shootings rose – A new study finds gun violence rose near Chicago schools that were closed in 2013 and left vacant, while repurposed school buildings did not show a statistically significant increase in shootings.
For years, the buildings sat quiet. And in the neighborhoods around them, gunfire did not.
A new study finds that when Chicago closed 50 schools in 2013 and the former buildings remained vacated. shootings increased in the surrounding areas. Researchers report a 10% increase in gun violence in the areas near those emptied sites. compared with neighborhoods with similar demographics where schools did not close.
The research, released by the University of Chicago and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, also looked at what happened when shuttered schools were repurposed. In those communities, researchers found no statistically significant increase in shootings.
The study lands in a city already grappling with the consequences of school closures and shifting enrollment. It adds fresh fuel to the debate over whether closing schools—rather than keeping them in active community use—delivered the promised outcomes for students and neighborhoods.
It also increases pressure on public officials wrestling with longstanding budget challenges. especially at schools that have lost significant enrollment over the past two decades. For some families and residents. the findings sharpen an old question: if classrooms had to close. what should have filled the space afterward—and why didn’t that happen often enough?.
The timing echoes earlier reporting about broken promises in the years after the 2013 closings. A 2023 investigation found that many closed buildings were not repurposed despite vows by city officials to reuse them as community centers. housing. or other projects. In the years since, only 20 of the former school buildings were back in use. The investigation also found academic outcomes did not improve for students who left the closed schools. and increased funding did not last at the schools that absorbed them.
Put together, the new study and the earlier record of stalled reuse paint a stark picture around the same empty spaces—what happens when a building is gone but a neighborhood still has to live with the vacancy.
Where the buildings were repurposed, researchers did not find the same statistically significant jump in shootings. Where they sat empty, the violence was higher.
Chicago’s school-closure decisions didn’t just redraw maps. They left concrete behind—sometimes inactive, sometimes transformed. This study suggests that difference mattered for public safety, even when the political debate moved on.
Chicago school closures gun violence vacant schools University of Chicago study Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health public safety school repurposing
So they closed schools then shootings went up… shocker. Empty buildings are basically invitations I guess.
I feel like everyone blames the city but also if kids aren’t there, where are the adults? Like what happened to all the supervision? I don’t even know how you let 50 schools just sit there.
Wait so if they repurposed some schools it was fine, but if they stayed empty it got worse. Makes sense but also 10% doesn’t sound like that big? unless they mean 10% of what. Either way Chicago keeps doing budget stuff and acting surprised.
This reminds me of that thing where they said they were turning them into community centers but then nothing ever happened. Like who approved that? And aren’t shootings connected to poverty and gangs too, not just buildings? Still, leaving them vacant sounds like the worst possible plan. If they’d just kept the lights on at least.