Is all of the people leaving chicago give a reason to stay? (Bloomington: neighborhoods, school)

[BIG CATS]

Originally Posted by ToriaT

The "I need to leave Chicago disease" is catching...there are many reasons people want to leave, many legitimate. High taxes, they don't like the Democrats who run the State and they are red staters, crime, Mike Madigan, fear its going to be another Detroit, blah blah blah. But look before you leave. There are quite a few even on here that have bought into that and left only to come back. The grass is not greener on the other side. Any large world class city is going to have a high cost of living and probably high taxes. If you want to get away from that, fine, if you are happy living in places like Tennessee, go for it. I personally would not. I would not give you two cents for all the problems in California, Arizona and even Florida with its hurricanes and hot weather. Dust storms, heat, lack of water, wildfires, earthquakes, mud slides, flooding. No thanks.

You talk crazy.


Dust storms? Oooh, a little blowing dust for 10-15 minutes. So tough to deal with.


Heat? 3 solid months of ridiculous heat, 2 months of tolerable heat, 7 months of bliss. Picture your most beautiful May day with blue skies, low humidity, perfect temps. Yeah, that's our Oct/Nov/Dec/Jan/Feb/Mar weather.


Lack of water? Yes. We don't have enough for all the people moving here in the long term, but it is extremely well managed by APS and SRP. Look it up sometime. They constantly divert water to reservoirs for storage in case of emergencies. Golf courses use only reclaimed water, as do car washes. AZ is VERY good with water usage.


Wildfires? You guys get em in the Midwest, too. Same for Georgia. Same for Alaska. Same for Minnesota. Same for Florida. Its not a unique thing out West.


Earthquakes? CA, yes. You sit on the New Madrid Fault line. Be prepared when that thing awakens. Don't think CHI is immune from quakes, because its not.


Mud slides? Only in tiny areas of CA. None in AZ.


Flooding? No one from the Midwest should harp on others about flooding issues. Ever.

[DoseTheClowns5]

Originally Posted by BIG CATS

You talk crazy.


Dust storms? Oooh, a little blowing dust for 10-15 minutes. So tough to deal with.


Heat? 3 solid months of ridiculous heat, 2 months of tolerable heat, 7 months of bliss. Picture your most beautiful May day with blue skies, low humidity, perfect temps. Yeah, that's our Oct/Nov/Dec/Jan/Feb/Mar weather.


Lack of water? Yes. We don't have enough for all the people moving here in the long term, but it is extremely well managed by APS and SRP. Look it up sometime. They constantly divert water to reservoirs for storage in case of emergencies. Golf courses use only reclaimed water, as do car washes. AZ is VERY good with water usage.


Wildfires? You guys get em in the Midwest, too. Same for Georgia. Same for Alaska. Same for Minnesota. Same for Florida. Its not a unique thing out West.


Earthquakes? CA, yes. You sit on the New Madrid Fault line. Be prepared when that thing awakens. Don't think CHI is immune from quakes, because its not.


Mud slides? Only in tiny areas of CA. None in AZ.


Flooding? No one from the Midwest should harp on others about flooding issues. Ever.

Ummm we don't get wildfires on the Midwest. Even the super dry year of 2012 is childs play compared to the West.
Now granted if someone wants to have their life ruined then staying in Chicago would be a good choice.

[RamenAddict]

Originally Posted by BIG CATS

You talk crazy.


Dust storms? Oooh, a little blowing dust for 10-15 minutes. So tough to deal with.


Heat? 3 solid months of ridiculous heat, 2 months of tolerable heat, 7 months of bliss. Picture your most beautiful May day with blue skies, low humidity, perfect temps. Yeah, that's our Oct/Nov/Dec/Jan/Feb/Mar weather.


Lack of water? Yes. We don't have enough for all the people moving here in the long term, but it is extremely well managed by APS and SRP. Look it up sometime. They constantly divert water to reservoirs for storage in case of emergencies. Golf courses use only reclaimed water, as do car washes. AZ is VERY good with water usage.


