Opinion: Chicago Will Rise Again! (Winfield, Highland: sales, loan, new home)

[fusion2]

Mod cut: Quoted post deleted.

I hope Chicago does turn around and starts growing again, I really do. It is far more interesting than the sunbelt cities growing fast down there. It just hasn't been doing so for some time in any meaningful way, so it looks like this will continue. Probable but not guaranteed! Toronto has been however, so it is more probable its growth will continue more so than Chicago will turn a dime.. You seem to have been triggered by my post just because i'm from Toronto it appears lol. I mean it was others who brought T.O in here. I didn't come in and start that but its ok I can take it if you need to let off steam through a Canadian haha.

The point of my post was to get individuals to look more critically at the population metrics they are using. Using a CSA/MSA type measure to compare against CAD cities is total folly. Why? Because Canada doesn't use the same population metrics as the U.S for population statistics via Stats Canada. Put this way, if the U.S used Canadian population metrics, their cities metro population would decrease substantially. In reverse, if CAD cities used MSA/CSA metrics, our cities metro populations would swell because MSA/CSA measure are more expansive and more liberally include adjacent towns and cities.

So I was trying to get people to look into things further which is why I provided more corollary information comparing the Toronto region to The Chicago CSA/MSA region. Apparently, that was triggering for to you for some odd reason. I do know Toronto anchors a much larger region than just 6.3 million people, heck the Greater Toronto and Hamilton urban area alone is 7.3 million and it is contiguous, let alone using MSA/CSA measures which would add more still.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greate..._Hamilton_Area

If you used those stats and drew a more apples to apples comparison, than you can start comparing things more accurately including stuff like GDP.

So best comparison to the Chicago MSA/CSA that y'all use to measure you population down there vis a vie Toronto is not the 6.3 million that is being touted, it is the Golden Horsehoe and Greater Golden Horseshoe measures. Once we establish a fair apples to apples measure, then you can start fairly comparing things like GDP. Y'all compare your cities to everyone else using your measures, but not applying same to foreign city you compare to. I notice that about Americans in these forums

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[Suesbal]

Come back, Mr. Daley. All is forgiven.

[artillery77]

Regarding the corruption, I was talking with an attorney from Chicago who is now out here and we were comparing corruption in Chicago vs Silicon Valley. Both have corruption, but the reputation of the two areas couldn't be different. Silicon Valley corruption is centered around capital markets. No other area in the world has figured out how to sell money losing organizations like we have. This predominantly hits the rich...and frankly most of the time they have no idea. Either a business went solid, or it didn't. Chicago on the other hand hits right at the movement of every common person. The reason why you can't have more innovative companies in Chicago is that the remainders of the machine and unions will suck all the capital dry before there's even a chance to have something big to steal. Hence...people don't start up (as much) in Chicago as they do other areas. That leaves the city on the commodity end of products....which a century of distribution leadership has allowed it to do....but the corruption is literally changing the opportunities available to the city by being so pervasive that capital for startups simply won't flow there to nearly the degree it will other areas.



Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love Chicago....but the only way the city will be able to change course is to break corruption....and to break some of the huge beneficiaries of inflated costs (ahem...unions). That's going to be tough to do. If it can though, and the shackles are freed...you will have money pouring into the city with the talented workforce, solid universities and rich home market. You start getting that money in and like it or hate it...gentrification starts making those problem neighborhoods go away. Remember when you wouldn't walk through Humboldt Park in the daytime?


Good luck Chicago!!!

[CamThomas]

I sure hope so

[dcisive]

All one has to do is look at the historical record of the city over the last 50 years. It's only gone in ONE direction (spoiler alert not up). With the world and this country's turmoil just getting warmed up, don't look for positive change in a major way anytime soon. I don't call that pessimism. I call it reality. Like I said just look at the record and government behind it. Do you really expect it to change? Ah heck, just go have a Guiness or two and watch a game and forget about it. You can't control what's happening, but you can at least control your reaction. That's about all you can do.

[Master Jay]

dcisive, if we you're okay with substituting the Guiness with a Cabernet, then I AM IN!

[dcisive]

Originally Posted by Master Jay

dcisive, if we you're okay with substituting the Guiness with a Cabernet, then I AM IN!

If the day ever came when our path crossed, it would be my pleasure to treat to a fine bottle of Cabernet. I spent 10 years out in California and came to enjoy the stuff. An Irish pub in Portland many years ago got me hooked on Guiness as well. What the heck, it's all good.

[Master Jay]

dcisive, thank you. Whatever it be, we shall toast to:

The Rise of Chicago, Again!

[Hochita]

Wouldn't say it fell off...more like other places have closed the gap (and conversely, the gap between Chi and NY or LA has widened).

Agree with personone regarding homicides and absolute numbers worse than NY and LA combined...it's a horrible look for the city and it's underemphasized. Never mind what Bmore, St. Louis, New Orleans, etc. are doing; NY and LA are what you want to be compared to.

[Avondalist]

Originally Posted by artillery77

You start getting that money in and like it or hate it...gentrification starts making those problem neighborhoods go away.

To use a Silicon Valley quip, preventing the spread of gentrification with corruption and violence is a feature, not a bug, for those who would be displaced.