Chicago Middle Class - Gone
- Chicago’s middle class, once the backbone of the city, is declining so swiftly that it’s almost gone, and a set of maps from a local university lays that reality bare.
The dynamic stands to affect nearly everything about Chicago going forward, from politics to schools to who will live here.
“It raises a lot of questions as to what kind of city it will be,” said Janet Smith, co-director of the Nathalie P. Voorhees Center for Neighborhood and Community Improvement at the University of Illinois at Chicago, which compiled the maps that document Chicago’s shrinking middle class — and an increasingly polarized city — over the past five decades.
Here's the only map that matters:
The red/orange is "poor." The blue is "rich." And the middle ground is disappearing.
Labels: we got nothing
posted by SCC at 12:01 AM
86 Comments:
I didn’t need an article to figure this out. I’m driving around the district and the city and it’s only getting more fucked up!
Good luck I’m just about out of here.
and the only middle class left are city workers who from what i hear can't wait to get the f out... Congrats chicago, crook co and Il politicians, won't be long til Detroit is nicer than this hole.
Get ready to get taxed!!!!!
As with the Lightfoot/Preckwinkle election: Last one out of Chicago, turn out the lights.
If they dont like the police, why make us live here? Lift residency and there will be less police around.
Wow! I Will be retiring just in time.
This city is finished.
Long live mayor lightfoot!
DemocRATS are really screwing this place up! I hope they stay here and live in this shithole!
It raises a lot of questions as to what kind of city it will be. ?!?!?!
WOW - that's a real understatement.
With the Election results so far, I would say the kind of City it will be will be a cross between Detroit and San Francisco. A pile of ruins, a multi-field gun zone, and Sanctuary City on the Lake.
Maybe all the votes still "in the Mail" will get Daley to 2nd place and it will be Daley vs. Lightfoot.
What kind of city it will be? A hellhole of epic proportions.
Anyone with any brains and ability is getting the F' outta here posthaste.
Even the rich are fleeing this shithole as soon as their kids are out of high school.
The election results are really coming into focus after looking at those maps.
I Don't want to start a panic but, it looks to me like it's time to RUN !
Demographics is Destiny
That's why "THEY" will never relent on residency.
That's why "THEY" want to punish you if you retire
and take your pension and your assets with you to
another city or state.
The latest nonsense out of the liberal democrat
progressive collectivists out of Portland, OR.
is they're grinding an axe about 90% of Portland
P.D. lives in the suburbs in an attempt to put
some distance between themselves and their families
and the progressive politicians, white-guilt liberals,
#blm, antifa and all the other lefty loons.
Gotta have a "captive audience."
Here in Chicago, they KNEW the middle class "Rich People"
who were supposed to pay for everything, were fleeing.
When the middle class doesn't feel safe and is rendered
the sum total of dick-all for their tax dollars and are
told to STFU, keep paying or else be labelled "RACIST,"
you know damned good and well they're going to liquidate
and get in the M/Fin' wind...
That's why "The Middle Class" are fleeing democrat controlled
Blue State metropolitan areas.
And the irony?
They're being followed by the lunatic progressives who have
destroyed those metropolitan areas.
The progressives are trying to spread their poison.
Note how they've absolutely destroyed California and are
increasingly active in some of the other Great Western States.
Hell... They've dropped their drawers and took a shit on
Salt Lake City, Utah of all places.
Irony?
They're not fucking with Montana, Idaho, Wyoming
and North Dakota. Texas, outside of the urban
areas is still putting up a fight.
Too many conservative free-thinkers with guns
and funny ideas about government and freedom.
Pretty much the same with the Mid-South...
No person in their right mind wants to
be rubbed against these lunatics and their
"Culture of Outrage."
"Why do you conservatives have such a problem
with "cultural diversity?"
Because the way the progressives define and present it,
it's nothing but pure poison?
Look.
Point & Laugh.
Leave.
Harden your hearts.
Pay no heed to their hateful,
vengeful screams.
Heeeeeeeere's Socialism, brought to you by Democrats and their expensive administration of the welfare state. Interesting isnt it, that the administration of welfare costs more than the welfare itself. Gee, its almosr like its set up to be that way on purpose or some thing!!
