Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood has changed a lot over the last few years.

For more than two decades, Helen Shiller has served the 46th ward as alderman, but many residents question whether she has been able to keep up with those changes or adequately respond to the demands of her constituency.

Uptown has long been a refuge for the poor and less fortunate. A major port of entry, the neighborhood welcomed new immigrants and continues to be one of the city’s most diverse communities.

Move aside, Bonnie and Clyde. Modern-day desperados could put Chicago on pace for another record year of bank robberies.

Instead of career robbers, people from many walks of life are gravitating to robbery, ranging from drug addicts to employed middle-class individuals, according to Gregory Scott, professor of sociology at DePaul University.

"We're coming to the end of the really well-plotted, well-organized bank robbery that results from long-term strategic planning. Now we're talking about lower-level bank robberies," he said.

In addition, Scott said, the new breed of robbers is more diverse than the old guard.

According to the FBI, 9,010 people were involved in 7,272 bank robberies nationwide in 2006. Black males executed 46 percent of robberies nationwide, white males 36 percent, and women only 6 percent. Of these robbers, the FBI identified 3,584 people; 46 percent were narcotics users and 22 percent were previously convicted for bank robbery, bank burglary, or bank larceny.

Today's robbers are spontaneous and opportunistic, according to a 2007 study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice, which identified three factors contributing to rising robbery rates: more bank outlets and extended hours creating greater opportunities, robbers' perceptions of banks as a lucrative target and because robberies are usually fast, low risk crimes.

After decades of fewer than 100 robberies per year, robberies in the Chicago metropolitan area shot up in the mid-1990s. In 2006, the number of robberies peaked at 284, more than in the entire state of Florida.

The Chicago office of the FBI collects bank robbery data for the five-county area surrounding Chicago - Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will counties. As of March 12, there were 52 bank robberies in the area, on par with numbers for the same 10-week period in 2007. The total robbery tally for 2007 came in at 226, down 26 percent from 2006.

By extrapolating the first several weeks of robbery activity for the remainder of 2008, "we could be on pace for another record year," said Ross Rice, a spokesman in the FBI's Chicago office.

Illinois is not the only state grappling with higher robbery rates. Nationwide, a new era of bank robbery is on the rise - and banks are paying the price.

In 2006, robbers hit 6,985 federally insured financial institutions, stealing a total of $72.7 million, of which law enforcement recovered $11.2 million. Although 90 percent of robberies are a "success," according to the Department of Justice study, nearly 60 percent of robbers are eventually caught.

And robbers face big risks for a typically small reward. For an average take of $2,000 to $3,000 per robbery in the Chicago area, robbers face federal punishment of up to 20 years in prison.

To the non-robber, these risks may be too much, but Scott said some robbers may not even be aware of the how little they'll nab or how long they'll sit in prison if convicted.

"When people reach a point of fiscal desperation, they're often not weighing the costs and benefits," Scott said.

In addition, security measures apparently do little to deter robbers. Of the 7,272 robberies or attempted robberies nationwide in 2006, 98 percent of victim institutions had an alarm system and/or surveillance cameras.

One man accused of robbing seven Indiana banks told a newspaper earlier this month that his only deterrent to robbing banks was security guards. However, fewer than 10 percent of banks robbed in 2006 had a guard on duty.

After two robberies at a North LaSalle Street branch of Builders Bank, president Chas Hall said the bank decided to hire a guard for that location. He said the bank took this additional security measure in part to deter would-be robbers, but mostly to provide peace of mind to the bank's employees.

"We don't want that to happen to our employees again," Hall said.

But if a recession is on the way, could employees like Hall's be subjected to the desperate measures of desperate robbers again? Not necessarily.

There is no direct correlation between crime and unemployment according to Scott, though economic crime rates may move with changes in the economy.

"When things change fast - unemployment suddenly spikes or it suddenly goes down - people are thrown into what sociologists call anomie," Scott said.

Anomie is marked by instability and a lack of societal norms and Scott said individuals are more likely to take greater risks during such periods.

In addition, robbery was on the rise even before the r-word was on everyone's lips. Rather, rising robbery rates may just be a by-product of changes in the banking industry.

Price said the FBI does not interpret robbery data, but said the most commonly touted hypothesis for rising robbery rates is the proliferation of branch banking.

"The theory is that this creates a greater opportunity for people who are so inclined," he said.

This theory sticks with Scott. As financial institutions have become more decentralized, he said, banks have become more accessible to consumers, but at the expense of becoming more accessible to robbers.

"This is a technological innovation that has legitimate pro-social goals, but . the underbelly of greater accessibility is greater vulnerability," Scott said. "Banks are far more susceptible to being robbed and they're easier to rob."

But even as banks continue to expand, they are fighting back, according to Debbie Jemison, spokeswoman for the Illinois Bankers Association.

"Banks are doing everything they can to protect their employees and customers," Jemison said.

She said several security measures thwart would-be robbers, including security guards, bank fraud task force programs, and participation in the association's thumbprint signature program and FRAUD-NET.

The thumbprint signature program requires non-account holders to provide an inkless impression of their thumbprints for certain transactions. Meanwhile, FRAUD-NET is an online collaboration for banks to share information about robberies with other financial institutions and law enforcement agencies.

Within minutes of a robbery, for example, a bank can electronically disperse a physical description and information about the robber's modus operandi to other banks in the network and law enforcement officials.

