“We should be embarrassed as a city, every single one of us, that we’ve allowed this city to become the poster boy of violence in America,” said the Rev. Michael Pfleger, an activist and pastor of a Catholic church on the South Side. “Are we just going to shake our heads and say, ‘What a terrible year in Chicago?’”

Father Pfleger, who often spars with elected officials, said he was searching for fresh ways to draw attention to the plague of gun violence. He is planning a rally on Saturday on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, a downtown avenue lined with high-end shops and restaurants, that will be attended by marchers carrying two-foot-high wooden crosses bearing the names of victims. Some victims’ relatives are expected to attend.

Chicago had more criminal homicides this year than New York and Los Angeles combined, despite having fewer residents than either city. Los Angeles had 288 through mid-December, up slightly from last year, and New York had 325, a decline from 2015. Still, Chicago’s per capita murder rate remains much lower than in several smaller cities, such as St. Louis and Baltimore.

Across the country, some cities have seen upticks in homicides while others have seen their numbers hold steady or decline. St. Louis, which had one of the country’s highest murder rates in 2015, had 183 criminal homicides as of Wednesday, roughly in line with its 188 in 2015. Milwaukee had 142 as of Wednesday and 146 in 2015. Criminal homicides have increased this year in Kansas City, Mo., Indianapolis and Dallas, and have declined in Cincinnati and Baltimore.

In Chicago, the surge in violence has become a national flash point.

“I’ve never seen so much attention and energy and focus being put on this epidemic of violence,” said the Rev. Ira Acree, whose church is on the West Side. “And yet instead of things getting better, it feels like things are getting worse.”