Illinois......are you staying or leaving? (Chicago, Belleville: 2015, apartment, lofts)

[Maintainschaos]

It would be absolutely absurd to try to trick oneself in believing that the current affairs afflicting the entire state weren't orchestrated by politicians from Chicago and the surrounding areas. And to think that an ailing state of Illinois wouldn't affect Chicago, *Illinois* is akin to sticking your head in the sand. The majority of that "debt weight" was charged by Chicago-area politicians on the state credit cards (or pension) systems.

[IrishIllini]

Originally Posted by dtcbnd03

I think we're talking past each other. I agree with you that Illinois and Chicago are two entirely separate things. Chicago is a strong diversified economic hub that is not going anywhere. But the rest of IL is not and once the rest of IL sinks it will be tough for Chicago to stay afloat when the rest of IL tosses them a $130 billion debt weight saying "You pay...we're outta here!" That's when Chicago's taxes will skyrocket (even further). So it may happen in two stages...IL crumbles....and then Chicago follows due to having to prop up the rest of the state.

If Illinois outside of Chicagoland ever gets to the "last one out turn off the lights" tipping point, it'll obviously hurt, but I don't see it happening. There are really only a handful of places outside of Chicagoland that have any "real" relevance in Illinois. Metro East, Champaign-Urbana, Springfield, the eastern part of the Quad Cities, Peoria, and Bloomington-Normal are pretty much it. St. Louis is making some gains which helps the eastern suburbs in Illinois. Champaign-Urbana and Bloomington-Normal are college towns with white collar jobs and medical facilities, and Springfield is Springfield. I do wonder about Peoria and the Quad Cities. Caterpillar seems to be erratic, but I think Peoria actually added people last year. I'm not really sure what's going on in the Quad Cities. Decatur has been Decatur for a while now, but ADM seems to be doing okay and the suburbs have held up fairly well. Mainly Forsyth and Mt. Zion. Other than that Decatur is awful.

Some of these places could very well see their populations trimmed a bit, but I don't foresee a mass exodus for any of them. They'll likely stagnate until they can rebound. Even Michigan and Ohio, two states that are no strangers to job loss, have managed to see their tax bases increase overtime. The situation in Springfield isn't doing us any favors though.

Originally Posted by Maintainschaos

It would be absolutely absurd to try to trick oneself in believing that the current affairs afflicting the entire state weren't orchestrated by politicians from Chicago and the surrounding areas. And to think that an ailing state of Illinois wouldn't affect Chicago, *Illinois* is akin to sticking your head in the sand. The majority of that "debt weight" was charged by Chicago-area politicians on the state credit cards (or pension) systems.

New York State and Pennsylvania (save the budget war) are in near identical positions. Deindustrialization in more rural, blue collar areas and job/wealth creation in their urban areas (NYC and Philly). Obviously Chicago politicians need to be concerned with what's happening throughout Illinois, but lets be honest...Chicago drives the bus. Public unions specifically need to be addressed and the wannabe King Madigan needs to be shown the door (and hopefully a jail cell), but Chicago and Illinois have the resources to address the debt and HOPEFULLY implement the necessary reform to stop this from happening again. As I've said before, PLEASE CALL YOUR STATE REP AND DEMAND THEY KICK MADIGAN TO THE CURB!

[froglipz]

Gone and glad!

[OyCrumbler]

Right, an Illinois with Chicago being the only bright spot, even if it is a large proportion of the state, isn't going to be good.

There seems to be a pretty limited number of bright spots. Metro East (the Illinois suburbs of St. Louis) are having surprisingly decent growth and St. Louis itself appears to have bottomed out and may actually be rebounding in population now, so this is potentially the brightest bit out there outside of Chicago even though East St. Louis is a bit of a mess. Urbana-Champaign is growing, but it's tiny. Decatur's at least trying something with the Midwest Inland Port, but it'll take a while to see if that really pans out. Rockford's had some pretty bad years recently, but I've heard that things seem to be turning for the better--it's too bad that Black Hawk Amtrak service didn't get finished as that probably would have been a good stepping stone to tying Rockford to the job market of Chicago's western suburbs with Metra in the future. A research university in Rockford would probably do wonders.

