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Yes. Some things are over exaggerated sure, but it is definitely as bad as it is shown. Hell it's cleaner in the show that's for sure.
Source: husband and his family from the south side, we visit often.
Could you please describe more what it looks like in there, what kind of people live there, does it feel unsafe on the streets and such.
Ah I mean it looks like it does on the show, x10 trash lying everywhere. Roads, sidewalks, parking lots, litter is everywhere. And there's more homeless, you see their tents hiked all in a row like their own neighborhood because they get chased off anywhere else. I mean the show gets it right. But the people are just that, people. There's ones you can tell are untrustworthy and some you can't. And some are out there wildin' while some are just trying to make ends meet. I will say crime is rampant. The first time I went to visit with our newborn was when I truly felt scared. Granted we've had attempted carjackings before. But I held onto that carrier like the devil was walking behind me. I'm from a small town in the south so that's all an outsiders perspective.
My husband would just shrug and say, it's the south side.
It’s not New York. It’s not that dirty here 🙄
Lol yes it is. But okay 👍
Do you still live in Chicago? I've lived in MANY major cities around the world, and as far as cities go, Chicago is the trashiest I've lived in by FAR. 😮💨
It's disgusting. It's a world-class city, but as far as cities go, none of that supposed Chicago pride seems to ever go to doing something as free and simple as keeping it clean.
When driving through most neighborhoods, you ignore stop signs. Do not stop
Visiting the real house in North Lawndale a few weeks ago, this. Stops are yields, doors are locked. I even saw the cops doing it.
It’s not a place u want to be lol but if u from Chicago it’s just the norm you know what to do and what not to do and you definitely watch your back especially if u ain’t with ppl u get robbed or anything
I mean if u not from here u shouldn’t be here cause your not familiar with the areas and the ppl it’s different from other places the show got some stuff right it’s a lot of gang violence,killings etc some of the stuff in the show is inaccurate but it got some stuff right it’s just how it is here the race demographic in the show is wayyyy off in my neighborhood its 95% black ppl
I suppose I didn't think to mention a racial difference? Idk my husband and I are interracial it's not something I thought to mention I guess. But yes, like it's been stated many times, crime rates are high and the areas are dangerous. And yeah, the show did not put a lot of emphasis on the gang violence.
Yea cause mainly shootings here are gang related just how it is
This really makes the difference, going to any city, in the locals area or tourists is dangerous because you don't know what to avoid, what streets to avoid, what to look for etc. I might walk through Atlantic City/Philly like it isn't a danger zone but that's because I know where to walk 🤷♂️
Exactly 🎯 especially in Chicago you gotta be careful the show make it look goofy especially knowing the show is set in back of the yards I don’t even live far from that neighborhood not to many white ppl stay there it’s some but not a lot it’s a lot of Hispanics in that neighborhood from what I remember
Yeah that never made much sense to me, you'd think the South Side was the whitest part of Chicago going by the show.
Absolutely not 🤣 literally barely any white ppl that’s why it was hard for me to even watch this show and take it serious especially in my neighborhood still a good show but it ain’t how it is on the south side only black ppl,Latinos etc and the fact that show is set in the yards and they barely got any Latinos in the show is crazy to me but it’s a fictional show
it’s the hood lmao
South side is huge and each neighborhood within it differs.
Does anybody in your husband's family ever dream of cleaning up the neighborhood?
I mean I know my husband has. I'm sure most of the people living there wish it were cleaner, safer, and overall better. That's why local politics are important. However I think that's a whole other set of issues you get into, gerrymandering, uneducated masses, and shit like that.
Imagine gangster Carl phase, but with exponentially more black people and gunfire.
The show makes the south side seem light Lmaoo. Most of south side right now is just the slums.
Yea it is stay on the south side of Chicago been here my whole life same with my family but that’s just the norm. I live in Auburn Gresham/Englewood just so u get the picture of the neighborhoods I’m from. It’s just how it is here the show make it seem like a joke or something lol a family like the Gallaghers or the Milkoviches would not be running the streets like how they do in the show it’s not even a lot of white ppl on the south side like how it is in the show and this is just me putting it lightly of how it is.🤷🏽♀️still a good show but it’s nothing how it actually is in Chicago
Isn’t it crazy how the show completely ignores IRL racial demographics?
You’d think Chicago was Seattle or something based on the show lmfaoo
I know this is from a year ago so I may not get a response, if not I will just post in the page itself. Are there bad areas of Chicago that are racially similar to the show? Where it's mostly white ppl? My ex is from Chicago and I've visited a few times and purposefully went to the bad parts of town to see what it was all about. No one really paid me any mind shockingly.
