The Shrinking Middle Class
These are the people who pay the majority of taxes - you know, that money that keeps everything running? And they are leaving Chicago in droves.
- The graphic that you are about to see is sobering, perhaps depressing, and you can’t take your eyes off it.
We have the exhaustive work of Daniel Kay Hertz, a masters student at the University Of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy, to thank for that.
At the risk of sounding like an old carnival barker, step right up and watch the middle class of Chicago vanish before your eyes.
However, this is no side-show.
It shows the demise of the foundation of an American city.
We can't embed the graphic, but it's here at Channel 2's website. You think Detroit isn't that far off? It's closer than you think.
Labels: general
posted by SCC at 12:01 AM
61 Comments:
OT:
Like Ben Joravsky says, beware when the Mayor is in a hurry. Remember the parking meter deal? Mayor Mumbles was in a big hurry then too.
from The Reader:
"Mayor Rahm's pension plan means more slush for his TIFs"
As you may or may not have read in the papers, Mayor Emanuel's in a big hurry to have the state enact his pension plan. He says it's good for the city.
Uh-oh—beware of anything the mayor says is in your best interest.
The Sun-Times first reported on the plan yesterday, and by today he'd already had a bill passed out of a House committee.
Be really worried when the mayor's in a hurry.
The bill will, among other things, cut payments to municipal retirees, jack up property taxes, and give the mayor more slush funds to play with.
Actually, the mayor doesn't mention that final point about the slush funds. Nor is he ever likely to, as it involves a certain program he supposedly reformed.
And that program goes by an acronym that begins with a T, ends with an F and has an I in the middle. Let me pause while we all figure it out . . .
---
Read the rest in this week's Reader.
Detroit, here we come!
The guy who made the map blames the white middle class. Typical liberal garbage
That graph shows exactly how much of this city is actually livable, and it's not very much. Of course, when you have a dozen police detailed to follow you and your family around like rahmmie the commie does, none of that matter. Eliminating the middle class is a very bad idea, just ask the French aristocracy of the late 1700s. Maybe somewhere they are sharpening the guillotines as we speak.
Pretty grim picture. But, that is what a progressive democrat political machine and rule buys you. Be happy that there are a few small, medium and large cities in other parts of the country that are much more prosperous and well managed. There are whole states that are prosperous and are not political basket cases.
This freakin story been runnin once-a-year headlines for 40 years now, affecting to be greatly alarmed.
Figures just "trend" down, worse and worse and worse.
The city you see is the city they want.
Otherwise they'd be doing things different, right?
... and Davie Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett were right back to Air Force One last night.
Learn the cards in the vast Rolodex Of Evil. Not like it aint obvious.
This graphic is very telling. Wake up people, prepare for your retirement, if your coming on the job now plan for a different future cause it ain't here. Actually an image of the Titanic should have been superimposed behind the city on this graphic, it would be more appropriate.
Man, I love ya SCC, but reading these headlines tonight are depressing me! All bad news!
Every so often one of the il think tanks
roll out the Mayflower moving
Or allied or united roll out their migration patterns maps.
Which shows the amount of people moving in and out of states.
Il was at one point 4,400 a month moving out.
These were people with skills and money bailing out .
with people with may technical or skills moving in
where were they going?
Texas was one and some moved a little like wi or Indiana
taxes were the big reason and jobs
il is very near the point where those receiving "benefits" exceed those that are paying in for benefits
the #1 answer to this is
Raise taxes cut services.
but with the money gone "south" wh can you tax next?
"You want to see a town that's going to have a heck of a housing bubble, then take a gander at Hinsdale. Infrastructure is shit and needs extensive renovation."
Thanks for sharing brother SCC, Makes a life long Chicago guy cry for this once great city.
My ancestors are probadly crying the heavens.
We are truly screwed. I hope God comes down hard on the Daley's, Madigans and all the rest of the crooks that brought us middle class down.
Old man Daley played but never took down this city like his kid. He took care of business.
People had a proud P D and businesses stayed put for the most part.
These crooks in government sold their souls for a buck and power.
Glad to be retired and would move in a heart beat out of IL if I could.
The worse is yet to come. The Devil has a guge foot print in this state !
