First the boom areas in Chicago were Bucktown and Wicker Park, then Logan Square and Humboldt Park (which is now considered pricey)…now the big, new areas are Englewood and Garfield Park. The Tribune, in an excellent story, reports how these poor areas increasingly are home to 20 and 30 year old real estate bargain hunters. At the same time poorer, longtime residents are being hurt by increasing real estate taxes.
I’m not trying to rain on the parade, but the Chicago Reporter at the beginning of 2003 said that the Harrison, Austin and Marquette police districts on the West Side (that encompass these neghborhoods) represesented less than 1/5 of the city’s population but had 40% of Chicago’s murders.
The Reporter story says jobs and education will change these areas, not extra police (or, for that matter, Costco-trained suburbanites seeking condo bargains).
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