Worse honestly. They call Chicago Chiraq lol
Chi-lujah has a better ring to it
There's a subreddit I joined called "Chiraqology" and it's just a bunch of hood dudes talking about hood lore 😂
Yes and its getting worse and worse
Where are you from? Do you live in the states? Go to your nearest city. Go to the shit part of the city between midnight and 4 in the morning.
Boom. It’s like your in shameless.
Lol, I’m from Finland and there isn’t cities like in the States, barely any homeless people, guns or anything like that. This is why I’m so curious and unaware about the things I see in Shameless. There’s of course criminals, drug dealers and bad neighborhoods, but I’ve never been scared for my life anywhere in Finland. I mean, in my home town you can leave your car unlocked at night or outside a grocery store and it’s still there when you come back. Also you can put your baby outside the house for a nap and nobody’s going to kidnap them. It is so different and safe here.
Ok I guess I’m moving to Finland then
I must warn you that living here is expensive, but on the other hand you get free education, free healthcare, all kinds of social benefits (for unemployment, living expenses, medical expenses) and many other perks. Also the climate is a mf but otherwise, why not 😃
If I can live in a place where my children won’t have to live in fear. I don’t mind it being more expensive.
is it boring though. also you have little sunlight
you can visit itäkeskus and kontula during the weekend and check it out, gets pretty close
A fellow Finn? Yeah, I must admit I’m not familiar with the notorious districts of Helsinki but I’ve heard they’re pretty bad.
yeah they can definitely get pretty ugly sometimes. its true though, finland is generally a safe country. every country has towns or parts of towns that are known for being worse than average
Baby outside for a nap? Isn't it cold there? (I assume that's not the point you were making, but goodness 😳)
It’s not cold year around and our summers have been quite hot lately. Hasn’t been that cold even this winter, and yes, we put warm clothes on them and tuck them in the baby carriage and they sleep really well. Of course we check on them every 10-15 minutes to make sure that they’re ok.
I actually have a question for you as someone who’s from Finland 🙋🏼♀️
whenever I watch skandinavian tv shows like SKAM (norway) or Young Royals (sweden) I noticed that hard alcohol is always something that seems to either be hard to get and that whenever the characters are at a party they’re often only drinking beer or beer- mixed type of drinks but never Vodka or Tequila etc and whenever people are having harder alcohol it’s always „kind of a big deal“
why is that? Is it because the legal drinking age is super high or (since you said in Finland at least) because it’s very expensive to live there? So harder alcohol or alcoholic beverages are simply just super expensive in general? Or is there a law that bans hard alcohol in some way? Or is hard alcohol simply not sold everywhere and therefore harder to get?🤔
I’m from Germany btw and here the legal drinking age for hard alcohol like Vodka, Tequila, Whiskey, Scotch etc is 18 for beer, "champagne“ and wine it’s actually 16 and when you’re under supervision of a legal guardian even 14 I believe. It of course always depends but it’s also not that expensive. For a cheaper bottle of vodka you pay about 7-9 euros maybe and you can buy hard alcohol in every regular supermarket and gas station.
I don’t know maybe it’s way different for Finland as well but maybe you have an answer 😊
Interesting questions 😃 The legal drinking age for hard alcohol in Finland is 20 and for wine, beer and other mild drinks 18. I don’t drink hard alcohol myself, but only because I don’t like the taste. I think the prices for vodka, tequila etc is between 20-50 euros, depending on the label and bottle size. For the smaller bottles (0,5 l) the price is much lower, like 10-15 euros, but I’m not sure. I’m a red wine drinker myself and it’s quite pricey as well, easily 10-20 euros per bottle for a decent wine. Box prices are 20-40 euros. You can’t buy wine or hard alcohol in a grocery store, but only from Alko, which is a government owned monopoly.
I think it’s just a cultural thing in the northern countries to rather drink beer, cider or wine. I’ve never thought about it before, to be honest 🤔 The laws about drinking aren’t very strict, because it’s not against the law to drink and be drunk in public and you don’t have to hide your bottle in a paper bag like in the States for example. You can’t buy alcohol after 9 PM (unless you’re in a bar or a night club) and that sucks sometimes. Edit. Don’t get me wrong, surely there are people in Norway, Sweden and Finland who drink hard alcohol but maybe it’s just that on tv shows they’ve decided not to use it.
