Quote:
Originally Posted by Bunk
Chicago epitomizes the good and the bad of American cities. It's amazing where it's good, and absolutely appalling where it's bad. It is the most racially segregated city in the US. White people live one place, Hispanics there, and African Americans somewhere else.
I remember flying out of Midway on the way back to Toronto, taking the El (sort of through the the South Side) . There were a group of dudes literally smoking crack next to us. It was actually terrifying.
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We wanted to visit the Museum of Science and Technology, and based on a cursory look at a very high-scale map, decided to take the L-train green line south and then cut east for 12 or so blocks on foot. Bad call.
As downtown receded in the distance, the neighbourhoods got rougher and rougher. Those huge projects from the 50s that you see in movies, mostly abandoned. Few cars on the street. When we reached the station where we planned to set off on foot, we crossed the street and got right back on the next train going back downtown.
Later, I looked up the museum website and it pointedly warned visitors against taking the L-train green line. The really weird thing is that if we had walked on the route we planned, after several blocks through the roughest part of Chicago we should have passed Barak Obama's house, which is on the fringe of the gentrified area where the museum is located. So strange to think of such devastation and despair cheek to jowl with such power and sophistication.