A Midwest without a viable Chicago: the implications? (Lincoln, Washington: crime rates, employment)

[FAReastcoast]

Originally Posted by BRU67

If you were to drop the typical Lincoln Parker off in Little Village, he would feel like he was in a foreign country. He wouldn't be able to wrap his brain around the fact that this exists in the same city. The social ignorance is eventually going to lead to some severe problems though. I can feel it.

I don't think you are giving people enough credit. LP is one of the most educated neighborhoods in the city, and I'd be the average LP'er understands the dynamics of Chicago, whether they choose to embrace them is another story.

[Clark&Addison]

Originally Posted by FAReastcoast

I don't think you are giving people enough credit. LP is one of the most educated neighborhoods in the city, and I'd be the average LP'er understands the dynamics of Chicago, whether they choose to embrace them is another story.

For the college students and recent college grads living in Lincoln Park this could not be further from the truth. Most of them have no concept of anything west of Clybourn or North of Wrigley Field.

As for the families in LP, many of them probably understand the rest of Chicago to a greater degree than the young transplants, especially those couples who grew up in the city or aren't part of the elite private school bubble.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by FAReastcoast

I don't think you are giving people enough credit. LP is one of the most educated neighborhoods in the city, and I'd be the average LP'er understands the dynamics of Chicago, whether they choose to embrace them is another story.

Yup, the "educated" did such a wonderful job grasping the mood of the country this past election cycle, LOL!

[BigLake]

Originally Posted by Republic of Michigan

Well in Detroit we like to say that Downtown Detroit and Midtown are doing quite well. The Southside of Chicago part, not so well.

Touche.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by BRU67

Chicago is very segregated. You can easily be blissfully ignorant of other cultures in this city and go about your merry way like you live in some wealthy suburb. If you are in this state and fortunate enough to live in one of our City's most glistening neighborhoods, the problems facing the rest of the city will seem distant and unreal to you. I like to call this social ignorance.

If you were to drop the typical Lincoln Parker off in Little Village, he would feel like he was in a foreign country. He wouldn't be able to wrap his brain around the fact that this exists in the same city. The social ignorance is eventually going to lead to some severe problems though. I can feel it.

I think the average Lincoln Parker is more aware of Pilsen than the average resident of K-Town is of Lincoln Park.

Certainly you have some very isolated persons in Lincoln Park (or Gold Coast or Lakeview or River North, etc), but as people of means they are more likely to have at least occasionally "slummed" in other parts of the city or read about them in the press than heavily impoverished people in places like K-Town or the poorest parts of the far South Side or Englewood are to have spent much time in the Gold Coast or Lincoln Park. There are kids in the poorest parts of Chicago who haven't even been to the beaches of Lake Michigan. People in Lincoln Park know there are places in Chicago with a lot of shootings. I suspect that there are residents of the parts of Chicago with a lot of shootings that don't realize there are parts of Chicago where shootings are rare or even virtually non-existent.

I won't disagree that even among Lincoln Parkers who are well-aware of the rest of Chicago who either don't care about those parts or just have no idea on how they could help so don't spend any time thinking about them. But more Lincoln Park residents are aware of the rest of the city than people usually give them credit for, they just don't care or feel just as powerless about how to change that as everyone else does.

To the original question of the thread:

If Chicago just completely failed and stopped being able to function as a global city it would hurt the Midwest. In the short term it would hurt the whole region. In the mid-term at least two other cities are well-positioned to pick up at least some of the slack. Minneapolis is pretty well-suited to pick up a fair bit of the business services sector that Chicago holds, and, somewhat ironically, Detroit is fairly well positioned to pick up a lot of the global manufacturing aspect of what Chicago does. It already has a lot of that and is just in Chicago's shadow, so it wouldn't be a huge stretch for it to resume its former title as middle America's manufacturing capital. To a certain extent Cleveland would also gain, though not as much. I don't think anywhere in the Midwest is well-positioned to pick up Chicago's trading and exchange-related finance industries - most of that would be lost forever to New York and, to a lesser extent Atlanta and San Francisco. Minneapolis has enough trading acumen from Cargill's hedging practice and a few other banking-related endeavors to take a shot at retaining some of that in the Midwest but I just don't think it has the scale to really defend it from being swallowed back into New York.

