The big awful news out of Chicago this weekend was the murder of Jennifer Hudson’s mother and brother, and the abduction of her nephew. Jennifer Hudson grew up in Englewood, which is a neighborhood on Chicago’s south side (very far from our house, don’t worry). I was reading about Englewood this week in an article about Derrick Rose, the NBA’s No. 1 draft pick for 2008/09. Englewood is Rose’s hometown, so it excited the whole city when his home team the Chicago Bulls snapped him up.
From what I read, I couldn’t imagine even wanting to leave my house if I lived in Englewood, let alone play basketball day after day on an outdoor court there. Like other south side inner-city Chicago neighborhoods, Englewood has a big gang problem, and it is not unusual to hear gun shots ring out during the night there. Apparently from January to August this year, 28 people have been murdered in this neighborhood alone. Rose moved his family out of there as soon as he could, and now the Bulls won’t let him return for even a visit because they consider it too risky.
Apparently Jennifer Hudson wanted to move her family out of the neighborhood as well, but her mother didn’t want to. It was home to her. The problem with all of this is there is just an incredible number of people being murdered in this city, and a staggering number are high school kids in gang-related violence. The gangs recruit them young. It’s unbelievable, and really sad because there have also been primary school-aged kids getting caught in the crossfire. This has all led to Chicago making the news for having 427 murders this year (to last week), compared to 417 in New York and 302 in LA. Chicago is the smallest of the three cities, as well.
We feel as safe living here as we did back in Victoria, because much of this violence is quite a distance from wherever we go, and it tends to feel like a world away from our leafy La Grange, but it gets really sad watching the news week after week and hearing all of these awful stories. Chicago is a beautiful city, and we really like living here, but this is a blight on the city, and it will take a whole lot to fix it…it certainly doesn’t help Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympic Games.
things could only be gettin worse for the mid to lower classes in america atm… it’s all doom and gloom from what we can see from over here..
stop killing the AUD!
Yep it’s all kinds of worrisome. There are so many factors beating down on people over here. Doesn’t help that the new president is about to have $700 billion less with this big bail out for Wall St. Some amazing real estate deals though if you’re looking for a house.