•July 11, 2018•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

Regular readers of this space might recall that I have a love affair with Chicago. I take Amtrak in, revel in the incomparable offerings of symphony and jazz, art and museums, all within walking distance, and follow up with dinner from an endless selection of clever restaurants.
Yet I continue to be haunted by the paradox of mindless street violence playing out daily, almost in the shadow of this oasis of high culture. How can the two worlds exist side by side, I wonder, in a civilized society?
I have written about this before, based on visits I have made to the city’s poorest neighborhoods. Yet I feel compelled to weigh in again, for the violence, now chronicled in leading national and international publications, threatens to mar this great American city.
In recent weeks, there have been incidents of apparently lawless groups of youth brazenly walking off their gang turf and into the vibrant city center, generating high anxiety among the culture seekers.
Violence in Chicago is actually down significantly from what it was in the 1990s. But it wasn’t much reported then, as it is now, and most present mayhem occurs within a few poor, largely minority neighborhoods to the west and south of the city center.
According to the Heartland Alliance, a poverty research group, in 2016 African-American men aged 15-34 represented just 4 percent of Chicago’s population, yet made up over half the city’s murder victims.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.