Success by the federal govt in general as they have an entire major city dependent on federal aid to live. The citizens can no longer support themselves. It is up to the rest of the countries population to support these hangers-on. This won't go over well with the tax PAYERS eventually which will cause major upheavals across the country which could then involve a govt takeover. Things will be ugly for our children and/or grandchildren.
What exactly is considered "rich"? Do cops who make 90k a year fall under the "rich" category? I live in the blue area but rising property tax is making it harder to stay. I'd like to enroll in some city program that provides assistance...shouldn't we be entitled to what every other citizen is entitled to?
These politicians better wake the hell up! Lightfoot? Preckwinkle? Are you paying attention?
hopefully some rich guy buys my house in 5 years when i got 20......
Wow....that is absolutely the most stark reality of where the city is going. I expect those “rich” areas and the yellow will quickly turn once they realize they are going to,be paying for everything.
Looks right to me for a Sanctuary City.
Do you have the same map for Illinois as a whole? (Or it it Hole?)
Ok,so basically, if daley won the blue on the map would be represented. If Joyce won the tan on the map would have been represented.
Regardless of the runoff winner Chicago will be represented by...the red.
Living in a tan area, and having spent time in the red area's I'm inclined to retire as soon as possible and move far away from this shit hole.
Don’t worry, I am sure the next mayor will be fiscally responsible and cut spending and property taxes. They will also fully fund the pension funds and get rid of red light and speed cameras too. And I am going to hit the lottery too!!!
Don't know about other places in this city
but we can vouch for Auburn-Gresham being
done for BEFORE 1970...
Yes, you are right.
From: The Illinois Update, Feb. 2, 2016
(this study map uses shades of green)
93 out of 102 Counties in Illinois have low
income inequality (this is a GOOD thing; it means
there are no drastic gaps in income between wage
earning groups). Illinois is one of the most EQUAL
states in the nation, except for 9 important Counties.
Cook County "looks" (remember this is a color shaded
map) like it belongs in the Deep South where (income)
inequality is HIGHEST.
This is exactly what is happening in California. The middle class is shrinking and the income disparity is growing, because the middle is fleeing to safety. This is due to the hostile, progressive voting and resulting policies that take place there. We've got that on steroids in Chicago and it's going to finish killing the whole state.
Lol— 2013 I retired. 1 day off the job I left the state. Why should I stay?
This is not exactly a unique Chicago problem.
Middle class? What’s that? I’m self employed, have no pension, health insurance companies hose me for shit insurance that costs my 50+ year old wife and I more than a mortgage payment, that shit insurance is an HMO that covers only 70% of hospitalization, we can only go to a specific hospital...yeah, life is great. Last time I saw one of the docs in my plan, the doc didn’t know what to make of my condition and asked me what type of specialist she thought she should send me to. Unfuckingbelievable.
When I was a college kid at Circle Campus, we were told that the service economy was going to be the next big thing. Yup, that worked out real well. Although there was a story in the paper about a janitor who worked OT for one of the California transit systems - with a bit of ingenuity and scamming, he made about $225K in one year.
No middle class, no hope for anything better or peaceful. At one time in this nation, the poor wanted very much to be "Middle Class". It was a good lifestyle that was worth attaining and striving for. A standard envied by the rest of the world. When the middle class goes, so goes hope and peace. The poor will get more violent and more desperate and angry. This is not good at all.
Retreat, flee the city with your lives.
When I read this, it doesn't define what poor, middle and rich are. The median income in Illinois is somewhere below 50k. The median in Chicago is around 60k. That makes just about everyone reading this site "rich". That puts everyone in line for huge tax hits from Governor Spalding.
If your a city, county, or state employee with a spouse who works then you are the rich. Quit thinking your middle class. Status is based on income not expenditures. High property, income, or sales tax does not matter.
It will look a lot like Manhattan. Only the very wealthy will live here. It’s been in the works since Daley II. Pushing everyone of the working class out.
Which is why the politicians are daydreaming about annexing the surrounding suburbs. They drive people out, then come up with a scheme to get their tax dollars back instead of fixing what they broke.
