The Peculiar Difficulty Of Being An Airbnb Host On Chicago S South Side

Chicagoans is a first-person account from off the beaten track, as told to Anne Ford. This week’s Chicagoan is Afri Atiba, 51, AirBnb host.

Before Uber and Lyft, I had a big problem, because cabs never came into my neighborhood. And if my guests took a cab to come here, by the time they got here, the cabdriver would have scared them half to death. They would come in the house and say, “The cabdriver told me I shouldn’t be staying on this side of town.” People are afraid of the south side. It’s ridiculous. I educate my guests. I tell them: “Anything can happen in any neighborhood in Chicago.”