Lake View Wears Chicago's Binge Drinking Crown, Has Shot at National Title

CHICAGO, IL — Way to go, residents of Chicago's Lake View neighborhood. You've earned the dubious distinction of having some of the highest binge drinking rates in the city and the entire United States, according to recently released data by the Centers for Disease Control. Given those findings, that's probably reason enough for those residents to knock back a few, either to celebrate such an achievement or to self-medicate at the realization of what accomplishing that feat actually means.

The results are part of the health agency's 500 Cities project, which breaks down the country's biggest municipalities into smaller areas to examine census data concerning the health, habits and other behaviors of residents. One of the categories examined was the frequency residents engaged in binge drinking alcohol, an activity the CDC defines in the following way:

• five or more drinks for men at single occasion.
• four or more drinks for women in the same instance.

When it came to binge drinking stats from 2014 — the most recent year data was available, which means the results can't be blamed on excessive partying from the Cubs' World Series victory in November — 34.1 percent of Lake View residents admitted to binge drinking in the past month, according to the Chicago Tribune. That percentage was the highest rate for a Chicago neighborhood, and it ranked 20th overall in the country, the report added. In fact, large areas of the neighborhood were in the the top 1 percent for binge drinking nationally, according to Chicago public radio station WBEZ-FM (91.5).

Lake View's showing in the binge drinking category is hardly shocking to anyone with even a passing familiarity with Chicago and its neighborhoods. The area is home to Wrigley Field, and it's known for its variety of bars, clubs, saloons, watering holes, taverns, night spots, gin joints, booze mills, rummy huts, taprooms, lounges, pubs, dives, grog shops and all-purpose drinkeries.

But Lake View isn't the only Chicago neighborhood that might need an intervention. The South Loop and Bucktown-Wicker Park areas also had 31 percent or more of their residents binge drinking over a 30-day period, according to CBS Chicago. Overall, the city racked up 13 census tracts that had binge drinking rates in the nation's top 50, the Tribune reports.

The newspaper also points out that Chicago's binge drinking breaks along geographic lines. CDC data shows 24.4 percent of residents in neighborhoods north of I-290 and near Lake Michigan fitting the agency's binge drinking profile, according to the Tribune. In areas south of the interstate, the rate is about 12.7 percent or fewer, the report added.

While these statistics can provide a chance for cheap and lazy jokes that play off a neighborhood's reputation, binge drinking does come at a price for the individual and the community he or she lives in. The CDC reports that binge drinking made up nearly 75 percent of the $223.5 billion cost of U.S. residents' excessive drinking in 2006, according to WBEZ. It also contributed to 1 in 10 deaths for adults, the report added.

And binge drinking is especially rampant in Illinois, where 20 percent of the state's adults reported engaging in it in 2014, WBEZ reports. Thatt's compared to 16 percent of adults in the rest of the country, the report added.

Go to the 500 Cities project on the CDC's website for a look at all of the data.

More via the Chicago Tribune and WBEZ-FM (91.5)

photo via Pixabay

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