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No it hasn't. The Governor's Office and Senate was Republican from 1992-02, and they even had a trifecta in the mid-1990s, controlling the governor's office, house, and senate.
It's been mostly fully blue since 2002, though we had a Republican governor as recently as last term.
And.......as recently as 2012 Republicans held the majority of US house seats in Illinois (11 out of 19 seats). The redistricting gerrymandering by the Democratic Illinois legislature after the 2010 census along with the loss of yet another house seat doomed Republicans. Including my representatives in District 10 that had been Republican since 1981. Ugh! Also, there have been two Republican US senators from Illinois since 2000. The decent into the deep blue abyss state-wide has been a swift and recent phenomena. Chicago of course has been a lost cause forever.
Interesting tidbit is that Illinois once had 27 US house seats. In the next election in 2022 it will have 17. It has been losing seats consistently for many decades. Illinois is not holding its own in the population race.
arizona just passed a TAX REDUCTION...please confirm your talking points ahead of time..
and Arizona has had legal medical weed for a very long time, and legal recreational only missed by a couple of percentage points in 2016, and that had NOTHING to do with Republicans or Democrats...
You are the opposite if me. I would move back in a hot second.
Texas has outsized power in deciding which textbooks students in the rest of the country see. Because the market is so large, Texas has used that power to promote conservative themes in history textbooks, de-emphasize evolution in science textbooks, and generally dumb things down.
Texas ranks first in percentage of uninsured children, fourtth in percentage of children living in poverty, first in percentage of population uninsured, first in percentage of non-elderly uninsured, 49th in percent of low Income population covered by Medicaid, 48th in percent of population with employer-based healthcare, 49th in per capita spending on Medicaid, and fourth in percent living below the poverty level. Oh, and Texas is almost always first in executions.
Texas ranks first in 1st in carbon dioxide emissions, volatile organic compounds released into the air, amount of toxic chemicals released into the water, amount of recognized cancer causing carcinogens released into the air, and amount of hazardous waste generated.
Texas has the fourth highest teen birth rate in America and are dead last in first-trimester prenatal care. 52 out of every 1,000 teens in Texas will give birth this year.
Texas is dead last in voter turnout and 48th in voter registration.
Texas has the 7th highest number of people living below the poverty line.
Only 17% of Texans have a bachelor's degree and a mere 8% have a graduate degree.
Texas has the fourth highest bankruptcy rate in the country.
Texas has brutal, sweltering summers that last anywhere from 5-7 months of the year
Most of what you mentioned is just demographics, location, and because Texas has a lot of blue collar jobs (which explains the low rates of higher education). The areas close to the border are basically like Mexico. If you are middle class, none of this affects you, but it's still shocking that this is happening in a first world country like the US.
My main complaints with Illinois were mostly Chicago specific due to dysfunction and lousy management. Below are a list of things that I'm referring to.
Utility workers dug up a portion of my street and left the metal plate there for 6mo. Because there is no oversight from the city, no one forced the utility company to patch the road and remove the metal plate. Meanwhile, here in Texas they dug up the road near me for some water pipes a few weeks ago. The repairs were done within a days and the road looked as good as new a few days after that.
There is no police or security on CTA so people smoking, selling drugs, and committing crimes is a common occurrence.
The Illinois Secretary of State still doesn't have a functioning appointment system, almost two years into the pandemic. This forces people to wait for hours to get anything done. Texas has had an appointment system for years.
The post office in Chicago is an embarrassment. Lazy, rude workers who act like they are doing you a favor by helping customers.
Chicago Police won't even show up most of the time you call them. My upstairs neighbors were having a loud physical altercation, so I called CPD. They never showed up. Thankfully the boyfriend didn't murder the girlfriend.
Roads are crumbling and viaducts and overpasses are rusty and look like they will fall apart at any time. Some people blame weather but I've been to Minnesota and Wisconsin plenty of times and their roads aren't terrible.
Speed and red light cameras installed everywhere. The mayor even lowered the threshold to give out speed tickets so the city gets more money. It's just a blatant cash grab with "safety" as the excuse.
