{"id":43565,"date":"2016-10-05T18:58:57","date_gmt":"2016-10-05T23:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=43565"},"modified":"2016-10-05T18:58:57","modified_gmt":"2016-10-05T23:58:57","slug":"chinatown-residents-want-underreported-safety-issues-addressed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/chinatown-residents-want-underreported-safety-issues-addressed\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinatown residents want underreported safety issues addressed"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jingzhe (Kelly) Wang<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heading west from 24th Pl. and Princeton Ave. in Chicago\u2019s Chinatown, Haiting Yu walks through an underpass with rusty-looking infrastructure and cracks on the wall. A few feet into the tunnel, a light blinks. Some are completely out.<\/p>\n

\"Chinatown
Yu says she is afraid of being robbed when going through the rusty-looking underpass on the corner of 24th Pl. and Stewart Ave. (Jingzhe (Kelly) Wang\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Feeling water dripping down from above, Yu picks up her pace.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to be careful when you cross the underpass, especially at night,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople will take your bags.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Chinatown
Water accumulates after a rain inside the underpass near Chinatown. (Jingzhe (Kelly) Wang\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That\u2019s not the image most Chicagoans and tourists have of Chinatown. To them, it\u2019s a vibrant ethnic neighborhood – restaurants serving tasty dim sum, the Zodiac statues in Chinatown Square, and elderly Chinese playing chess or mah-jongg in parks.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Chinatown\"
(Jingzhe (Kelly) Wang\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yet 1,300 local residents indicated in a neighborhood survey that safety is their top concern.<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community<\/span><\/a> (CBCAC) is an advocacy group based in Chinatown that conducted the survey in 2014. The coalition drove home the ongoing concern at a recent gathering to reinforce their <\/span>Chinatown Community Vision Plan<\/span><\/a> that was put forward a year ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ald. Patrick Thompson (11th ward), one of two aldermen who represent Chinatown, agreed that public safety was a major issue for the community.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe perception is that it isn’t safe because when we do have certain instances with robberies and things like that,\u201d Thompson said, \u201cit\u2019s a big concern for us.”<\/span><\/p>\n

For Haiting Yu, she considered Chinatown a friendly and convenient place for new Chinese immigrants when her family immigrated to Chicago from Hong Kong in February. Yu\u2019s perception changed not long after when she found syringe needles near her garbage bins in the back alley.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when I realized that there might be people doing drugs right behind my house,\u201d Yu said. \u201cWe almost moved to somewhere else.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Chinatown is considered a safe neighborhood statistically; only 113 violent crimes were reported in Armour Square, the community area that encompasses Chinatown, so far this year. That amounts to 0.6 percent of all violent crimes reported in Chicago, according to data from <\/span>Crime in Chicagoland<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Bridgeport, a nearby South side area, has a similar frequency of violent crimes (102). In comparison, Englewood, also on the South side, experienced 563 cases so far this year. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, Debbie Liu, community development coordinator at CBCAC, said the numbers could be misleading because Chinatown residents tend not to report crimes to the police.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey don’t speak the language, so they feel very uncomfortable having to deal with that,” Liu said. <\/span><\/p>\n

Yu, who is taking English as a Second Language (ESL) courses, works part-time at Feida Bakery in Chinatown. Some of her weekend shifts go until 8 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy coworkers told me to run home immediately after work,\u201d Yu said. \u201cEspecially in winter, the streets are pretty much empty after 6.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Community leaders said members of the Chinese community are targets for robbers because they are known to carry cash around and to not speak up to the police. <\/span><\/p>\n

CBCAC is working to address these difficulties and ease the community\u2019s safety concerns by improving lighting in parks and along sidewalks and organizing more activities in the neighborhood.<\/span><\/p>\n

There was one time when Yu felt safe in Chinatown.<\/span><\/p>\n

“When Pokemon Go was popular, there were so many people out,” Yu said. “That\u2019s when I felt the safest walking around at night.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo at top: Haiting Yu, 20, a Chinatown resident, says she does not feel safe walking around the neighborhood. (Jingzhe (Kelly) Wang\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jingzhe (Kelly) Wang Heading west from 24th Pl. and Princeton Ave. in Chicago\u2019s Chinatown, Haiting Yu walks through an underpass with rusty-looking infrastructure and cracks on the wall. A few feet into the tunnel, a light blinks. Some are completely out. Feeling water dripping down from above, Yu picks up her pace. \u201cYou have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":321,"featured_media":43627,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2941,28,30,675],"tags":[1400,3022,154],"class_list":["post-43565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2016","category-general-interest","category-public-affairs","category-social-justice","tag-chinatown","tag-coalition-for-a-better-chinese-american-community","tag-safety"],"yoast_head":"\nChinatown residents want underreported safety issues addressed - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/chinatown-residents-want-underreported-safety-issues-addressed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chinatown residents want underreported safety issues addressed - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Jingzhe (Kelly) Wang Heading west from 24th Pl. and Princeton Ave. in Chicago\u2019s Chinatown, Haiting Yu walks through an underpass with rusty-looking infrastructure and cracks on the wall. 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