I hope this answers your questions 🙂
oh wow yess that really helped! Definitely very interesting!! Thank you so much 😊
Never heard people have that impression of Scandinavia before. People drank vodka often at parties when I was a teenager. Usually there's beer, wine and drinks mixed with hard liquor (rhum, gin, tequila, vodka) or straight up shots. By the time we're out of high school most of the heavy drinking is over lol. Maybe that's a little harder to pick up on in shows cause it's just props really, don't think they put too much thought into what kind of alcohol it is. And the drinkning age here in Sweden is 18 in bars (20 to buy it yourself at the store)
Hello 😊 lately I am considering that someday I would like to move to Finland. I have researched a lot of stuff on the internet, but I still have some questions, if you don't mind.
is it one of the countries where stores get closed early or do you have some stores open 24/7?
are the distances between cities very very big? Do you have remote areas between them or just smaller cities?
is it expensive to own a car and absolutely necesarry?
do people generally respect the quiet hours?
about the winter, when exactly does the sun set abd when does it rise? Same question regarding summer
lowest and highest temperature?
is it hard to get super fresh and tastu vegetables and fruits? Or are they super expensive or periods of the year when you can't get them or they are nastier?
-Big supermarkets in bigger cities are open 24/7 and smaller shops everwhere close between 9-11 PM.
-Distances vary where in Finland you are, but usually it’s only 1-2 hour drive from one town/city to another.
-Owning a car is necessary if you live in a remote area, but in cities like Helsinki, Tampere, Turku and in smaller towns you can manage without a car. A new car is more expensive to own than an older one (taxes, maintanance and so on).
-People tend to respect the quiet hours, but of course there are some who don’t.
-On winter time sun rises at around 9 AM and sets around 3-4 PM. On summer time sun doesn’t set at all so it’s daylight even in the middle of the night.
-Lowest temperature can be -25-30 Celsius and highest around +30 Celsius. Usually on winter it’s -15-20 C and on summer time +16- +22 C.
-Fruits and veggies are affordable and fresh IMO. On winter they can be more expensive, especially fruit because everything is imported.
Thank you SO much for the detailed response! I really appreciate it. You are so lucky to live in Finland, I think it's just a great life there.
More than anything, the low crime rate and the school system is what attracts me. My country and city are getting more and more weird, at least, I don't feel safe on the streets anymore and the school system is lowering the standards, especially since covid.
There’s not really an easy answer to this question. It’s a show so it’s sensationalized. The southside is a fairly big area of Chicago; it’s officially 42 communities which some are broken into even smaller sub areas. The show makes it seem like a monolith with its whole “south side pride” theme, which isn’t true. The short answer to this question is that really depends on what part of town you’re in. Yes there is poverty, gang violence, drug dealing, slums, pollution, houseless people etc. But great people also live in these areas. Those people are typically victims of their circumstances. You can find neighborhoods on the north and west side with unsavory characteristics as well. Chicago is sadly an extremely segregated city, and areas of the south side are under funded, under represented, and have a higher concentration of POC residents and impoverished residents as that’s how the city was built.
The one thing this show gets wrong that constantly irks me is it vastly underrepresents the people of color that live in the yards. I always just assume they’re portraying Canaryville, which would make more sense as more impoverished working class white people live in that area. Back of the yards & Canaryville make up the official New City community. Chicago does have a big Irish community, and south side Irish pride is a real thing.
Not all areas on the southside are impoverished though. Where Lip goes to university is located in Hyde Park, which is very close to the yards. Hyde park is considered a nice neighborhood, but it’s on the south side of Chicago. So no not the entire southside is a bad place, but yes there are areas all over Chicago that are less desirable than others. The southside does have bad neighborhoods in it, but then again so does every other major city in the USA.
Oh yeah, stay out of certain parts of the southside if you aint from there, in particular, the yards, which are indeed pretty dangerous. Even though they didn't really film there, they filmed in up North lawndale. Which isn't really too far from the yards, bout a few miles.
Yes but not in fucking yards. More like east Garfield park and stuff. Some stuff is over exaggerated fs but pretty accurate
It is a good picture of People Giving Up.
A whole block of people got murdered because they decided to clean up a crackhouse.
Say what now?
The police were not allowed to interfere and there you go; The new people moved in the area, but then created a new crackhouse.
I think the episode where Liam is coming back from the sleepover at his rich friend’s house and as the approach his house there’s just chaos all around them perfectly shows a typical day in the south side.
Yes
It’s the meanest part of town.
