the "chicago decline" syndrome (Lincoln, Oakland: transfer, restaurant, costs)

[Aleking]

Originally Posted by Plzeň

If you "already know" this, why are you contradicting it with inaccurate statements?



Please define "et al". Englewood is literally the one community area out of 77 where violent crime has risen significantly in recent years. This is not the same thing as "large swaths of the south/west sides are in full on free fall into lawless warzones." That statement was a pretty clear indicator that you did not "already know."

Just because large swaths of north/northwest side improvement since the '70s (lake view, lincoln park, cabrini, wicker, et al) has caused city wide crime numbers to improve doesn't mean much of the south/west sides aren't circling the drain....englewood, auburn grasham, grand crossing, east garfield park, woodlawn, west hp, etc are all terrible, not improving and in many cases worse off than they were 10 yrs ago.

[Tex?Il?]

Originally Posted by rparz

It's hard to compare cities in the US, especially east coast (and chicago) vs west coast cities.

All you have to do is follow a calendar to see. The one metric is pre-automobile, and post automobile. Yes, LA has more population, but it also has much more land. Where in LA can you walk to three bars, a grocery store and two liquor stores within a five-minute walk radius? How many of these can you count in Chicago?

We'll never be as big as New York either. It grew so large because in its time it was the only game in town that could offer munipal services. Chicago a little less, cities out west, far less dependent.

The western part of the country was built around the expressways, while in chicago they had to knock down houses and carve a space out.

How about two grocery stores (Traders Joes and Albertsons), a CVS, a coffee shop, a bank, a cleaners, etc? Cause I walk everyday to those things a block away in the LA neighborhood I live in.

You really just don't have that many corner bars here in LA, or stand alone liquor stores. An abundance/high # of bars and liquor stores per capita would be a little depressing regardless of whether one can walk to them or not.

[Chi-town Native]

Now we're talking:

Emanuel backs decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana - Chicago Sun-Times

This will help us get a far more progressive image/pull in people from the non-backwaters that did this years ago. Nice job, Rahm.

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by Tex?Il?

How about two grocery stores (Traders Joes and Albertsons), a CVS, a coffee shop, a bank, a cleaners, etc? Cause I walk everyday to those things a block away in the LA neighborhood I live in.

You really just don't have that many corner bars here in LA, or stand alone liquor stores. An abundance/high # of bars and liquor stores per capita would be a little depressing regardless of whether one can walk to them or not.

How holy of thee

[Maintainschaos]

Originally Posted by Tex?Il?

An abundance/high # of bars and liquor stores per capita would be a little depressing regardless of whether one can walk to them or not.

I don't know, Wisconsin and Minnesota have a high number of bars per capita, and most people view those states pretty favorable with high qualities of life.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by Tex?Il?

How about two grocery stores (Traders Joes and Albertsons), a CVS, a coffee shop, a bank, a cleaners, etc? Cause I walk everyday to those things a block away in the LA neighborhood I live in.

You really just don't have that many corner bars here in LA, or stand alone liquor stores. An abundance/high # of bars and liquor stores per capita would be a little depressing regardless of whether one can walk to them or not.

Sounds like my Chicago neighborhood, though switch out trader joe's (which I find stupid) and replace with local ethnic grocer, with fresher fruits and veggies. Oh and lots of corner taverns, which I love.

[Plzeň]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

Now we're talking:

Emanuel backs decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana - Chicago Sun-Times

This will help us get a far more progressive image/pull in people from the non-backwaters that did this years ago. Nice job, Rahm.

Yeah, this seems overdue. It's also not legal in New York (though they're talking about it) or Massachusetts, among many others, yet it is legal in Montana and Maine, so it doesn't really split along stereotypical backwater and non-backwater lines.

[Plzeň]

Originally Posted by Maintainschaos

I don't know, Wisconsin and Minnesota have a high number of bars per capita, and most people view those states pretty favorable with high qualities of life.

Yep, and Arkansas and Mississippi have very few bars per capita. If anything, I find a lack of bars to be more depressing than the presence of them.

[Plzeň]

Originally Posted by Aleking

Just because large swaths of north/northwest side improvement since the '70s (lake view, lincoln park, cabrini, wicker, et al) has caused city wide crime numbers to improve doesn't mean much of the south/west sides aren't circling the drain....englewood, auburn grasham, grand crossing, east garfield park, woodlawn, west hp, etc are all terrible, not improving and in many cases worse off than they were 10 yrs ago.

I'm not sure which part of "one of 77" you didn't understand. Many of those other 76 are not on the north/northwest side. The "large swaths" generalizations you keep making have no basis in fact.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by Plzeň

I'm not sure which part of "one of 77" you didn't understand. Many of those other 76 are not on the north/northwest side. The "large swaths" generalizations you keep making have no basis in fact.

Right, it's more like parts of the South side and Lawndale, Austin and West Garfield Park. Cool map created by someone on Skyscraperpage.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/841/commmap.jpg/