No. 2 Chicago most violent neighborhood - Garfield Park

[VIDEO] We're down to the top two most violent neighborhoods or community areas in Chicago using statistics from 2017. #2 is Garfield Park on the west side actually there is two Garfield Parks (East and West) just as there are really two Englewoods (Englewood and West Englewood).

Here's what Vic Maggio writes in his description to this vid posted March 3, 2018

Warning Graphic Content: The Garfield Park neighborhood is home to Garfield park, it is the oldest of the three West Side parks and has one of the most beautiful field houses and has the single largest conservatories in the United States.

Most of the old sandstone buildings scattered throughout the neighborhood have religious markers on them, these are a reminder of the original Jewish history of the area. Garfield Park was also home to the 4,000-seat Marbro Theater which was among the city’s largest.

This video also covers a little history on the Chicago Police Department and touches on the relationship between the residents and the department over the years.

This neighborhood is in a state of disrepair and has quite a few abandoned businesses spread out throughout the area, it looks as though this neighborhood has been ignored and basically forgotten. I have noticed many residents packing up with moving vans and fleeing this depressed crime ravaged neighborhood.

The population of east and west Garfield park was at its height in the 1960s with 100,000 residents, over a 50-year period these two neighborhoods lost nearly 60.000 residents.

This year in the Garfield Park neighborhood, 260, people have been shot and, 36, have been killed and 224, have been wounded. These stats rank Garfield Park at number 2 on the 2017 list of the most Violent neighborhoods in Chicago.

Here's a map of the Garfield Park area, however, I haven't really been able to find a precise Google map of West Garfield Park. As you see the East Garfield Park area is well defined. Though in Maggio's vid you will see a rough outline of West Garfield Park.

No. 6 Chicago most violent neighborhood - Auburn Gresham

[VIDEO] Chicago Auburn Gresham is the next subject of Vic Maggio's series on violent Chicago neighborhoods. It's one you can visit one you get off the expressway just off of 79th Street for example. Maggio writes to this video which was posted on February 2, 2018:

The Auburn Gresham Neighborhood is home to the Thurgood Marshall Branch of the Chicago public library, St. Sabina Church, headed by Rev. Michael Pfleger, and St. Leo campus for veterans, which includes the Catholic Charities' St. Leo's residence-based outpatient clinic.

The Neighborhood has seen many tough times and a lot of violence and has seen a substantial drop in population over the past couple of decades. This is directly due to crime. This neighborhoods gang problem really took off because of the piss poor economy created in the late 70s forcing many young black men to the streets to make a living. This period in time seen the rise of the mega gangs.

I have met a lot of good people in this neighborhood and hope this hood is not on the list next year.

Maggio News

Here's a map of the Auburn Gresham community

 I wanted to share this post over at The Sixth Ward from 2016 with regards to John Ruberry who did an urban exploration of Auburn Gresham. His family once resided in the area and he makes sure to note some of the many abandoned homes there. He even notes the value of controversial Catholic priest Father Michael Pfleger within the community.

No 8 most violent neighborhood Roseland

[VIDEO] This video I actually shared here last year and will repost that video on this occasion just to share with you the 8th most violent neighborhood according to Vic Maggio and stats he got for HeyJackass.com. Here's the description posted to the video shared on YouTube Janunary 20, 2018:

The Roseland neighborhood is home to the Lowden Projects, the wild 100s.

The Roseland neighborhood by far has one of the best outward physical appearances then most of the other top ten neighborhoods.

Roseland has a decent economic base, good homes and schools, this goes against all the usual arguments of why violence is happening in this neighborhood.

Updated: This year in the Roseland neighborhood, 130 people have been shot and, 36 have been killed and 94 have been wounded. These stats rank Roseland at number 8 on the 2017 list of the most Violent neighborhoods in Chicago. This video was made 5 weeks before the year ended. I meet a lot of good people in this neighborhood and am hoping Roseland does not make the list next year.

And here's a map for your reference of the Roseland community area

Roseland

 In the above video you will see shots of the Lowden Homes on 95th and the surrounding community as well as some shots of the homes of West Chesterfield. Of course that in addition to the great history of Roseland that had been a prosperous community through most of the past century. However, as we've seen of many neighborhoods in the first three videos things just change. It could be the economy or white flight bottom line is that fortunes change...

Capitol Fax: Today’s map

Well don't let the today fool you as this was actually posted by Rich Miller to his blog on Friday - just yesterday. He shared some other tweets from the Twitter page of Illinois Working Together (@IllinoisWorking) that illustrates the county by county unemployment rate.

