Population dropoff (Chicago, Aurora, Naperville: real estate, apartment complexes, insurance)

[oakparkdude]

Its not just poor people who are moving out of the city. Its a fairly common trend for young professionals to live in the city during their single years and pre-kid married years, and then move to the burbs for the schools when the kids are older. We live in (relatively pricy) Oak Park, and our block is full of families who recently moved from Chicago for the Oak Park school system.

[EugeneBKLYN]

Originally Posted by j33

The lower income residents of chicago are moving a lot to the south suburbs and nw indiana, where it is cheaper to buy a house or rent a house than it is in the city. If you look at housing prices in places like Cal. City, Harvey, etc. You'd see that. That being said, these are not necessarily nice places to live ... and to address Eugene - yes, there are studios for 450 a month in certain parts of town, but if you've got a family, and you can get housing with more than one room right on the train line for not much more money (a lot of the southern burbs are on the Metra Electric line that runs through the south side ... I'm very familiar with this train line, I rode it throughout my teenage years), in a neighborhood that is just as marginal, why live in the studio? Growing up I knew many families that left the city looking for cheaper housing and better neighborhoods. Unfortunately, a lot of the problems that plagued their rough south-side neighborhoods followed them.

Originally Posted by domergurl

A lot of the low income residents who were displaced because of their housing being torn down, are now in NW Indiana (Gary, East Chicago, Hammond). The crime rates, which were bad anyway, are now skyrocketing and the Chicago police are actually helping out the local police departments in trying to fight off what will be a very violent summer.

Interesting situation.
It's really a sad thing that people have to be displaced from the places they love to live.

Originally Posted by bigjersey

I don't see why Chicago isn't affordable for most anybody. I checked out a few apartment listings which have some nice furnished studio apartments for around 450/m. Are the rents climbing that fast?

Yes and No. A mother and five children can't live in a studio, but it certainly more affordable than New York for singles and small families. Chicago is developing more like Paris or London than New York, with a wealthy urban core, poorer inner suburbs, followed by more affluent satellite suburbs/cities. The subsidized housing in Chicago was developed in the 1950's and 60's during the great migration of blacks from the south. They developed on huge city blocks in the heart of the city (Sort of like Alphabet City). But unlike Alphabet City, they never made the switch to middle class. These projects created huge ghettos of urban poverty directly next to some of the finest neighborhoods in town. They were a utopian vision gone wrong. They became so dilapidated and crime ridden that over the last eight years or so Chicago has knocked them all down. Instead the Chicago Housing Authority is following the modern trend of setting aside a certain percentage of new developments for low income residents. Still, I hear rumors of an exodus of the city's urban poor to some inner suburbs/cities (from the suburban residents). I've heard on NPR that the transition out of the blighted ghetto has enabled some former CHA residents to break the cycle of poverty. Maybe when poverty is less "dense", crime goes down, violence goes down, and families are no longer bogged down by a ghetto mindset. BUT maybe it just stays the same: "out of sight, out of mind". Only time will tell. BTW, ever been to parts White Plains, NY or parts of Newark, NJ. Those suburbs/satellite cities are poor and cheap too.[/quote]

I see. What do you think the future holds for Chicago? Do you think the gentrification will continue, and sap out the poorest of residents from the city?

I hear that alot of people from Chicago's black community are moving to Minneapolis because of some welfare benefits, is that true?

Originally Posted by Steve-o

$450 a month will net you a crap studio in a not-so-desirable area.

Uptown, Lincoln Park, Lakeview. Are these areas not-so-desirable?

[j33]

You aren't going to find studios at that price these days in those areas, at one point you could, but now? not so much. When I first lived in Chicago in the early 90's, I never paid more than $250 a month for my share of the rent (my roommate and I would divide large one bedroom apartments with formal dining rooms into to two bedroom apartments (who needs a formal dining room when you are 20 years old). It wasn't until I got older and into my midtwenties and I wanted more of my own space and was making a bit more money that I started renting a whole one bedroom to myself.

If you want to see exactly what you can get these days for 450 in chicago, type that into craiglist, you won't find much.

[EugeneBKLYN]

http://www.rent.com/rentals/illinois...1&searchrank=1

[j33]

I didn't say that they don't exist, I simply said that they were hard to come by, few and far between, and often with problems that are not immediately apparent from the rental site.

[EugeneBKLYN]

That's a shame.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by EugeneBKLYN

Low income residents moving to the suburbs?

...What?

What kind of suburbs line around Chicago? Are they like smaller cities?
Because New York's suburbs are just houses lined up for blocks on end, which are more expensive than buying a home in the city proper because of taxes, I think. BUT more bang for the buck.

Over here the low-income residents have no choice but to live in the city. They can't afford to live in the suburbs. lol...

I don't see why Chicago isn't affordable for most anybody. I checked out a few apartment listings which have some nice furnished studio apartments for around 450/m. Are the rents climbing that fast?

Yes. That's what's happening. There's a back to the city movement and it's bringing smaller and more affluent households. The City has also undertaken a massive program to eliminate the CHA housing projects and replace them with luxury townhomes (artificial or forced gentrification of sorts). The marginally incomed are, of course, being pushed out. The South Suburbs have primarily been absorbing the displaced and have been hit hard. These communities do not have sophisticated police departments or the resources to battle the issues the displacement is causing. They're on their heels. It is somewhat of a mess at this point and, many argue, very irresponsible of Chicago. The CPD definitely should help these suburbs.

[Drover]

This whole thread is based on the premise that the 2005 census estimate is accurate, which they are known not to be. It is, after all, merely an estimate and not an actual count. In a few years we'll have a better idea of the actual story is.

[Milliano]

From http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/su/maps/chi2000.html

[mdz]

very interesting map, thanks for the post. Not surprisingly, most of the loss in population is in the economically depressed west side and south side. Tearing down the housing complexes probably is the biggest reason for that.

Eugene--I know that building on magnolia and unless things have changed considerably in last few years, that's not a place you want to live. trust me.

Bottom line, the metro area population keeps increasing, nowhere near what's happening out west, but enough to keep us economically intact. Still a great area to live and work in.