"It shows the demise of the foundation of an American city." -- SCC
Shit. Another "master's thesis." My 1959 copy of the Illinois Manufacturers' Directory would have shown you that.
Probably 95% of the interlocking, mutually-supportive, productive businesses listed are gone today.
Don't wonder why Lake Street -- formerly a roaring three-shifts factory corridor -- is a wilderness of vacant lots covered with broken glass and dog crap today.
...and no, hanging stupid banners from phony "old-time" light poles outside "artisan doughnut shops" won't make up for it.
Sorry.
Heck I see it everyday just driving. There is areas that were once to die for and now just board ups. The south and west side hit hard. But they keep taxing us. I can get five times the land and twice the house and pay a quarter of the taxes else where. So why not ask why should anyone stay.
Who cares. I will be putting my house on the market and by the end of the year I will be in another state. (A nice warm state) This city won't ever be like detriot (to much industry) but the misery that has engulfed the residents will make it is so bad that it'll not be worth living here.
Old man Daley played but never took down this city like his kid. He took care of business.
People had a proud P D and businesses stayed put for the most part.
These crooks in government sold their souls for a buck and power.
Glad to be retired and would move in a heart beat out of IL if I could.
The worse is yet to come. The Devil has a guge foot print in this state !
4/04/2014 02:16:00 AM
I am tired of people singing the praises of "old man Daley". The Old Man set this dynasty up. He 'loved this city' because of the power he wielded and the money he was able to steal. He is the architect. Mean, manipulative, corrupt, and some argue even worse.
Don't tell me he was a great man. President Washington was a great man. His legacy is the Country and the rights we enjoy today. Daley was a politician, with all the dark connotations that go with that word. When I hear the word corruption, the whole Daley family comes to mind. Spit on the ground when you see them.
Do we really need a middle class?
I get along fine with my LINK card.
My husband & I both retired from the CPD and moved out of Chicago, IL and just so you know, the grass is greener over state lines! Life is easier, healthier & cheaper and so much better ~ I don't understand why some retirees still live in that crappy city and put up with the taxes, crime and horrible mayor who treats the middle class like a red-headed stepchild.
Of course the middle class (and wealthy) are leaving Chicago! I am close to being one of them.. Rahm Emanuel and Garry McCarthy steal police resources from taxpaying areas to give to the non tax paying ghetto. It's pure theft of services!! We all know its theft!! As a result the taxpaying areas (like mine) are having to deal with more crime such as burglaries and robberies. People are sick of it.
Then you have downtown where the black youth mobs run wild. People are scared to take their families downtown to shop. That's lost revenue for the city. People are sick of how Chicago gives away $840 million a year in free CHA housing for people who don't contribute to society, but then the city saying they cant afford to pay police and fire pensions.
The sad truth is Chicago has so much potential. I love Chicago, but politicians continue to screw the middle class and wealthy. The tax base is slowly leaving!!
Not to worry, ghetto lottery market forces are filling the void to create a new middle class, in 5 easy steps.
http://voices.suntimes.com/news/breaking-news/man-shot-by-police-in-2011-sues-cops-city/
1) Try to run over the police with your car
2) Darn cops won't back off, so shoot at cops
3) What the..., warned the cops twice, and still the cops shoot back?
4) That's a suing
Step 5, success! Youve won the golden ticket.
bring back the corner tavern-the middle class will come back!the middle class began to leave when the mom and pop corner taverns were squeezed out.middle class neighborhoods had them on every corner until city regulations shut them down.build it and they will come.
"Probably 95% of the interlocking, mutually supportive, productive businesses listed are gone today..."
"Don't wonder why Lake Street --formerly a roaring three-shifts factory corridor -- is a wilderness of vacant lots covered with broken glass and dog crap today..."
4/04/2014 02:52:00 AM
Never you mind the old hoe taking a shit in the bushes by the retaining wall & Green Line fly-over at 2600 W.
"Fuck y'all lookin' at? You want summa dis? I do it all 'cept back dere an' I'll cutchoo from yo' asshole to yo' appetite the long way if you try it."
Ugh! Foulest, vilest wench to ever shit between two shoes.
>GRUNT!<
Anyway...
