Is Chicago mainly a blue-collar city? (Evanston, Champaign: home, high school, universities)

[Irishtom29]

Well it's gonna get more blue collar folks. I just put my house down here on the market and got a Printer's Row apartment arranged.

[Lookout Kid]

Hmmmm... Printer's Row and Blue Collar don't really go together. I'm guessing your collar has become more of a pale blue over the years.

Welcome back!

[aragx6]

Congrats Tom!

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

Hmmmm... Printer's Row and Blue Collar don't really go together...

Oh course they do. Blue collar people once worked all over the area around "Printer's Row." Blue collar people built "Printer's Row."

He wanted to take back what he could albeit partially.

[ihynes]

I totally agree. Even the white collars here seem like their feet are still in the blue collar world.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

Oh course they do. Blue collar people once worked all over the area around "Printer's Row." Blue collar people built "Printer's Row."

He wanted to take back what he could albeit partially.

Whatever. If you went into the homes of all of the people in Printer's Row today and surveyed them, my guess is that you would find <1% worked blue collar jobs. It's far from a blue collar neighborhood today! It's almost entirely professionals and empty nesters with cash.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by ihynes

I totally agree. Even the white collars here seem like their feet are still in the blue collar world.

I don't agree. I've lived in a real blue collar town before where a series of manufacturing plants were the main employers, and they would view today's Chicago as an alien planet. Milwaukee is much closer to it's blue collar roots than Chicago in this day and age. The blue collar Chicago of old has largely moved to the burbs and Northwest Inidana. I know several people who are the working poor or urban underclass view themselves as "blue collar", but they are not.

[Frank the Tank]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

I don't agree. I've lived in a real blue collar town before where a series of manufacturing plants were the main employers, and they would view today's Chicago as an alien planet. Milwaukee is much closer to it's blue collar roots than Chicago in this day and age. The blue collar Chicago of old has largely moved to the burbs and Northwest Inidana. I know several people who are the working poor or urban underclass view themselves as "blue collar", but they are not.

I completely agree. When I hear out-of-town characterizations of Chicago as being "blue-collar" (usually from the coasts), I think it's completely outdated. We started moved away from depending on manufacturing as a regional economy over the past couple of decades, and frankly, that's the best thing that's ever happened to this metro area from a macroeconomic perspective. Chicago could easily be in the almost irreparable economic bind that places like Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo are in today. The stereotypical "blue collar work ethic" is admirable, but no one should want to be in a city that is perceived to be "blue collar" in this day in age.

There are certainly still a lot of blue collar neighborhoods, but as much as people might bash yuppies, the gentrified neighborhoods that they live in contribute to why urban Chicago is a magnet for people and jobs (instead of being completely avoided, which happens in almost every other city outside of a handful of places like NYC and SF) in today's global economy. Believe me - we are incredibly lucky not to be in the situation that Detroit is in now (which could have VERY easily happened).

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by Frank the Tank

I completely agree. When I hear out-of-town characterizations of Chicago as being "blue-collar" (usually from the coasts), I think it's completely outdated. We started moved away from depending on manufacturing as a regional economy over the past couple of decades, and frankly, that's the best thing that's ever happened to this metro area from a macroeconomic perspective. Chicago could easily be in the almost irreparable economic bind that places like Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo are in today. The stereotypical "blue collar work ethic" is admirable, but no one should want to be in a city that is perceived to be "blue collar" in this day in age.

There are certainly still a lot of blue collar neighborhoods, but as much as people might bash yuppies, the gentrified neighborhoods that they live in contribute to why urban Chicago is a magnet for people and jobs (instead of being completely avoided, which happens in almost every other city outside of a handful of places like NYC and SF) in today's global economy. Believe me - we are incredibly lucky not to be in the situation that Detroit is in now (which could have VERY easily happened).

Detroit proper isn't very blue collar anymore either. It's mainly working poor and urban underclass. And if GM fails, the blue collar jobs will be almost entirely gone. I don't think an economy can exist where everyone just flips burgers for everyone else (unlike Chicago where one half of the population flips burgers for the other half).

[Tex?Il?]

I think someone mentioned about how blue-collar roots run deep, even if people don't actually live a "blue-collared" lifestyle and work a traditional "blue-collared job."

Even though my experience in other major cities may only be limited to visiting, and I admit I do live in the Chicago 'burbs, I think there are many examples where you get a sense that blue collar values run deep even in Chicagolands white collared workers.

#1 example: SPORTS. Seriously sports. I mean is a huge sports city. Now granted sports aren't in and of itself solely blue-collared pasttimes. There are major sports teams in every city we all know that. But in Chicago, the sports stadiums take a huge front seat as their main attractions. From what I know about geography: None of New Yorks teams are in Manhattan at all. In Chicago Wrigley Field is THE prime attraction to the north side, where people pay an arm and a leg for Old style or bud. When they serve wine at Wrigley Field (remember this is one of the most gentrified areas) then I'll say that the blue collared roots are dead. At least on the south side, the sox fans are a little more "clear cut". Soldier Field, is right there smack in the middle of everything, and two years ago, the lights downtown where lit up in Bears logos, etc. To me at least, the obsession with sports, and a strong preference for beer over wine, seems like a good example of how the blue collared roots run deep.

#2: Some political/social attitudes. Yes, Chicago is left of center. But even among those you find with gentrified attitude, you do find a lot of conservative-like ideas I just wouldn't expect in a place like Seattle, Austin, or Madison, WI. To me, I think a lot of the "strong fiscal conservatism" that you find among a lot of white collared people here to me speaks of a blue-collared background.

(I think of an ad that Jack Ryan (that "cross between a Kennedy and Ryan Howard from the office" type yuppy that ran against Obama a few years ago for Senate, but lost the race because a sex scandal was uncovered. The ad had people coming up to someones door asking for funding for some academic project, but got the door slammed in their face. Jack Ryan said "every year the government supports ridiculous programs such as these!" That type of attitude is prevalent. Unless you produce something that has an obvious economic value and is not supported by grants, then it doesn't have much value.

I think you get the picture.

These are my examples of how blue collared values run deep even in "yuppy" places.