Where do you see Chicago in the year 2020? (Berwyn: appointed, real estate)

[bahiabrazil]

...

[emathias]

That's only five years away. Not a lot changes in five years. The central area will be more populous, the city as a whole might be slightly more populous. Hopefully the pension crisis has some sort of painful but stable resolution. Other than that, what would you imagine might change much in five years?

[oakparkdude]

How about 2020 census guesses? Bookmark this thread and check back in 2021.

2010: 2,695,598
2013 (estimate): 2,718,782
2020: My guess is 2,814,423

[Lookout Kid]

Hopefully Doug Sohn will have a new restaurant by then.

[jwaiter]

I like the public spaces in current development, the 606 and M.D. Park, both will be nice additions to the city parks.

[atwain]

Flying, self-driving cars will be ubiquitous.

Because of global warming, there will be no polar vortex. Hell, it will rarely drop below 30 in the winter.

Chicagoans no longer segregate by race, because years and years ago we will have already interbred to such an extent that we're all just brownish mutts with every type of ancestry.

The public transit system will have been significantly extended to the south, west, and northwest.

Chicago and Milwaukee will have long ago merged into one large, contiguous metropolitan area.

Is that my forecast for 2020? No. I didn't answer your question because all I could think of is it will be roughly the exact same as today. 5 years isn't a lot of time, I'm guessing you're not even 20 years old.

But that is my forecast for 2220.

[midwest1]

I see things on a sustained upswing. Personally I hope Rauner wins...simply to throw a wrench into the machine that has done so much to damage the state.

That's a big if, as is the national economy, but the city's star seems to be back on the rise after some rough times. Tourism continues to boom, which is at a critical level when it becomes a virtual cycle. more visitors, more shoppers, more diners, more everything...leading to even more visitors. This will be accentuated by all of the new amazing public spaces coming online...Maggie Daley, 606, Riverwalk, Northerly Island. These attractions, all of them of the must see variety....will bring tons more suburbanites and non-downtown city dwellers in for more visits as well. International visitors and recognition will increase as well.

Bus Rapid transit will hopefully bring greater connectivity to the Loop. Population will continue to expand, as will the conception of what is downtown. The integration of Chinatown with downtown will gather pace with the Wentworth connector, accelerating the South Side's rise. All in all it appears like, as usual, Chicago is ready to forge ahead as it has always done.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by bahiabrazil

Where do you see Chicago in the year 2020?

My guess is it'll still be sitting on the southwest shore of Lake Michigan.

[chet everett]

Although it is only 5 years away there are lots of political forces that could have some significant impact on shifts for the better or worse.

While there is little reason to think Rahm won't retain his hold on the Mayor's office in the upcoming 2015 April election I don't see him doing the same after this term.

If Rauner wins the governor's race I suspect Chicago will not be allowed to foist all its pension woes on the rest of the state; if Quinn wins and forces the state into bankruptcy the resulting chaos for public employee pensions that will be settled by a court appointed receiver are a complete unknown. That could lead to some kind of crazy scenario out of a movie like RoboCop where everything is run by contracted third party profiteers.

The CPS situation will continue to deteriotate.

The levels of violence that we accept in the city's poorest neighborhoods will continue to be a plague upon the folks stuck in those areas.

Lack of employment will remain a huge problems for folks in those underclass areas.

Hordes of mindless post college types will continue to drive real estate and retailing in the northside areas.

The Cubs will still not win a World Series.

The Bulls will not add a championship.

The Bears will not make it to the Super Bowl.

The Sox will be tempted to move to another market.

The Blackhawks may hoist another Stanley Cup. Or two.

The firms that supply Divy bikes will continue to be supported by the city's non-transparent accounting. Arrogant and reckless bicycle riders will continue to flagrantly disregard safe traffic behaviors.

Pot holes will continue to be unaddressed.

CTA will continue to suffer from deferred maintenance.

It'll still be fun to be well off and enjoy the nicer things the city does offer in terms dining / entertainment / the arts.

[rzzzz]

There will be fifteen new residential towers. Someone will pick up the Spire project and it will be 12% complete.
In addition to the parks already mentioned, the new river walk will be 5 years old in 2020.
Uniqlo will have been around for five years. Everyone in Chicagoland will own multiple sets of heat tech underwear. The CEO of Uniqlo will praise Chicago as it's number one success story outside of Japan.
One of Chicago's celebrity chefs will have died of a heart attack.
Chief Keef will not rebound from being dropped from interscope and will become an unsanctioned radical islamic imam named mufti ke'eef.
The near-in suburbs will become even more Mexican, with a handful becoming Chinese, Korean and Indian enclaves. Berwyn will be 70% Mexican. The Mexican neighborhoods in the city will become less Mexican with the exception of Little Village.
A Chicago tech startup will have a 1 billion dollar exit. Most likely something like 640 Labs selling to a place like Monsanto, rather than a new social network selling to Google.