Interesting Fund Raiser

Someone is exploring the possibility of ending the City Residency requirement:

• City of Chicago employees have been long held under the big thumb of residency. Historically that hasn't been a completely terrible thing, however as we all know too well the city has changed. This is not the once great Chicago I was born and raised in. This is no longer a safe place to raise our families, educate our children, or even afford to live in some instances. Therefore, I have set out on a quest to take on the residency requirement that handcuffs us all.
• The initial process entails a fact finding and research component that will be necessary before we can consider filing a lawsuit. This research component has been negotiated to a flat rate of $10,000 with the attorney. I want to make very clear that this initial process DOES NOT mean we are filing a lawsuit. This DOES NOT mean we are going to win if and when we do. This is a research endeavor to see what our chances and basis for a lawsuit would be, I want to make this very clear that you are donating to fund the initial research component and should we decide to move forward there will be additional fundraisers as this will not be a cheap process.

This is, of course, the longest of long shots. Illinois passed a Law a long time ago (decades and decades) that municipalities with a population of over one-million were allowed to set residency rules for their employees. It has been accepted practice since then and for some reason, the unions all went along with it.

But....

In every instance when similar laws have been challenged at the Federal level, the unions have won (Milwaukee and Pittsburgh if we recall) to name two. NYC has something like a "six-county rule" for their employees. Many other government entities have a "seasonable driving distance" in case of emergency call-outs.

And not to put too fine a point on it, we can name at least a dozen cops of all ranks who got caught living outside the city for years and managed to buffalo the City into zero disciplinary action. 

We can also name numerous elementary and high schools where the number of suburban city stickers on teacher vehicles outnumber City of Chicago stickers on a daily basis. It's almost like different strokes for different folks. Funny how that works.

In any event, we neither recommend nor denounce this effort. Everyone should make their own choices, spend their own money, explore all the options. It's becoming far too dangerous and expensive to be tied to a city sinking under the weight of incompetence. 

(WARNING: Any comment stating "you knew what you signed up for" will be summarily deleted. We all know, we all did, we didn't have to like it, and everything changes at some point with enough effort. If we followed your advice, we'd still be answering to the crown in England)