Not Political: What Is Going On In Chicago?

Oh yeah I'd be for that. You commit X type of crime, "they" come off... You do not reproduce!

no, murder rates are way up in 7 U.S. cities, accounting for almost the total increase of all U.S. cities.

are there 3 million U.S. soldiers in Iraq? don't play games with numbers.

Your comment does not have an ounce of factual evidence behind it, whereas my claims are based on reading a lot of articles on the subject. I lived in RP for four years when the murder rate in the city was actually higher than now, and even up there it was common for shots to be fired through windows in that neighborhood and for those I knew to be mugged at night. My woman worked in Austin neighborhood and I travelled to some of the worst neighborhoods to go to bbq places. One of them, Englewood, had an 18% graduation rate. There are very few good jobs in those neighborhoods and there haven't been since industry moved away in the 1960s. That accounts for much of the poverty and violence. But what I say about the charter schools is a fact.

There's no schtick. Texas has a large energy industry and that accounts for almost all of its success. But jobs pay more in union states and that is a fact. They pay more in unionized companies. The employees are also more stable and more productive. Much of Chicago was informally segregated by racial codes that prevented blacks from getting apartments essentially on the north side for decades. Those neighborhoods are run down beyond belief. There has been no serious attempt to change the situation. Charter schools only made it worse and more violent. Tell me again why new teachers are more effective than experienced teachers, despite every study saying the opposite.

As a long-time resident of Chicago, I'll try to answer your question.

What is going on in Chicago?

I'll assume you're referring to the violence, specifically the shootings and killings. While we're trending higher (we've already hit last year's total with a quarter of the year left), it is not as high as the mid-70's. As bad as it was then, the crime was contained in certain areas, just as it is for the most part now. However, every shooting, every death is reported in the media. And with the graphics used in the media reports, it's stunning to see the weekend shootings/deaths on a regular basis.

Keep in mind, the majority of these acts are confined to specific swaths of the city (south and west sides) and specific times (midnight to 7am). Since most people aren't in those areas at those hours, it is very avoidable, with some exception.

Who is killing who? Again, for the most part, it is gangs killing other gang members and/or their family and friends. And, yes, they're notoriously poor shooters who leave innocent bystanders as victims.

On occasion, truly innocent people are shot and/or killed, such as the child at the park for a cookout, etc. Again, somewhat avoidable if you're not lingering on the front porch with friends/family who are targets.

As for the city, parts are doing better than ever: the downtown area is continuously inviting visitors for shows, fests, etc. The area stretching north along the lakefront is beautiful and costly. The area along the lake running south to South Shore is naturally beautiful, albeit with chancier spots. The south side (almost twice the geographic size as the north side) has large swaths that are dangerous (Englewood, Roseland, etc). Most have very solid housing stock which still keeps residents despite the violence. The west side has as much violence in a confined area.

Since it's unfeasible to put a cop on every corner - or a cop at every cookout, or kitchen ... the violence ignites continuously. With few jobs, particularly for the lesser-skilled, the idleness is the simplest cause. The best jobs are those in the public sphere: the post office, the public schools, the city, the county, the state, the federal government - or some derivative thereof. Thus, when talk of changing some structure of anything happens, such as closing/consolidating under capacity schools, the screaming erupts.

The people know that if the breadwinner loses his/her job, the whole family is out.

Politically? It's hopeless. I covered politics for a trade publication and recall counting 30 or so precincts (~350 voters) that went 100% (every single voter, no errors, no omissions) for Obama in '12. Lockstep. The mayor was essentially chosen to follow Daley (see, corrupt financial mess) by Obama. With financial problems that are simply unsolvable (the five city pensions are unsustainable), he's left to his arrogant personality. Last election, he conspired with the states attorney to hold back a cop shooting video (yes the suspect was out of control, but the shooting was too much) until after the vote. Once released, we had a racial tinderbox.

As for the schools, the CPS is a jobs patronage program, NOT an educational service. We've only had one strike (and another one day walkout) recently. Of course, we're headed for another even though the city is insolvent.

I forgot to mention the city now had junk rating by the major credit rating agencies. Thus, they're not buying our BS anymore.

We recently were hammered with a property tax increase. Increases of 30% were common, with many above that figure. We've sold our parking meters for a quick fix a few years back, sold a tollway, put in a red-light camera system (again, a corrupt deal) and shortened the yellow light to goose up the violations. Residents now fear a trip around the corner will cost them $100, no court hearing.

