Tell me bout Chi (Chicago, Lincoln: to rent, income, live in)

[OleSchoolFool]

i dont wan sound pessimistic, but in regards to govt jobs, i kno its a big city and erything and there shud be jobs, but the economic factors make me a lil cautious, like high unemployment, high foreclosures, high city taxes, high state budget deficits and chi pop. decline cuz the thing is if the overall economic climate is not that good, govt agencies dont collect enough revenues so they start laying people off, unlike other industries that mite not really get affected much by the things above cuz they mite be strong anyway
am i being paranoid or my caution is legit?

[Ilovehockey85]

Originally Posted by OleSchoolFool

i dont wan sound pessimistic, but in regards to govt jobs, i kno its a big city and erything and there shud be jobs, but the economic factors make me a lil cautious, like high unemployment, high foreclosures, high city taxes, high state budget deficits and chi pop. decline cuz the thing is if the overall economic climate is not that good, govt agencies dont collect enough revenues so they start laying people off, unlike other industries that mite not really get affected much by the things above cuz they mite be strong anyway
am i being paranoid or my caution is legit?

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...inally-growing

The recession helped Chicago reverse the population decline seen during the last decade, according to Census Bureau estimates.Chicago's population grew by 8,800 to 2.71 million residents between July 2010 and July 2011 after seeing a decline of nearly 200,000 people, or an average of about 20,000 people a year, during the previous decade.

About 89% of the 200,000 population loss were Blacks from 2000-2010, but they mostly went to surrounding suburbs.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/...cks22_ST_N.htm

The trend is playing out differently in Chicago. The city lost more than 200,000 residents, and more than 180,000 of them were African-American. In the metropolitan area, the black population fell 3.5% to 1.6 million, pushing it 66,000 below metro Atlanta's. "Sadly for Chicago, I think in large part it's the weather," says Chinwe Onyeagoro, CEO of O-H Community Partners, a Chicago-based economic development consulting firm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...tistical_Areas


Chicago metro grew by .46% during 2000-10.

NYC grew by .63%, LA by .90%, for comparison.

[OleSchoolFool]

i hear ya, but what bout other factors i mentioned
in regards to pop decline, i guess its mostly cuz of the demolished projects?

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by OleSchoolFool

i hear ya, but what bout other factors i mentioned
in regards to pop decline, i guess its mostly cuz of the demolished projects?

Population decline...People move to the burbs a lot of the time when they marry, want to start a family or start a family, etc. Also, some companies who have HQ here or big offices moved to the suburbs awhile ago, but some are moving back. Motorola Mobility (Google) was in the burbs for awhile and are now moving 2000-3000 people back downtown next year. Sara Lee, same thing. United Airlines, etc. With Motorola, their offices were way out in the burbs, so it didn't make sense for people working there to live in the city (although some did).

When you look at a city in the US, it's important to look at the entire metro area to see what's going on, not just the city itself. Especially in a city like Chicago where you could be in a suburb and still think you're in the city.

Counties population change between 2000 and 2010

Will County, IL - +175,000
Kane County, IL - +111,000
Kendall County, IL - +60,000
Lake County, IL - +59,000
McHenry County, IL - +48,000
Porter County, IN - +18,000
DeKalb County, IL - +17,000
Kenosha County, WI - +17,000
Grundy County, IL - +13,000
DuPage County, IL - +12,000
Lake County, Indiana - +12,000
Jasper County, Indiana - +3000

Out of 14 counties in the Chicago MSA, only two lost population between 2000 and 2010. Cook County (where Chicago is) and Newton County, Indiana (who lost 300 people). The Chicago MSA still gained about 375,000 people between 2000 and 2010.

Chicago was once the 2nd most populous city in the US, but with the "invention" of the suburbs, the MSA population has never declined. In 1950, the MSA had 5.9 million people, and now it has about 9.7 million. The only time it didn't grow too much was between 1980 and 1990 when the population only grew about 100,000. You see that with other cities in the US. St. Louis once had 850,000 people in it and saw the same exact thing happen that Chicago saw. People started moving to the burbs and now the population is barely over 300,000, but the MSA still has almost 3 million people. Some people move out, but a lot of others move out to burbs to get more land especially when they start having kids.


As a note though, the 2011 population estimate showed a 12,000 person increase from 2010 in the city itself. Companies are moving back to the city itself which will bring more people back to the city. Hell, even the Bulls are moving their practice facility back to the city.

[OleSchoolFool]

i hear ya on that too, but all cities have suburbs and most big cities still added city proper pop. even philly, which had decades long decline and if u say its becuz of jobs and companies were settling in the burbs then y is that, y didnt settle in the city and y are they comin back to the city now?

[Warsie]

Originally Posted by raleightransplant

Lake Michigan would be my answer. It's truly an inland ocean with turquoise blue waters in the summer.

To be a pedant, it's a lake as it's freshwater

Originally Posted by OleSchoolFool

is there a sizable Russian community? Are Ukrainians friendly towards Russians in the Ukrainian Village?