Kansas City would also likely gain from a failure of Chicago. Sadly, I think St. Louis is so far gone that it wouldn't gain much. Some, maybe, but in my opinion, St. Louis would actually end up even worse off and not be in a position to gain much immediately, and maybe not ever. I actually think Memphis and Denver would gain more from a failed Chicago than St. Louis would. Milwaukee is another place hard to tell. A failed Chicago would hurt Milwaukee a lot in the short term. And it has the bones to be able to gain in the mid-term, but depending on how badly the short term hurt hurt it, it may not be able to fully take advantage of new opportunities. So, yeah, Minneapolis and Detroit would be the biggest gainers I think. Indy would gain some, probably taking over as rail capital of the midwest, but not sure what else it is really positioned to be able to take over from Chicago.

As far as what in the South will be the next great Global City, I think Houston will do it. Maybe Dallas, but I think Houston is more likely. Especially if the oil sector doesn't completely collapse. Atlanta has some capability to do it, but I think Houston has the momentum at the moment.

[Chicago South Sider]

Yet another post from edsg25 about "Global Chicago" and "Third World Chicago." How very interesting. Maybe his dream about the north side becoming it's own city will happen. That way he doesn't have to keep saying the same thing over and over again.

[PerseusVeil]

Originally Posted by emathias

Sadly, I think St. Louis is so far gone that it wouldn't gain much. Some, maybe, but in my opinion, St. Louis would actually end up even worse off and not be in a position to gain much immediately, and maybe not ever.

What has brought you to this conclusion?

[compactspace]

It would be like the Titanic going down, with tremendous pull and suction. The Midwest would be hosed. Maybe Detroit and MSP could split the leavings between them.

And yes, I'd like to stop seeing 'Detroit' used as a pejorative. It's a fine old city with good bones that's getting back on its feet. I'd certainly take Detroit in preference to a sprawling sunbelt city.

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by Chicago South Sider

Yet another post from edsg25 about "Global Chicago" and "Third World Chicago." How very interesting. Maybe his dream about the north side becoming it's own city will happen. That way he doesn't have to keep saying the same thing over and over again.

South Sider, you've attacked me on many of those "yet-another-post(s)" that I make endless times. I have no need or desire to defend myself against you and your observations.

for the record (although it won't mean a darned thing to you), for anyone who has read my (endless) posts on C/D, it would be clear that I am hard left wing, strongly progressive/liberal. Indeed, I suspect many here would be totally uncomfortable with my perspective and would, likely correctly so, see me as an outlier.

Chicago is dysfunctional and is every American city in how it treats the issue of race and class. It is, IMHO, an abomination to see how much places like NYC and SF are there for the wealthy, the powerful, the entitled, and how others are squeezed out.

Nothing that I wrote in the original post or anywhere I wrote would give any indication that I would be happy to see the South and West sides morph into versions of the north, places that would become wealthier, white and more elite. I will let my own words from the second and third paragraphs of my original post speak for me:

Sadly intercity Chicago does die, the victim of an American society of winners and losers, a product of racist nation that still gropes with the insidious issues of race that have been with us since the birth of the republic, rooted in the colonial era with the first slaves brought ashore at Jamestown.

I'm not proud of that history, not am I proud of how it translates today in a xenophobic nation where white privilege still calls the shots (though vast parts of white America were clearly in rebellion last week as they finally felt the loses of said privilege and started to experience what people of color and other margainized American have felt for an eternity.

I think I have my position perfectly clear. And you are free to have and to express any assessment of me that you wish to add. But from my end, I have nothing further to say about the issue you raised.....and I won't say one more thing about it.

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by compactspace

It would be like the Titanic going down, with tremendous pull and suction. The Midwest would be hosed. Maybe Detroit and MSP could split the leavings between them.

And yes, I'd like to stop seeing 'Detroit' used as a pejorative. It's a fine old city with good bones that's getting back on its feet. I'd certainly take Detroit in preference to a sprawling sunbelt city.

If Detroit's leaders are smart, they should market the fact that Detroit has more vacant land available than any other Midwestern city... ripe for redevelopment!