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Visualizing The Collapse Of Chicago's Middle Class
As Daniel Kay Hertz explains, the goal of these maps is not merely to depress you (you’re welcome!), but to suggest just how dramatically the reality of Chicago’s “two cities” has changed over the last few generations, how non-eternal its present state is, and that a happier alternate reality isn’t just possible, but actually existed relatively recently.
Daniel Kay Hertz goes on to note, he feels relatively comfortable telling the story of how Chicago came to be so segregated by race; but is much humbler about his ability to explain this, except inasmuch as the ever-widening ghetto of the affluent could not exist without, yes, radically exclusionary housing laws.
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One last piece: the obvious and immediate reaction to these maps is to see them as a direct consequence of rising income inequality. There is some truth to that, but the researchers from which much of this data came have already discovered that income segregation has actually risen faster than inequality. So that’s not the end of the story.
Anyway, here you go: the disappearance of Chicago’s middle-class and mixed-income neighborhoods since 1970, measured by each Census tract’s median family income as a percentage of the median family income for the Chicago metropolitan region as a whole.
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As someone who has lived in Lakeview for the last 5 years I can confirm this... amazing food and culture. The green part of Chicago is awesome. I have however been caught in the middle of the south red and west red spots and it is one of the most terrifying things you'll ever go through. It's anarchy.
Typical American hyperbole. You want to see real violence come travel down with me to Brazil or South Africa. There are parts of Chicago that are terrible (ditto Philly where I live outside of) but you can instantly tell when American hasn't traveled outside the country much or if they have only to vacation spots that are highly secured or places in Europe.
Where the South Side of Chicago would surprise/horrify people is from European countries or other places like Japan, Australia, S. Korea, or NZ that just don't have the kind of concentrated poverty and violence.
Conceal carry went into effect in IL starting January 1st and crime is already down including shootings and murders.
If they keep it up, the city finally has a chance.
Or at least it's a step in the right direction.
Chicago is Detroit 'blah blah blah.' It certainly has its problem especially the school system and pension obligations but it is far from Detroit too. As for crime, literally the one stat you can't really code away is murders and the murder rate in Chicago.
Murder rate last year was it lowest in raw terms since '65 and under half of what it was per capita at its peak in the '74 (29 per 100,000). Same kind of idiots who tell you crime is out of control in Chicago and how 'great and safe it was 70s/80s' are the same dopes who try to tell me the same thing about a city like Philly. It drives my uncle who was a homicide cop in Philly and had to deal with the epidemic of violence in Philly during the 80s nuts especially due to homicides from the drug-fueled violence/Philly mob wars after Angelo Bruno was assasinated in '80.
95% of the murders occur in small pockets of the reddest parts of that map. Not to many Lincoln Park Trixies jacking Wicker Park Hipsters
Bigger issue for Chicago is that povertyis more concentrated but this isn't only unique to Chicago but has occurred in almost every American city too. Once you get away from the partisan stuff and 'who is to blame' crap and mudslinging which is up and down this thread, the research shows that getting out and succeeding in a neighborhood where at least 20% or more the residents experience 'poverty' is incredibly difficult for multiple reasons.
If the US is to ever hope to be competitive again, one half to two thirds of our fellow citizens will need a brain transplant. Since that is not going to happen, we will need to resort to plan B.
Clawbacks People!
Just because uglyness occurred to you in slow motion doesn't mean you can't take it back by being ugly in a shorter timescale.
Constitutional Convention Coming.
"Constitutional Convention Coming"
Is this a good thing or bad thing? Methinks the latter.
Animated GIF of the racial composition of Chicago over time.
When my grandfather came to the America almost a century ago, he first arrived in a nice Czech community on the West Side called North Lawndale.
Others moved in later and burned much of it to the ground, the neighborhood of greystones that the good, civilized Czechs built.
Criminal gangs like the Vice Lords are the shock troops of ethnic cleansing.
I only have been there once and visited about 6 years ago out in the suburbs which are quite nice. The one thing I notied on the freeway was tool and die plus machining. My guess is there were lots of German and Czech too and die men. They are among the best and exactly what is needed for manufacturing. The place is a hell hole now.
Detroit's airport was much nicer and Chicago's O'Hare was old and grimy. The only thing memroable was a tall late 20's spanish woman with auburn hair waiting in the line next to us on an Iberia Air flight. She was gorgeous.
Freddie, you gotta hit that shit whenever you can.
Chicago, it just breaks your heart to see this great city on the ropes. The Great Depression of the 1930s hit Chicago like no other town, such that no skyscrapers were built downtown until Prudential went up in the early 1950s. Chicago was ground zero for GD 1.
I escaped Illinois for the Washington Territory.
Having lived in Chicago. Having seen the state of the black neighborhoods. Having talked to people that lived in those neighborhoods before. Having seen the images of what those neighborhoods were before. Having seen it, I can ascertain that blacks are unable to build.
"My guillotine is biased toward banksters, pols and crats."
Chicago?
Who the fucks cares about Chicago?
jesus murphy mary
The coal miners don't much mind the canary except when it dies.
""My guillotine says that Chicago is target rich for pol, crat and bankster heads."