The Decline of Chicago: The City that Doesn't Work (Evanston: closing, centers)

[SJaye]

Originally Posted by edsg25

OK, SJaye, I'm going to ask you to look at your words above that I highlighted.

Then I'm going to ask you to think about one word:

WATER

* tons of it

* all fresh

* filling 5 huge, huge lakes

* which really aren't lakes at all, but more like inland seas

* at a time when the world seems to be running out of it, at least from the perspective of access and usability

* and a growing and growing national and global population are demanding more and more of it

* and consider its real value even against the likes of gold and oil

Pulled down by the region around it? Hardly. Just ask yourself given the global environmental and demographic issues today....

when it comes to being in the right location based on the most needed and necessary and essential of resources, which would you choose to be: Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Houston, Miami, Atlanta.......or Chicago.

I'll let you figure out my answer to that question.

I am not convinced that there is going to be a water crisis. People are always predicting some kind of crisis, especially environmentalists. They are a group of people that has lost me over the past decade. Food crises, energy crises, etc. are always being predicted, and I have read that they have been predicted consistently for at least a hundred years, and none of them have actually happened. Reference- Book The Population Bomb (1968), Documentary After The Warming (1989). Both sets of predictions were nowhere near what actually happened in the twenty years that followed!

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by SJaye

I am not convinced that there is going to be a water crisis. People are always predicting some kind of crisis, especially environmentalists. They are a group of people that has lost me over the past decade. Food crises, energy crises, etc. are always being predicted, and I have read that they have been predicted consistently for at least a hundred years, and none of them have actually happened. Reference- Book The Population Bomb (1968), Documentary After The Warming (1989). Both sets of predictions were nowhere near what actually happened in the twenty years that followed!

They did predict that U.S. domestic oil production would peak in the early 70s, and then decline from the top of that bell curve. And that's exactly what happened. Scientists don't just make this stuff up. Sure, sometimes they are wrong. But sometimes they are also right.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by oakparkdude

I actually think the decline of places like South Bend may (in the short term) benefit Chicago. Chicago has done very well by sucking up talent and jobs that in the past would have gone to smaller midwestern metros. In effect, if you want a vibrant big city experience, Chicago is really the only choice in the Midwest.

Some might also point to Minneapolis. I personally don't like it much, but it does have a pretty good white collar economy with a lot of "creative class" industries. Note that in Chicago you meet a LOT of transplants from Michigan and Ohio, but very few from the Twin Cities.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by edsg25

Realistically exactly how low can any mid-sized city go when it contains a major, influencial research university.

Been to New Haven lately?

[Basekamp]

Having lived in the Twin Cities, I meet a lot of their transplants to Chicago. They are everywhere and Minneapolis families own several downtown Chicago bars just like the reverse is true. Minneapolis is nice, but no one significantly living in both would say Minneapolis is better.

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

Some might also point to Minneapolis. I personally don't like it much, but it does have a pretty good white collar economy with a lot of "creative class" industries. Note that in Chicago you meet a LOT of transplants from Michigan and Ohio, but very few from the Twin Cities.

[oakparkdude]

Another relevant post from the Urbanophile.
The Urbanophile » Blog Archive » Chicago: Corporate Headquarters and the Global City

[SJaye]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

They did predict that U.S. domestic oil production would peak in the early 70s, and then decline from the top of that bell curve. And that's exactly what happened. Scientists don't just make this stuff up. Sure, sometimes they are wrong. But sometimes they are also right.

I understand, but I feel like they are most likely correct when they are not sounding the alarm in something that appears somewhat emotionally driven. Something like the need for water treatment facilities, for example, comes across as a rational concern about overall public health. Nobody appears to be blowing up in tears and making films about the end of the world as we know it regarding this, they just state that we will have better health if we treat our water more thoroughly before allowing it to enter the water supply. The global warming hysteria, as well as water crisis, and other crisis predictions appear more emotional in nature, and remind me of all these incorrect predictions in the past, including stuff like Y2K, as there was theoretically a scientific reason why some of the predicted events would happen, but people took it to an emotional extreme.

Either way, I don't think my statement that I was concerned about Chicago's success being somewhat hampered by the relative failures of cities around them warranted this response, which comes across as elitist to me!

"OK, SJaye, I'm going to ask you to look at your words above that I highlighted.

Then I'm going to ask you to think about one word:"

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by Drover

Been to New Haven lately?

No. But I know it has its troubles and know it would be a lot worse without Yale.

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by edsg25

No. But I know it has its troubles and know it would be a lot worse without Yale.

Without Yale it would be Fall River.

[TrippingJay]

Originally Posted by movingsomewhere

Oh and do read my other topic at the Baltimore Forum about Chicago. People wanting to move in Chicago will be disappointed unless you make 100-150K a year (maybe). If you make more than that, why even consider this toilet?



Read on...

The Decline of Chicago: The City that Doesn't Work

The Decline of Chicago: The City that Doesn't Work | Newgeography.com

This "article" is perhaps one of the dumbest things I have ever read. It mentions the low enrollment of white children in Chicago Public Schools and the lack of Wal-Marts in the city as what's bringing the city down. The Enquirer could do a better job than this trash.