Where Did Everyone Go?

An expanded look at the Chicago spiral downward:

• Chicago's central core grew increasingly vibrant during the past decade, as young professionals filled new condominiums in the Loop and surrounding neighborhoods, taking advantage of trendy restaurants and nightspots.
  
  But vast swaths of the city didn't fare as well. Fifty-seven of Chicago's 77 community areas lost population during the decade, according to 2010 U.S. census data released last week.
  
  Hardest hit were the South and West sides, where thousands of African-Americans abandoned neighborhoods beset by crime, foreclosures, bad schools and economic squalor.
  
  
• Chicago's overall loss of 200,000 people in a decade is "a very, very alarming sign," said Frank H. Beal, executive director of Metropolis 2020, a business-oriented regional planning group.
  
  Struggling neighborhoods pocked by empty homes and vacant blocks affect the entire region's economic fabric, he said, pointing to cities such as Detroit and Cleveland that have had difficulty attracting reinvestment because of neighborhood blight.
  
  "It affects whether businesses decide whether they're going to move to this area," Beal said.

Well let's see:

• highest sales tax in the nation
• once vibrant neighborhoods gutted by foreclosures
• top ten finishes in the misery index, commute times, perceived crime, etc
• $85 billion in Illinois debt, an almost doubling in the income tax, another bond issue/borrowing spree on the horizon and the promise of even more tax hikes to pay for unsustainable social programs

We'd say there aren't many businesses willing to relocate to Chicago, let alone Illinois. And that goes for people as well.

In fact, here's a cool website attached to Forbes.com that shows where people are moving to and from. Be sure you check out the "Chicago," "Los Angeles," and "Detroit" buttons on the lower left side of the map - the red lines mean "Leaving Town." Ouch.