- [Briggs] What is going on, everyone.
Welcome back, The World According to Briggs.
And a video about Chicago.
Chicago, Illinois is an amazing city.
I go there every couple years.
Great people, great pizza, breathtaking skyline.
The downside is,
like most major cities, it has some places
that should be avoided at all costs.
In Chicago's case, probably a little more than other cities.
Today, we will look at the most dangerous neighborhoods
in Chicago.
If you live there,
you probably already know where these places are.
If you're from out of town and let's say,
you're going to a Bears game or White Sox game.
This list may stop you from making a wrong turn
that could endanger your life.
A couple of quick disclaimers.
We're looking at the entire metro area,
not just the city of Chicago.
So if we talk about a suburb,
or some other place in the metro area,
you know why we went there.
We are also going by the violent crime stats
published by the FBI.
We're not going by reputation, legend, or history.
I promise locals will be in the comments section
complaining about what they think should have been
the most dangerous, and why this place wasn't there.
And that place isn't that bad.
We go by the stats because you could ask
a hundred different locals to make a list
of the most dangerous places,
and you will get a hundred different lists.
One other thing is we also use the location's actual name.
The one the city gives it.
The one you can find on a map,
if you're looking for it.
Remember, this video is really made
for people not from Chicago.
So if you're from Chicago, you're going to go,
"That's not what we call it".
No, that's not what you call it.
It's what the city and the map makers call it.
Okay, let's see where you could raise the odds
of an early demise in Chicago.
(alarm ringing)
Number 10, Chatham.
Chatham is a neighborhood in South Side, Chicago.
And I'll tell you right now,
we're going to spend a lot of time in South Side, Chicago.
It's just got a bad reputation.
There's a lot of bad stuff goes on there.
Matter of fact, just last night in Chatham,
a young man was shot a couple times
by a guy wearing a clown mask and latex gloves.
This neighborhood doesn't look terrible.
Like a lot of other places
that have really run-down neighborhoods.
Like, let's say, East St. Louis or Detroit.
Chicago, for some reason,
their neighborhoods sometimes are bad,
but they don't look terrible.
I mean, Chatham, every single door
just about has one of those security gates on it,
but not all the windows.
So that's a plus.
There's about 30,000 residents in Chatham
and it's only like three square miles.
One of their most famous residents was Ernie Banks.
He was called Mr. Sunshine or Mr. Cub.
He played for the Chicago Cubs for almost 20 years,
and is the first player to ever have
his Jersey retired by the club.
These days, Chatham is considered one of the most
dangerous neighborhoods in Chicago.
In Chatham, you have a 1 in 14 chance of becoming
the victim of a crime while you're there.
Their total crime rate is 189% higher
than the national average.
And their violent crime rate is 418% higher
than the national average.
Ouch.
We're only at number 10.
If you wanted to move to Chatham and buy a home,
you're looking at about 250,000
for a three or four bedroom, plus a bath.
Now I just eyeballed that.
That's not the median price or anything like that.
That usually confuses people.
I just looked at Zillow,
kind of get an idea of what's going on there.
But that's what you can get.
(alarm ringing)
Number nine, South Shore, Chicago.
South Shore, again, is on the South side of Chicago,
but it's on the shoreline of Lake Michigan,
not too far north of the Illinois Indiana state line.
They're not too far from Gary, Indiana.
And I've actually seen people from Gary
kind of blame South Side Chicago
for all their problems.
Come on, let's be real, Gary.
You did it yourself.
South Shore was once a really nice place to live
in the Chicago area.
And by looking at it and how close they are to the lake
and everything, they really should be.
If they put a little effort into it,
maybe they could turn this place around.
But right now, it kind of sucks.
Especially when it comes to violent crime.
This is also where Larry Ellison and Kanye West were raised.
They're both born in different places.
Atlanta for Kanye West,
New York city for Larry Ellison.
If you don't know who he is,
he is the co-founder and was once the CEO of Oracle.
But now I guess he's the chief technology officer,
I don't know why that is.
But anyway,
South Shore has about 47,000 residents
and they have a 1 in 15 chance
of becoming the victim of a crime while living there.
Their total crime rate is 186% higher
than the national average.
And their violent crime rate,
506% higher than the national average.
If you wanted to buy property here,
this is really interesting.
You can buy the typical three to four bedroom home here,
if they have them available,
but they have a lot of these buildings
that have several apartments in them
where you can get, you know, like 415,000
for a nine bedroom place.