It belongs to the Great Unwashed Democrat Welfare Voter.
Some of us who were considered middle class have not all fled. We are still here, but job issues, age, health and never ending taxation have now put us into the "poor" category.
Read the article.
“For UIC to consider a census tract middle income, the average per capita income there had to fall between $28,712 and $43,068.”
By their definition, every CPD PO and PPO is rich (above middle income).
Demographics are density.
The racial makeup of the city in 2010 was 45.3% white (31.7% non-Hispanic white), 32% black, 5% Asian, and 3% from two or more races.
What middle class? White middle class? Black middle class? Latin middle class?
It's a mixed up mess with the Democrat political class in charge of looting and mismanaging money.
Just wait! There's a whole generation of millennials living off of their parent's pension money in Lakeview, Lincoln Square, Logan Square, River North, etc. that are gonna get a dose of reality when those funds run out! A lot of that blue is gonna turn orange. The only reason downtown Chicago is so wealthy is due to the combined taxes being paid by the surrounding, middle-class neighborhoods. It's like a medieval castle surrounded by the toiling peasants. Anyone see Soylent Green?
The problem is that when leftist politicians talk about “the income inequality problem” they think the solution is to confiscate more of the blue people’s money to hand it to the red people, after taking the politician’s cut, of course. They never think (as President Trump does) that the solution is to get the red parts of the city under control to make the city attractive to businesspeople so the people in the red zones can get jobs and pull themselves up, it is ALWAYS to take from the rich and hand to the poor. Chicago is running out of middle class people to tax and fleece, and at some point the wealthy will wise up a get out too. You are left with Detroit.
There are 270,000 millionaires and 90,000 homeless people in Los angeles.
Notice there was wealth in Roger's Park in the 70s. Now they show none in 2017.
The poor are here because it pays to be poor here. You have rights and lots of free shit. It's like turning on a spigot and it pours out money, unregulated and anyone with a bucket can come by and fill up. The money comes from guess who, the suckers who go to work everyday. Who do you think has it better here, the single female with five kids who never worked a day in her life or the little old lady you see at the grocery store who worked 40 years and never missed a day of work and is now living on social security. Entitlements are strangling this country to death.
The rich will hide their income or leave, thus paying less tax’s, the poor will vote for who ever offers them a shiny object, somebody has to pick up the tab.
After I retired it took 6 months to sell my property. Left county, then state of disrepair. Now enjoying tax free state of grace after 30 yrs.
And the guy buying my property held it for just past 1st year before going bankrupt. Property in disrepair and lawn not mowed during summer. And this was in 16th district......
Still have old neighbors who are city employees, they are all waiting to retire and get out. And very unhappy with new property owners that disappear after property falls apart.
Unless your crazy to buy within city or forced to by being city employeee.
This is what Democrats wanted. And now they have the exodus.
Pension funds may come and go, but we'll always have Walmart.
Well with the price of rent for apts in Chicago, you either need to be rich to afford it or have a housing voucher.
Some one with ambition could make money helping the elderly sell their homes and move out of this state. A lot of old timers have a hard time getting packing, moving etc. done and don't have many friends or relatives left to help out. Just a thought.
Bring on the moats, sire.
We need to have commentary from coppers that retired and left the pros and cons of where they went to and how they are fairing there. Any comments from relocates,the main thing is family close by, because when we age that really matters?
This is happening more and more but where is everyone moving to? What place is the best?
Out west, the progressive income tax has the rich and higher tax brackets, starting at $56,000.00,10% income tax.....
God knows what is in store for us! We have millionaire and billionaire politicians that look at that amount and think that $56,000.00 is what they pay for shoes. WTF!
Middle class? I feel there s just poor and working poor. I have felt this way for years. Welcome to reality... rich people and different levels of poor. We fight over crumbs
Maybe we can get Kwame Kilpatrick to show us the way forward?
