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Location: East Central Pennsylvania/ Chicago for 6yrs.
2,535 posts, read 3,283,359 times
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I don't think there was a era. Chicago did not endure BAD media exposure. The post Great Chicago Fire reprieve. Did not last long. New York press surely did not. Giving Chicago its "Windy City" Nickname. Though it was delegated to being Breezy by it. Which worked, because being by the Lake did bring in Lake breezes.
Chicago Politics NEVER was given good press in the rest of the Nation. Then the Al Capone era..... I think New York said to their Native ..... We will let you go .... IF YOU LEAVE AND GO TO CHICAGO LOL. That he did and the rest is History.
The Mayor Daley Era again brought the Machine Chicago-style Politics. Again viewed negatively. The "City that Works" went out when the "Rust Belt" title came in, and Manufacturing bade began eroding. Not just Chicago... of course. "The City of Broad Shoulders" seems to just faded? No real reason.
The Positives though.... have been its Booming Downtown and Tourist Visitation steadily rising and City gets good feedback from tourist in reviews on reviews on feedback sights. Another BIG one was the Emerging of its World Renown Skyline. The portraying of the city in a Batman Movie and Transformers Movie being destroyed.... oh and TV shows. Chicago Fire and Chicago PD.
Though I wish they gave the cities Skyline a Intro segment like Seattle got on Grey's Anatomy and Miami got on CSI Miami.
Not sure why I wrote this.... but clicking post it anyway.
Chicago already has PR issues. Lots of it. Just from talking to friends and family back home on the East Coast, talking to classmates who have moved on to the West Coast/PNW/TX, and talking w/ folks during my 2+ weeks in the UK last month, these are the things Chicago has going against it:
-the teachers' strike that was reported on nationally
-the failed Olympic bid
-the gun control issue that also made national news
-the fact that there are people who vehemently hate President Obama and he is closely associated w/ Chicago
-the fact that people aren't fond of Rahm (and he's already got a rep between his position w/ Obama and his brother's fame) and he is the mayor
-the constant comparison to Detroit that pop up every now and again on blogs and news sites
-having one of the highest, if not the highest sales tax in the US (I used to work at O'Hare and it was always fun explaining that to travelers)
-and of course, the ever constant national media on the city's crime rate which warrants international attention at times
I feel like the only good news the city has gotten on a national level involves the Lucas Museum (everyone loves Star Wars). Even the films and TV shows that film here don't get as much respect and few people are trekking to Chicago to see the spots where Divergent/Chicago Fire/Chicago PD were filmed (compare that to the tourist boom places like Atlanta and Albuquerque are getting)
Sadly, my camel's back broke long ago, I think around the time of the teachers' strike). I'm at the age where I'm looking to settle down and put down roots and just couldn't imagine doing it in Chicago. It's a combo of bad crime, bad school and a bad outlook w/ the pension struggles. One out of those three would be okay, two out of the three not great but bearable, but all three is too much. Add in my own personal job search struggles (this city doesn't have the jobs I'm looking for) and the ever increasing rents that are starting to rival NYC and Boston in some parts and, frankly, Chicago has lost its luster w/ me. No city is perfect, but Chicago, IMHO and IME, has too many flaws to make it livable for me.