But just eyeball in South Shore,
350,000 is about what you're looking at
to buy some place that's okay
with three or four bedrooms, two bath.
Like most of Chicago, this place has brick buildings,
which is really good for drive by season.
No one likes to catch a bullet
while you're watching jeopardy.
(alarm ringing)
Number eight, Riverdale.
Riverdale, again on the south side of Chicago.
This isn't as much a neighborhood
as it is a bunch of projects,
and a water treatment plant.
They do have some areas over here that are pretty run-down.
So it'll be kind of obvious that
this is not a good place to be.
The only one that should be really going here are police,
residents, and parole officers.
The population of Riverdale is about 7,300 people.
And they all have a 1 in 15 chance to become the victim
of crime while living here, or visiting,
or just hanging out, driving by, whatever.
The total crime rate here is 178% higher
than the national average.
Their violent crime,
546% higher than the national average.
There's never much for sale here, 'cause like I said,
mostly it is housing projects.
But right now there's a nice looking place for $120,000.
Six bedrooms, three baths.
It's not the best thing, but it looks like it's okay.
Riverdale got its name because it's got the Calumate river
going right through, or on its border.
I read one article where a cop,
I guess the guy was a cop said,
"This is a great place if you like to go city kayaking
and finding bodies"
That that was kind of messed up.
(alarm ringing)
Number seven, West Englewood, Chicago.
Now, West Englewood is just right next to Englewood.
And most people just refer to this whole area as Englewood,
but they are definitely separate.
This one of those neighborhoods
that most people don't want to live here.
And it kind of shows,
you look at any block and it's like two or three houses,
at least are boarded up.
Or there's a couple of vacant lots
where there used to be houses.
Now they've torn it down.
It's just one of those places.
And it's a freaking dangerous place to live.
They have just over 30,000 residents
and they all have a 1 in 12 chance
of being the victim of a crime while living here.
Their total crime rate is 261% higher
than the national average.
And their violent crime rate is 585% higher
than the national average.
Like I said, this is not a good place to live.
Tried to see if anyone famous was from here
and nothing's listed.
So, either no one is famous that moved here,
or they're not admitting it.
Looking at the homes here,
if you wanted to buy something here,
you can get a three bedroom place for about 130,000.
It's going to need some work,
but that's about where the livable places start.
What's really nice about this place,
is you can buy vacant lots
for like 20 and 30 grand.
You could buy a couple lots and just hope the neighborhood
turns around before you die of old age or something.
(alarm ringing)
Number six, Grand Crossing.
Technically, this neighborhood
is called Greater Grand Crossing.
Back in the late 1800's, it was called Cornell.
And it was mostly a neighborhood
of Irish and Scottish people that worked on the rail.
Most people just call it Grand Crossing.
It is right above Chatham.
And just to the west of South Shore,
right in the middle of all the excitement of the south side.
This is another place that's got a lot of
scary looking alleys, boarded up buildings, and vacant lots.
Grand Crossing has 32,000 residents
and they all have a 1 in 13 chance
of becoming the victim of a crime while living here.
Their overall crime or their total crime rate is 229%
higher than the national average.
Violent crime rate is 606% higher
than the national average.
How do you get that eye?
The good news is you could find livable homes here
for about 200,000.
In between 200 and 300,000 is what you're looking at.
This is another place where you might be able
to get a vacant lot for about 35, 40,000.
(alarm ringing)
Number five, North Lawndale.
All right, finally, we're not on the south side.
North Lawndale is in between Cicero to the west
and the Loop, which is to the east.
Well there's Near West Side in between them,
but it's to their east.
North Lawndale actually was part of Cicero
back in the late 1800's.
Back then, it was mostly a Czech neighborhood.
These days, North Lawndale has a mix
of just about every one.
And there's 35,000 of that mix of people.
And you have a 1 in 11 chance of being the victim
of a crime here.
The total crime rate or the overall crime rate
is 300% above the national average,
and our violent crime rate,
642% higher than the national average.
That's brutal.
This is another one of those places where you can buy
those buildings that have different apartments in them.
You could buy one of those for about 350,000 to 450,000
in that neighborhood.
But to get a normal house here,
you're looking at just little over 200,000.
It's not going to be the best, but it's a house.
(alarm ringing)
Number four, Englewood.
Back to the south side, we go with Englewood.
Englewood, in case you don't know,
is just east of West Englewood.
Funny how that works out.
This again, just like West Englewood,
is one of those places that has a lot of boarded up houses
and vacant lots.