It doesn't matter who the mayor is. The city is gone. Inner ring suburbs gone. Statistics don't lie. There's nothing worth salvaging. I moved to Fla in 2016. Living the dream. I ran into a rich guy from Streeterville who is convinced that 10 or 15 square miles of Chiraq, on the south and west sides are bad. I had to inform him that 150 plus square miles are bad. These idiots that live in the blue area on the map are likes frogs in a pot of water slowly heating up on the stove. When the heat gets unbearable, they suddenly realize they can't get out. For you young guys and girls, consider florida. Pay isn't great, but they have a decent pension, and pay into social security. Pension based on final salary which includes overtime earnings.
. . . there was a story in the paper about a janitor who worked OT for one of the California transit systems - with a bit of ingenuity and scamming, he made about $225K in one year.
2/27/2019 03:18:00 AM
From February 2017
http://www.ktvu.com/news/2-investigates/bart-janitors-270k-pay-raises-questions-2-investigates
" Illinois is one of the most EQUAL
states in the nation, except for 9 important Counties.
Cook County "looks" (remember this is a color shaded
map) like it belongs in the Deep South where (income)
inequality is HIGHEST.".... and every one of us down South have so much better lives than Cook County residents
We’ve been just turning this city around for the last 49 years.
Every year, every election, every candidate, every mayor - we were promised all this prosperity.
And they’re still doing it! And all this Welcoming all the Change all the Reform.
Wuh hoppin?
Another No-Go Zone map and in 5-10 more years they’re going to need more orange crayons.
Yeah but why worry, we’ll all be dead in 12 years anyway, not from global worming but from taxes to pay for all those chiltrens free skool for life (or less).
On the bright side, come the apocalypse anyone who’s left on Earth will have a $15 hr min wage job and a Divvy.
Shithole Sanctuary
Anonymous said...
Lol— 2013 I retired. 1 day off the job I left the state. Why should I stay?
2/27/2019 02:18:00 AM
Got you beat, retired on a Monday the 7th (no line either) in 2017 and left the state FROM 3510 S. Michigan............ZERO regrets!!!
Illegal immigration is the culprit behind the rise in poverty and income inequality in this city. The city does not have the capacity to absorb hundreds of thousands of poorly skilled and educated immigrants each year. It’s a recipe for disaster that is manifesting before our very eyes. Immigrants who can not speak english, and have almost no specialized training do not have the ability to participate in a modern economy, which means that they enter poor and remain poor. Furthermore, chicago lacks the educational infrastructure to combat this dilemma. As long as our borders remain porous, chicago will continue to experience icreasing income disparity.
Welcome to the tale of two cities.
copper or fireman move some place cheep when you retire you can look forward to your pension being cut
Middle Class used to be the American Dream...
Now, welfare is the American Dream...
Its no longer what you can do for this country but what this country can do for you...
Welcome to the New World Order...
We Are All Replaceable
Interesting to match the income mapwuth the voting mao. I grew up in 19. Solid middle class.
It’s shrinking and shifting. If it were not for fire police and other city employees it all would be red.
Cronyism + high taxes + welfare + monetary inflation = that map.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
After I retired it took 6 months to sell my property. Left county, then state of disrepair. Now enjoying tax free state of grace after 30 yrs.
And the guy buying my property held it for just past 1st year before going bankrupt. Property in disrepair and lawn not mowed during summer. And this was in 16th district......
Still have old neighbors who are city employees, they are all waiting to retire and get out. And very unhappy with new property owners that disappear after property falls apart.
Unless your crazy to buy within city or forced to by being city employeee.
This is what Democrats wanted. And now they have the exodus.
Great story. Tell that to the 10,000 police, fire and city retirees who decided to stay and are enjoying life in Chicago.
Anonymous said...
Lol— 2013 I retired. 1 day off the job I left the state. Why should I stay?
2/27/2019 02:18:00 AM
Kids, grandkids , neighbors and friends, good neighborhood. Restaurant ms, entertainment, lakefront, neighborhood festivals are a few
This has been obvious for quite some time. Look at the "Southwest Corridor."
These neighborhoods used to be the backbone of the city.
-McKinley Park--gone
-Brighton Park--gone
-Archer Heights--gone
-Gage Park--shot to hell
-West Elsdon--gone
-West Lawn--gone
-Chicago Lawn--shot to hell
-Ashburn--gone
-Clearing--gone
-Garfield Ridge-teetering
Sad.