I call bull on that Obama one! That's more or less angry Republican friends of yours or your own personal feelings. You're trying to tell me they don't like Chicago because it's the president's hometown? Lol
Chicago already has PR issues. Lots of it. Just from talking to friends and family back home on the East Coast, talking to classmates who have moved on to the West Coast/PNW/TX, and talking w/ folks during my 2+ weeks in the UK last month, these are the things Chicago has going against it:
-the teachers' strike that was reported on nationally
-the failed Olympic bid
-the gun control issue that also made national news
-the fact that there are people who vehemently hate President Obama and he is closely associated w/ Chicago
-the fact that people aren't fond of Rahm (and he's already got a rep between his position w/ Obama and his brother's fame) and he is the mayor
-the constant comparison to Detroit that pop up every now and again on blogs and news sites
-having one of the highest, if not the highest sales tax in the US (I used to work at O'Hare and it was always fun explaining that to travelers)
-and of course, the ever constant national media on the city's crime rate which warrants international attention at times
I feel like the only good news the city has gotten on a national level involves the Lucas Museum (everyone loves Star Wars). Even the films and TV shows that film here don't get as much respect and few people are trekking to Chicago to see the spots where Divergent/Chicago Fire/Chicago PD were filmed (compare that to the tourist boom places like Atlanta and Albuquerque are getting)
Sadly, my camel's back broke long ago, I think around the time of the teachers' strike). I'm at the age where I'm looking to settle down and put down roots and just couldn't imagine doing it in Chicago. It's a combo of bad crime, bad school and a bad outlook w/ the pension struggles. One out of those three would be okay, two out of the three not great but bearable, but all three is too much. Add in my own personal job search struggles (this city doesn't have the jobs I'm looking for) and the ever increasing rents that are starting to rival NYC and Boston in some parts and, frankly, Chicago has lost its luster w/ me. No city is perfect, but Chicago, IMHO and IME, has too many flaws to make it livable for me.
Some of these issues don't really have anything to do with the pension crisis, or even Chicago, for that matter. All cities have had teachers' strikes, all Republicans dislike Obama/Rahm, gun control is an issue everywhere, even Boston rejected an Olympic bid, etc. Rising rents are an issue, to be sure, but I'm not predicting an apocalyptic future for Chicago.
Location: Cleveland, OH USA / formerly Chicago for 20 years
4,069 posts, read 7,323,169 times
Reputation: 3062
Quote:
Originally Posted by Runuova
I call bull on that Obama one! That's more or less angry Republican friends of yours or your own personal feelings. You're trying to tell me they don't like Chicago because it's the president's hometown? Lol
The media sure spends a lot of time crowing about Chicago's violent crime and homicide rate. That started with FOX News right after Obama was elected (before that, San Francisco was that right-wing network's favorite whipping boy of cities), but afterward it spread to the other networks. The implication appeared to be "This is Obama's hometown, how could he let this happen?" Which never made any sense to me personally.
I call bull on that Obama one! That's more or less angry Republican friends of yours or your own personal feelings. You're trying to tell me they don't like Chicago because it's the president's hometown? Lol
This attitude is common in other parts of the country, actually.
Listen, Chicago is a good city. I live here. It has a lot going for it. But let's be real.
Chicago is not well run. Chicago overtaxes. Chicago is corrupt. Chicago is expensive. Chicago has poor services. And Chicago is absolutely terrible at balancing its budget. These are all true, and the reason Chicago is the butt of so many jokes is that so many Chicagoans refuse to believe these things, despite objective data and widespread subjective perceptions to the contrary. They're so obvious to people who have lived in other parts of the country or have studied the numbers.
Chicagoans have a boosterism problem, and always have. That's one of the negative stereotypes of Chicagoans. And the sampling of Chicagoans on this forum is very representative of this stereotype.
Anytime someone posts a thread criticizing Chicago, people accuse them of being a troll. Is Chicago above criticism? Hardly, for all the reasons I mentioned and more. Get real folks, when it comes to finances and governance, this city really sucks.
Listen, Chicago is a good city. I live here. It has a lot going for it. But let's be real.
Chicago is not well run. Chicago overtaxes. Chicago is corrupt. Chicago is expensive. Chicago has poor services. And Chicago is absolutely terrible at balancing its budget. These are all true, and the reason Chicago is the butt of so many jokes is that so many Chicagoans refuse to believe these things, despite objective data and widespread subjective perceptions to the contrary. They're so obvious to people who have lived in other parts of the country or have studied the numbers.
Chicagoans have a boosterism problem, and always have. That's one of the negative stereotypes of Chicagoans. And the sampling of Chicagoans on this forum is very representative of this stereotype.
Anytime someone posts a thread criticizing Chicago, people accuse them of being a troll. Is Chicago above criticism? Hardly, for all the reasons I mentioned and more. Get real folks, when it comes to finances and governance, this city really sucks.
There's a difference between having a cogent argument about problems in Chicago, which you have brought up and is constructive, and threads started by CD members who joined just to stir the pot, which is obvious from the join date, the status, and the number of posts created by the OP, and should be considered trolling.