[Campfires]

Staying. I just bought a house in rural Antioch a couple hundred yards south of the state line. I'm only an hour to work in normal traffic and only make that trip a few times a month. The taxes are high but Wisconsin's are creeping higher. I can still get the Packer games from Milwaukee on the OTA antenna.

[Jimmyp25]

I left two years ago. Best decision I ever made. Bought a house within one year of leaving. My business I own does about double of what it did in Illinois. No State income Tax, No tax on my groceries, and the gas is about 80 cents to a dollar cheaper.

I return for the food and family.

[coldwine]

Chicago is my home.

I have been forced to live elsewhere for employment at various times/places, and for varying durations.

I do not want to have to relocate again.

For what I consider to be my home, I feel a responsibility to stay and deal with the problems in the state. I do not know what the solutions will be, but I know that I will be here to help my state and city.

Granted, that is a luxury I have because I do not have to consider children or extended family.

But I've lived around the globe, and it's murder everywhere. At some point, hokey though it sounds, you really do want to be a part of the solution.

[IrishIllini]

Originally Posted by coldwine

Chicago is my home.

I have been forced to live elsewhere for employment at various times/places, and for varying durations.

I do not want to have to relocate again.

For what I consider to be my home, I feel a responsibility to stay and deal with the problems in the state. I do not know what the solutions will be, but I know that I will be here to help my state and city.

Granted, that is a luxury I have because I do not have to consider children or extended family.

But I've lived around the globe, and it's murder everywhere. At some point, hokey though it sounds, you really do want to be a part of the solution.

[IrishIllini]

Originally Posted by Jimmyp25

I left two years ago. Best decision I ever made. Bought a house within one year of leaving. My business I own does about double of what it did in Illinois. No State income Tax, No tax on my groceries, and the gas is about 80 cents to a dollar cheaper.

I return for the food and family.

You've been schooled more than once now. Why are you still lurking around here? If your business is actually doing double the amount of work, I'd expect you to have little to no time to waste in the Illinois forums of City-Data. Go out an enjoy Austin/the Texas forums since it's so amahzing.

[PerseusVeil]

Originally Posted by IrishIllini

If Illinois outside of Chicagoland ever gets to the "last one out turn off the lights" tipping point, it'll obviously hurt, but I don't see it happening. There are really only a handful of places outside of Chicagoland that have any "real" relevance in Illinois. [b]Metro East, Champaign-Urbana, Springfield, the eastern part of the Quad Cities, Peoria, and Bloomington-Normal are pretty much it. St. Louis is making some gains which helps the eastern suburbs in Illinois.

Originally Posted by OyCrumbler

There seems to be a pretty limited number of bright spots. Metro East (the Illinois suburbs of St. Louis) are having surprisingly decent growth and St. Louis itself appears to have bottomed out and may actually be rebounding in population now, so this is potentially the brightest bit out there outside of Chicago even though East St. Louis is a bit of a mess. Urbana-Champaign is growing, but it's tiny. Decatur's at least trying something with the Midwest Inland Port, but it'll take a while to see if that really pans out. Rockford's had some pretty bad years recently, but I've heard that things seem to be turning for the better--it's too bad that Black Hawk Amtrak service didn't get finished as that probably would have been a good stepping stone to tying Rockford to the job market of Chicago's western suburbs with Metra in the future. A research university in Rockford would probably do wonders.

Not to be the bearer of bad news, but the Metro East is struggling like the rest of the state. The two largest counties that make up the bulk of the Metro East's population (St. Clair and Madison Counties) both contracted. The Metro East's largest city, Belleville, has also contracted and appears to be shifting into a lower economic bracket than it formerly was.

The contraction of the Metro East is actually hurting the St. Louis area, as the only county to post a decline on the Missouri side of the river was the city of St. Louis itself, which gets counted as a sort of county in these counts due to its independent city status. The geographic center in the metro is shifting further west thanks to a booming St. Charles County in Missouri, and St. Louis County's continued ability to poach jobs projects from the city of St. Louis.

Now I will say that the city of St. Louis is getting better, but don't count on its ability to somehow stabilize the Metro East. I also say this as a person who grew up in the area, btw.