A few years back, near the end of Daley's reign, Chicago tried to get the Olympics in '16. Plans were made, designs were drawn up and guests were wined and dined. The insiders figured that with their favorite son in the White House, he'd be able to push for Chicago to get the nod from the IOC. The deeper story was that it would allow the city to sweep all of their financial ills under the carpet, just a bit longer and get the grand boondoggle of spending to come to town. I recall walking through the large public plaza the day the vote was to be made announcing the city as having won the bid. Huge video boards had been arranged, stages were erected, sound systems were booming music and organizers were busy handing out t-shirts to everyone. It was only about 11am when the video broadcast the finalists for the vote that would happen a few hours later. Chicago was not mentioned.

The news shocked the organizers. They stopped their actions, looking stunned. Bodies ran into the county building/city hall and the state building across the street. It was as if their horse in a fixed race didn't leave the gate. They were beside themselves, and couldn't believe that they'd been out-hustled by corrupt hustlers somewhere else.

Daley would remain for awhile longer (even as his wife was dying of cancer) to hold the whole grand scheme together. But he eventually left, handing over the job to Emmanuel. The problems are too great to fix. We'll continue falling, bit by bit and piece by piece, over time. We'll always have the lakefront and a few attractions, like Navy Pier and Wrigley Field, but much of Chicago will devolve into something akin to Detroit: unable to provide a viable living setting for anyone, especially families.

Thus endeth the lesson.

Basically, Chicago is a failed state. The Feds should declare martial law, fire the police, sherriff, police chief, mayor, city council, and any city, county, and any state employees working in Chicago, and setup the US Army as the gov't

Wow,that is the most concise, non-biased analysis I've read on any of the severe challenges facing our country. Thanks.

You can end this thread. If you truly wanted to be educated about what's going on in Chicago, Ron Tabb just did that.

AWESOME Ron Tabb!!!

jjjjj wrote:

There's no schtick. Texas has a large energy industry and that accounts for almost all of its success. But jobs pay more in union states and that is a fact. They pay more in unionized companies. The employees are also more stable and more productive. Much of Chicago was informally segregated by racial codes that prevented blacks from getting apartments essentially on the north side for decades. Those neighborhoods are run down beyond belief. There has been no serious attempt to change the situation. Charter schools only made it worse and more violent. Tell me again why new teachers are more effective than experienced teachers, despite every study saying the opposite.

Quit clinging to that union fantasy. For almost all of the first half of the 20th century, one of the primary functions of Chicago unions was to keep blacks OUT of the workforce. Autos, steel, manufacturing and the building trade unions all had minuscule hiring of blacks. That was not by chance but by design. Union members and their leaders enforced keeping blacks out of the best jobs.

How you could have lived in Rogers Park for a few years and not figured out the nature of the Democrat machine? Did you live there as a student while you attended Loyola and listen to your professors spout the same union whitewashing baloney?

Pervasive jobs discrimination was standard in the early 20th century. Black employment was high, but in lower wage jobs. Black employment rates were the same, or greater than those of whites. That included teenage and 20 something black males, who are doing most of the murdering in Chicago today.

The union practice of keeping blacks out of good paying jobs was common nationwide throughout the AFL unions. As it began to ease in the middle of the 20th century, Chicago, one of the most segregated cities in the nation, clung to its slow-walking of the opening of jobs to blacks.

The steel and auto jobs largely left Chicago, but even today, the unionized building trades have relatively small numbers of blacks.

Your point has no connection with reality.

Poor blacks in Chicago do NOT benefit from unions. There is a reason why one of the strongest union cities in the country is also filled with such a high rate of black unemployment.

There are entire neighborhoods in Chicago made up primarily of city workers because of Chicago’s residency laws. There would be a huge exodus of black, white and Hispanic cops, firemen, and other city workers if they were not required to live in Chicago.

The black middle class in Chicago, which is only a minority of Chicago blacks, is dominated by public sector union jobs. Jobs for the City, County, Courts, police, fire, CPS – all these are decent paying jobs, but as Venezuela shows every day, everyone can’t work for the government or the economy starts to produce a form of hell on earth. Chicago has tried a stripped down version of that model, and they are in the inevitable severe financial crisis, slowly can-kicking towards insolvency.

Although your point that many union jobs pay well is correct, there are relatively few of them left outside the public sector (and in Chicago, most of the public and private ones are still filled by white Democrats). For the same reason why you can’t set the minimum wage at $60 per hour, you can only have so many union jobs. Leftists have trouble understanding that point, no matter how many times they are hit over the head with the example of Detroit, or Venezuela, or North Korea, or the Soviet Union or all the other failed utopias.

And, since you asked, I'll tell you again. Almost every charter school in Chicago is an improvement upon the average existing CPS school, with the exception of the strong magnet schools set up to keep white Yuppies in Chicago (Northside, Walter Payton, Jones, Whitney Young , etc.). In most CPS schools, CPS union "experienced" teachers are some of the most indifferent, ineffective and plain incompetent "educators" any poor child has to suffer.