BUCKING THE TREND: Fueled By Boystown, Wrigleyville Robberies, Lakeview Reports Higher Violent Crime

The Mayor’s Office and Police Department shared another of their happy statistics this weekend. Violent crime is down in droves across the city, they chimed.

In fact, 3 of the Mayor’s Office’s 4 latest tweets are about the reduction in violent crime

That reduction does not apply to Lakeview, though.

According to a Chicago Sun-Times graphic, ten of the city’s 77 official community areas have experienced increases in violent crime between 2011 and 2013. Lakeview is one of those ten, posting a 1% increase.

1% ain’t bad until you realize that virtually all of your peers’s violent crime levels are reportedly plunging.  Lakeview’s neighbors were decidedly down in violent crime:

• Uptown down 30%     • North Center down 10%    • Lincoln Park down 23%

Our only neighbor to show an increase is Lincoln Square with a 1% jump.

The reason for the increase in Lakeview? One word. Robberies. Homicides are down. Aggravated assaults and batteries are way down.

The story, though, is that Lakeview could have shown the decreases that our neighbors are showing. Unfortunately, the police department and politicians managed to brush over and deny a festering robbery problem until it was too late.

The genesis of the problem our neighborhoods are having within Lakeview lies a few years before the Sun-Times’ 2011 comparisons. That’s when Wrigleyville and Boystown’s once-minimal robbery problem began to take root and blossom into the complete mess that we have today.

While the city has routinely claimed that robberies have gone “down” citywide over recent years, Wrigleyville and Boystown have managed to plow a path of their own:

Here is how Lakeview-wide violent crimes break down during the Sun-Times study period, according to the city’s data portal:

Homicide