I don't mean to go off on a rant here, but ...
... the new mayor will have his hands full (I'd include the pronoun "her" in that sentence had Carol Mosley Braun's campaign not imploded after she called out another mayoral candidate at a church gathering for being a crack addict) with the violent crime situation in Chicago. It is true that overall rates are down (which is a good thing for sure) but most disturbing is that a recent analysis showed that almost all homicides and shootings happened in 8.5% of the city.
Since I'm not living in those neighborhoods (which is also a good thing -- at least for me), I'm not living in fear, but it saddens me to think about the deck being stacked against those that do. It's apparently a cycle of poverty and gang living and something called "intergenerational disenfrachisement". Our current police superintendent is on his way out after the election (or at least all signs point to that), so there will be an opportunity to demonstrate leadership on this issue before the year is out.
By the way, I thought about this after taking the back roads home from the Everglades the other day (pics posted on FB) and realizing that I was in a part of Ft. Lauderdale I hadn't been in before. First sign I was in a troubled hood -- the cops had pulled over a school bus to resolve some issue. Then any doubt I had was disbursed when I saw a cop car in my rear view window turn on its lights to get through a busy intersection ... and the car next to me immediately sped up, cut in front of me, squeezed between traffic and a bus and fled the scene.
I'm enjoying my vacation ... but it will be good to get home to the 91.5% safe parts of Chicago that I love.
HOMICIDES DOWN IN BIG CITIES:
http://tucsoncitizen.com/usa-today-news/2010/12/28/homicides-fall-in-big-cities/
SEARCH CRIME BLOCK BY BLOCK IN THE CITY:
http://chicago.everyblock.com/crime/
A TREASURE TROVE OF DATA ABOUT FT. LAUDERDALE:
http://www.city-data.com/city/Fort-Lauderdale-Florida.html
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