If Elmwood Park is out of the street rackets, then who is running the books, shylock, pokers machines etc on the northside? Is Cicero running all the street rackets across Chicagoland, even on the northside? If so, are they kicking anything up to Elmwood?
I don't know the answer to your question but I will say one thing about the north side of Chicago.
Demographically it might look similar to how it used to--mostly white. However, a lot of those neighborhoods, particularly along the lake, used to really be middle class family neighborhoods, and that is not nearly as much the case anymore. There are still a fair amount of families in those areas but hell, a house in Andersonville, Ravenswood or Lincoln Square is gonna run you a huge amount of money these days, so these neighborhoods tend to be filled with a lot of wealthy people or transplant renters. In either case they aren't really the kind of people who are gonna be taking out a juice loan.
The northwest side aka the Bungalow Belt is probably still more conducive to that kind of thing, but even in its heyday you don't hear a ton of mob stories from way up there.
Not that he is a particularly reliable source of information, but in his last interview Harry Aleman (I'm paraphrasing) said "It's over. Who's taking bets? If anyone maybe a few old Jews on the north side."
Like I said, obviously he is not a paragon of honesty, but I still find the comment interesting.
