Raised rural Wisconsin, now live on the West Side of Chicago. Basically echoing what everybody else is saying. Gunshots are pretty common. They aren't even alarming anymore except when they start coming in controlled bursts. That always unnerved me for some reason. Not going to say nothing bad will ever happen to you if you keep your head down, but chances are still relatively slim if you keep to yourself and act respectful if you do have to talk to people. Accidental eye contact happens sometimes, so try to just downwards nod, say "hey", "mornin", etc. Usually if you do get approached it's people begging, random weirdos approaching you, or getting checked by gang bangers. Haven't had the latter happen yet, but I'm a bald white guy who wears almost exclusively black jeans and boots, so I feel it's only a matter of time until i get accused of being a skinhead. Other than that, public transport doesn't run here near often as it should and it's hard to get fresh food. The taquerias are fire tho.