Illinois and Chicago ruins everything. They messed up the legalization of marijuana which is probably the easiest thing to not mess up.
There are always new taxes to make people cover the BS pensions that were a scam from the beginning.
Texas certainly has problems but I feel that the state and the city where I live actually runs well. It's so much healthier from a mental health perspective living here rather than in Chicago.
Quote:
Originally Posted by thefallensrvnge
I guess it depends on what you can tolerate. I personally can't stand oppressively hot summers, endless suburban-style sprawl and car culture, poor walkability, hence Texas is not a great match.
I stay in Chicago because I love having public transit, the pre-war architecture, the history, and the city is still a solid place for opportunity. Plus the built urban environment, amenities combined with the cost of living in Chicago is hard to match in this country. And it's good to know the city is growing and other people are seeing the value of living here.
The summers here are brutal and I definitely miss Chicago summers, but I'd much rather deal with scorching Texas heat than 6mo of cold weather in Chicago.
The public transit is nice but I never found it to be very useful where I lived (Bridgeport). The architecture is really cool but I hated living in those old buildings. My last building had some really cool stained glass windows but what you don't realize is that they let in tons of cold air in the winter and cause the heating bill to be $200/mo. It also means you can hear every little noise outside. There were always plumbing and electrical problems and modern conveniences like dishwashers and in-unit washer and dryer are pretty rare. These are all standard in Texas, even in crappy apartments in the hood.
I think you just have to weigh what matters in life. I moved back to Texas because I started to hate living in a big city. I hated being around sketchy people on CTA, hated hearing people on the streets, and hated dealing with mobs of people everywhere. I no longer have to deal with any of that in Texas, so I'm much happier. But at the same time I could see how someone would be miserable here if they enjoy big cities with walkability.
And.......as recently as 2012 Republicans held the majority of US house seats in Illinois (11 out of 19 seats). The redistricting gerrymandering by the Democratic Illinois legislature after the 2010 census along with the loss of yet another house seat doomed Republicans. Including my representatives in District 10 that had been Republican since 1981. Ugh! Also, there have been two Republican US senators from Illinois since 2000. The decent into the deep blue abyss state-wide has been a swift and recent phenomena. Chicago of course has been a lost cause forever.
Interesting tidbit is that Illinois once had 27 US house seats. In the next election in 2022 it will have 17. It has been losing seats consistently for many decades. Illinois is not holding its own in the population race.
Yup. Very swift. IL was very Republican outside Chicago. Until it wasn't. I predict the same thing is going to happen in Texas, Arizona, and probably Florida too. The demographic changes are happening too fast.
I think you just have to weigh what matters in life. I moved back to Texas because I started to hate living in a big city. I hated being around sketchy people on CTA, hated hearing people on the streets, and hated dealing with mobs of people everywhere. I no longer have to deal with any of that in Texas, so I'm much happier. But at the same time I could see how someone would be miserable here if they enjoy big cities with walkability.
Which kind of sums of my feelings about places like Dallas and the rest of the sunbelt. They're great cities...for people who hate cities. But let's face it, the American mentality and desired lifestyle is predominantly suburban, so I can see why Dallas developed the way it did. However, luckily in this country, we have places like Chicago and New York for those who love the urban city.
Which kind of sums of my feelings about places like Dallas and the rest of the sunbelt. They're great cities...for people who hate cities. But let's face it, the American mentality and desired lifestyle is predominantly suburban, so I can see why Dallas developed the way it did. However, luckily in this country, we have places like Chicago and New York for those who love the urban city.
Before the pandemic my company had a manager fly in from Phoenix to train us for about 4 weeks. She was staying in a hotel in the loop. We asked her what she thought about Michigan AVe, Millennium Park, Grant Park. She said she hadn't walk around the loop or ventured outside her hotel much, taste of Chicago was going on at the time. She said she wasn't much of a walker. Never met her neighbors in 10 years living in Phoenix. We all thought that was strange because she seemed friendly.
[quote=lepoisson;61735557]Most of what you mentioned is just demographics, location, and because Texas has a lot of blue collar jobs (which explains the low rates of higher education). The areas close to the border are basically like Mexico. If you are middle class, none of this affects you, but it's still shocking that this is happening in a first world country like the US.
