CDZ Seriously tho, Why is Chicago so Screwed?

[ClosedCaption]

....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.

 

[Two Thumbs]

constant never ending corruption.

think it really got started when they outlawed booze, that put so much money in the mobs hands they literally could bribed anyone.

It' didn't stop with Capone, some people think it did, but the people there were getting bribed just asked the next guy what he wanted.

can't recall exactly, but I think it's the last 2 out of 4 governors have gone to prison.


If you are talking about the rampant murders, it goes back to keeping the poor, mostly blacks, in shitty schools. When you don't finish HS, you can either get pregnant and go on welfare are turn to crime to get by.

that led to broken families and the feeling that more was owed to them

who offered to help?
said they would help?
and failed, for generations?

durr, the dems

you guys are long overdue to figure it out. And plz, no bs about how the reps cut the money b/c the facts are in and that's a known lie.

 

[DGS49]

It boils down to the fact that the main political currency of Chicago has for almost a century been (a) government jobs, and (b) government money. I remember a story out of Chicago one time where an alderman who made $12k/year had spent a quarter million dollars campaigning for the job. Because as an Alderman, he had the ability to get government jobs for so many people - and presumably kickbacks from the grateful people who got those jobs. The kickbacks may not be direct any more, but the mentality and the electoral environment remain the same.

Chicago's employees make too much money, their benefits are outrageously generous compared to typical private-sector jobs, and they can retire with lavish pensions at a ridiculously early age. The politicians have tried to pay for all this, and to keep the gravy train rolling, without antagonizing the public with the tax increases necessary to pay for all of it. Which is why the City is bankrupt - and looking to the bankrupt state of Illinois for help. The state is just as bad, which is not surprising since most of the governors come right out of the Chicago Machine. (As does our Beloved President).

City government is run for the benefit of the employees of the City, because so many voting Chicagoans either work for the City directly, or indirectly, and they carry not only their own votes but those of their family members and close friends. Any politician who does not kowtow to the unions will not be a politician for long.

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

 

[Sunni Man]

Simple.

1) Chicago kept voting Democrat; and the elected officials kept giving the citizens free things for years so they would continue to vote Democrat. This went on for years.

2) The liberal Jews, who are overwhelming Democrat, rose to power within the city government by promising even more free benefits. Once in power the liberal jews started borrowing money to fund their liberal idea of a utopian Chicago, but with no idea as to how the money would be paid back.

3) So today Chicago is ruled by a Democrat liberal jew government that continues to promise even more free things but doesn't have the money to pay for them. Yet the people keep betting on the same horse by voting Democrat in the hope things will somehow change. .......

 

[ClosedCaption]

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?

 

[Fueri]

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?

Ha! Tell them to wait until winter sets in to decide!

Anyhow, what happened? Anyone's guess, although the problems center on drugs and gangs. It's about turf and money. We also had massive housing projects here for years "the projects", such as cabrini green, which concentrated these problems into localized areas and allowed them to thrive. Even though some of these have been torn down the gang infrastructure that was formed during that period remains, as does the drug trade.

Chicago also, for years, has had a very low high school graduation rate, so it is cranking out literally hundreds of thousands of uneducated people that have no real shot at getting out of this cycle of poverty and so it continues.

I can't point at Dem responsibility or Pub responsibility. The entire system has failed and this is the result. The solution is complex, clearly, or something would be done. The cycle has to be broken and, to do that. people need to see something more than drugs as a real opportunity to pull themselves out, and it has to be supported by the community and the parents and there's the problem. There is no-one to teach the children that there is another way as those that should be doing that, the parents, don't know it themselves.

Many years ago, 20 or so now, I attempted to push a program to get the communities to fix up blighted buildings and turn them back to the people, teaching trade skills, personal responsibility and giving them hope. I got none, zero, interest from the city and less from organizations one would think would want to help, such as the Rainbow Push Coalition. After a couple of years I gave it up as I had to earn a living and it wasn't going anywhere, but I still think something along those lines might help at least some people, as I went to those neighborhoods and talked to those people and they were interested. Not all, but some, are just looking for a way out and are willing to actually do something about it, given the means and opportunity, but it is one sticky-ass problem for sure.

