1 dead, 4 wounded in West Englewood [Chicago] shooting...
A neighbor, who only wanted to be identified by her first name Lisa, said she had just put her daughters to bed when she heard dozens of gunshots. She rushed back to their beds to make sure no bullets had come through the window.
"It's just constant violence over here," she said.
Recently, she was outside barbecuing when someone started shooting. She had to let her food burn because the gunfire wouldn't stop. Last year, four men were shot on the same block while her daughter had a birthday party.
She said there is gunfire day and night, even when officers are posted nearby. "The police, they be on the blocks and they shooting," she said. "We've got idiots with guns."
Lisa said she and her family rarely leave the house. "We can't use these bike lanes," she said, gesturing to lines painted on Marquette Road. "They ought to take this stuff out of here. It's useless."
She said she owns two properties in the city and recently was told she would owe $12,000 in property taxes. "You want me to spend $12,000 and we can't go in the yard?"
She nodded at the crime scene tape stretched across the block. "This is costing me," she said. "I pay taxes. I pay for these schools to be built. I pay for these bodies to be dragged off the block."
Her tenants balk at paying for a place where they feel unsafe, she said.
"They look at me like, 'I'm not (going to) pay my rent. I can't even sit on the front porch,'" she said. "I just got a tenant. They say (they're) scared to go to the mailbox. Three steps out the door! This is embarrassing. As an entrepreneur, this is embarrassing."
She recently saw someone get shot, go to the hospital and then come back to the same block.
"You got out of the hospital and youre walking around again on some bulls---?" she said. "They dont need to die. They want to die. If this is the path you choose, you want to die."
She said she wants to leave the city with her family, but her properties couldn't sell for more than a fraction of their assessed value. "The price of everything goes up and the value goes down."
Life in Chicagoland.
Sorry. Wrong board.