Calumet City, so very sad! (Harvey, Paris: home, employment, neighborhood)

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by Drover

I seriously doubt "the majority of Chicagoans would support" the gentrification of any neighborhood via eminent domain ala Kelo v. New London. Why not, you ask? Because there's a huge difference between knocking down public housing that we were funding with our own tax dollars even as they were obviously failing versus just taking someone's private property (even with "just compensation") and turning around and handing it to another private interest. Property rights is one of the most ingrained institutions in this country; and as such, people readily recognize the injustice and the threat eminent domain abuse poses to their own rights, even if it's happening to poor people. Using eminent domain to seize obviously neglected/abandoned/blighted properties for redevelopment is controversial enough. Doing it to whole neighborhoods full of still-occupied homes isn't going to fly, not even in Englewood.

Well, taking private land and giving it to a private interest is not necessarily favored after Kelo and SWIDA v. St. Clair, but neither of those cases per se prevent it. Even under the new Illinois eminent domain act, there is still a rebuttable presumption that a taking has the necessary “public purpose” when the purpose of the project is to eliminate blight. Could one argue that Englewood is blighted and that a large scale and ambitious, ahem, "mixed income" development is an appropriate means eliminate that blight? I think a determined City and a group of top flight attorneys from the City's best eminent domain law firm maybe could.

Would the good residents of Chicago – justifiably proud of the strides their City has made in the past two decades -- stand up in collective outrage? I would hope but who knows? Some of the stuff that has been going on over the past several years regarding CHA housing projects really gets one's mind going down the slippery slope. Those properties, as miserable as they may have been by most of our standards, were once people’s homes, and they were taken and given to private developers. This received a lot more praise than indignation.

You say that my perhaps Orwellian scenario differs in that the project buildings were funded by tax dollars, and that’s a good point. But aren’t the tax payers funding the City’s most impoverished neighborhoods too? Excess police and ambulance services, ER visits in lieu of health insurance (I mean, who pays for a crack dealer’s employee health care plan?), foregone property tax revenues, foregone sales tax revenues, foregone higher income residents, foregone businesses, low quality schools that produce a weak labor pool, theft, vandalism, costs of dealing with crumbling and dangerous buildings, and so on? If you really think about it, poor and violent neighborhoods are actually quite expensive to a municipality.

I hope that the source of facility operating revenue will be enough of a distinction for people to draw the line. But unfortunately, I’m not sure it would be. Time will tell. Hope I’m wrong.

[doublenickels]

Total mis-information and a lie. Not even close to the the facts.

Originally Posted by NYrules

I see another Dixie Square Mall coming to a Cal City near you in the not too distant future.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by doublenickels

Total mis-information and a lie. Not even close to the the facts.

Well actually it's an opinion/prediction, not a claimed statement of fact, and therefore by definition cannot be "misinformation" or "a lie." So.... uhm,

[Love Cobb]

Wow, all my friends from high school moved from the 95th St. areas between Ashland and Cottage Grove to go to the "promised land" southern suburbs. Within less than 10 years, only to be greated by welfare voucher displaced people from the projects. What a joke! Now they can't even afford to move back to the city the prices are so high!

[I_HATE_Cal_City]

[quote=doublenickels;2688668]There are several cites on the the web, where disgruntled, majority folks, of lower economic status, routinely post derogatory comments about Calumet City, Illinois. The people doing the complaining are economically BROKE. They either can't "flee", or have "fled" under strained conditions. Who's fault is that? The originator of this thread, claims to have moved to Las Vegas. That says it all, about that person's character...moved to a city full of transients, most of whom move on, and most of whom are financially strapped. Original poster moved to Las Vegas, because s/he couldn't afford to move two blocks across the Illinois-Inidiana line, into a decent home and neighborhood among her own kind.

Originally Posted by I_HATE_Cal_City

I'm 22 years old and I, until very recently, lived in Calumet City for the better part of my life. My family and I moved to Calumet City when I was about 5 years old.

It was such a nice place to live when we first moved there. It was mostly older retired indaviduals.

...however

quote]

To whomever posted this, attempting to make assumptions as to my "character" because of the fact that I moved to Las Vegas. The reason I moved to Las Vegas was because I completed my degree in Hospitality Management, and now work as the assistant hotel manager for Caesars Palace hotel and casino.

As for a city of transients and "low-income". Im sorry to inform you sir/ma'am, but just 4 weeks ago I had a coctail with Paris Hilton, who, among several other stars, owns a home here in Las Vegas.

Moving out of Calumet City to Vegas was the wisest decision I ever made. Please allow me to express, very unappolgetically might I add, my hatred for Calumet City. For the person who took the bus and was dropped off on Sibley Blvd. in the middle of the night, the reason you were not mugged or killed is not because Cal City is not a bad area. Truely, it is because you had an angel on your shoulder.

[Drover]

Ooooh, a cocktail with Paris Hilton. Now that's high-brow. Be sure to let us know when you have a spiritual meditation session with Britney Spears.

[BRU67]

[quote=I_HATE_Cal_City;2871210]

Originally Posted by doublenickels

As for a city of transients and "low-income". Im sorry to inform you sir/ma'am, but just 4 weeks ago I had a coctail with Paris Hilton, who, among several other stars, owns a home here in Las Vegas.

Thanks man. I admit to thinking that you may have been low income too, but you've proven your affluence and status to me now. Sorry about the confusion. My bad.

P.S. Is she as big a dumb ass in real life as she comes across in the media?

[I_HATE_Cal_City]

[quote=BRU67;2872981]

Originally Posted by I_HATE_Cal_City

Thanks man. I admit to thinking that you may have been low income too, but you've proven your affluence and status to me now. Sorry about the confusion. My bad.

P.S. Is she as big a dumb ass in real life as she comes across in the media?

Yeah she's not the brightest penny in the fountain. But she is a very nice girl, I've had the privelage of sitting with her several times, she stays at my hotel a lot. She's never been rude to me or talked down to me in any way. She is actually very sweet and polite, so I really cannot say anything bad about the girl.

[I_HATE_Cal_City]

Originally Posted by Drover

Ooooh, a cocktail with Paris Hilton. Now that's high-brow. Be sure to let us know when you have a spiritual meditation session with Britney Spears.

Typical, I love how some people on this forum, not all, but some, seem to presume to know who people are. People they have never met might I add. Paris is a very nice girl, you have no right to judge her based on what you read or see in the tabliods. I've met her several times and had several conversations with her, she is a very nice and very polite girl.
Do try and keep the cinicism to a minimum, I do not respond to it well.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by I_HATE_Cal_City

Typical, I love how some people on this forum, not all, but some, seem to presume to know who people are. People they have never met might I add. Paris is a very nice girl, you have no right to judge her based on what you read or see in the tabliods. I've met her several times and had several conversations with her, she is a very nice and very polite girl.
Do try and keep the cinicism to a minimum, I do not respond to it well.

She is just an attention ***** that is hooked on drugs and has an IQ of 75. But she is a nice girl. Nothing wrong with that. Hitler was nice in everday life too. Not the best analogy, but it works just as fine as any other.