Comments on: Riding Along

By: A. Joyce

A. Joyce — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 07:22:00 +0000

“Homeland Security has cameras at every intersection in downtown Chicago.”
Dear lord. Really?

By: Bruce

Bruce — Fri, 21 May 2010 21:05:53 +0000

I thought that Cabrini Green had been cleaned up and made into a new type of development. Guess I dreamed that?

Police work sounds like very tedious work because you never know when the next eruption will happen. Then there’s the mountain of routine, boring but necessary paperwork. Takes a special kind of person to be a good officer.

VI is probably glad she isn’t an officer there even though she has enough adventures of her own.

By: CherylK

CherylK — Mon, 03 May 2010 08:20:14 +0000

I know! And the thing that really amazed me was that it was around Christmas and I was going to the Hard Rock Cafe to pick up a couple of gifts and Hard Rock was only a few blocks away. The juxtaposition of poverty and prosperity…I had no idea!

By: paretsky

paretsky — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 01:44:53 +0000

Cheryl, your story sounds like my first time at Cabrini–I was tutoring in an after-school program where the kids came from Cabrini, and I often drove them home, since the guy who was supposed to do it was usually drunk. I shook from the moment we passed Clybourne until the last kid had climbed out. I kept telling myself, “They live here, I can at least drive in and out without shaking,” but I always did.

By: CherylK

CherylK — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 03:37:32 +0000

Oh, that’s just awesome! I have nothing but the utmost respect for most everyone in law enforcement. My son is a probation officer and some of his stories send chills up my spine.

I remember Cabrini Green. We lived in St. Charles and I wanted to go to the Crate & Barrel outlet which was on North Avenue. We hadn’t lived there very long and I was REALLY naive. I looked at the map and thought, “Hey, I can drive there all the way from St. Charles on North Avenue!” So I set off. Well, the closer I got to Chicago the scarier North Avenue became. (Iron gates on all the windows and doors, for example.) At one point I looked to the right and saw the back side of some GIGANTIC letters rising out of the ground. They must have been 30 feet high. I spelled them out (reading backwards, of course) C-A-B-R-I-N-I-… and that’s when it hit me…I was at Cabrini Green. Every day on the news somebody was killed at Cabrini Green or a child fell out a ten story window or some other disaster happened. And there I was. It took my breath away.

Crate & Barrel wasn’t very much further and I made it fine but I’ve never forgotten that trip into Chicago.

Keep us posted on your upcoming rides. Just be very careful.

By: admin

admin — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:15:43 +0000

All but two of the Cabrini high-rises have been torn down, and the one I was in is slated for rehab. A lot of the residents are understandably fiercely protective of the building they’ve called home for decades, so I do feel a bit Yuppish reacting only to smell and bullet holes in doors.
It was a great experience, but, as I sat down to work on a short story yesterday, I realized there was way more that I still didn’t know!

By: bookwitch

bookwitch — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:05:55 +0000

That sounds great, as long as I’m not the one out there with them.

By: Shirley

Shirley — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:15:34 +0000

I thought that Cabrini Green had been cleaned up and made into a new type of development. Guess I dreamed that?

VI is probably glad she isn’t an officer there even though she has enough adventures of her own.

By: the Bag Lady

the Bag Lady — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 04:28:08 +0000

It sounds like you got quite an education! I’m sure that this will be reflected in your upcoming novels, and think it was very generous of Sergeant Wiberg to provide you with this experience.
I’m also glad that it was you and not me experiencing the smell of Cabrini Green…. give me the fresh country air on the ranch any day… well, except during spring thaw…

By: genny from jersey

genny from jersey — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 02:04:19 +0000

Sara, what an incredible experience. Your selection of the hours and the district really gave you a hardcore view of life for the police and the citizens. I’m sure it’s night you’ll never forget.