-2024/)** > > Explore the latest trends shaping the 2024 commercial real estate market: e-commerce growth, sustainability emphasis, and technological advancements. > **[How Downtown Vacancies Affect You](https://tagcommercialbroker.com/archives/13078)** > > Discover how downtown vacancies impact local economies. Learn about the ripple effects of empty storefronts and offices on communities. **[What can Chicago learn from retail vacancies in other global cities?](https://globalaffairs.org/commentary-and-analysis/blogs/chicagoglobal/chicagos-retail-vacancies-are-hitting-all-time-highs-what-can-it#:~:text=BLOG,remote%20work%E2%80%94necessitating%20revival%20strategies.)** ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2025, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chicago-out-of-control-and-is-it-a-sanctuary-city/1022334/90 "2025-08-25T23:35:16Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > Setting aside that she has her ‘facts’ wrong, Yeah, she has it almost exactly backwards: From late 2024: > [@](#): > > The overall office vacancy rate for North Michigan Avenue just hit 22.4%, up from 18.3% a year ago, according to a Colliers report. [From here.](https://www.colliers.com/en/news/chicago/chicago-plan-commission-oks-transformation-of-magnificent-mile-office-tower-into-residences) ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2025, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chicago-out-of-control-and-is-it-a-sanctuary-city/1022334/91 "2025-08-26T17:54:45Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > From here. > [@DavidNRockies](#): > > What can Chicago learn from retail vacancies in other global cities? Thanks for those links. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-chicago-out-of-control-and-is-it-a-sanctuary-city/1022334.md?page=4)