| This is all, totally, flagrantly wrong. It's all to be provocative. Firstly, Chicago is one of the top economic cities in the world. Pensions are a big problem, but they are not going to wreck it. The algebra is fine. Violent crime is another big problem, but it's a big problem everywhere in US. Cities, and Chicago isn't even near the top, per-capita. It's almost entirely gang-related. The big problem, as everywhere, is the red-lining of the past, drugs, and no opportunities. Illinois just legalized weed, will release tons of people for drug-related crimes, and this might help the hood a lot. The suburbs are not dying. Real estate isn't great, but guess what, other than a few markets on the west coast, this is what home prices are going to do everywhere. The baby boomers got to have their houses triple, quintuple in value, millennials will not. The population loss of Chicago is only in areas that, frankly, need population loss. There's no reason to live in some of these communities that are beset with drug problems and have no opportunities. These days people have cell-phones and the internet, they can move to better places all over the country. It's the reverse of the great migration and it's because the country hasn't helped these people ever in their entire history. Meanwhile middle-income and high-income 20 somethings are still flocking to Chicago. JB Pritzker is the new governor. He is the absolute opposite of a "bored billionaire" who has never accomplished anything in his life. He has guided the Pritzker funds in a huge amount of charity work all over Chicago including, this audience might want to know, huge investment in startups in Chicago. We are nowhere even close to the normalization of corruption as Russia, that's just stupid. Edit: I also want to add that I've seen this narrative from three places -- journalists trying to be provocative; Chigoans that like to complain about politics but not get involved (favorite pastime); and Hanity trolls trying to stir up reasons why Democrat havens are poorly run / liberal policies supposedly fail. |
Real estate values are some of the worst performing in the country. (see Rodkin)
Taxes keep skyrocketing. (Thanks JB!)
Pension underfunding keeps increasing. (https://wirepoints.org)
Population loss continues.
Violent crime continues. (http://heyjackass.com/home)
Politicians keep getting arrested with almost comical regularity. (See Mick Jagger's joke the other night?)
State/city assets keep getting sold. (Parking meters, Thomson Center, Skyway, etc)
Debt keeps going up, often with usurious terms.
Credit ratings keep getting worse. (Illinois is worst in the US)
New sources of taxes enacted. (Weed, gambling)
It's all right there, man. I don't like it anymore than you but sadly every warning sign, every symptom is right there staring at you in the face. If I asked someone to generally describe a death spiral this is what they would describe. And it's not like these are modest problems, we often rank DFL in the country for most of these things.