There's a difference between having a cogent argument about problems in Chicago, which you have brought up and is constructive, and threads started by CD members who joined just to stir the pot, which is obvious from the join date, the status, and the number of posts created by the OP, and should be considered trolling.
The majority of folks that post in the Chicago subforum seem to be CONSTANTLY brushing aside the problems of Illinois and Chicago.
This is EXACTLY why the problem is so insidious and why those that see the real damages are SO incensed. Heck, Eric Zorn, the quite liberal columnist for the Chicago Tribune wrote this just a few days ago:
This hurts everyone, not just the poor, the sick and otherwise distressed who will be first to feel the stings now that program money is drying up. It hurts employers. It hurts employees. It hurts students. It hurts the elderly. I will not go on. ...inevitably falling deeper and deeper into the hole that all sides have conspired to create.
So go on, party till you puke, or just "chill" but as the MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR SHORTFALL between spending and revenue continues to widen and the can continues to get kicked down the road forget about any patches being other than EXTREMELY painful...
... state created the Municipal Assistance Corporation, which was empowered to issue special bonds backed by the sales tax to help the city pay its bills. When MAC proved no more able than the city to market its debt, the state created the Emergency Financial Control Board to oversee the city’s finances ... The cost was serious budget cuts: over the next three years, the number of police officers and teachers each dropped by about 6,000 and the number of firefighters by about 2,500, transit fares were raised ... the downsizing of New York became a badge of honor... firehouses closed, mass transit stalled, libraries shut their doors, school class sizes swelled, routine services like garbage collection became unpredictable, and thousands of would-be students found themselves shut out ...
The public had no inkling of the depth of the problem...police cars were standing by to serve the papers on the city's chief creditors, the banks. ...''I have been advised by the comptroller that the city of New York has insufficient cash on hand to meet debt obligations due today.''
The big "path to salvation" for NYC was the FACT that the public unions agreed to use funds in their pension plans to back the city's debt.From NYT, above
Quote:
...thanks to the unions, it never happened. ... persuade union leaders, ... to use union retirement funds to back loans to the city, a breakthrough that staved off bankruptcy. Mr. Bigel was often called a consultant to labor, but admirers liked to say he was a consultant like Napoleon was a consultant to France.
Sadly, as Chicago & Illinois have consistently underfunded those plans, there is no such safety net to backstop Chicago's freefall...
NYC overcame a lot, but they're also still overrun by high taxes but in another form (income tax) which pretty much hurts everyone.
...that NY has both a GRADUATED income tax, meaning people that make more pay a greater percentage on their higher earnings, a situation PROHIBITED by Illinois' Constitution, AND a system that allows for LOCAL income taxes, which are not provided for Illinois.
Those things, together with a legacy of rent control and very different political dynamic between the powerful forces of truly global financial services firms in NYC, give NYC much different avenues to balance revenues against spending. Illinois, outside the metro region of Chicago, is controlled by AGRICULTURAL forces, whose funding is tied to, as we know from a former moderator of the Illinois forums, CORN AND BEANS. While there is solid foreign demand for these commodities, the relative profit from dealing in them and their byproducts is NOTHING LIKE the magical sums that financial markets create. The already decimated populations of downstate farm communities will continue to be replaced by even smaller numbers of automated GPS controlled robotic harvesting machines and such, made by firms with roots in tech and defense sectors -- Farms of the Future Will Run on Robots and Drones .
Even if the state were change the constitution to allow for a graduated income tax there simply are nowhere near the kinds of opportunities to squeeze revenue out of the SHRINKING pool of either well off or even middle class workers in Illinois that clearly understand there are already CHEAPER places to live better.
Despite the limited "recovery" of Detroit and its emergence from its full blown bankruptcy (something NYC was able to avoid...) the sad reality is things that matter to normal people, like median home prices, are an unbelievable $33,913. For folks crazy enough to venture into neighborhoods that have not had streetlights on for decades you can literally buy a house for about what it costs to get a car from many of the manufacturers that once made the Motor City famous...
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No real reason. 
Yet more head in the sand Chicago boosterism