Remember the virtual conga line of fat-fendered delivery trucks kicking ass almighty up and down Halsted, Ashland, Western and Cicero?
Damen? Not so much especially south of Pershing...
(Big fuck up taking out the Pershing to 47th overpass. That was a kick in the teeth to that part of the South Side. Besides, the old man would clear the nostrils on 383 in that '61 ex-ISP Fury... FUN!)
The "WHAM-CLANG!" of big ass punch presses and milling machines?
The glow in the sky over U.S. Steel South Works?
The "YAHOO-HOOO STINK!" from the Stockyards?
If a m/fer saw your young, able-bodied looking ass standing still, he'd be compelled to give you a motivating kick and tell you where you needed to be for work the next morning...
Heh... Our high school summers from 15 on were filled working for a guy who delivered P I A N O S!
"You old man told me you were kinda strong, kid!"
>FUCK! Is he still PISSED because we snapped a pair of his favorite pliers helping HIM fix the back gate?<
"Ya not holdin' it tight enough damnit!"
Thought to self:
(Dafuk you say old man? GRRROOWLL! - SNAP!)
Dirty-Assed look that said: (Oh? Tuff-guy cuz you snapped a pair of pliers with your bare hands at 15 huh?)
Well.. Work was there to be had if you wanted it. Especially if you were a self starter.
These modern era kids would cry like bitches (and a lot of these so called hard assed adults too) if they had to drag pianos up to the third floor or work and try to not get "stole on" by a punch press or other high velocity machinery or just bang on pieces of iron with a 12 pound hammer all day.
When high schools did away with shop and machine classes was a part of Chicago's demise as far as good manufacturing jobs and such.
Take a ham fisted kid and give him the tools to write his own ticket... Wood shop. Metal shop. Machine shop. Drafting, etc...
These skinny jeans and cat-eye glasses wearing, smarter than everybody else m/fers (like Rahm) just can't wrap their little pointy propeller heads around "manly arts" like the above.
Money conjuring and other such shit-assery is what appeals to them.
You know... All tech savvy an' shit.
They wonder what they can do to make people who "remember when" go away and never be heard from.
Just some musings of a "too old, too mean, brutal, heavy-fisted, racist, insensitive, 'angry cuz it isn't 1960 anymore,' wild-assed, out of control" Chicago Blue Shirt.
Born and raised in that shithole when it wasn't a shithole. Never thought I would leave. A couple years ago I decided I had enough. Got real good money on my house (because I didn't refinance numerous times like a lot of people) when the market sucked. Fled city and county and bought a beautiful house with a nice chunk of land for a great price. Safe and peaceful town. I couldn't be happier except for one thing. That little fuck keeps stealing more money from my pension check.
You guys haven't figured out that THIS IS THE GOAL OF BIG MONEY AND THEIR GOVERNMENT by now?
ALL US government in all levels in currently in the process of helping big money absorb all the money there is in this country, thereby putting people out of work, thereby making it difficult to own a small business, thereby putting more and more people on the dependency list, thereby forcing the government to raise taxes and speed up the subjugation of the country, thereby causing wages to DROP, thereby putting MORE people on the public dole.
At some point when big money who own's government thinks it's appropriate, this country will undergo it's final transition..... to that of a slave labor country just like all the other "competitors" big money crus is hurting their businesses with because the slave labor in those other countries works for barely food money.
THAT is what is going on in this country.... you are all being subjugated down far below our current standard of living so big business can "compete" with other slave labor countries.
The profiteering off of goods sole relies on PROFIT MARGIN not that actual cost of the item. They don't care if an iPhone has to cost 35 bucks or not as long as they can pay US citizens the same slave labor wages to produce it then they save money on not shipping it here.
You are all being subjugated into slavery so that big money can bring back labor to this country, and the government is on board and sells it to the stupid by telling them they'll bring more jobs to the US.
See how that works? And folks like us make WAAAAYYY too much money in their opinion, we need to be publicly shit upon whereby OUR wages are shown to be the first cut, thereby giving way so the private sector can use us as their example to further cut wages: "SEE? public employees got fucked so you don't have to pay so much taxes..... now you have money to burn which means you need a pay cut".
