Why is everyone leaving Chicago? (Atlanta, Cleveland: middle-class, hotel, house)

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by Atlanta_BD

I understand that everyone is looking for that brass ring. Everyone wants a better quality of life. But they assume that Texas is better based on hearsay and assumption without doing the actual research. A lot of the things that they think is better in Texas really is not.

When my company went through a merger and my job was relocated back in 2000, I had the chance to move to Texas -- in my case, San Antonio. I enjoyed doing the tourist thing while down there on business trips, but I just couldn't see myself living there. So I took early retirement instead. I've never regretted not relocating to Texas. Not once.

I really, really did not want to leave Chicago in September 2015... wasn't psychologically ready to move back to my hometown... but did so due to cost of living that was high and steadily getting worse.

[Chriz Brown]

Originally Posted by Midpack

The Chicago metro area is about 50% larger than Philly, but fair point re: NYC. However, your "data" is anecdotal. Have you actually tracked how many people you've met and where they're from, from a large enough sample and for long enough to draw conclusions?

While not metro areas, but here's some fairly recent data on in-migration to DC that seems to contradict your hypothesis. From states the migration to DC has been:

1. MD
2. VA
3. NY
4. CA
5. FL
6. MA
7. PA
8. NC
9. TX
10. IL

https://www.scribd.com/document/2399...een&from_embed

And this from Jan 2017 says migration to DC has "slowed to a crawl" from everywhere.

https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-...82054801702969

I never said DC has more people from Chicago than anywhere else. I said over the past year I've met more people from Chicago than anywhere else.

This is not even about DC. Its about the fact that people are leaving Chicago. I wanted to know why.

[cordtwo]

Originally Posted by Chriz Brown

Metro size and proximity is a good point. But then I should be meeting more people from NYC and Philadelphia than Chicago. But that is not the case.

You running into more people from Chicago has been your experience. I personally run into more people from the NY/NJ area. That has been my experience.

[cordtwo]

Originally Posted by Taco1234

Totally ridiculous blanket statements. What's interesting is in the eye of the beholder. In my opinion, the beautiful tree cover, gorgeous scenery and endless places to travel to (within a few hours drive) are wonderful reasons to raise a family in northern Georgia. Maybe you're paying $2100 now, but once you add in a family and move to Chicago burbs be prepared, if you want 4 bed/bath 3000 sq ft home) to pay $3500+ monthly. I've learned that with small children we spend 90% of our time in burbs and our kids enjoy hikes, mountains and natural beauty far more than a concrete jungle of homes with 15K taxes. We were thisclose to buying a home in naperville 2 years ago for 650k with 16k taxes ... Now we'll enjoy a gorgeous home in alpharetta with trees surrounding it, a creek behind us, serenity and beauty. Couldn't be more peaceful, and our mortgage will be around 2k (vs close to 4k). After multiple trips to Atlanta our kids cry each time we leave and say they can't wait to get back to the trees... Oh and we have multiple amenities within 5 minutes of our new home, so... I'm not sure where you're talking about that has "nothing to do". That's just idiotic.

I never said the trees were not beautiful in Georgia. The pine trees and little hills in North Georgia are pretty. Not Northern Virginia pretty, but still nice.

What places are you going to travel within a few hours of Atlanta? Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Northern Florida? For God's sake please do not say Savannah, Charleston or Jacksonville.

I live in DC and have access to Philly, New York, Pittsburgh and Baltimore all within a few hours.

See here is where I am going to draw the line with you. We actually want two different things in life, so there is no need for us to disagree or call each other names. I don't even want a big house even though I can afford it. If I was in Georgia, I wouldn't even consider Alpharetta. I owned a condo in Dunwoody for 3 years and had a problem driving everywhere for entertainment. Dunwoody is considered a prime location in Atlanta so if areas like Dunwoody, Brookhaven and Buckhead won't cut it for me than Alpharetta would bury me. I grew up in the Atlanta suburbs and my parents had a big house, hence why I do not want any parts of the suburbs today because that came with boredom. Honestly man, I would be fine with sending my kids to private school and having a 2-3 bedroom condo in Chicago.

I do wish you well though in Alpharetta and am glad your children love it there. It is different scenery from Illinois and I can see how that's appealing. If you haven't been yet, you and the fam should go check out Chattanooga, TN. It is really scenic there and that can make for a fun weekend trip. Also if you want to go to the beach, Destin Florida is a great spot and it's only 5 hours south of Atlanta. Do not fool with any of the beaches in Georgia. I warn you.

[IrishIllini]

Originally Posted by Chriz Brown

I never said DC has more people from Chicago than anywhere else. I said over the past year I've met more people from Chicago than anywhere else.

This is not even about DC. Its about the fact that people are leaving Chicago. I wanted to know why.

