Love all the demographics data. But I wonder if it'd be better served in it's own demographics thread. I mean, yes it's indirectly economics data. But I think this thread is for more bread and butter economics news and discussions.

^moved. . .

. . .

Haha, it's funny I tried that one time. I parked way out by the Harlem blue line on a side street with 2 cars parked on it. I got ticketed for leaving my car there. I was going down to Florida for Christmas and New Years to see my Dad, and parked it for 2 weeks. Apparently, there's a law that says you have to move your car after a week that I didn't know about. Although I've left my car in Lincoln Square at the same spot for a month and it was never bothered. There's alot of cops that live in those far out city neighborhoods and they were probably pissed that I parked right in front of their house, or some little old lady was bothered by it. Even though the street was practically empty as everyone has garages out there.

You gave yourself away right here

anybody got old pictures of Oriental Theatre 24 West Randolph Street . New office has a view of the side of it and it looks like it has old windows bricked up...wondering what it originally looked like. Not much luck finding that angle online.

Yea, well I was responding to how he suggested tourist do that and park in outer neighborhoods and take the train. In those outer neighborhoods people have garages. Its funny nobody cares when I park in a busy neighborhood with limited street parking, but when I parked in an area with tons of street parking available they wanted to ticket me lol.

i never suggested that someone park in an outer neighrborhood and ride the train downtown, i said "random neighborhood".

if you're driving in on the kennedy, exit at irving and park on some side-street and then hop on the blue line at irving.

your street-parked car is not going to be noticed by anyone in a neighborhood like irving park.

Isn't Harlem and the Kennedy also a "random neighborhood"? So your saying a random tourist would be intimately familiar with Chicago parking patterns, beyond what a resident knows. That seems pretty unlikely.

no.

in fact, i said the exact opposite.

This is very true. I live right at Independence Park. You can exit the expressway and park right at the end of Byron (always tons of parking, no permits or zones or anything) and you're a 30 second walk up a nice little sidewalk to the Blue Line entrance.

You want it really easy just get off at Irving Park, continue down along Avondale and park anywhere you want.

This is a nice article:

A DePaul economist's analysis concludes dire perceptions about the state's economy and growth are overblown.

In the article, they mention that the Chicago metro area ranks 49th of 388 in the share of overall population that has at least a bachelor's degree.

Many of the metro areas that rank higher than the Chicago metro area are, of course, college towns. Here is a list of the metro areas: https://ssti.org/blog/useful-stats-e...area-2007-2017

Property tax rates in northeast Illinois
 

I sometimes see articles saying that Illinois has the highest tax rates in the country; largely because of it's high property tax rates. But then sometimes I see studies saying that tax rates in Chicago really aren't that high; i.e., they're kind of middle-of-the-pack for large cities and definitely lower than tax rates in NYC.

This morning, the Chicago Civic Federation issued a report which, I think, explains that both of the above statements can be true. The report compares 2017 property tax rates in Chicago and 31 suburbs. And shows that rates in the suburbs are quite a bit higher than in Chicago.

2017 rates for residential properties in Chicago and 11 Cook County suburbs were

Harvey: 7.08%
Chicago Heights: 5.01%
Elgin: 3.06%
Oak Park: 2.85%
Arlington Heights: 2.47%
Schaumburg: 2.44%
Orland Park: 2.36%
Elk Grove Village: 2.33%
Evanston: 2.15%
Barrington: 2.00%
Glenview: 1.99%
Chicago: 1.74%

Rates are also shown for commercial properties, again with Chicago rates being the lowest.

Click here for the SunTimes article.

And here for the Civic Federation report.

We need that riverwalk extension stat.

I think once the riverwalk at the 78 and the southbank riverwalk are connected to Chinatown, the extension will happen.

I don't think it's necessary. The tourists obviously hit the east branch riverwalk. Let the south branch be more chill for the peeps of Chicago. That south loop residential area is becoming a really interesting area unto it's own. Keep em separated. Besides, what could you do in front of the Lyric. It's practical a vertical wall to the edge of the river. That thing would get tagged every other Monday night :haha:

I can think of about a dozen amazing things you could do with a beautiful limestone backdrop along the river... movie nights on the river, plays, operas, concerts, etc, along the back of the Lyric Opera, with a cool stage there, lights blasting, sound blaring, fireworks on bridges on either side to top it all off...

No offense kumdog, but that's the tackiest shit I've ever heard of. The river has become a draw because of the architecture. No three-ring circus please.

Wait. Were you kidding?

Even the opera itself has tossed around the idea of projecting opera on the river side wall of their building. I don't think it has to be tacky depending on how it's done.

A stage is probably not going to happen given the depth restrictions, but there as been considerations of making the Opera Building site one of the accessible accesses along the river with a dramatic architectural ramp from Washington or Madison, or both.

Honestly the idea of movie night seems pretty cool, get a projector on it like Merch Mart...

A couple years ago, the city commissioned a bunch of architects to come up with interesting ideas for future portions of the riverwalk, including the Civic Opera area.

Definitely more of a "vision" exercise than a feasible one, but there were a lot of creative ideas:

https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/596a...ront-stage.jpg

https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/596a...ver-opera2.jpg

https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/596a...ver-ballet.jpg

https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/596a...colannade4.jpg