Today’s map https://t.co/YGzUgQK0fc

— Rich Miller (@capitolfax) January 25, 2019

Route of future Red Line extension has been determined

[VIDEO] The long awaited extension continues to move forward with a specific routing south to 130th Street on the far south side of Chicago. Of course there's still a process through getting the financing from the federal and state governments for construction on this new L line can start. When the process ends we're looking towards sometime next decade before the building starts.

Here's a basic map of the future extension via Tribune Graphics

CTA determines path for proposed Red Line south extension to 130th Street https://t.co/clsQPAC3jd via @marywizchicago pic.twitter.com/nETBROuonq

— Tribune Graphics (@ChiTribGraphics) January 26, 2018

  Also the question is already being asked about how to get the money to build this new L line 

ANALYSIS: Route defined, but where will the city find $2.3B to fund the Red Line extension, @fspielman asks? https://t.co/D20lMZGAfO pic.twitter.com/eeeKnSgPl0

— Chicago Sun-Times (@Suntimes) January 26, 2018

Finally here's the CTA page for the Red Line extension.

Whole Foods Market distribution facility coming to Pullman

The map above were you see that red marker, a Whole Foods Market distribution center is expected to be built there.

Whole Foods plans to build a distribution facility in the Pullman neighborhood on the South Side that would employ 150 people.

The 140,000-square-foot facility will be at 720 E. 111th St., according to the city of Chicago. The site is currently vacant.

The center, to open in early 2018, will replace an existing Munster, Ind., facility and will serve up to 70 Whole Foods stores in the Midwest and Canada, according to the city.

The city "will consider approximately $7.4 million in tax-increment financing assistance" for the project, according to a statement. The subsidy is being considered "to ensure the site was competitive with the existing facility in Indiana," the statement said.

The Whole Foods distribution center will be built on a 17-acre site owned by a venture of Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives, a unit of Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank, CNI President David Doig said in an email. Doig's real estate company will prepare the site for an industrial developer, which will build the distribution center and then lease it to Whole Foods.

The facility will be able to handle cold and dry storage and will have office space, CNI said.

More on the future site of the facility and adjacent properties:

The former Ryerson property also includes a Method soap factory that opened about a year ago and includes a Gotham Greens farm on its roof.

Doig's CNI also developed a new shopping center on the site anchored by a Wal-Mart big box store, and more retailers plan to open stores there. The neighborhood also received a boost about a year ago, when President Barack Obama designated the area a national monument, citing its manufacturing and labor history.

You may have seen this vid below on CBS 2 this morning, BTW

#MBMHMC I don’t live in Chi-Raq, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist

This report is via My Block My Hood My City by their head of data, Matthew Pietrus. The map above chronicles homicide hotspots throughout Chicago:

After analyzing homicides locations in conjunction with demographic data, I found that of these thousands of homicides from 2010-2015, two thirds of them occurred in neighborhoods that are two thirds or more black. Compared to just over 12% in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods and under 2% in predominantly white neighborhoods, it is clear that violence is not equally shared.

Unfortunately, this is not news. Most Chicagoans understand the disparities that exist in the city so studies like these can seem repetitive. But the significance of this map, and other studies like it, lies not in the data displayed on its surface but in the social interactions that create it. While what is occurring is certainly of importance, only in understanding why something is occurring can change happen.

That is why the story this map tells, the story of Chi-Raq, is an important one.

With the mention of that term, many readers may have moved on from this piece, and with understandable frustration. With massive clusters of homicides isolated in the South and West sides of the city, to many Chicagoans, Chi-Raq, the city more deadly than a warzone, is not the city they know nor is it the reality they face. For this reason, there has been constant backlash to the city’s new name, dating from the term’s inception to Spike Lee’s recent film. However, is this image of Chicago really a misrepresentation? More importantly, is our outcry over the term Chi-Raq really more important than the larger socioeconomic, racial, and violent disparities that it brings up?

Conclusion:

Similarly, for city officials and community members to continue a blasé approach towards reading these stories is a form of complicity, permitting the city to continue its violent polarization. Instead of becoming numb to statistics and these stories, we instead need to mobilize when Chicagoans like Bettie Smith, Quintonio LeGrier, and Tyshawn Lee are killed. We need to call our aldermen, protest, and make our dissention known.

In the end, this map tells the story of Chicago’s segregation. This story is not just one depicting a lack of cultural integration but one telling of a social isolation which disproportionately impacts black communities. But just because this may not be the story of your Chicago does not mean it is a story you should ignore.

Now how do we change this idea of violent polarization in those violent communities?