It has been explained to you in snippets.

The short answer is Illinois (like much of the Midwest, Northeast, and California) suffers from high out migration.

Chicago is presently failing to hold onto working class families. Black Americans are also leaving the greater Chicago area for the south. We're also aging and some individuals choose to retire elsewhere. All this, compounded by Chicago receiving fewer immigrants than in the past, means Chicago's population won't grow quickly, if at all.

Chicago is actually doing okay in some demographics. Households earnings 100-199k and 200k+ have grown by something like 10 percent YoY each. That's up there with SF/SJ if I'm not mistaken. There's a building boom in the greater Downtown area with 52 high rises currently under construction. There's a good amount of progress being made on fronts that are not population growth. Chicago (and Illinois) have gone through ups and downs before though. Illinois grew by 4,000 residents between 1980 and 1990 I believe. During the 90s Illinois grew by something like 1,000,000 people.

[Taco1234]

Originally Posted by cordtwo

I never said the trees were not beautiful in Georgia. The pine trees and little hills in North Georgia are pretty. Not Northern Virginia pretty, but still nice.

What places are you going to travel within a few hours of Atlanta? Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Northern Florida? For God's sake please do not say Savannah, Charleston or Jacksonville.

I live in DC and have access to Philly, New York, Pittsburgh and Baltimore all within a few hours.

See here is where I am going to draw the line with you. We actually want two different things in life, so there is no need for us to disagree or call each other names. I don't even want a big house even though I can afford it. If I was in Georgia, I wouldn't even consider Alpharetta. I owned a condo in Dunwoody for 3 years and had a problem driving everywhere for entertainment. Dunwoody is considered a prime location in Atlanta so if areas like Dunwoody, Brookhaven and Buckhead won't cut it for me than Alpharetta would bury me. I grew up in the Atlanta suburbs and my parents had a big house, hence why I do not want any parts of the suburbs today because that came with boredom. Honestly man, I would be fine with sending my kids to private school and having a 2-3 bedroom condo in Chicago.

I do wish you well though in Alpharetta and am glad your children love it there. It is different scenery from Illinois and I can see how that's appealing. If you haven't been yet, you and the fam should go check out Chattanooga, TN. It is really scenic there and that can make for a fun weekend trip. Also if you want to go to the beach, Destin Florida is a great spot and it's only 5 hours south of Atlanta. Do not fool with any of the beaches in Georgia. I warn you.

I completely agree that different people want different things, but I will say that until you have kids I wouldn't assume where your life will or won't take you. Heck, even the difference between when they're toddlers and in grade school makes a huge difference in where you want to live... You'll see

[Dport7674]

Originally Posted by Midpack

... the linked article focus on how many people are leaving is a totally bogus indicator, a blatantly misleading effort to attract eyeballs. It's the third largest city in the country - the number leaving as a percent of population would be a credible indicator. The 19,570 leaving per the article is only 0.2% of the population, that's almost a trivial % - conveniently left out of the article....

Originally Posted by Chriz Brown

Its about the fact that people are leaving Chicago. I wanted to know why.

Why keep asking the same question if you're not going to read the answers.

In reality not many people are leaving Chicago.

[Chriz Brown]

Originally Posted by Dport7674

Why keep asking the same question if you're not going to read the answers.

In reality not many people are leaving Chicago.

I'm not asking the same question. I'm reminding people what the question is when they go off topic.

[DavePa]

Originally Posted by Chriz Brown

I'm not asking the same question. I'm reminding people what the question is when they go off topic.

It is called defending. NYC metro is losing people. It stretches into my state of PA.
My state is losing people.
You abhor defending Chicago as if off topic??

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by Chriz Brown

I never said DC has more people from Chicago than anywhere else. I said over the past year I've met more people from Chicago than anywhere else.

This is not even about DC. Its about the fact that people are leaving Chicago. I wanted to know why.

Maybe just a coincidence? In my 16 years here I've only known one friend who moved to DC, he was from the MD area. I have 3 good friends who moved from the DC area to Chicago, a few more from Boston and then some from around California and a few from Georgia.

People move around large cities all the time, mostly young college educated people. If I had to guess the people you met from Chicago it was younger professional or at least middle class people. Those are all the people I tend to meet here from DC or the east coast. People come and go all the time.


As far as Chicago's population drop, it's somewhat unrelated to the above. The population loss is almost entirely the city's struggling black population on the west and south sides. That was 80% of the population loss from 2000 to 2010, surprisingly well over 50% of the total drop was one group, black children under the age of 18.

From 2000 to 2015 the growing groups in the city are by far young whites, followed by Asians and Hispanics, with again, another estimated 35,000+ drop in the black population.

If you want to know why the population is dropping, it's because that one demographic group is leaving in droves while there aren't nearly as many other groups filling their place.