Here is the dope. I am white, the neighborhood is African American (black). I have the opportunity to cut my rent in half, move closer to the lake (Michigan), and have a larger, nicer apartment. The problem is that anyone I tell about my stupid plan thinks I will be killed or at least unhappy. Chicago dopers will understand this next part. The location is in the extreme southeast corner of Bronzeville, 9 streets from the northwest boarder of Hyde Park and 6 streets west of the boarder of Kenwood (both very nice areas). The area is depressed but I believe it is getting better (one block from the new Harold Washington Cultural Center). I would put myself in a better financial situation, but am scared by the opinions from my friends and associates.
Here is the question, does anyone else have an experience of moving to a culturally different neighborhood.
Anyone in or around Milwaukee will back this one up, as far as different neighborhoods. I grew up in New Berlin, and at age 19 moved to 17th and State St. for 2 years. Never had a problem, though I am a rather built kinda guy and always carried a gun, so I may have been pushing my luck at night, but I’m still alive.
Again, so it doesn’t sound like I’m bragging I’ll let someone else from the area describe the differences. Mostly I found just act normal, be friendly to the neighbors (that aren’t running an obvious crack house) and you’ll be fine. Just don’t drive up in a Porsche and have the movers lumber in a big screen t.v. That would just be dumb.
Good luck on the move, and may you earn enough soon to move out.
Sorry just a ploy. :smack: OK gang, I am looking for some support here. Am I making a sound decision to save for my future and hopefully buy a home some day or am I setting myself up for trouble?
Heh. Funny you should mention this. I’ve been telling my son to get off his butt and get a better job so he can move out of his crappy neighborhood, where the hookers do tricks in the porta-potty in the vacant lot next to his building.
So…last Saturday we decided to do our belated Mother’s Day celebration in the city so I can see his place. The apartment is very nice ($800/mo…it better be!), but the neighborhood is pretty worn out. He splits the rent with a roommate.
We got mugged.
Except for the fact that we didn’t have any money on us (and my kid talked the guy out of it), I guess I would have been dead meat if I was alone.
Isn’t there some middle ground you can come to? Maybe a slightly better neighborhood than the one you’re looking at?
I am a 5’2" white girl from the suburbs, and I lived alone (well, with my dog) in Rogers Park for about 18 months. The residents of my condo building were pretty white middle class, but every other building was a rickety apartment complex with mostly minorities. I personally never had any problems and didn’t think it was as bad as other people thought it was. So I don’t know if that answers your question, but I don’t see anything inherently awful about your move. Admittedly, I don’t know the South Side, but there aren’t too many places with a worse rep than Rogers Park.
Are people skeptical because of the cultural difference or because it is really a bad neighborhood? If all that is holding you back is you will be a minority there, I would say go for it. You say the area seems to be improving, that is a good sign.
I agree with Velma. The racial thing shouldn’t be the issue. The crime rate should be the deciding factor. My kid’s neighborhood is Puerto Rican, and he’s not had any major problems until the weekend. I must have jinxed him.
Not to belittle your exprerience, Kalhoun, but there are occasional muggings in Lincoln Park, which is by no stretch of the imagination depressed or poor. Nowhere in the city is going to be completely safe.
Look on the ICAN web to get crime stats in your potential neighborhood. To give you something to go off of, I did my neighborhood in Lincoln Park. This is all that’s happened within a half-mile of my home in the last 14 days (the most they’ll let you query):
Isn’t there some middle ground you can come to? Maybe a slightly better neighborhood than the one you’re looking at?
I am living in the middle ground already- Pilsen. It is just that I work in the Hotel business and it has been slow the last 2 years (Bush & 911), so I now have less money for the future then before. I feel that I am losing ground.
I don’t know the South Side, but there aren’t too many places with a worse rep than Rogers Park.
It has a pretty bad rep. Worse than Rogers Park. I could consider the far north side, but I am getting a really good deal on this place because I know the owner of the building.
Are people skeptical because of the cultural difference or because it is really a bad neighborhood? If all that is holding you back is you will be a minority there, I would say go for it. You say the area seems to be improving, that is a good sign.
Well, that is debatable. The skeptics are basing the opinions on what they have heard, but never lived there. So I am inclined to they believe that they think Eskimos live in igloos and everyone in Egypt rides a camel.
I would say it depends on your hours. If you come and go at odd hours and esp. at night it’s probably not a good idea as these as the times predators look for victims.
I like to work 7AM to 4PM. Most of that bad guys should be sleeping. Sometimes I have to work 3PM to 12PM. This could be trouble. Maybe I will get a dog.
Wow. 116 crimes in the last 15 days, including one murder. 33 crimes against persons, 71 on property, 4 against society, 7 domestic incidents, and one property damage. That seems pretty high, doesn’t it?
In 1981 my parents paid $50,000 for a rowhouse in need of repairs and moved themselves and their two young children (ages 6 and 9) onto a run down block of similar rowhouses in a depressed section of Brooklyn. The top half of the block, both north and south sides, were burned out and used as crack dens. Crack vials littered the pavement, many storefronts were empty… The only thing keeping up the neighborhood was a biker bar on the corner.
Today, that rowhouse is worth close to 1million and is located in one of the most desireable neighborhoods of Brooklyn, Park Slope. A lot can change in 10 years. Those crackhouses were renovated and turned into condos in the 80s. The biker bar made way for a Korean grocery. People thought my parents were %#@! off their rockers to bring children into a situation like that but it was a calculated risk that paid off for them big-time.
