My commuter train passes through Gresham. It looks like a war zone. I imagine Beirut probably looks better. I mean it's a complete crap-hole and I shake my head wondering how people can live that way.
A lot depends on how much you include in “neighborhood” - the area centered around Gresham and the area centered around Austin are certainly the worst in the city.
But by traditional neighborhood definitions, Englewood wins out on the South Side, and East Garfield Park on the West Side:
http://www.heyjackass.com/category/2013/
It is amazing how badly the city has deteriorated in just a few decades: I had my first beer drinking with buddies of mine who lived in Gresham, and my sister went to high school in South Shore (#2 on the current deathlist) back when it was a solidly upper-middle-class, mostly Jewish and Irish neighborhood. I was going to say I wouldn’t be caught dead in either today, but actually the only way I would be found these days in either would be dead.
And Rahm has no clue as to how to handle that problem, other than by trying to manage the news and buy off the gangs. The current police commissioner is a putz, the city finances are in a death spiral, and the two big papers (along with the local networks) do everything they can do bury the black-on-white crime incidents that have been spreading from the “bordertown” neighborhoods to fancy enclaves like Upper Michigan Avenue and Streeterville. It’s only a matter of time before a city council with nothing but Democrat members gives us a bigger, more tragic version of Detroit.
I grew up in Oak Park and commuted to St. Ignatius. Austin and Garfield Park haven’t changed an iota since the 60s. My dad had his contractor building on Madison near Kostner. Nothing has changed. Family disintegration on display these 50 years.