You know, your neighborhood sucks
when people just abandoned their houses by the dozens.
It's a very interesting residents over the years.
They had Bernie Mac,
he lived here for quite a while when he was a kid.
Jennifer Hudson, singer who was on American idol,
and a bunch other things since then.
I actually think she's the most successful person
to ever come out of American idol.
Oh, also H.H. Holmes lived here for a while.
If you don't know who he is,
he was an American serial killer and con man.
He had a thing they called The Murder Castle,
at the corner of South Wallace Avenue
in West 63rd street.
Good times in Chicago.
Not much has changed because there's still a good chance
you'd get killed in Englewood.
There's around 26,000 residents in Englewood
and they all have about a 1 in 12 chance
of being the victim of a crime.
Their overall crime is 254% higher than national average.
And violent crime is 648% higher than the national average.
You can find abandoned homes and vacant lots here
around 70,000, maybe even as low as 29,000, I saw one.
But if you want to get a home,
you're looking at 250,000 on up.
(alarm ringing)
Number three, East Garfield Park, Chicago, Illinois.
Getting out of the south side again,
we have East Garfield Park.
Which is just north of North Lawndale.
This is considered west side Chicago.
This is where basketball great Isaiah Thomas
spent his childhood.
If you've been following along on this channel
and making lists of places to never go, visit,
live, whatever.
This should go on that list.
I'll tell you why, they have a little over 20,000 residents
living here and they all have a 1 in 11 chance
of being the victim of a crime.
Their total crime rate, or their overall crime rate,
is 285% higher than the national average.
Their violent crime rate,
a whopping 661% higher than the national average.
And they're still not the worst.
If you ever thought about buying a house here,
that's not a vacant house or a vacant lot.
Starting prices are around 300,000.
(alarm ringing)
Number two, Washington Park.
Washington Park is just north of Englewood.
And it's the type of place where crime novelists go
when they're having writer's block.
This neighborhood has a lot of vacant lots
and a lot more boarded up buildings.
Kind of reminds me of Detroit in that respect.
This isn't really known as a neighborhood,
as much as they call it a community area.
Back in the mid to late 1800's,
this was a neighborhood just filled with Irish and Germans.
So I'm sure you can imagine,
there was a lot of beer drinking going on there.
They all worked for the rail lines.
Washington Park has a population of just about
12,000 residents, and each one of them
has a 1 in 11 chance of becoming the victim of a crime.
Their overall crime rate is 274% higher
than the national average.
And this is where they really stepped up their game.
Their violent crime rate is 713% higher
than the national average.
When it comes to home prices here, they're all over the map.
I've seen some that looked decent livable
for about 150,000 to 200,000.
But then they have other ones that, you know,
are a lot better in there about 600,000.
So this one's again, all over the map,
but you can still buy vacant lots for under 50,000
in this neighborhood.
All right, before we get to number one.
Don't forget we have another channel called On This Day.
There is a link down below.
All right, on to number one.
(alarm ringing)
And number one, West Garfield Park.
Got to admit, I'm surprised the worst neighborhood
is not on the south side for once.
It's not like West Garfield Park is a stranger
to this type of list.
It's just usually the worst are on the south side.
This is an area with some of the other neighborhoods
that were on this list, known as K-Town.
This is because many of the streets
that go north-south here start with K.
Keystone, Karlov, Kedvale, Keeler, Kenneth, Kilbourn.
It goes on.
What else goes on here is a whole bunch of crime.
They got about 17,000 residents living here.
And you got about a 1 in 9 chance of being
the victim of a crime.
If you're one of them.
Their overall crime rate is 396% higher
than the national average,
and their violent crime rate is 789% higher
than the national average.
Now, if you ever did want to get a house here,
if you can find one
that's not completely boarded up or burned to the ground,
houses start here around $230,000 that are livable.
I mean, you can go a little cheaper
but if you want something,
you're going to have to do a whole bunch of work too.
That work's probably gotta involve, chasing out squatters.
All right, that's today's list.
Hope you guys enjoyed it.
Hope you got some information out of it.
One piece of information I didn't include in this one is
common sense.
Most of people in these neighborhoods are good,
down to earth people, just trying to get by.
They just have a certain amount of idiots,
they're causing all this havoc.
And really that's true with any city or state
in the United States.
90% of the people are decent, hardworking people,
just want to live their life.
All right, everyone, I'll see you in the next video.
Be nice to each other.