 

[GaryDog]

Chicago has 1/3rd of the murder rate of Newark, Detroit and New Orleans. In relation to the 1970s, Chicago's murder rate is roughly half what it was at its peak. The drug war's grip on the city is undeniable, but I think for the most part people are really blowing out of proportion the degree to which Chicago is "broken."

Probably what is so terrible is the degree to which the crime has been compartmentalized in the city. Most of the city sees 2.5 murders per 100,000, while other parts see almost 40 murders per 100,000. It's kind of hard not to see the racist element of this, too, as black people comprise almost the entire population of the high-crime areas. Like any rust-belt city, manufacturing and other 19th-20th century industries have fled the city and been replaced with jobs that require more advanced degrees (tech, education, etc.). Our "get tough on drug crime" policies of the 1990s did not help alleviate anything and probably made it worse. It's rare to see a 2-parent household in the crime ridden parts of Chicago, and the incarceration rate is high. The ripple effects of a felony conviction go WELL beyond the prison sentence. You can't get a job, vote, get benefits, get housing, etc. Makes it kind of impossible to come back if you're nicked once for peddling drugs (the only real industry in some parts of Chicago).

 

[Fishlore]

When "corruption" in the form of the Daly machine was at its peak, Chicago was known as "the City that Works." Chicago is the capitol of the Rustbelt as well as its national transportation humb. Free trade has been devastating. Chicago's ghettoes are regional headquarters for the drug business, the biggest industry in the area. Guns are freely available and cheap in neighboring Indiana. If you are rich and white, Chicago is still very much a toddlin' town.

 

[Two Thumbs]

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?

The Racial Dot Map: One Dot Per Person for the Entire U.S.

Chicago auto divided by race. This makes it easy for the part of town where your friend lives to look really nice and for dems to keep the minorities in shit

 

[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.

 

[DGS49]

So Chicago is a great place for "middle-class" people, white or black, but for the "Black Underclass" it leaves a lot to be desired.

In this context, what if we consider the concept of "Social Justice"? It is generally marched out for the benefit of groups of people who have historically been downtrodden by The Majority, right? "Social Justice" demands that they be given some benefit or consideration as a community.

But what about the other side of that coin? "Justice" refers to the state of affairs when people get what they deserve. If an entire community - in this case the lower-class Black community in Chicago - rampantly has children out of wedlock, predominantly fails to take advantage of a good, free public education, prolifically engages in criminal and anti-social conduct, and fails to diligently seek legal, gainful employment, then that community deserves to be scorned and abandoned. It is the socially "just" thing to do.

Right?

 

[GaryDog]

....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.

 

[GaryDog]

So Chicago is a great place for "middle-class" people, white or black, but for the "Black Underclass" it leaves a lot to be desired.

In this context, what if we consider the concept of "Social Justice"? It is generally marched out for the benefit of groups of people who have historically been downtrodden by The Majority, right? "Social Justice" demands that they be given some benefit or consideration as a community.

But what about the other side of that coin? "Justice" refers to the state of affairs when people get what they deserve. If an entire community - in this case the lower-class Black community in Chicago - rampantly has children out of wedlock, predominantly fails to take advantage of a good, free public education, prolifically engages in criminal and anti-social conduct, and fails to diligently seek legal, gainful employment, then that community deserves to be scorned and abandoned. It is the socially "just" thing to do.

Right?

That's incredibly simplistic, ignorant, and just plain wrong.

 

[Wyatt earp]

This sums up the chicago democrat machine in one picture...

 

[2aguy]

....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.

The democrats have run the city for decades, they have given public sector unions pay and benefits that can't be sustained, they have spent and spent and taxed and taxed and driven out the middle class......

 

[2aguy]

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?

Ha! Tell them to wait until winter sets in to decide!

Anyhow, what happened? Anyone's guess, although the problems center on drugs and gangs. It's about turf and money. We also had massive housing projects here for years "the projects", such as cabrini green, which concentrated these problems into localized areas and allowed them to thrive. Even though some of these have been torn down the gang infrastructure that was formed during that period remains, as does the drug trade.

Chicago also, for years, has had a very low high school graduation rate, so it is cranking out literally hundreds of thousands of uneducated people that have no real shot at getting out of this cycle of poverty and so it continues.