There's no revolution happening because as long as America see's it happening to the other guy they don't give a fuck, and when it happens to them next they just accept it because it already happened to someone else.
See how that works?
It's called DIVIDE AND CONQUER, and right about now they're using tax threats to divide public employees from the people they serve, and when they've accomplished that, they then have their platform to fuck the rest of society over..... and they'll accept it because they fought so hard to fuck public employees that "it's only fair".
See how that works, again?
I'm middle class and I left town August 31st, 2012, after being there 12 years (Southport corridor). I started making serious plans to leave after the beach was closed on Memorial Day 2010, you know, due to the excessive heat. I moved home to a place where those shenanigans (both the act itself and ridiculous attempt at a cover up) are simply not tolerated by our leaders. I do miss Portillos however. Good luck!
Civilian post
I would leave tomorrow if my house wasn't still underwater. Trapped here now and it's still getting worse. More property taxes, less police service, more crime. I thought I could leave the minute I retired, but you can't go anywhere if you can't sell your house and at least get out of it what you paid.
The comments at the bottom of the original blog post miss the mark by a million miles as to why it happened.
Life as many of us knew it 40 years ago is gone forever and is never coming back. Good unionized jobs are history, traditional manufacturing jobs, clerical jobs are dwindling. Wages and benefits are still headed down after adjustments for COL. Driving middle-class families into the lower class category. Taxes and give away programs continually increase and place even more hardship on what was the middle class. Now the powers that be are looking to strip even more paid in benefits from those who worked for them - driving retirees into poverty levels. Cops and fire have no net as they have already lost the social security benefits owed to them by about 66 % even though they paid in 100% for that benefit working second jobs. All that you can do is flee to a place with lower taxes, a place that has lower cost of living. Very sad.
Daniel Kay Hertz- they guy who put together that graphic- was the focus of a Crain's Chicago Business piece back in August 2013 for comparing homicide rates by Chicago police district between 1990-1993 and 2008-2011. One of his conclusions was "the city is, in fact, safer on the whole than it has been in fifty years." This was based on homicides. I compared violent crime numbers- including homicides- instead for those same time periods to see if a similar conclusion could be made with that data...
http://danielkayhertz.com/2013/08/05/weve-talked-about-homicide-in-chicago-at-least-one-million-times-but-i-dont-think-this-has-come-up/
http://survivalandprosperity.com/2013/08/14/chicago-homicide-study-the-city-is-way-safer-part-1/
Interesting how "red" (0 to 45)
that graphic had become by the
time 2012 rolled around.
But the mayor/city council, the
governor/ state legislators, and
the president/congress must
love poor people, they are "creating" so many of them.
We have a president who has caused the most damage to this country than any other in my lifetime. Food costs up, gas energy costs have been through the roof his entire tenure.Sucking billions from everyone. Taxes up and this Obamacare is a huge tax which we all haven't felt as yet. Many companies putting full time to part time workers so they will not have to provide mandated health care. Weaker around the world. More and more tax dollars redistributing the wealth to those who do not contribute or have not paid in for benefits while at the same time cutting benefits to those who have. The final insult being his whole family living like the King of France and Marie Antoinette taking constant and lavish vacations at taxpayer expense - including his mother-in-law - who elected her and why is she on air force one and living in the White House. I suspect the response would be - "let them eat cake"
My grey ass left Chicago, a city I truly loved, in 1999, shortly after I retired from the CPD.
I didn't want to leave then, but had to because conditions warranted it.
I still miss Chicago, but I know that I can't go back because of what has happened to the city. Hell, I couldn't afford it anyway.
"You want to see a town that's going to have a heck of a housing bubble, then take a gander at Hinsdale. Infrastructure is shit and needs extensive renovation."
4/04/2014 01:35:00 AM
Wow. That bad, huh?
Go west down the Burlington tracks to grasp the pattern. Used to be that the machine operators and wire-winders at, say, Western Electric lived in Cicero and Berwyn, their supervisors made a little more and lived a little farther out, and the president of the company lived in Hinsdale...
When government conspires with the poor and the rich to loot the middle class, you get less middle class.
After reading this article, who wouldn't want residency lifted. Let us move to the suburbs-less crime, better schools, better quality of life. And yes I do own property in 016.