In addition, many Illinois banks are participating in a program to combat rising robbery rates, the "No Hats, No Hoods, No Sunglasses" program. The bankers association launched the program in 2006--security guards ask people entering the bank to remove hats, hoods or sunglasses-- as an inexpensive way for banks to deter so-called "note job" robberies, in which a person hands a note to a teller demanding money. In 2006, more than half of robbers demanded money using a note.

Beyond the take, there are other costs to robberies, according to Hall, the Builders Bank president.

"The biggest cost [of a robbery] is that is such a traumatic experience for our employees," Hall said.

Hall said the emotional cost far outweighs any financial cost and said banks should be very appreciative of their tellers.

Jemison of the Illinois Bankers Association agrees. "There is definitely a psychological cost," both for employees and customers, she said. If a bank is a robbed, it will often provide a program for affected employees and customers. And the effects of a robbery are felt even after the robber has fled.

Working with the FBI's Violent Crimes Task Force, victim banks provide valuable information to law enforcement to catch serial robbers - people who have committed at least three robberies.

And bankers are always looking for ways to keep robbers at bay, according to Jemison.

"Banks constantly review their procedures to better thwart robberies from occurring," she said.

But Scott, of DePaul, is not optimistic that these efforts are working yet. While he expects robberies to reach a saturation point, he said some security measures - such as surveillance cameras - do not effectively deter criminals.

Rarely a day goes by when owner Bob Koester doesn't hear a foreign accent in his store. Located on Illinois Street between State and Wabash, the Jazz Record Mart "is pretty well-known throughout the world," he said. But even though the store's been a Chicago institution for 50 years, Koester said "a lot of people here don't know about it."

No city except New York has more historical importance to jazz than Chicago. Louis Armstrong forged his legend here, first with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, then when he recorded his legendary records with The Hot Fives and The Hot Sevens. Jelly Roll Morton and Illinois native Miles Davis recorded some of their most celebrated works here. Even today, many acclaimed artists like Kurt Elling and Patricia Barber call the Windy City their home.

But the jazz scene has been changing for quite some time, and lately it's been especially volatile.

For the past decade, the entire recording industry has been reeling from falling sales. Koester's Chicago-based label, Delmark Records, has issued landmark albums like Roscoe Mitchell's "Sound" and Anthony Braxton's "For Alto." Despite being one of the oldest independent labels in business today, however, Delmark lost $28,000 in 2006.

"We had a little party to celebrate," Koester said, "because the year before we lost [$100,000]." He added that some major labels have deleted many albums in recent years in response to poor sales. "We happened to see the sales figures for 2005...An Ella Fitzgerald record sold 100 copies. I was astounded by poor sales of Lester Young product. I felt less down in the dumps by what we're doing."

Bobby Broom, guitarist with the Deep Blue Organ Trio, said, "When I was a kid, I'd listen to the radio…and that would inform me about what I was going to buy." Jazz is scarce on the airwaves these days, and just last year Chicago Public Radio abandoned its weekday jazz programming. Many in the business say the lack of radio support is contributing to declining record sales.

More troubling has been the loss of local performance venues. The Deep Blue Organ Trio plays regular gigs at The Green Mill, one of the country's most famous jazz lounges located in Uptown on Broadway near Lawrence. The trio's drummer, Greg Rockingham, said their group gets plenty of work nowadays, but he believes "the places to play are dwindling."

The legendary Jazz Showcase lost its lease and closed down a year ago. It's set to open soon in the South Loop at Dearborn Station but only after a long, hard search that left many supporters worried. Once a popular spot for avant-garde jazz, the HotHouse closed in July and is still searching for a new location. Buddy Guy's Legends lost its lease as well, but for now, it remains open in its South Loop space until a new home is found.

Still, there's plenty of reason to remain optimistic. The Chicago Music Commission, a non-profit organization seeking to promote the city's music industry, presented a study last month that ranked Chicago fourth behind Las Vegas, Los Angeles and New York in the number of seats available at small, popular music venues. The number in Chicago is 28,467. Chicago has a total capacity of 408,420 seats at music venues of all sizes, second only to Los Angeles, which has 860,511.

Having said that, the report offered a brief but worrisome assessment of the local jazz scene. "When we look at consumption of recorded music…Chicago has a comparatively weak appetite for country music, jazz and gospel," the report stated. "That latter two findings are particularly surprising…more research would be needed to explain what lies behind unexpectedly low demand in these particular categories."

Commercially, jazz may be moving through an unstable phase in Chicago, but artistically, Broom compares it favorably with other cities.

"It's just burgeoning in terms of the energy," he said, citing the growing interest in jazz at local universities like DePaul, where he currently teaches. Last November, after a two-year search that accompanied the suspension of its jazz program, Northwestern University named Victor L. Goines the director of jazz studies. Goines had played extensively with the celebrated Wynton Marsalis Septet and is a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

While some established venues are facing troubles, this week Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place introduced a Monday night cabaret series that will bring jazz performers back to its theater.

"The difference between Chicago and New York is there are very few clubs in New York," says Koester. This makes New York's scene "extremely competitive…[Here it's] more of a fraternal thing, and I think it'll probably remain that way for quite some time."

Chicago's all about preservation this week. Yesterday, Preservation Chicago released its annual list of endangered landmarks. Today, the once-gaping hole in Montrose Avenue has it's own MySpace page and will play host to a "Pro Hole Rally" at 4:45 p.m.