Only one way to find out! Talk to them in Baltic Russian accent. Watch their reaction to see if they're happy or not

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by OleSchoolFool

i hear ya on that too, but all cities have suburbs and most big cities still added city proper pop. even philly, which had decades long decline and if u say its becuz of jobs and companies were settling in the burbs then y is that, y didnt settle in the city and y are they comin back to the city now?

Philadelphia has also experienced a population decline of about 500,000 people since the "invention" of the suburb. Philadelphia gained a grand total of 9000 people between 2000 and 2010. Not saying a lot when you consider it's a growth of a half of one percent and their only population gain since the mid 20th century. Chicago gained 12,000 people between 2010 and 2011, so technically the acceleration of our increase of population is greater than that of Philadelphia of late, as they gained 10,000 between 2010 and 2011.

There's many reasons why people would move away from a city. A lot of big cities in the US have lost population since the "invention" of suburbs. When researching subsystems of a big city in the US, you never just pay attention to the city itself. The outlying areas play a big role as well in the overall picture. You can't just look at a city's population, see decline, and decide that people are moving away. What's 10 miles? 10 miles puts you out of the city, but does that count as really relocating out of the entire grasp of that area? No, it doesn't. That's why we have metropolitan areas in the first place.


Cities that have lost population since the mid 20th century:
Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, St. Louis, Baltimore, Washington DC, Milwaukee, Atlanta (not by much), Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Buffalo, etc


I'm comparing mid 20th century with today. Even though Boston has experienced a moderate population gain, they are still almost 200,000 people off from what they used to be. Cities like Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cincinnati, Buffalo, St. Louis used to have way more people than they do now. Rust belt cities that couldn't reinvent themselves like Chicago always has. Today, most people are moving to the warmer climate. If you look at California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, and Florida, they are growing rapidly because of how much land is there. Even though a lot of people live out there, there's still tons of land and the weather is usually warm (I don't understand why people live in Arizona or Nevada, but that's just me). Places like Memphis and Louisville have seen a nice population increase as well. It's no secret that people enjoy land around them in this country.


The cities that are experiencing population growth are hardly really cities like NYC or Chicago. They are glorified suburbs. Look at Phoenix or where the population in the LA area is growing. If you put those in NYC or Chicago, they'd be consistent with a suburb 25 miles out. The name of the game now is urban sprawl. Someone who has lived in a city would hardly consider most of Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, etc to be a CITY like you see with NYC, Chicago, or a number of European or Asian cities.

[marothisu]

Here's an interesting map:

Map: Where Americans Are Moving - Forbes.com

As people get older, they retire out to warmer climates. I was just in Arizona for my grandmother's funeral and had to spend a ton of time at my grandfather's assisted living home. Not one single old person I met there was from even close to Arizona. I met a handful of people from Chicago and NYC. As a local told us, "old people move here to die." It's been happening for awhile. My grandparents moved to Arizona from NYC in the early 80s for god knows why just like tons of others.

Families realize too they can have more land for a cheaper price, so they move to the place that gives them that + warmer climate. As I looked through the housing prices of Arizona, it was shocking. I could easily afford a 4000 sq foot home there. Do I want to though? No. I find Arizona a pit. It's not walkable and 75% of everything seems like a chain and the same architecture. To a lot of people, this doesn't matter though. Outside of a few cities in America, it's what people are used to, so they have no problem moving to a place just like that. To me, there's only a few true cities in the US which are NYC, Chicago, and Washington and Boston to an extent. Everywhere else is big time suburbia even if they have small to medium sized downtowns. Outside of that, it's suburban like.

[OleSchoolFool]

thats the thing tho, a lot of cities lost pop. to burbs, but lately people have been moving into the cities so this trend is in reverse now
i agree with that theres only a few true cities in the US, u can add Philly and San Fran too tho, the rest is average america, where i dont wan live either

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by OleSchoolFool

thats the thing tho, a lot of cities lost pop. to burbs, but lately people have been moving into the cities so this trend is in reverse now
i agree with that theres only a few true cities in the US, u can add Philly and San Fran too tho

Yep, it's true. People are moving back to a more urban lifestyle in some areas of the US. That was a reason Google decided to move 2000-3000 people (starting next year) back to downtown Chicago. They realize they aren't going to attract the type of talent needed. The average 22 year old college grads wants to live in an area with stuff going on. A lot of suburbs don't have that. Well, they do but it's corny ("HEY LETS GO TO CHAMPS!").

I think by 2050, people are saying that 70% of the world's population will live in cities. I think here a lot of people are just used to their space, whereas in Europe and a number of Asian (counting the middle east) cities, they've been living like that, more communal style, for years and don't care. It's always hilarious riding the train here when the Cubs are in town and the visiting teams' fans are riding the train. When it's packed, many are very uncomfortable because they don't have 5 feet of space around them. I can see why, but that right there kind of shows the spirit of what people want/are used to here in the US.

I don't think there's anything to worry about here. The population has increased back in the last few years and it looks like it will continue on that trend. If Chicago was lower density, you would not have seen as big of a population decline, although I still think one would have happened. There's still almost 3 million people here with many large important companies/firms having offices and sometimes headquarters here.