is it a dangerous place to live?
i never lived in a big city before. I feel like the sheep from the sheep in the big city

another question, there's not a lot of uv rays up there eh? so naturally it would be hard to get a tan? i was up there a few months ago and all the people were pale whereas in florida, everyone look like indians

yes its dangerous. dont go out alone late at night especially if youre a girl. dont walk down any dark allies alone. there had been quite a few rape incidents in the lincoln park area if you know where that is. ofcourse, don't go down to south, south side day or night. better yet, when you see bars on windows, turn back as fast as you can. even though chinatown is a place where asians can hang out, its not the safest place either. there was murder there about a month ago. so dont walk down any dark allies in chinatown either. always bring someone with you at night. just giving you heads up since you asked for it.

OMG! i dont want to go there anymore!!

You make it sound like is crime city USA. Even though things have been hectic, if you don't get mix up with the wrong crowd, you'll be safe. Chinatown just been getting kind of rowdy cause of ABCs, trying to make a stand for us "ASIANS". -_-". Anyways, I do go to school in what people will consider the slums, only bad thing that ever happened to me was got jumped in Chinatown when I was in 8th grade, and got mugged cause of dumb brother my sophomore year in the south side. Overall, most of the time I feel safe. If she is going to Roosevelt, then she'll be in the South Loop far from LP, and I haven't heard any knew rape cases, just a bunch of sex perverts going up north, and a bunch of "thugs" (or so people claim) in the south.



You'll get use to it, most cities have the same problems Chicago has.

you see what i mean. you got jumped AND mugged. never happened to me since im usually careful. reason i dont feel safe here is because of the numerous stories i hear and experiences my friends had.
what i said is true, isn't it?? you don't go to those places late at night by yourself. this is not japan.
chicago does have one of the highest crime rates in the US due to the size of the city

and what the hell are abc's??

American Born Children/Chinese

Most of them are associating themselves with gangs. Trying to not getting the Asian community seem like some oppressed community, and they believe that by them making Asians look tough that we'll get some respect, and stop being harassed. kids...-_-"

Yea, these things did happened in the city, but we shouldn't live in fear, just be knowledigble and watch your back. Is not as crazy as New York over hear, my dad's friend told him that in NYC, some people shove people onto the subway tracks.

Your also right about walking through allies, when I was jumped it was cause I was by the viaducts, going home at around 10 at night. However these weren't adults, just punk @$$ teenagers, that didn't even left a bruise on my body.

The mugging I could have walked away, but my dumbass brother thought he was tough, and tried to confront them with his hands in his pockets, thats why I had to step in, and in the process over powered and mugged, or else I would have walked aways from the guy when he had threaten me cause all he had was his fist. I don't feel like typing the details, since your in Chicago, if we ever have the time to meet up, I'll tell you about it.

One note, if your on the soutside between from south loop to around 35th St. your pretty much safe even at night, no one really harm females around here, even though 2 years ago, I had to help this women who was mugged. -_-" (No matter how many positives I put out there, there seems to be a negative.) Other than there are hardly any females casualities in the South side, even though I think the guys should be more careful. I don't know why, but I've been hearing a bunch of bad news around here too.

Don't get shot.

hey whats "LP"?

yes. we shouldnt live in fear like you said. life's too short to worry about it. like you said, we should be more careful especially in the city. a friend of my got jumped down in the city and it wasn't even a bad area. he was just there at the wrong place and at the wrong time. believe me, if he was more careful it would have saved him the trip to the hospital. another friend got $50 cheated from him on the train, but that was also his fault. i used to drive to chicago to wash my car late at night and people used to drive by me and ask for money. when i told them i didn't have any, they would talk trash and drive away. thats why i don't usually travel alone in the city at night anymore. one of the biggest reason my parents moved us to the suburbs was because of a few shooting incidents by my old school. and still, another friend got his house broken in and robbed and that was in the burbs. now, i had to deal with rich jealous kids that vandalize your property.

im not trying to scare the thread starter. just giving her some precaution since she asked for it.


lincoln park. and no, not the band.

I had a friend who his house got robbed in the suburb, and moved back into the city. -_-"

We are probably scaring the thread starter, but when she does arrive here, she'll probably going to be fully armored, once she steps out to the air port.

she should bring mace. ha! i kid, i kid!

Lincoln park the band sucks lol

i will never go out at night. i'll stay in my dorm and talk to u fine ppl on AF.

