Population dropoff (Chicago, Cicero: to buy, luxury, salary)

[Lookout Kid]

Here is a gazillion page thread about why Chicago may or may not be losing population:

https://www.city-data.com/forum/chica...ecreasing.html

[softdev]

Originally Posted by At1WithNature

Not to mention...the highest sales tax in America.

The sales tax argument is baloney. Taxes in Chicago and Illinois are cheap. You have to consider the entire tax bill, not just a single tax:

1) No city income tax.
2) Illinois income tax is a paltry 3%. My NYC taxes alone were higher.
3) Property taxes. 1% or so of assessed value is very reasonable.

Sure sales tax suck, but the lower income taxes + Amazon more than make up for it.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by softdev

The sales tax argument is baloney. Taxes in Chicago and Illinois are cheap. You have to consider the entire tax bill, not just a single tax:

1) No city income tax.
2) Illinois income tax is a paltry 3%. My NYC taxes alone were higher.
3) Property taxes. 1% or so of assessed value is very reasonable.

Sure sales tax suck, but the lower income taxes + Amazon more than make up for it.

sofdev is right. Illinois is in the middle of the pack for overall tax burden, including all forms of local, state, and federal taxes. I'm not defending our ridiculously high sales tax or any of the other stupid taxes and fees we pay in Chicago, just pointing out that it's worse in many other places.

[eddie79]

i lived in chicago until i was 18 ,i moved out and been out since,now am 30...
i went back and forth for a visit and now am considering moving back for good hope ..hope by the end of the year.. i lived in michigan,philly,ohio,dc.NYC..
let me say this ..nothing like CHICAGO...great great city.. cant wait to go back..
As of the population shrinking ..the only thing i could think of is when they knocked down those projects ,a lot of people left but again they did it to clean up the city ...to the better..

[westchesterfielddad]

Originally Posted by eddie79

i lived in chicago until i was 18 ,i moved out and been out since,now am 30...
i went back and forth for a visit and now am considering moving back for good hope ..hope by the end of the year.. i lived in michigan,philly,ohio,dc.NYC..
let me say this ..nothing like CHICAGO...great great city.. cant wait to go back..
As of the population shrinking ..the only thing i could think of is when they knocked down those projects ,a lot of people left but again they did it to clean up the city ...to the better..

If your 30 and haven't lived in Chicago for the past 12 years then you have no idea how bad other areas of the city have become since they tore the projects down. I'm 28 and I can remember how it was on the low end since i went to Dunbar and back then you knew what places to avoid. Now areas like chatham and ashburn are experiencing increased crime because the former project residents got their section 8 vouchers and are now destroying good middle class african american neighborhoods. So you can't really escape the crime now in a lot of neighborhoods. IMO they should have never tore the projects down because at least the crime was contained then, now it's spreading out like cancer.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by westchesterfielddad

If your 30 and haven't lived in Chicago for the past 12 years then you have no idea how bad other areas of the city have become since they tore the projects down. I'm 28 and I can remember how it was on the low end since i went to Dunbar and back then you knew what places to avoid. Now areas like chatham and ashburn are experiencing increased crime because the former project residents got their section 8 vouchers and are now destroying good middle class african american neighborhoods. So you can't really escape the crime now in a lot of neighborhoods. IMO they should have never tore the projects down because at least the crime was contained then, now it's spreading out like cancer.

Yes. There are parts of the city on the north and south sides that now have a big crime problem that did not have much of a problem 12 years ago. Part of it is due to gentrification shifting people are around as well as what you mentioned about the tear down of many CHA high rises.

[mas23]

Originally Posted by westchesterfielddad

If your 30 and haven't lived in Chicago for the past 12 years then you have no idea how bad other areas of the city have become since they tore the projects down. I'm 28 and I can remember how it was on the low end since i went to Dunbar and back then you knew what places to avoid. Now areas like chatham and ashburn are experiencing increased crime because the former project residents got their section 8 vouchers and are now destroying good middle class african american neighborhoods. So you can't really escape the crime now in a lot of neighborhoods. IMO they should have never tore the projects down because at least the crime was contained then, now it's spreading out like cancer.

couldnt have said it better myself!!! All for gentrification

[Chicago60614]

A glass half full thought would be that hopefully this is just pains because of the transition. Yes areas might have been better when everything sick and horrible was bottled up in the projects - but rationally they COULDN'T have just been let to sit there forever breeding generation after generation of hopelessness. It's not at all fair to let people be born into that situation - they have no control of that fact.

This is when Chicago needs to ramp up the police department and community action. You can't let the seeds of violence and gang activity be tossed around all over the city. We need to destroy that action as quick as possible before it gets a solid footing (although that's already happened in many areas).

The one thing I do like about living in Uptown is that while gangs have a footing here and have for a long time - at least the local population is putting up a huge fight and being very vocal. They aren't just rolling over and hiding.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by Chicago60614

A glass half full thought would be that hopefully this is just pains because of the transition. Yes areas might have been better when everything sick and horrible was bottled up in the projects - but rationally they COULDN'T have just been let to sit there forever breeding generation after generation of hopelessness. It's not at all fair to let people be born into that situation - they have no control of that fact...

Right or Wrong. Valid excuses or not...

Prediction: a huge majority of the former project people will continue to breed "generation after generation of hopelessness." Moving them out of the high rises is not going to help many of them.

More often than not: You can take a person out of the ghetto;but you can't take the ghetto out of the person.

[Lookout Kid]

The 2010 Census data will be released in December. I'm actually kind of excited about this in a big nerdy way.