Fire and the City

So the other night while watching the Blackhawks play against the yucky St. Louis Blues we heard some sirens.  Not a big deal, we live in Chicago...there are always sirens.  And we live by the Illinois Medical District which is the largest urban hospital district in the US. But then we heard more and more and then felt the rumble of large fire trucks racing by our house going the wrong way. I decided to go outside and check it out.  The next block down had a building fire on our side.  Lots of our neighbors were outside checking on the commotion.

One of my neighbors who lives 3 houses down started talking with me....and that's when I started to realize how my life and way of thinking has changed so much in the past 3 or so years of living in the city. As we watched the chaos down the block we discussed the neighborhood.  Sounds normal enough right?  But we discussed the drug dealers, people who got arrested and when, the couple that always fights and yells and get the police called, the a-hole across from us who thinks he owns the street in front of his house, what houses are known for trouble, the houses that had "white" people recently move in, the house between us who put up security cameras, her hearing lots of gun fire the other night and calling the police, the neighbor down from her who had some stranger walk into the condo ready to steal what he could and not knowing the people were still there, the gang members recently arrested and deported back to whatever country they came from and other stories of drugs, crime and violence.  We recounted stories that to outsiders would be horrifying but were humorous to us now that they were in the past.  The part that hit me after our conversation was that it's all normal to me know.  Paul & I go to the monthly police meetings to find out all the bad things that go down in our hood. Hearing people yelling at each other isn't something that even makes me react unless it's going on for a long time.  Otherwise I just call the police and it's out of my mind.  I occasionally see drug deals but normally they are directed from our area to other location for the actual drop off so I don't even react to that any more, unless it's really apparent or they are blocking the street then I just call the police.

Now that I've scared all of our friends & family....which I honestly don't mean to do...it's just more an observation of life in the city.  I love Chicago and I almost always feel safe (probably a false sense at times) and we are careful and keep a watchful eye.  It's just funny how one's perception of things can change so drastically in such a short amount of time.  I never would have imagined 10 years ago that I'd be able to adapt and accept the urban landscape that I live in today.