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Chicago has the most lead pipes in the nation

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102 points Brajeshwar | 7 comments | 31 Aug 25 01:27 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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SilverElfin ◴[31 Aug 25 02:08 UTC] No.45079701[source]▶
I wonder what the accuracy of the data is like. And what do you do about damaged pipes? I read that cities lose a lot of water to leaks. Doesn’t that also mean pollutants can get in? And it won’t matter if your pipe is lead or whatever else.

An aside: lead exposure is thought to lead to increase violence. I wonder if Chicago having the most lead pipes is also a contributing cause of their (reputed) crime problem.

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hedora ◴[03 Sep 25 02:56 UTC] No.45111828[source]▶
Crime’s down in Chicago. 2024 saw a ~6-7% drop:

https://www.chicagopolice.org/wp-content/uploads/2024-CPD-An...

There are pages of tables comparing 2023 and 2024 on page 108. Sadly, they don’t go back multiple years.

Page 112 says there were 9112 aggravated assaults in 2024.

Page 10 of the 2004 report says there were 18,731 that year.

I’m sure you can find someone that’s graphed the trends online. Maybe an LLM can do it. Anyway, there isn’t a violent crime crisis in Chicago.

Reports going back to the 1990’s: https://www.chicagopolice.org/statistics-data/statistical-re...

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blindriver[dead post] ◴[03 Sep 25 03:26 UTC] No.45111980[source]▶
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1. tdb7893 ◴[03 Sep 25 03:40 UTC] No.45112050[source]▶
Crime is down just based on the actual numbers (also anecdotally from someone who has spent the majority of their life in/around the city) and for most people the city is pretty safe right now. While there is violence this sort of pearl clutching historically hurts those exact communities you're talking about (and also is not how the people I've met from those communities described their experiences anyway).
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2. blindriver ◴[03 Sep 25 04:33 UTC] No.45112271[source]▶
Crime is only down because you're comparing against the pandemic highs. If you look at the long term trends, it's still up and to the right compared to 10 years ago and previous to that. The fact you are okay with this disgusting level of violence in minority communities is really something else.
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3. kittoes ◴[03 Sep 25 04:46 UTC] No.45112331[source]▶
This just isn't true... none of the available data backs up these claims. Go back 10, 20, even 30 years and the trend has only lowered. Crime peaked in the early nineties and even the COVID spike didn't come close to that peak. If you're going to make such outlandish claims, then you'd better have something other than feels backing you.
4. tdb7893 ◴[03 Sep 25 06:01 UTC] No.45112663[source]▶
"disgusting level of violence in minority communities" -> this is so clearly an insulting way to refer to these communities it boggles the mind that someone would say it while accusing someone else of not being concerned enough. These communities have people I like and care about so I do care about these communities, which is exactly why I am careful about what I say and don't compare them to warzones or tell them about what violence is like in their communities (it reeks of the same condescension towards these communities that I grew up with in the suburbs).

If you're in these communities in Chicago then I'm sorry but judging from your general ignorance of Chicago it seems pretty clear that you are not.

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5. queenkjuul ◴[03 Sep 25 09:35 UTC] No.45113852[source]▶
You're either grossly misinformed or deliberately lying. Crime peaked in the 90s and has not returned to those levels at any point.

Even during the pandemic peaks i never felt unsafe in the city.

6. blindriver ◴[04 Sep 25 00:18 UTC] No.45121912{3}[source]▶
It is pure racism to not stop the violence in the Black and Brown communities in Chicago. They are suffering a debilitated life living under the threat of constant violence and you are perpetuating it for some reason that I don't understand.
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7. kittoes ◴[04 Sep 25 00:40 UTC] No.45122072{4}[source]▶
Cut the crap, 'cause you don't actually care. It's blatantly obvious that you're either pulling off a weak troll or are willfully ignorant.