I can't point at Dem responsibility or Pub responsibility. The entire system has failed and this is the result. The solution is complex, clearly, or something would be done. The cycle has to be broken and, to do that. people need to see something more than drugs as a real opportunity to pull themselves out, and it has to be supported by the community and the parents and there's the problem. There is no-one to teach the children that there is another way as those that should be doing that, the parents, don't know it themselves.

Many years ago, 20 or so now, I attempted to push a program to get the communities to fix up blighted buildings and turn them back to the people, teaching trade skills, personal responsibility and giving them hope. I got none, zero, interest from the city and less from organizations one would think would want to help, such as the Rainbow Push Coalition. After a couple of years I gave it up as I had to earn a living and it wasn't going anywhere, but I still think something along those lines might help at least some people, as I went to those neighborhoods and talked to those people and they were interested. Not all, but some, are just looking for a way out and are willing to actually do something about it, given the means and opportunity, but it is one sticky-ass problem for sure.

There are no republicans in Chicago government......the democrats control the city government..for decades and Mike Madigan the Speaker of the House and his democrats have run the state government for decades......

This state is dead......it just hasn't stopped moving yet....

 

[ClosedCaption]

Chicago is the capitol of the Rustbelt as well as its national transportation humb. Free trade has been devastating.

What was the biggest employers or jobs in Chicago before Free Trade? Is that what ruined the job opportunities?

 

[Fueri]

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?

Ha! Tell them to wait until winter sets in to decide!

Anyhow, what happened? Anyone's guess, although the problems center on drugs and gangs. It's about turf and money. We also had massive housing projects here for years "the projects", such as cabrini green, which concentrated these problems into localized areas and allowed them to thrive. Even though some of these have been torn down the gang infrastructure that was formed during that period remains, as does the drug trade.

Chicago also, for years, has had a very low high school graduation rate, so it is cranking out literally hundreds of thousands of uneducated people that have no real shot at getting out of this cycle of poverty and so it continues.

I can't point at Dem responsibility or Pub responsibility. The entire system has failed and this is the result. The solution is complex, clearly, or something would be done. The cycle has to be broken and, to do that. people need to see something more than drugs as a real opportunity to pull themselves out, and it has to be supported by the community and the parents and there's the problem. There is no-one to teach the children that there is another way as those that should be doing that, the parents, don't know it themselves.

Many years ago, 20 or so now, I attempted to push a program to get the communities to fix up blighted buildings and turn them back to the people, teaching trade skills, personal responsibility and giving them hope. I got none, zero, interest from the city and less from organizations one would think would want to help, such as the Rainbow Push Coalition. After a couple of years I gave it up as I had to earn a living and it wasn't going anywhere, but I still think something along those lines might help at least some people, as I went to those neighborhoods and talked to those people and they were interested. Not all, but some, are just looking for a way out and are willing to actually do something about it, given the means and opportunity, but it is one sticky-ass problem for sure.

There are no republicans in Chicago government......the democrats control the city government..for decades and Mike Madigan the Speaker of the House and his democrats have run the state government for decades......

This state is dead......it just hasn't stopped moving yet....

I basically agree with you on a lot of that. The state is in deep shit financially due to massive mismanagement of its pension program whereby the geniuses in Springfield decided to just take 'pension holidays' and not contribute to the pension fund whenever they felt like, which was often. Then they kicked the can further down the road multiple times by redefining the % that the fund legally actually had to be funded to make it seem as if it was funded adequately, by simply changing the definition of that adequacy through the legislative process. Incredibly stupid. Even stupider that it's gone on for decades now. Those chickens have come home to roost and the state is basically fucked. They will have to raise taxes on property, business and everything else just to stay solvent, which will further drive people and business out of the state. They are stuck in a spiral at this point.

In terms of the violent aspects of Chicago, however, I don't think a Republican administration from the bottom to the top would make a whit of difference at this point.

The cycle of poverty is ingrained, the culture of lack of education is also self perpetuating. It's a total goat bang and without a grassroots effort to break that cycle in a meaningful way for people nothing will change. Not now. Not ever.

Can we say the dems caused it because they've been in charge? I really don't know. What I do know is that it is a massive loss of life and human potential going on every single day down there and it honestly breaks my fuckin heart, so I guess I don't care who is to blame at this point. The kids don't start out this way, but the machine as it exists cranks out a consistent product- and it's those kids that bother me. And the ones after them. Nobody deserves that.

 

[Fair&Balanced]

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

 

[GaryDog]

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.