Is Linkin Park anyways. You shouldn't be afraid to step out of your dorm. You'll ruin the experience of being in one of the most busiest city in the country.

chinatown is fun. but yes dont go in the alleys . there are a lotta tourists at night there and every restaurant is filled up.


it literally is. its #2 for murder. previously #1. and high for a lotta other things. oh and #1 for syphillus. don't get syphillus ok fantasyclover?


lincoln park is an enjoyable area actually. its yuppie town. YUPPIE- Young Urban Professionals.. it has a lot of good restaurants and lively night life. lots of good looking 20 something year olds walking around lol. but terrible parking.

actually i hate the lincoln park night life. too many drunk stupid college students walking around. i almost ran one over the other day with my car.

i never drive there. but its like 20 min from my house. but the traffic can get so bad that it could take 45 min. walking around in the day is nice. lotta good restaurants and boutiques

should have finished the job. I don't even go up north, don't know people up there. I wouldn't call anything a great night life, if people just get drunk and wasted and have unconscious fun.

i used to live in glenview. which is a northern suburb and considered really safe but there was a robbin couple doors down. my mom did get mugged once but that was in the city. ah bad memories but places like bucktown, lincoln park, are yuppie and interesting.

watch out for the projects......and don't give money to people on the streets

describe yuppie.

I feel like we're terrifying a new fellow Chicagoan

yes. the traffic does suck. sometimes i leave early just so i can show up for class earlier for a test but show up at the usual time because of the traffic

should have ran him over??

what are you talking about?

yeah. well i dunno about not giving out any money at all but there is a good amount of people that try to swindle you: most used phrases:

"i'm getting paid next week and I need money for groceries now"
"I need money for a bus ride home"

omg. i was in lincoln park and this guy in the morning tells me "i need money for the bus and i don't have anything on me. can i please have one dollar to go home?"
being me , i gave him one dollar out of my wallet. then he actually looked inside my wallet while i was taking money out, saw the other bills i had in there and said "can i have one more dollar? i haven't eaten all day" (its the morning ). i gave another dollar . "another dollar please?" i give a confused look and he says "please i haven't eaten" . so i give one more and then he asks for 5 dollars more..

not to say you shouldn't give out money. but just be careful to pick up on the overused excuses.

young urban professionals. 20 something year olds who just finished college and starting their jobs/careers.

dunno. what were you talking about??

.

wow u guys make it sound sooo bad.... -_-'"

if u go about ure business, and use common sense u shouldnt run into any trouble.... unless ure on the far southside...

awee. tahts so nice. i tried that before by offering to take them to mcdonalds or something but they just wanted cash instead..

...........yea, to buy booze.

I can understand, I had a homeless guy yelling at me cause I didn't have money on me. -_-". My literature teacher, who is a super-christian Asian, had a same encounter at a drive thru, where the lady ask him to spare her some food before he ordered, and he agreed, when he drove up to the ordering thing he placed his order, and then the homeless lady just but in and place her order. -_-"

so if i get myself a man, i'll have better security, sounds good to me!

i'm actually gonna go visit chicago in early June with my parents lol.

Have fun, I still have school til the 12th. -_-"

too bad im going out of town early june . i might had showed you nice places to go navy pier is awesome for first timers! downtown, etc.

9k

I forgot, never fall asleep on an empty train.

is that what you did?

aww.... whats wrong with waking up at O'hare, 15 something stops to far from where u were going? =p

No someone walked up to me, and told me all his stuff got stolen from him when he fell asleep at night on the red line, and asked me for money. don't if he was lying, but you should take that into consideration. I don't sleep in public places.



lol

he was probably lying to you. i had people on the train claiming they were raising money for their basketball team or pretend they are blind and some other bs i dont remember.

I got you beat...

mind you this was awhile ago near the time of katrina

Well Friday night me and the gf stopped by the Walgreens on Roosevelt & Canal. On our way out, there was this black lady probably, in her 30’s, that came up to us holding a gas container and asked us if we could help her get gas so she could go to “Oak Park, Illinois” [she said the ‘s’ in IL], she also said that she had her father and a baby in the back of her truck (dodge ram) and cried [yes, cried] for help. This is the first time ever anyone who’s asked me for money on the streets has cried…..so I give her the two singles I had in my wallet. So as I’m walking to my car wondering if that was a legitimate person in need or not, I look back to see where she went. So I look across the parking lot at the truck she went to. The gas door is open with a big funnel hanging from the tank, and there’s cargo in the back of the truck which made me wonder if she evacuated from somewhere. I’m thinking ‘Ok I think she’s telling the truth’ cause as we drove by we did see an elderly guy sitting at the drivers seat and she was messing with something in the backseat which we assumed was the baby.

