<p>My child is just finishing her second year at Chicago. She has always lived off-campus – first in a dorm not in the main campus area, and then in an apartment about a mile from the main quad. She is (note the pronoun) a woman. She is also a night-owl, often walking to and from things in the wee hours of the morning (she has done both 4-6am and 2-4am radio shows, for instance). Usually unaccompanied. She also travels frequently, on public transportation, to the Loop, Belmont, and Wicker Park. She has not had any problems at all. </p>
<p>(Which isn’t to say, of course, that she isn’t cautious and watchful. She is.)</p>