That map is dire indeed. Now imagine it with residency lifted for first responders and board of education. We'd pass Detroit in a week.
Middle class blacks have been moving out of Chicago for years to safer suburbs . Projects down so the ghetto rats are following the middle class blacks .
Chicago will one day be filled with a majority of middle class Asians ,Caucasian , Hispanics and maybe 20% Africans .
The Middle Class Is A Thing Of The Past
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/hot-stock-minute/the-middle-class-is-a-thing-of-the-past-135730132.html
More Americans See Middle Class Status Slipping
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/more-americans-see-middle-class-155155913.html
It's not so much that the rich got richer, it's because the poor got poorer.
Simply put: there are no more jobs for unskilled people. Lot's of those gray middle income areas that turned red (lower income) is because they went from middle income factory jobs to lower income fast food jobs.
This city needs more middle income jobs or it will die.
Definitely check these charts out!
The same maps are at the "Daniel Kay Hertz" link, and don't flash on and off like Ch. 2's, so you can study them without going blind.
1970 - 2012. The results of the "War On Poverty" are appalling. We've got more than ever.
When I was a kid growing up in Gage Park back in the early sixties we used to walk to the movies at Colony,Marquette,Highway,Peoples and Brighton. Made a full day of it. Said hi to the old men and the babushka ladies while walking. Never a hint of trouble. The world seemed a brighter place back then.
It's true that middle-class blacks
have moved to the suburbs and have
brought said suburbs down, such as
Maywood, Harvey, Dixmoor, just to
name a few. The "buppies" (black
urban professionals) moved there first but was soon followed by the
lower class and those relocated by
the demolition of the projects and
brought with them lower values and
a lower standard of living, some
of it asisted by government welfare. And those Chicago neighborhoods such as Roseland, Woodlawn, Gresham, Lawndale, Garfield Park, etc. are now just
vast wastelands and cesspools
populated by thugs and people who
go along to get along and hate
authority until they need goods or
services from authority such as
Police or Fire protection or ambulance transportation.
And powers that be go out of their
way to perpetuate this because
ignorance is not bliss, it is bondage.
I grew up here/ loved this city thought I'd die here. Now I can't wait to move out. Chicago is a TOXIC environment !. The only 2 things I'll miss is my friends and the FOOD.
If my family wasn't here and they have no choice but to live here, I'd be living in Indiana by now.
Old man Daley created the project buildings to segregate the undesirables out to the remote areas of the city just like how the Demoncrat party fought tooth and nail to keep guns outta the hands of Blacks because they are the party of the KKK.
Fast forward to recent Daley and his decimation of the projects so he could sell the land to his investor friends so they could build lavish residences on the land without any thought how and where the residents will survive.
We are approaching Detroit at Warp 8.
I watched for the first time Chicagoland on CNN. Of course they are not going to show how this city is falling apart. I found it very interesting as the principle of Fenger HS went door to door to get her freshman to come to school to no avail. Interesting is the fact most of the families packed up and moved to the suburbs. If Chicago's poor and working poor are leaving sends a big message. What makes you think the middle class are going to stick around and pick up even more tax burden to keep the city afloat.
OT
Police impersonator walks around Julian HS for several minutes before confronted
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/video/10021318-intruder-with-loaded-gun-at-h-s-arrested/#.Uz9V84pOGQ8.twitter
Chicago sucks, but unless you go to the sticks there are very few towns left that liberals and shitheads haven't ruined, it's not just Chicago. It's coming to a point that good people need to stand against the politicians the liberals and shit heads, instead of look for another place to go.
I left the job 2 years ago, started my own business best thing I ever did.
It's not just Chicago, it's everywhere. Over the years the middle class has been eroding while the rich has progressively earned 10% or more ea. year to their wealth.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
The guy who made the map blames the white middle class. Typical liberal garbage
4/04/2014 12:21:00 AM
Agree, why is everything that goes wrong the white people fault. How about he politicians who drove people away. The politicians never get blamed for anything. Only the credit for all the good.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
bring back the corner tavern-the middle class will come back!the middle class began to leave when the mom and pop corner taverns were squeezed out.middle class neighborhoods had them on every corner until city regulations shut them down.build it and they will come.
