South Side Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd), along with community organizations, residents and business owners, dispute a recent report that lists four Chicago neighborhoods among the nation’s most dangerous.
South Side Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd), along with community organizations, residents and business owners, dispute a recent report that lists four Chicago neighborhoods among the nation’s most dangerous.
The Chicago neighborhoods listed were 55th and State Street, 58th Street and Wallace Avenue, 66th Street and Yale Avenue and 60th Street and Winchester Avenue–all on the South Side.
The report, conducted by Internet provider America Online Inc., covered the time period 2005 to 2007 and looked at such things as crime statistics to determine what 25 U.S. neighborhoods are the deadliest.
And for that reason alone Dowell said the report does not accurately show the neighborhoods current status. Two of the listed areas, 55th and State Street and 58th and Wallace, are in her ward.
“Let me first say that I think it was irresponsible on AOL’s part to put out this list,” Dowell told the Defender. “It gives the wrong impression about the area (55th and State Street), but that area has changed tremendously since the Robert Taylor Homes were demolished (in 2007).”
The State Street area is a 10-minute drive from President Barack Obama’s house at 50th Street and Greenwood in the Hyde Park community. The report also lists 55th and State Street as the second most dangerous neighborhood, after one in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Ald. Freddrenna Lyle, whose Sixth Ward includes 66th and Yale, and Ald. Toni Foulkes, whose 15th Ward includes 60th and Winchester, were unavailable for comment. These areas are in the Englewood community and ranked 19th and 24th, respectively, on the AOL list.
Harvey Dawson, executive director of Neighborhood Watch, a community group in Englewood, said he was not surprised to see Englewood among the dangerous areas.
“The Englewood community is unfairly targeted by society when it comes to crime,” he said. “I am not denying that Englewood has its fair share of problems. But it is not as big as the report would have you to believe.”
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In photo: Memorials for slain Chicagoans point out how dangerous some of our neighborhoods have become.
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