Wildfires? You guys get em in the Midwest, too. Same for Georgia. Same for Alaska. Same for Minnesota. Same for Florida. Its not a unique thing out West.


Earthquakes? CA, yes. You sit on the New Madrid Fault line. Be prepared when that thing awakens. Don't think CHI is immune from quakes, because its not.


Mud slides? Only in tiny areas of CA. None in AZ.


Flooding? No one from the Midwest should harp on others about flooding issues. Ever.

I just went to NM in May and I thought I was going to die because of the low humidity and dust. I have an extreme dust allergy. My head was pounding and I just kept having to take puffs from my rescue inhaler while my nose kept bleeding. If that is a “perk” of AZ and NM, you can keep it.

[Irishtom29]

I wouldn’t waste any of my time defending Chicago. Why care what people from their places think?

[SkylarkPhotoBooth]

OP, your question is based on a false premise ("mass exodus from Chicago") and therefore can't be answered logically. I think you probably know that.

[SkylarkPhotoBooth]

Originally Posted by Rambo2018

I have noticed Chicago suburbs are so much nicer than other cities I think because they feed off of Chicago's richness so the suburbs are nicer than other mid size cities.

I would say Chicago has certainly has *some* very wealthy ("nice" if you prefer) suburbs, and logically more than smaller cities (though there are also very wealthy suburbs outside of Indy, Detroit, and Kansas City, among other places in the Midwest), but most of Chicago's suburbs look pretty similar to most suburbs of other cities to me.

I'm also not sure what you mean by comparing Chicago to "other mid sized cities," when it's the 3rd largest city in the country. Would you also call Houston a mid-sized city? L.A.? I would call these all large cities. I'd call Omaha, Tulsa, Grand Rapids, and Albuguerque "mid sized cities." I guess that's a matter of semantics, though.

For what it's worth, the three highest-income counties in the U.S. are all in suburban Washington DC (two in Virginia, one in Maryland).

[Rambo2018]

I'm also not sure what you mean by comparing Chicago to "other mid sized cities," when it's the 3rd largest city in the country. Would you also call Houston a mid-sized city? L.A.? I would call these all large cities. I'd call Omaha, Tulsa, Grand Rapids, and Albuguerque "mid sized cities." I guess that's a matter of semantics, though.

I could have explained better I was looking for a mid size city like Chicago so would have a nice downtown ,architecture, history , good transportation. Just not as dense and populated.

I might need to check out Omaha.

[SkylarkPhotoBooth]

Originally Posted by Rambo2018

I could have explained better I was looking for a mid size city like Chicago so would have a nice downtown ,architecture, history , good transportation. Just not as dense and populated.

I might need to check out Omaha.

Omaha (and the other examples I gave) are all *much* smaller than Chicago, which is why I called them mid-sized cities. These are cities with metro areas of roughly 700,000 to a million people. I would say "small cities" have maybe 100,000 to 300,000, or certainly at least under 500,000, but maybe that's just me. Chicago has 2.5 million in the city and 9-10 million in the metro. Perhaps in China that would be "mid sized," but I think just about anywhere else that would be large. I used Houston and L.A. as comparisons to Chicago because they rank directly below and above (respectively) Chicago in city population. If you consider Chicago "mid-sized" you'd have to call those cities mid-sized, too-- unless you want to argue that the US only has two "large" cities (NYC and LA), in which case you'd still have to call Houston mid-sized for ranking below Chicago in both city and metro populations.

[Sunbiz1]

Interesting article on relocation:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.dea2297793ad


While Chicago may not gain population, it doesn't appear those already here are leaving in droves.

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by Rambo2018

I could have explained better I was looking for a mid size city like Chicago so would have a nice downtown, architecture, history, good transportation. Just not as dense and populated.

Cleveland might fill the bill.