CDZ Seriously tho, Why is Chicago so Screwed?

[Dekster]

....I mean chain of events type of things not just "Duurrrr Democrats". I mean what happened there over the last 20 or 30 years that brings it to its current state? I really want to know.

This is what happens when politicians kick everything down the road rather than make tough decisions that are unpopular when they needed to be made. Pensions should have been done away with or scaled back, etc all along the way for example. There is a long string of thought in American culture that leadership is about expanding, growing, building new things. When doing financial planning, they just assume growth will happen. When it doesn't, politicians largely are lost at what to do other than blame someone else, defer hard choices for someone else to make, and generally engage in a pattern of subterfuge. We don't have a lot of leadership experience or training or even knowledge yet about how to effectively scale down in government. In a generation, we should have a plethora of experts, scars and all.

It's really hard for me to see how cutting the incomes of a city's most vulnerable middle-class citizens would help things. Talk about a drop in the bucket. This could be a symptom, but not a cause.

Pension plans are breaking the backs of local governments. Government employees are hardly the most vulnerable part of the middle class. If you have less revenue, growing expenses, and pension plans are massively underfunded because of the poor market returns, then it is better to cut pensions than it is to cut fire fighters. The government's job is to provide services, not pay people to not do anything.

 

[Agit8r]

But ethnically, culturally, geographically, and socially, Chicago is a GREAT TOWN, and the people who live there love it.

My Co-worker just moved there and seriously LOVES it. So I'm wondering how one part is so messed up and the other isnt.

Were there jobs there that left parts of the City abandoned?

I mean, saying "Dems corruption" doesnt explain how their is so little opportunity and so much crime. Crime usually occurs when there isnt any money of opportunity. So what happened?

Part of it just goes along with it's history as a wealthy, socially stratified commercial center.

 

[Fair&Balanced]

I think we all know why Chicago is such a disaster, but it's considered racist to discuss it, so why bother?

It's not racist to recognize that systematic, oppressive and institutionally racist treatment of blacks for centuries has pushed them into ghettos and into disadvantaged positions in our economy. It's actually wise of you to bring that up.

Oh here we go again with the "white men have created a situation where blacks are inferior" ClosedCaption agrees with you

Sad indeed