Tribune Article on Uptown Violence

"It was the first thing a customer said to me this morning," he said. "Sure, things are still rough on some streets around here. But compared to a few years ago, things are 100 percent better. But I think with [the shootings] happening so close together, it's making people very nervous."

The shootings have rocked a neighborhood struggling to find middle ground as higher-income residents move in and less affluent people try not to get pushed out. Although many residents agree Uptown's streets are generally safer now that Starbucks and Borders have taken root in a neighborhood once synonymous with transient hotels, homeless shelters and subsidized housing, others aren't as convinced.

"Quite frankly, I'm not surprised at all," said Katharine Boyda of the Graceland Wilson Neighbors Association. "This has been brewing for months."

As neighborhoods across Chicago change and poorer residents are priced out of homes and apartments, they come to Uptown, lately bringing gangs and drug dealers with them, Boyda said.

"This isn't random violence," she said. "It's retaliation. It's fighting for territory, and we've got to start recognizing it for what it is."

Police say it's too early to jump to conclusions, and investigations of all three of the shootings are ongoing. In the most recent incident, Mario Bell, 25, was shot and killed on North Hazel Street early Monday morning as he was walking with his girlfriend. Police said an orange taxicab pulled up next to the couple, a man got out and without saying a word to Bell shot him in the head.

The shooter fired at the woman as she fled, but missed, police said. The man got back into the cab and headed south on Lake Shore Drive, where an off-duty officer lost sight of the car near the Field Museum.

The shooting of Bell, who was believed to be staying with a relative in Uptown, came just days after a homeless man was shot while sleeping on a park bench on the same block.

Investigators are searching for two people who approached Phillipi Larrnarri, 32, before at least one of them shot him several times Thursday night.

Another shooting earlier Friday left a man dead. James Lane, 29, was walking in the 4600 block of North Clifton Avenue near Truman College when he was approached by a man who fired four or five shots. Lane was hit in the head, and he died at the scene.

Police say Lane's shooting apparently stemmed from a dispute between him and another person staying at a family housing shelter on the same block. That shooter also fled.

Ald. Helen Shiller (46th), who represents Uptown, said the violence was "unacceptable, and we should be shocked, saddened and abhorred by it," but she said police have told her the incidents seem to be isolated.

Shiller said the area's drop in crime over the last few years draws extra attention to the shootings "because [crime has] become less and less commonplace."

Still, some can't help but be bothered.

"You worry about walking home," said Jay Lacey, who pet-sits for friends on Hazel Street. "You walk a little faster, and always have your keys in one hand and a cell phone in the other."