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| Map of reported robberies in Boystown from Jan. 1, 2011 to Nov. 1 2011. |
With 7 long weeks remaining in 2011, the heart of Chicago's Boystown neighborhood has already suffered more robberies and aggravated batteries this year than in any calendar year since at least 2001, according to analysis of crime statistics on the City of Chicago's Data Portal.
Beat 2331, which includes the center of Boystown, from Addison to Aldine and from Clark to Lake Michigan, tied its all-time annual robbery record on November 1st, when an assailant threatened to shoot a man if he did not surrender his valuables on the street near Halsted and Roscoe.
In the week since that incident, police have responded to at least two more robberies on beat 2331, setting a new record.
A new annual record has also been set this year for the number of aggravated batteries reported on beat 2331.
The beat's record-breaking 24th aggravated battery -- a violent crime that includes severe beatings, stabbings, and attacks with weapons -- occurred on Halloween night, when a man was stabbed at the intersection of Halsted and Roscoe, according to the city.
Many robbery victims are beaten by their assailants, but the crimes are classified by police as robberies only.
October 2011 holds the distinction of being the second-most robbery-laden month on record. Twelve citizens were robbed on the streets of beat 2331 last month, exceeded only by the 14 robberies that occurred in November 2004.
The City of Chicago Data Portal archives every crime reported to the Chicago Police Department since January 1, 2001. Information on a crime is released one week after the incident is reported to police.
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Here are the annual totals for robberies on beat 2331 according to the City of Chicago Data Portal:
2011 - 56 (through November 1)
2010 - 49
2009 - 39
2008 - 43
2007 - 44
2006 - 37
2005 - 49
2004 - 54
2003 - 45
2002 - 56
2001 - 35
Here are the annual totals for aggravated batteries on beat 2331 according to the City of Chicago Data Portal:
2011 - 24 (through November 1)
2010 - 19
2009 - 21
2008 - 22
2007 - 16
2006 - 15
2005 - 9
2004 - 14
2003 - 17
2002 - 20
2001 - 16
Photos: City of Chicago's Data Portal.
Boystown was my home for 10 years. I moved to the Loop this year because the area had changed so dramatically for the worse. This just proves it.
ReplyDeleteThis is so sad. Boystown used to be one of may favorite areas. Now the blacks have completely ruined it! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI lived in Boystown from 2000 to 2010, and watched it deteriorate. I felt safe late at night going home from my late night job. The change had been slow, then about 4 years ago, became dramatic and walking home to Roscoe and the inner drive from Halsted/Belmont started feeling sketchy to me.
ReplyDeleteI moved to the Loyola area in 2010, and feel safer walking late in that area than I have in Boystown in a long time. It makes me sad.
This area has become a complete sh!tshow. I can't wait to move when my lease ends.
ReplyDeleteMy "welcoming" into the area was being greeted by news cameras out on Belmont while walking to work in the morning due to the elderly couple being beaten and robbed in their own home. Everyone was up in arms because "that stuff just doesn't happen here" and the dippy "artist" nearby announces to the media that "they" don't normally come on this side of Broadway. That was quite a while ago and it's been downhill since.
ReplyDeleteI picked the location strictly for a convenient commute to work and lakefront. Although being gay, "Boystown" was the last priority on my list of amenities. I'm the dummy as I thought "Boystown" related strictly to Halsted St. and not the entire area. That being said, the entire area is an absolute mess. If you have to take a cab 3 blocks for safety reasons, it's not worth it. I've have some fun times now and then but they've lost my business and rather than out-of-state friends coming to visit me on holiday weekends, now I go to visit them.
When I did go out for a "night on the town" in this "world class city", it seemed to be earlier and earlier. I've witnessed horrifying bloodshed. What I saw a couple of Sundays ago on Halsted St. - at 6:30pm - put the last nail in the coffin for me. If the residents or businesses (bar doorperson, store clerk, owner) don't care about reporting, stopping that behavior, why should I? Frankly, I'm sick of calling 911.
