More on a series of the polar perspectives about Hyde Park.
Michael Kremer points out to an interested party:
Re safety: Again, it all depends on where you're coming from. It's the city. Bad things happen. Bad things have happened to people I know. But it's not a really really scary place, unless all US cities are scary to you.
The last bit is ironic, considering the answer is
in response to a question about whether a car is necessary in Hyde Park. In response, "Sam" points out:
-you may get mugged, but they won't hurt you. don't carry a lot of cash.
Anyway, where I live (and ditto for 55th and Dorchester) having a car is not going to prevent you from having to walk in Hyde Park at night, since at night you often will end up parking three blocks away from home.
If you want a sense of the frequency of crime in Hyde Park, go to https://listhost.uchicago.edu/pipermail/safety-awareness/ and look through the monthly threads for "safety awareness alerts". But just remember there are something like 50,000 people in Hyde Park/Kenwood and also note that most of the crime happens outside the area you're likely to frequent most of the time.
I suspect the crime you're most likely to be a victim of while in Hyde Park is actually: motor vehicle theft.