President Obama will visit Chicago this week as part of his tour promoting a plan to battle gun violence. In 2011, the state of Illinois recorded 452 murders, 83 percent of which were gun-related.
Last year in 2012, the city of Chicago alone recorded over 500 dead — which was twice as many as New York, and 200 more than Los Angeles. This January, the Windy City had the most homicides since 2002 — 42 people killed.
This week, Marketplace’s Sylvester Monroe reports from Englewood, a neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, which has one of the highest homicide rates in the city. Here’s an economic breakdown of the area:
Population: 30,654
Average income: $11,993 (Chicago’s is $27,148)
Poverty level: 42.2 percent
Unemployment rate: 21.3 percent
Percent without high school diploma: 29.4 percent
Violent crime ranking: From 11/26/12 to 12/26/2012, Englewood ranked 9th of 77 neighborhoods when it comes to homicides, assaults and rapes. Nineteen violent crimes over the time period were on the street or on a sidewalk. One was at a school and one was at a bus stop. There were 17 homicides in 2012.
Property crime rankings: From 11/26/12 to 12/26/2012, Englewood ranked 6th of 77 neighborhoods when it comes to thefts, car thefts and arson.
Quality of life crime rankings: From 11/26/12 to 12/26/2012, Englewood ranked 6th of 77 neighborhoods when it comes to narcotics, vandalism and prostitution crimes.
Other facts: Englewood has one of the highest concentrations of relocated project households that use housing vouchers on the private market; Of Englewood’s 15,210 households, 274 were moved from the projects to Englewood between 1999 and 2010. That’s 1.5 percent of households, one of the highest concentrations in the city.
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