Within the last few months, I have noticed a change in the people of Chicago. It seems that, by in large, they have reverted to their Midwestern ways.
One of the things that I have always appreciated about the people in the city of Chicago, and Cook County in general, is that even though over 5 million people live there, they still adhere to a Midwestern sensibility. When I lived here full time, I’m not sure I noticed it, but now that I have become the quintessential outside insider, it has become more noticeable.
Let me give some examples of what I’ve seen through the years. The nineties had some terrible years for the city. At that time, violence was at a high that, to this day, has not been eclipsed, yet, when I walked through my neighborhood searching desperately for my car, people would say hello or good morning. My students at Providence St. Mel were kind and lovely kids. Driving was always tricky in and around the city, but you rarely heard car horns, and people would allow you to merge…at 80 miles an hour.
In the late 90s, I went and got a Ph.D. and left for small-town Pennsylvania. Even though I lived in a small town, I noticed a profound difference. For example, when I would go for a run or walk downtown, people averted their gaze. People wouldn’t even acknowledge your humanity, let alone greet you. I spent almost ten years there, rarely returning to Chicago, so although it bothered me, I got used to it. That’s a lie. I never really got used to it. I am, at heart, a Midwest Chicago kid.
A few years ago, I started returning to Chicago for longer and longer periods, spending up to a third of my year in the greater Chicagoland area. At that point, there was a shift in behavior. People were driving more violently, behaving badly, and generally treating each other poorly. People were growing very concerned with the rise in violence in and around the city. Outsiders poured fuel on the fire and piled on with awful online rhetoric about the city and the people living there. Things seemed to spiral out of control, and the finger pointing ran rampant.
The violence I saw manifested itself in a variety of ways, reaching every segment of society. I think the most fascinating representation of violence came from behind the wheel of the increasing number of cars on the road. It wasn’t just that people were speeding. It was the way they would do it. Chicagoans drive fast as it is, but they started driving with a sense of violent recklessness, weaving in and out of traffic in ways I hadn’t seen before. I saw people drive on sidewalks or go around me at a stoplight just to run it.
Then something happened. When I returned again in the summer of ’22, I noticed another profound shift that the people living here probably didn’t notice. If you are in an environment every day, you don’t always see the little changes, but when someone comes and goes at regular increments, they can see the differences more clearly. I saw changes.
It was noticeable everywhere, even in the driving. Midwestern kindness had broken through the cloud of darkness that fell over the country for a few years. Sure, some individuals didn’t get the memo, but by in large, things were improving. The violence started trending down, even in the face of growing economic uncertainty, which is rare. Strangers were chatting in cafés and bars. People were again nodding or waving as I ran, albeit very slowly, along the lakefront.
On a more serious note, gun violence and homicides were trending down again. Again, they never did reach the heights of pre-gun control 90s, but they were extremely high for a few years. In 2022, however, shootings were down by 17%, and murders were down by 10%. The goal should be zero acts of gun violence in the city, but at least we are trending in the right direction.
I think inertia is an important property of physics that applies to kindness in a city as well. Inertia is the idea that matter will not change speed or direction unless acted upon by other forces. So the increasing kindness in the city of Chicago should continue moving in the right direction, provided that we don’t have a return of the external forces that started its erosion in the first place.
Chicagoans have always had their Chicagoness in common. It really doesn’t matter what people look like or where they are from. Eventually, Chicagoness gets ahold of everyone. Sadly, for a while, we lost our common Chicagoness as external forces tore our communities and even families apart. Fortunately, those external forces have been removed, and we are free to focus on what makes us a Midwest town in the heart of a global city.
Henry James Morello 