At this point, I feel disrepected and now distrust what I thought were "my own". They want that $$ though! The lease is up soon. I'll be hightailing it right out of this state. If you bought here.....I'm not a religious person.....but May God Bless your precious souls(and you're part of the problem for letting the blantantly obvious loitering problems in the sake of "PC" turn to bloodshed).
The whole area needs to just......go away. That not being the case anytime soon.....I will. It's not deserving of people like me.
The Center on Halsted has attracted herds of black ghetto savages who are preying on white people in Boystown.
ReplyDeleteThat COH is a problem, yes, but if you people here are that ignorant to use that place and "youth" as a scapegoat for ALL of your problems....hence my longwinded post above. Blind. Absolutely blind.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous@3:51AM,
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree with you more. We used to go down for the gay parade and the halloween parade but not anymore. This is what happens to a city and it's neighborhoods when "PC" rules the day. When people think or say "it's a big city, what do you expect" Or, "if you don't like it, you should move", what they are really saying is they ACCEPT this kind of behavior, "oh well", "cie la vie", thinking. This city really isn't that much fun anymore because ghetto thugs are everywhere and more and more of them want in on the action of robbing, stealing, mugging and burglarizing the very people who support their asses. Oh, I forgot, it's the economy...
Boystown will become a ghost town sooner then we think. Tom Tunney is a loser and the biggest of all the PC people in this city. He doesn't give a rats ass that Lakeview/Boystown is headed the way of
of the dinosaurs...EXTINCT! It will become the new south side on the north side and shame on the business owners for not stepping to the plate and protecting the very people who put them and keep them in business.
Daily had it right..."Beirut on the lake"
Conceal Carry NOW!
But the Police keep talking about how crime is down in the city? How can this be? I wish someone in the media would ask some questions about this type of information. Boystown is not the only area that is dealing with this increase in violence. Look at the spike in violence on Michigan Ave. THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH POLICE!
ReplyDeleteUptown Vegetarian, it's because Chicago is very well known for "sweeping it under the rug". Luckily, we have CNR to report and distribute what many of us have seen with our own eyes. I noticed this "sweeping" my first year living here and I've worked on the "Magnificent Mile" as well - big problems there! All is good according to the downtown based rags.
ReplyDeleteThere are people preying on gay men in Boystown. Because they are black they are getting a pass from asshole gay youth activists who would sweep an entire gay community away in order to get laid.
ReplyDelete"Beirut on the lake". Have you seen pictures of Beirut lately?
ReplyDeleteOh come on, surely you remember Daley saying that when all the shootings were going on, kinda like a metaphor. Same shit, different day here.
ReplyDeleteOops, noticed I misspelled the great leaders name...LOL
So it's been like this before? I wondered why those security bars are on the back windows of our Lakeview East apartment-turned condo-turned apartment. Glad they were never removed. I can only imagine the grandeur of this "neighborhood" when these places were built - in 1920...........
ReplyDeleteI live in Pilsen and I feel way safer that proves that this area has gone to shit.
ReplyDeleteMr. Pilsen, I've been to the worst sides of Detroit and posted above. You've got ignorance and invasion of personal space here that I've never experienced there. Broken car window, stolen car now and then but not permanent bodily injury and bloodshed. They really think all are stupid here in "entitledville" or whatever they've let them perceive it to be (and as of this date, they are winning).
ReplyDeleteI kicked one back to Hyde Park with that "you entitled people" mantra. He recently earned his Masters in Humanities (So he said. But I've seen these types trying to pull of that edjumacated thing in Ann Arbor, MI going after what they perceive to be "rich men" 20 years ago).
The ONLY way you'll get your point across in "BOYStown" is to withhold your gay male $$. The ONLY way! (until they realize what made them what they were - up until 10 years ago).
ReplyDeleteI have to believe The Center on Halsted has at least contributed to the problem by "reaching out" to troubled youth and bringing them into an area that they may not have realized was an easy target. Easy because of the late night activity of the bars, often solitary victims walking down dark streets.
