Chicago: a tale of seven cities
an interesting piece on current demographic trends in Chicago from the Sun-Times.
the biggest things to note are the large population swings in the northside and the south lakefront so far this decade compared to 2000 - 2010. Quote:
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Why is the Far West side separated into two sections and one part not simply a part of SW side?
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Probably because the West Side is almost entirely black and pretty bombed-out, while the SW side is overwhelmingly Mexican and quite vibrant.
You cross railroad tracks in Little Village and it's a dramatic change. |
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Ed probably segregated them out and placed them together because they are whiter, wealthier, and more "cops & firemen"* than the more working class areas they are immediately adjacent to. (*) the city of chicago has a residency requirement for all city workers, and many of these folks flock to the very extreme edges of the northwest and southwest sides. |
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City-proper Chicago is 227.34 square land miles and most of that land is on what's considered the "south side" generally, lots of different neighborhoods in that area. |
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So one neighborhood could be gentrifying while another neighborhood 6 blocks away could be experiencing gang violence. The author is trying to separate Chicago into 7 cities that are experiencing different realities, with only loosely defined geographies. |
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well except for that tiny one-block wide strip of land along foster that connects ohare to the city. |
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Yes, Far Southwest Side.
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as i said earlier, the answer is likely demographics. besides, the ike doesn't separate the far west side from the southwest side on that map. none of the city's expressways separate anything on that map. the boundary between the far west and the southwest side on the map is the BNSF tracks. the same boundary between south lawndale (little village) and north lawndale, which as we all know, are pretty different worlds. |
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now that we have the issues of west side boundaries sorted out, let's get back to the meat of this story: most neighborhood areas of chicago are no longer in population free-fall like they were last decade.
from 2000-2010, only the central area saw any population gain. the other 6 neighborhood divisions all lost people, cumulatively an across the board decline of 244,696 people! and so far this decade, the central area is not only growing even faster than last, but 4 of the 6 neighborhood regions have turned the corner from population loss to population gain. and the far west side, while still losing people, has radically slowed its population loss. it's really now just the far southside where chicago's rather extreme population loss continues unabated. so far this decade, the 6 neighborhood regions have lost a cumulative 30,655 people, but that's almost entirely because of the unrelenting decline of the far southside. without the far southside, the other 5 neighborhood regions have actually gained 26,488 people so far this decade. quite a remarkable turnaround from the 147,567 people those 5 regions cumulatively lost last decade. and when you add that gain of 26,488 to the central area's gain of 49,792, you get a respectable gain of 76,280, but the far southside's loss of 57,143 wipes the majority of that gain away. perhaps chicago will finally get over that hump in the next decade. so the current demographic story of chicago really is a lot more nuanced than the conventionally understood "growing prosperous downtown & northside and declining ghetto westside & southside". |
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Basically anything below the municipal level in terms of estimates is shit. |
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When the actual count is done next year, these trends will obviously come into much clearer focus. |
As an outsider, I've always thought the "northside" would be growing. Why wasn't it and why is the growth still pretty slow?
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^ yep, gentrification in Chicago neighborhoods often leads to lower population density. Flat deconversions, smaller household sizes, rich NIMBYs blocking new development, etc.
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