Very, very sad.
And with these assholes proposing a progressive tax. The blue area will quickly become a red area. New York has a 2.3 billion dollar hole because they implemented a progressive tax and the wealthy all left the state. Same thing will happen here. Dumbocrats!
Anonymous Anonymous said...
What kind of city it will be? A hellhole of epic proportions.
Anyone with any brains and ability is getting the F' outta here posthaste.
Even the rich are fleeing this shithole as soon as their kids are out of high school.
Some rich are leaving, who do you think are buying the expensive condos that are being built downtown. The very very expensive ones
The rich from the suburbs who’s kids are grown and out of the house and the parents want to be downtown
Go to the young peoples bars on the near north or river north or downtown. They are loaded with suburban kids waiting to be able to afford to live downtown
Anonymous Anonymous said...
We need to have commentary from coppers that retired and left the pros and cons of where they went to and how they are fairing there. Any comments from relocates,the main thing is family close by, because when we age that really matters?
2/27/2019 08:51:00 AM
Would like to know that also, we are thinking about moving but where is the bigger question?
J.B.,Kwame,Foxx,Lighfoot or Preckwinkle. Only in Illinois
Lol— 2013 I retired. 1 day off the job I left the state. Why should I stay?
2/27/2019 02:18:00 AM
Got you beat, retired on a Monday the 7th (no line either) in 2017 and left the state FROM 3510 S. Michigan............ZERO regrets!!!
2/27/2019 01:11:00 PM
Well fellers, I have you both beat, but my exit path to leaving for greener pastures before my retirement date is a secret!
Pension funds may come and go, but we'll always have Walmart.
2/27/2019 07:36:00 AM
BREAKING NEWS! TRUE NEWS!
Walmart is eliminating the greeter position.
My song I will be cranking from my moving truck NSync's Bye Bye Bye. Leaving Illinois!!!
And there is no way in hell that it will come back
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Anonymous said...
Lol— 2013 I retired. 1 day off the job I left the state. Why should I stay?
2/27/2019 02:18:00 AM
Got you beat, retired on a Monday the 7th (no line either) in 2017 and left the state FROM 3510 S. Michigan............ZERO regrets!!!
2/27/2019 01:11:00 PM
------------------------------------------------
Does it count that I retired in 2006 but had already moved out of state back in 1994?
Why is it that wherever you have centers for "Neighborhood and Community Improvement", the neighborhoods always seem to decline?
It's important to note that the socioeconomic label of middle class is further stratified into lower middle class, middle class, and upper middle class. Many who think of themselves as middle class are truly lower middle class and even lower class. I think that those maps show, accurately a shrunken middle class but also a middle class that is diluted.
Still have old neighbors who are city employees, they are all waiting to retire and get out. And very unhappy with new property owners that disappear after property falls apart.
2/27/2019 07:36:00 AM
And I'll bet they love you. Had a neighbor like you. Wanted to skeedaddle and did not care who bought the place. He left us a fine mess. He is a real jerk.
Does it count that I retired in 2006 but had already moved out of state back in 1994?
_______________________________________________
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, please let me buy you a drink sir/ma’am
Proof “progressive economics” isn’t “progressive” at all. Quite the opposite.
My family has lived in the city since the early 1900's. Only a couple are in the city any longer. I left in '82 but it was always nice to return for a visit. Sadly, those days are coming to an end. The rapid decline is well underway, the "neighborhoods" that I grew up around are like 3rd world countries. The rich and "think their rich" have taken over downtown and the near north sides. There is nothing left. The cancer is in stage 4 and growing rapidly. The hosts are about to be eaten into oblivion. It's is so sad to see the city that I grew up in go the way of Detroit. At least I have the memories of what it used to be. Say what you will about RJD, hizonner had it together!
Just like Brazil and other 3rd World countries.
Get woke, go broke.
The rich progressives on the Lakefront are getting the urge to build a wall join the NRA, and buy up the Assault weapons. Welcome to our world.
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