ReplyDeleteI've been in the CoH on more than one occasion and gone to the restrooms upstairs and been confronted by "troubled" youth. They sure didn't seem to be what I thought of as the "typical gay" that would be utilizing a center for gay young people confused or bullied because of their sexual identities.
The crime in Boystown is why my neighborhood is safer, they're all out robbing people there instead of terrorizing my 'hood. It's been very pleasant.
ReplyDeleteYes, COH has "at least contributed". The tiring "transient youth" thing is played out. There is an abundance of 30-40 y.o. black men out on those streets ducking in every corner, along with their cars - very easy to spot if you're not a Chicago "native" or from Hicksville, Iowa(the red line blaming is tiring too).
ReplyDeleteThe Halsted St. "promoter" that mentioned the "transient youth" thing to me ducked his head in a 7-11 bag when noticing me on the street. He knows, I know - better.
This is all really not a big deal to me. Don't like it, don't go. I'm just pointing out the greed and patronization of gay men on that strip (by "our own").
And as Towanda mentioned up above - the word "shame". Yes, SHAME!
I used to go to the computer lab at Center on Halsted, 99 percent of the patrons were ghetto thugs. While I was looking for a job and updating my blog, they were all watching porn and rap videos. One guy was bopping his whole upper half in a way that suggested he was at least mildly retarded.
ReplyDeleteI saw three near-fights while I was waiting the very last time I went there. Upstairs where I was waiting one thug was asleep so hard that the COH staff member couldn't wake him no matter how hard he tried. Five minutes after the staff member left he woke up and was just completely insolent when the staff member returned.
Most of them appeared to be straight, even boyfriend/girlfriend combos thugging it up. Definitely not misunderstood gay teens.
I have not set foot in Boystown since then.
9:09PM, I could not have said it better.
ReplyDeleteI have had similar experiences at the computer center at COH. It is a blight on Lakeview. I avoid that stretch and drive out of my way to the Whole Foods on Ashland Avenue, so I can avoid the one at COH. BTW, when the weather was really hot this summer, some of the thugs were hanging in the underground parking lot where it was cooler, and they were vandalizing customer vehicles.
Nice to see one of the Uptown Update regulars posting on this site. What the Cappleman!
ReplyDeleteOh, and "Beirut by the Lake" was from a Wall Street Journal article during the Council Wars of the 1980s - the phrase had nothing to do with street crime and Daley never uttered it to the best of my knowledge.
ReplyDeleteFGFM,
ReplyDeleteWell, you are 1 for 1. Maybe Daley didn't say it, I'm not sure where it came from, perhaps the press/media started that. BUT you are wrong why Chicago was dubbed that. If you're going to use wikipedia, check further, that term was used in a fight between Blogo & Daley about CRIME...This excerpt was from a news article dated 07/25/08 . I'm not sure much has changed in 3 years.
It’s been one long, bloody year for the Windy City.
Murders are up 13 percent. During the past school year, 29 Chicago-area youths were killed by gunfire. On one April weekend, 40 people were shot. Over the July Fourth weekend, nine people were gunned down - with three more killed this past weekend.
The press is dubbing Chicago “Beirut by the Lake.”
And here's another one from 2008;
It is the murder capital of the US. Known to many as the Windy City, more recently the media dubbed it Beirut by the lake. The number one cause of death between the ages of one and 34 is murder and 80% of killings in Chicago are the result of shootings.
Towanda, you make the average ghetto thug look like an honor student. Quoting the WSJ from 2010:
ReplyDeleteThe loyalty of those supporters is up for grabs, boding a political free-for-all Chicago hasn't seen since the 1980s, during the interregnum between Mr. Daley's father, Richard J. Daley, and the son. That period left Chicago so politically fractured and racially polarized that The Wall Street Journal famously called it "Beirut by the Lake."
And from the New York Times issue of May 15th:
ReplyDelete“No more ‘Beirut by the lake,’ ” Mr. Daley said, alluding to the painful nickname Chicago was given for the City Council fights after the election of the city’s first black mayor, Harold Washington.
I leik nigger cock and used to suck it at Truman college all the livelong day I dont fuck my wife stacy she's just a beard
ReplyDelete