Is Garfield Park in Chicago a safe neighborhood?

I was born and raised in East Garfield Park.
Lived the first 30 years of my life there. Before moving far north, in the early 90s.
Also, worked 25 years in the neighborhood as a Chicago police officer
Suffice it to say, I think I know the area well.
In my opinion, the only relatively safe part of that neighborhood is north of Madison Street, and East of California avenue.
Every other section of East Garfield Park, is dangerous and unsafe.

Yes, very safe.

Even the areas East of the Conservatory have been stubborn to change. The location appears to be perfect and there has been some progress but it remains an area in which to exercise extra caution; certainly no place for tourists. I have a building on Fulton a few blocks east of the Conservatory.

The glaring omission here is that the crime stats everyone armchair reads is black on black and specifically concentrated to gang members and other criminal elements.

I’ve personally hosted over 4000 guests on Airbnb and lived here for 7 years and have never had a single issue other then people coming into my home with strong bias and opinion, typically that of which fades when they realize the media hype isn’t the reality.

The reality is that if you’re looking for an affordable stay 20 minutes from downtown and close to transit, this is it. Even ride share is affordable at less then $8.

East of the park isn’t bad, west of the park and especially closer to Austin gets to be abit dodgier, crime stats encompass both areas so they are abit misleading. The park is as good as an expressway or railroad tracks as a dividing line.

Let’s be honest however, unless you are in Garfield Park to join a gang or deal drugs, your odds of being a victim aren’t much greater then in the wealthier areas of Chicago. These days robberies on Michigan Ave and $2M Lincoln Park homes with bullets flying in them is the new norm. Truth be told, I feel much more vulnerable in those areas as I’m the target there for robbery, etc.

Areas get developer interest when they become cheap enough for the math to work. In Garfield Park the math is working for quite a few people, hence the near doubling of property values since the Great Recession. Whether or not it’s overpriced when it’s still cheaper then most other Chicago neighborhoods is a personal question for every buyer and seller. At the end of the day the market (those same buyers and sellers) has told us its undervalued based on actual closIng info from the past decade. This is what banks and real money looks at when buying or investing.

Like any area in Chicago that hasn't fully redeveloped, it's not the neighborhood you need to think about it's the block. Quite literally there are good blocks next to bad blocks, and it's pretty easy to tell them apart after spending some time in the area.

The crime is actually quite overrated, unless you belong to the small minority of gang members or are completely naive to urban living, you'll actually experience far less property crime (car breakins, etc) then the richer neighborhoods to the east and west. Reality is, people just aren't looking for that kind of stuff out here. Truth be told, as the area continues to improve, that will mostly likely change. This same pattern was seen in the south loop.

I've lived here for over five years, and I can honestly say I've never had any real trouble. I'm a middle aged white professional, so the odds of confusing me for a gang member are pretty slim. In talking with some of my neighbors, that's quite honestly the biggest fear and I would say a very real concern for someone considering moving here, especially if they are under 40 and black.

All in all the area I'm in is close knit and feels more like a village then a city. 20 minutes to downtown, affordable homes, and room to breathe, what's not to like?

Garfield Park is being touted as a "hot and up and coming area" by shady realtors who want to inflate housing prices there. It's one of the three most dangerous neighborhoods in Chicago, the most dangerous city in the United States, and a major heroin and crack market.

If gentrification happens at all, it will be 5-10 years from now - i wouldn't believe the hype and buy a home whose price has been artificially inflated in an incredibly violent neighborhood.

Garfield Park is a fairly unsafe neighborhood. There's a fair bit of crime in much of the area and you can't really call it a safe neighborhood.

Not one of the safest neighborhoods in Chicago. It has rather dense areas of high crime, with one or two small sections that are okay. Overall, no it's not very safe.