So now I feel bad cause I thought she was telling the truth and here were these 3 people stranded and I gave them a mere $2 which will get them probably down the block from the gas station before they run out of gas again. So we drive over to them and gave them another $5 since I figured that much would at least get them to Oak Park safely. So as we’re leaving the parking lot, we see the lady start walking down the street in the opposite direction towards the gas station. Then I realized I went the wrong way an pulled a U-ie…..what do I see next??? The truck starts and leaves the parking lot, the lady stops, walks back to the truck which is waiting for her by the street, she takes out the funnel from the gas door and throws her gas container into the truckbed, gets in and leaves…………………………………………………………………………………..….WOW…..SCAMMED! It’s not the $7 that they jipped me out of, but more the deceit of what they’re willing to do just to get a few bucks that makes me mad.



And another incident on Saturday night when we were getting off I55 on Cicero. That corner hosts the most number of homeless people/beggars I’ve ever seen on one corner….I mean one time me and Frank saw like 7 or 8 of them.....

Anyways, my brother will probably remember this, but one time this black lady comes up to my car stopped at the light and frikkin knocks on my window….[wtf….all the other people asking for money have the courtesy to not touching my car] and tells us the story of how her truck broke down and her and her 3 kids need money for bus fare of $1.80. That time I offered to call for help but she declined saying that she already did but no one had shown up for hours. Then Frank said that he THOUGHT he saw a truck earlier and that we should help her. Ok I gave her two bucks and I think Frank gave her some too…..then she has the nerve to ask for more…..wow…..good thing the light turned green then.

So back to Saturday. We’re at the same stoplight again and there so happens to be 2 cars with their emergency lights on stopped across the street. So guess who comes up to my car again???? YUP!! That same fu-king lady! She comes up and knocks on my window again….[wow I can’t believe this b!tch]…I only crack the window like an inch or two down this time. So she sticks her mouth at the window crack like an inch away from the opening and starts asking if I can hear her…..[omg I don’t want your stanky @$$ breath in my car]….so I say yes and let her go on with her spiel. She said that one of those cars across the street with the E lights on was hers and that it was broken down with her 3 kids inside and bus fare was $1.80. Instead of embarrassing her and confronting her lie right away, I just say…“Sorry, can’t help.” But she persists….asking why I won’t help her and her kids and $hit…..ok fine I’ll tell you “Cause last time you came to me and told me the same story and….” BAM.…before I finish my sentence she already moved on to the next car…….WOW!

And even on Michigan Ave….there were so many people just there on the streets with signs asking for money…. [sadly we saw more starbucks there than bums]

Editted: modified from its original format in xanga

holy $hit! cliff notes?

well it was off an old xanga entry so i was clarifying for my readers

Oh when you come down make sure you have some warm clothes and coat. Although you can always buy them later but it's much cheaper in the summer. It starts to get cold just a couple of months after school starts. Usually by halloween it's cold enough to be slightly uncomfortable outside. For me anyway.

hmm. i live by oak park. wierd. oak park is a pretty good area though. i never got scammed like that but im a bit more cautious now since my friend told me tips on being careful not to be scammed..

she probably only used Oak Park in her story...this happened in downtown by UIC

i forget where Oak Park is.....is it like on the far south side like streets in the 160's or is it by Lake Forest, Forest Park and stuff? If it's the latter, then I used to work in Oak Park as a delivery boy for Luo's Peking House in the town square. Those towns confused the hell outta me cuz of the interchangable "Lake","Forest", and "Park" in their names


ahhhh memories.....

oak park:

we should post about the good on chicago now. tehe.

oak park downtown is really nice with a lota good restaurants and shops. i used to live in glenview:
visit The Glen if you have a chance! <3
the glen is like a community itself away from glenview. it has its own shops, restaurants, cafes, shopping centers, bookstore, grocery stores, banks, police station, firestation, residential areas, movie theaters , museum and gym and community centers. i have better pics on my phone of the glen.

i like the area by woodfield mall. the beach area by evanston is also very nice. plenty of expensive houses by there.

cool stories. i have a friend from HS that now goes to Loyola that fell asleep on the train and ended up talking to some crazy guy.

Why do you guys give money to beggars? It reinforces negative behaviors.

be wary of places with installed flashing blue lights at streets corners!
(this is 1/2 yr too late warning..you should get the idea...me, I just wanted to increase my post and toss out my 2 cents..:P)