Look out for the man they call Leroy Brown the baddest man in town
You mean chiraq? Yeah it's bad
I grew up in the south it’s not all that bad, only bad thing is that my grandparents nearly got shot because of something my nana’s foster kid did, one of her boyfriends (and yes she has multiple boyfriends) came and they went far from the house without telling us (well she told me didn’t think she would just leave without notifying the adults) then my nana got worried and since it’s her jog as a foster parent she called the father which the father went by and destroyed the kid’s car, there was 2 girls I’m assuming the mother and possibly the sister was at our door not listening to reason and acting like my grandparents called the father and told him to do that damn near got shot then like 5 people came out of no where outside all holding guns going in the car since the situation cleared out
I’m from aus and have always wondered this too
Yes and No, I have lived here my entire life. Don't listen to these sensationalizations and pearl clutching ppl. Out west is probably worse
Where do you live that you’re considering the south side lol
I can be damn sure it’s nowhere near Englewood or O Block hahah
This is what I am talking about. Are the only two blocks you know lol? Because of sensationalized media and pop culture, ppl think south Chicago is all the "O BlOcK". I'm from south shore
My family grew up in Garfield ridge. Mom off of California and pops off of central. We ran Frankie and Johnny’s on central before my Grandpa died. We say we’re “south siders” but realistically it’s Southwest.
People live in Cicero and Berwyn and say they’re “south side” which is what I’m saying. There’s little chance you live directly south or around the bend.
Yo I've lived all over the state. I was rescued into dcfs from Humboldt Park on Westside when young, and yea it's a mess of violence and everything the Southside has to offer. Just different gangsigns to flash is all. Different trash stuck in the fence and a different broken rainbow of colors reflecting off the broken glass, all over the streets and yards that is always cutting up the kids feet when they Tryna play outside. Hmm.. and Waaay south it's just meth and sand and chew tobacco, and then everything surrounding the big city is, first, is drugs; violence; sex slaves; pimps; and partiers; of the lower dirtier class, kept more on a quiet side and a "I'll pay a cop not to travel this blocks typa side... then u get into the big big city, and just find the same thing but a more "classier" type, the eye candy type that the devil makes look all so innocent until its....NOT!.
The dog stealing shit was definitely true. Happened with our dog as a kid, we luckily got her back.
Not from a south side but related closely in lower income rural areas... lower income areas are known to be rougher, it's a hard life.
g
OMG yes, it romanticizes poverty and problematic behavior to the max. However, I think most people would agree with this fact and so it's hard to argue it has any negative implications in real life. I could be wrong but I think most know it's done for entertainment value
It is much dirtier, more depressing, sad, trashier. You will see prostitutes on some sides of the city, and on the blocks the gangsters all dressed alike dealing car to car like a drive through, paid off cops. Tents under bridges where homeless will all stay, some fight over shopping carts, you will see in the dead of winter a mom and her baby carriage outside in below zero weather. The sun goes down the trouble comes out. Don't wear a hat even in your car if you kno what's good. If you at a stop light make sure you got an easy right turn if u need in case of a car jack attempt. Now this is all between the south loop and the wild hundreds. And further to Chicago heights to then reaching Hammond and Gary indiana even. If you take the highways to the big m city and like the north you'll be pretty well off. Stay out of the west side and south side tho. This is coming from someone who legit lost her freedom as a person, just one block away from my very house I grew up in. Everyone thought it was the safest city and suburb. Nope it was apart of a bigger ring. Do not trust the eyes. Most deceiving part the good lord every gave u. You got instincts and a gut response and other good humans who are here out of pure miracles to warn you of the trials and tribulations they had to see and go through, so that you may not have to see those frightful things EVER! be safe. Much love. Praying for our fallen world.
Education goes a long way and it is definitely lacking here. Almost daily, I deal with wreck-less drivers blowing red lights and/or cutting other drivers off while driving 20+ over the speed limit. Lack of police presence in certain neighborhoods is to blame for a lot of this (unless you live in Mt. Greenwood). There is trash everywhere. People think it’s ok to litter on the streets from their cars. Honestly, I believe a lot of people in the Southside have an ego bigger than the people themselves. Shooting rounds into the sky during holidays such as Independence Day & NYE is considered normal. Alderman/women, schools, streets, safety, education, & people suck. But you get what you pay for. Southside gets a bad rap that is mostly deserved. The city may have failed you but you continue to fail yourselves and the city. Do better. (CCL recommended)
It’s so bad we got rappers like G Herbo popularizing a term called “over east” cause he don’t wanna identify with the south side.