Maybe Chicago is safe, after all

I had dinner with a friend and he asked me if I still feel safe living in Chicago.*

It wasn’t the first time he'd asked, but I take these questions as a sign of caring, so I pointed out, again, that this is a very safe city. I even pulled up a list of the cities with the most violent crime per capita and started reading it to him.

• Memphis, Detroit, Little Rock, Kansas City…
  

Clearly, he expected our Toddlin’ Town to be at the top of the list because, let’s face it, we’re a big media center and we get a ton of airtime on Fox. But big numbers in big cities are not as meaningful as the risk per person; the specific degree of danger I face when I walk out the door and onto the mean streets of Chi-town.

• St. Louis, Cleveland, Albuquerque, Baltimore…
  

As it turns out, we aren’t pulling our weight in this whole crime thing. We’re supposed to be the Crime Capital of the World, but we didn’t even make the top 75 on the list of the most violent cities so far this year. We hit number 20 if you count all crimes, but we don’t have a global reputation for jaywalking. When it comes to violence, we are total slackers.

• Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Houston, Indianapolis…
  

I took some heat a few weeks ago when I posted a satiric piece about how dangerous Chicago is, because I seemed (to some) to be oblivious to the hellhole that I call home. It’s true that I know people who have been victims of crimes, but they are the exception, not the rule.

• Denver, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Dallas…
  

The fact is that you can go essentially anywhere in this city any day of the week, on foot or on a bicycle, and nobody is going to hurt you. There are several neighborhoods I wouldn’t visit at three in the morning, of course, but nothing good happens at three in the morning.

• Anaheim (Disneyland??), Fayetteville, Davenport, Oklahoma City…

I feel safer here than in other cities, partly because I know where the risk is greatest and partly because we have a different mix of crimes than some other towns. I pay attention to my surroundings, which is a big-city necessity, but I also make an effort not to play in traffic. I’m not immune, of course. Nobody is immune. But we are much safer than most people think.

• Colorado Springs, Waco, Fargo, Tempe...

I quit reading the city crime list to my friend somewhere after number 60, and he was convinced, for the moment, that Chicago wasn’t as dangerous as he’d thought. He gets it, intellectually, but facts always come in fifth in a battle with emotion. Next time we meet, he’ll probably ask me again if I still feel safe living in Chicago.

 
*              Right now, six of my friends think this post is about them. Maybe I’ll name names in a future post, but you won’t know unless you click here to subscribe.
 
 
 

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