My main complaints with Illinois were mostly Chicago specific due to dysfunction and lousy management. Below are a list of things that I'm referring to.
Utility workers dug up a portion of my street and left the metal plate there for 6mo. Because there is no oversight from the city, no one forced the utility company to patch the road and remove the metal plate. Meanwhile, here in Texas they dug up the road near me for some water pipes a few weeks ago. The repairs were done within a days and the road looked as good as new a few days after that.
There is no police or security on CTA so people smoking, selling drugs, and committing crimes is a common occurrence.
The Illinois Secretary of State still doesn't have a functioning appointment system, almost two years into the pandemic. This forces people to wait for hours to get anything done. Texas has had an appointment system for years.
The post office in Chicago is an embarrassment. Lazy, rude workers who act like they are doing you a favor by helping customers.
Chicago Police won't even show up most of the time you call them. My upstairs neighbors were having a loud physical altercation, so I called CPD. They never showed up. Thankfully the boyfriend didn't murder the girlfriend.
Roads are crumbling and viaducts and overpasses are rusty and look like they will fall apart at any time. Some people blame weather but I've been to Minnesota and Wisconsin plenty of times and their roads aren't terrible.
Speed and red light cameras installed everywhere. The mayor even lowered the threshold to give out speed tickets so the city gets more money. It's just a blatant cash grab with "safety" as the excuse.
Illinois and Chicago ruins everything. They messed up the legalization of marijuana which is probably the easiest thing to not mess up.
There are always new taxes to make people cover the BS pensions that were a scam from the beginning.
Texas certainly has problems but I feel that the state and the city where I live actually runs well. It's so much healthier from a mental health perspective living here rather than in Chicago.
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I lived in Evanston, in Uptown and in Skokie in the Chicago area, so I admit my experience was different from yours.
I live in Pearland, Tx outside Houston so my experience here is different from yours too.
Not sure where you live in Texas that roads get repaired so quickly - that has not been my experience in Houston and if you like to walk in Houston, the sidewalks are totally a mess.
Cops are the same everywhere too. They tend to show up in wealthy neighborhoods when called but not in poorer areas. True in Houston as much as in Chicago.
I cannot speak to the red light cameras - I believe they are gone in both Chicago and Houston currently.
As for mental health, you can get services in the Chicago are you cannot get here. I have an autistic grandson who had much better services in Evanston and Skokie than he has here, but I will admit that we have pushed and gotten good services for him in his schools in Pearland.
Houston crime is only getting worse and the fact that people can carry without permits and without training (as of September) has made it worse - road rage is out of hand here.
Census is showing Chicago grew by 50,000 people over the last decade which seems to be good news as I think many were expecting losses. Slow growth, but it is growth. Thoughts? Is this a continuing trend for the next decade?
Honestly surprised, had been reading that Illinois was one of the states that had lost the most people, but Chicago gaining in population is good news.
Which kind of sums of my feelings about places like Dallas and the rest of the sunbelt. They're great cities...for people who hate cities. But let's face it, the American mentality and desired lifestyle is predominantly suburban, so I can see why Dallas developed the way it did. However, luckily in this country, we have places like Chicago and New York for those who love the urban city.
Unfortunately, those places have such high cost of living, I have a very well paying job, but would not be able to afford to live there as the houses have such astronomical prices. You have to be upper upper middle class or rich to be able to live in the areas that are not plagued by high crime or that have nice looking homes.
With that being said, I really do hate Houston, but it’s affordable. Unfortunately, I’ll have to stay here for a few more years to save enough to be able to afford a decent looking house even in the suburbs that are closer to Chicago.
Honestly surprised, had been reading that Illinois was one of the states that had lost the most people, but Chicago gaining in population is good news.
The thing is Illinois as a state is not an attractive place to live for that many people. The only major draw for Illinois is Chicago. So when the politics/financial situation of the overall state is horrible, it doesn't make much sense for people who live in parts of Illinois outside of Chicago to stay. Even if one does prefer Illinois as a setting, Indiana is basically just a financially saner Illinois.
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