The Second-Rate City? (Chicago, Bradley, Washington: real estate, insurance, chapel)

[Chicago South Sider]

The article makes some good points.

[Plzeň]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

Black folks weren't pushed out by white people gentrifying their neighborhoods nearly so much as high-rise public housing buildings were demolished and not replaced in the City limits.

Right, but who do you think is going to live in the places where the public housing used to be? It's still gentrification, albeit with a major assist from the city government.

[Chicago South Sider]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

Black folks weren't pushed out by white people gentrifying their neighborhoods nearly so much as high-rise public housing buildings were demolished and not replaced in the City limits.

A lot of black people aren't being 'pushed out'. They are simply moving to places like Atlanta, Houston and Dallas.

[highguard]

Hmm..I was just thinking about moving from Houston to Chicago. Now reading that article makes me feel quite confused. Should I just stay where I am, go somewhere else or continue on with my move....

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by andrew61

I've followed the Urbanophile for quite some time now. I found this article particularly disturbing in light of the fact that he was still pretty bullish on Chicago just a few short years ago. Apparently he's observed some things that made him change his mind.

He accepted a job in NY, had a hard time selling his condo, that's when things changed.

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

But IMO he's not even right on the demographic shift.

Black folks weren't pushed out by white people gentrifying their neighborhoods nearly so much as high-rise public housing buildings were demolished and not replaced in the City limits.

Agreed. The removal of public housing killed off a lot of businesses, and some areas that had been seeing population loss (outside of the projects) saw a drastic increase in population after the projects were closed. They basically passed a tipping point and have become almost ghost towns.

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by highguard

Hmm..I was just thinking about moving from Houston to Chicago. Now reading that article makes me feel quite confused. Should I just stay where I am, go somewhere else or continue on with my move....

I really wouldn't put all your thoughts into what one jaded person writes in a blog.

I've been here 11 years now and while the economy is bad (like everywhere), most of the city looks and seems to be chugging along just fine. New construction going up, the loop looks and acts the same, infrastructure is always being replaced and upgraded. There are a few financial things the city and especially the state needs to focus on, but the article is looking only at the worst of the worst statistics.

I really don't see how the loop lost almost 20% of its jobs since 2000. There are a dozen new office buildings with 10 million square feet going up since 2000.

Looking at this source, he's really skewing things. It's only looking at the specific .5 square mile Loop and talking about private sector office jobs. It's not taking into account how things have deflated out into river north and the west loop, etc. as more housing has moved into the heart of the loop itself along with new retail and hotel conversions of older office space. There has also been a consolidation and increase in the number of public sector jobs within the heart of the loop.

If the loop lost 20% of its jobs and added 10 million square feet of office space, he's talking like the place is 33% or more vacant. Obviously that's not true in any way. The people aren't gone, it's just the space has been rebranded, moved around, etc.

He's really cherry picking a lot of those stats.

[Plzeň]

Originally Posted by highguard

Hmm..I was just thinking about moving from Houston to Chicago. Now reading that article makes me feel quite confused. Should I just stay where I am, go somewhere else or continue on with my move....

You're asking a pretty biased crowd, but you couldn't pay me enough to live in Houston over Chicago, unless it was to avoid being homeless.

[Alicia Bradley]

Originally Posted by Attrill

He accepted a job in NY, had a hard time selling his condo, that's when things changed.

Hmm... probably wants his new friends to like him. At lot of people in the Northeast like bashing Chicago - but have only really done so since the city started appearing on some critical mass of Northeasterners' radars. It's some sort of odd chest-beating ritual.

[Plzeň]

Originally Posted by Attrill

He accepted a job in NY, had a hard time selling his condo, that's when things changed.

Did he buy a condo in NY, too? I hope he doesn't have to move anytime soon, or he's going to find out that they're hard to sell there, too. Maybe then he'll write about NY's downfall.