Violent Street Crime Hits Suburban Skokie: Section 8 Housing Blamed

North suburban Skokie has been called a lot of things over the years. Folk music great and onetime childhood resident, Steve Goodman called it "tacky and uptight." Syndicated columnist Sidney Harris described the Dempster street corridor as " the ugliest commercial strip in America."

But it has never been called a violent place -- until recently.

 Over an 8 day period in late April, 2 Skokie residents were violently assaulted and robbed on the streets there.

 And more than a few residents of that ultra-liberal enclave have begun to question the wisdom of the suburb's new found diversity and the profusion of new Section 8 low-income tenants there.

 Both attacks occurred in the general vicinity of a bloc of multi unit dwellings in an area between Oakton and Main Streets, just East of Skokie Boulevard. The two-flats and semi-detached duplexes there were cheaply thrown up in the early 60s. They were a bit tawdry at the time and more so today.

Over recent decades, some cheap-buck-artist landlords began buying them up. More than of few of these squires were more than happy to accept the quick cash offered by the federal goverment's low-income Section 8 vouchers. As a result, the standards for Skokie residence have, you might say, lowered a bit.

More than a few of these New Skokians were, until recently denizens of the now bulldozed Chicago public housing projects. One of them, a certain, Stanton Demaret, was indicted for mob action and assault in the August 2011 Chicago flash mob attacks.

 The persons sought for the recent Skokie street attacks have been identified as "black men in their 20s."

\ In the April 20th attack, a middle aged woman was slashed with an ice pick and robbed of $500 outside the 7-11 at Main and Skokie Blvd. In the April 28th attack, a 54 year old man was beaten senseless by 2 suspects, his jaw and teeth broken and robbed of $250 on nearby Louise St.

 The liberal-left Skokie voters were always big on big-government social action and "diversity." Now they don't know quite what to make of their new violent crime reality.

 Some have been questioning the wisdom of living in the midst of so much Section 8 housing. How uncomfortable that must be for Jan Schakowsky and Barack Obama liberals.

 Several years back, the Skokie Village government issued an automobile sticker with the uplifting slogan, "Celebrating our Diversity." One wonders who's really celebrating now.