It wouldn’t be summer really if America didn’t get to witness another lavish Martha’s Vineyard vacation by Barack Obama and his posse.
Maybe we should just be thankful that he didn’t first ruin American credit like he did in 2011 before departing for the island off of the Massachusetts’ Horn of Plenty.
Hotel rates in the summertime on the island range from $250 to $2100 per night. That’s more even than good seats at an NFL football game cost.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not against a president going on vacation. But when Americans face one of the worst job prospects in the history of our country, I can think of a few low-key things that a president can do instead of jet setting with the over-privileged, rich white folks at the beach.
For example, he could go vacation at home in Chicago and help the city get a grip on the violence that plagues his hometown.
In Obama’s own neighborhood of Hyde Park for example, from the period of June 27th to July 27th, the Chicago Tribune says that 0.6 violent crimes were reported per 1,000 residents. That comes out to about 720 violent crimes per 100,000 resident per year. That’s about twice the national average according to statistics provided by the FBI.
In 2011, the FBI reported that there were 386 violent crimes reported per 100,000 for the nation as a whole.
But the Hyde Park violence is nothing compared to the crimes that the most violent Chicago neighborhoods produce.
The Chicago Tribune keeps an online database of crimes, including murders, and according to that record, the two most violent Chicago neighborhoods are the Englewood and Washington Park neighborhoods near to Obama’s Hyde Park address. Each produced 3.7 violent crimes per 1,000 residents for the June 27th to July 27th period.
That would work out to an astonishing 4,440 violent crimes per year per 100,000 residents, or nearly 12 times that national average.
Fortunately some of that mayhem can just be put down to the dog days of summer. The Englewood neighborhood for example has only had about 926 violent crimes in the last 365 days or just 2.4 times the national average.
And it’s not just robbery and assault that’s common.
A ring of neighborhoods surrounding Obama’s famous southside digs provides some of the highest murder rates in the country.
While Hyde Park has seen only 2 homicides this year, Englewood has produced 15 so far in 2013 after posting 16 for all of 2012. The nearby South Shore neighborhood also has 16 homicides in 2013 after 19 in 2012. Grand Boulevard just west and north of Obama’s Hyde Park manse has turned in 5 murders so far this year and 9 in 2012. Two bright spots are Washington Park and Woodland where a combined 33 murders in 2012 have been reduced to 2, both in Woodland.
That the city has been able to reduce homicides in those areas has gone a long way to helping the city reduce the murder number 11.6 percent below the ten-year average for this time of the year. The city is on pace to post about 444 murders in 2013 versus 507 in 2012.
Sure, a president can’t do much about murder rates in cities. But he could have done something while he was there. He got a promotion, while the city was left behind to die from blight.
Just call the City of Chicago another one of the “known associates,” like Rod Blagojevich, Antoin Rezko and Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who ultimately got burned by their association with Obama, who has conveniently forgotten the many places from which he came.
The Tribune keeps statistics on the blight created by liberals like Obama, including a roll of the dead, right here.
And while much of the media gets stories wrong, the Tribune can be commended for their admirable work shining a spotlight on the Great Blight of murder that is Chicago.
In headlines that read like Bulldog Drummond novels, the Trib keeps the heat on politicians who have failed the most vulnerable neighborhoods:
Man, 44, shot on Near West Side, 4 others wounded across city- July 11th
8 shot in four hours overnight across Chicago- August 9th
1 dead, 10 wounded in South and West side shootings- July 6th
But unfortunately this story doesn’t turn out with someone charging in last minute to save the day.
Instead, “someone” did what liberal politicians love to do to escape the dog days of summer: He made a pilgrimage to Martha’s Vineyard, to drink some wine, catch some rays and eat some cheese.
It’s a pilgrimage the 507 Chicagoans who were murdered last year won’t ever get to make, even had they lived.