4/04/2014 07:16:00 AM
Daily started closing them in 1991.... They were always a good spot for neighbors to get to know each other and pass along neigh hood issues. He was afraid of getting voted out.
First some jobs left, as the jobs left so did some of the population. Next the bars and small restaurants go under because no big factories. It will be a continuing spiral. With no plan on plugging the drain.
The next big disaster was the housing market, giving loans they shouldn't and over estimating the property for quick sales. The final straw is going to be high crime. No one is even counting all the unreported crime.
This is the real story and its never one simple problem.
Give it another 10 - 20 years and you really wont recognize this place.
I would leave tomorrow if my house wasn't still underwater. Trapped here now and it's still getting worse. More property taxes, less police service, more crime. I thought I could leave the minute I retired, but you can't go anywhere if you can't sell your house and at least get out of it what you paid.
4/04/2014 08:35:00 AM
I understand what you are saying, but you will never get what you paid for your house. Unless you bought it 30 years ago. Just retired and sold our Chicago home for a huge loss. But after putting figures down on paper, it is still more cost effective to live out of Illinois. Happier, healthier, less cynical, less crabby every time I walk out the door or put on the news. It all balances out in the long run. Good luck!
Shows the west and south sides becoming poorer and the north side becoming richer. Just confirms what everyone already knows.
Good thing I get everything handed to me on a silver platter. God forbid I do anything for myself.
Daniel Kay Hertz- they guy who put together that graphic- was the focus of a Crain's Chicago Business piece back in August 2013 for comparing homicide rates by Chicago police district between 1990-1993 and 2008-2011. One of his conclusions was "the city is, in fact, safer on the whole than it has been in fifty years." This was based on homicides. I compared violent crime numbers- including homicides- instead for those same time periods to see if a similar conclusion could be made with that data...
http://danielkayhertz.com/2013/08/05/weve-talked-about-homicide-in-chicago-at-least-one-million-times-but-i-dont-think-this-has-come-up/
http://survivalandprosperity.com/2013/08/14/chicago-homicide-study-the-city-is-way-safer-part-1/
___________________________________________
I'll find the link if anyone cares, but PLENTY of neighborhoods are way more deadlier now than in the early-mid 90s in Chicago.
I understand what you are saying, but you will never get what you paid for your house. Unless you bought it 30 years ago. Just retired and sold our Chicago home for a huge loss. But after putting figures down on paper, it is still more cost effective to live out of Illinois. Happier, healthier, less cynical, less crabby every time I walk out the door or put on the news. It all balances out in the long run. Good luck!
++++++++++++++++++
This is right on. In 2007 I had my house in west Bev appraised....375,000. Retired in 2010 sold in 2013 for 290,000. Moved to a south burb and love it. I do miss my neighbors, but all the other nonsense? Not so much. My taxes went up, but worth every penny. I too am happier and taking better care of my health, or trying to. Much less aggravation, and I'm not worried about my wife getting off of 57 at 111th or she can take her walks without worries. No place is perfect, but this is good.
I hope that all of you get there too. Every one of you deserve it.
I'll find the link if anyone cares, but PLENTY of neighborhoods are way more deadlier now than in the early-mid 90s in Chicago
not true , if you are counting murders in the mid 90's there were alot more ranging from 943 to the low of 761. Thats alot more than the last few years in the 400's and one year a little over 500
The below info is from the encyclopedia on murders per year.
1991: 927[33] 1992: 943[33] 1993: 855[33] 1994: 931[33] 1995: 828[33] 1996: 796[33] 1997: 761[
I'm leaving and had enough of my tenure with CPD. I have 20 yrs but not the age. This job is destroying my well being and I now hate living in this city as well as Illinois. I rather leave now while I'm still healthy enough to do so. So long hello the good south!!!
Anonymous Anonymous said...
I'm leaving and had enough of my tenure with CPD. I have 20 yrs but not the age. This job is destroying my well being and I now hate living in this city as well as Illinois. I rather leave now while I'm still healthy enough to do so. So long hello the good south!!!
4/06/2014 09:02:00 AM
I applaud you. I stayed five years longer than I should have and it damages you. Once you know it's time to go, GO.
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