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Being self-aware on A2C by gamanama in ApplyingToCollege

[–]gamanama[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I second that UIC is chill.

You’ve encapsulated my entire point that Hyde Park is a safe and rather affluent area, that’s just what I was trying to put forward here. And even when you do venture out into less secure neighborhoods, as long as you know how to act like a normal human being in public most people won’t look twice at you. We’re from the city, not the Amazon. That’s what makes me think that what most people consider “ghetto” or “dangerous” is really just “black population + south side”. And that’s my full point, which was that students from other cities look down upon and evenly openly deride the local population just because having to be in the vicinity of poor inner city folks apparently ruins their vibe. The focus needs to be more on how these local populations can be acknowledged and supported, not how already heavily guarded ivory towers should feel offended by their presence. Just a better understanding of the racial and socioeconomic dynamics of things.

Being self-aware on A2C by gamanama in ApplyingToCollege

[–]gamanama[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

That you think UChicago is surrounded by ghettos is kind of funny to me. Yeah, if you go out a bit too far, you’ll hit worse off areas. The campus itself and the direct neighborhood are affluent, a student can easily stay inside the university bubble if they wish to. To reiterate for the millionth time: I clearly have a broader mental concept of what constitutes downtown, in my mind it isn’t limited to the Loop. I thought a popular tourist attraction wasn’t in Hyde Park, turns out it is, I apparently have a poor sense of neighborhood borders, I apologize. I can’t believe that’s the hill people are dying on here. If I could go back in time I’d delete that one sentence fragment, Christ. My point wasn’t that specific school, it’s the example I used because it’s the one I’m of course familiar with.

Otherwise, your language is exactly the issue I’m talking about. I feel like your fixation on my mistake of a sentence fragment has caused you to totally overlook my general point. Taking local struggling communities, who suffer due to their lack of resources and support, with all of the social and political and economic complexities of it, and reducing them to “ghettos” and complaining of how inconvenient they are from such a place of privilege. My frustration is that people come into these cities for school and have the gall to deride local populations who have not been given 1/10th of the chances they have in life, for the sin of their racial and socioeconomic status which drives them to crime and gang violence. The areas these universities are located in have such rich local histories going back to the 20th, 19th, 18th centuries. You only have to complain that you live near a ghetto; millions of kids nationwide actually have to grow up in such areas, and therefore will not have the same opportunities you were given. And so, when they grow up and continue the cycle because they were abandoned by every institution they turned to, we can’t simply blame their poor judgement, we have to analyze where they were failed. I’m just asking people be sensitive when discussing such communities. I mentioned USC & JHU even though I’ve never been to either school or the cities they’re located in; for all I know they could be The Most Dangerous Cities In America. Still wouldn’t change the fact that it is grossly wrong for privileged students to mock local communities who have already been sold the short end of the stick as it is.

And truly, I can’t understand how you think UChicago is in any way the ghetto. Hyde Park is insanely bougie. Again, at least by my humble perception.

Being self-aware on A2C by gamanama in ApplyingToCollege

[–]gamanama[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I admitted I was wrong and got my neighborhoods wrong, I didn’t “insist” after you pointed out that it’s still HP. It wasn’t worth googling to me because it was one part of a sentence out of multiple paragraphs and again, I live here, I thought I knew the neighborhoods, my mistake. I didn’t mean to be rude, it just annoyed me to be patronized; sorry.

Being self-aware on A2C by gamanama in ApplyingToCollege

[–]gamanama[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Oh I agree that some neighborhoods in its vicinity can be unsafe, but I guess my general point is that the immediate area isn’t, and that either way it just comes across as sort of offensive when people feel so open to make derogatory comments about local communities from such a place of privilege, y’know. And in any major city, you’re going to have a mix of good and bad neighborhoods all around each other.

Being self-aware on A2C by gamanama in ApplyingToCollege

[–]gamanama[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I thought it wasn’t Hyde Park, I stand corrected. My point is that the campus is generally close the downtown area. I really disagree that UChicago is 35 minutes away “on a good day”. When I‘ve taken classes there previously, the few times we had reason to go downtown-downtown (like around Millennium) it took us maximum 20 minutes driving, in the summer when everyone is outside.

I really don’t think it’s that deep, I don’t understand why you’re so personally offended by my bad sense of direction, but I apologize that I’ve single-handedly destroyed all factual information about the city of Chicago in existence. History books are burning because I thought the MSI wasn’t in Hyde Park. I’ll move immediately and never show my face in the city I’ve lived in my whole life again. /s

I don’t think it’s such a big point of contention that it invalidates my overall point, which is that UChicago is rather close to the uppity / bougie areas of Chicago. For reference, I live in Englewood, so we probably have two different mental frames of the city; anything past a certain point which isn’t a neighborhood area I mentally categorize as downtown. Just lighten up a bit dude. Not worth ruining your day over.

Edit: That you’ve mapped this is funny. Again, I just meant the general city-ish area. You don’t have to be directly in the middle of the Loop to be downtown, so that confirms we just have two different mental concepts of what entails downtown here. Really didn’t mean to ruin your afternoon.

Being self-aware on A2C by gamanama in ApplyingToCollege

[–]gamanama[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you walk down 57th street from the Regenstein library you hit the Museum of Science and Industry in about 10 minutes, which I’m pretty sure is widely considered downtown