[LouisVanDerWright]

A few comments on the recent discussions here:

1. Chicago continually puts out revolutionary new genres of music. In fact it seems a brand new style of music comes out of Chicago every 40 years or so on average (Blues, Jazz, House, etc). We are about due for it. Even in the last 15 years or so Chicago has been the epicenter of the recent development of music festivals as the primary means of delivery of music. Starting with Lolla in the 1990's and spreading into today's smorgasbord of festivals (Pitchfork, Riotfest, North Coast, etc) Chicago basically invented the new premier way of exposing talent to fans. Same goes with other major elements of the national music infrastructure from Media (Pitchfork Mag/Website) to ticketing (TicketFly) to agency (Windish Agency).

We are not out of the game and frankly it's just a matter of time before we have another shot at the spotlight as the innovator in music culture. In fact, hip hop has soared in popularity in the last few years again as EDM has begun to enter a decline. As someone else pointed out, several of today's leading hip hop artists are here and, from my contacts in the industry, 2019 has a whole 'nother crop of Chicago based artists ready to break out.

The issue Chicago has is that our "scene" isn't well promoted, partly because of the existing negative narratives about the city, but also partly because Chicago is known for so many other things that the first thing that comes to mind when someone talks about the city isn't usually music or culture.

2. Chicago has a ton of momentum behind it right now. The changes this city has undergone even since I moved here 12 years ago are astounding even in the context of a nationwide gentrification orgy. As much as there are some legitimate issues with this explosive growth, it has also created a much bigger market for culture of all varieties in the city.

This is most apparent in the food scene which I would argue is near the top of all cities world wide. I also think a big part of what makes the food scene what it is actually is the general affordability of the city. Low rent retail spaces (or West Loop lofts) make it super easy for restaurants to get started. Low rent for residents also means the average yuppie or hipster household can afford to spend more of their income on "experiences" like fine dining. Anecdotally my wife and I spend wayyy too much money on going out, but we can afford to because A. it's not all that expensive (maybe $40-70 for both of us including drinks even at a fairly fancy joint) and B. We literally spend zero dollars on rent because we own and our tenants pay our entire mortgage. Now obviously I got kinda lucky buying when I did, but I have multiple other friends who bought much later on who are in the same boat. A buddy who works at a tech firm downtown and now makes $150k a year and owns a three flat basically has $100k/year spendin' money after taxes because, even though he paid $500k+ for his building, the tenants cover most of his payment.

Multiply that by thousands of people and suddenly you have a huge market for dining with relatively low barriers to entry. That means you get innovation and you can support many many fine dining establishments. In NYC or SF or even Denver or Austin, good luck. Your rent will probably be $2000-3000/mo for a small 2BR eliminating a good chunk of your disposable income.

3. The art scene is really exploding here. I was just at a gallery show last night for an artist that goes by the name of Shlumper who has a big studio in Little Village and is showing his work in NYC, London, Paris, Hong Kong, etc. He's working on a huge piece that is 88 8'x8' panels meant to be displayed on a monumental scale. Now how much is a space capable of allowing someone like him to produce, let alone display, something like that going to cost him in NYC or LA?

Every day I get tenants moving in from Houston or Georgia or even Hawaii. Most of my tenants who are "hipster" are not from here. The mass migration to Chicago is drawing a lot of people in who couldn't otherwise afford to pursue their interests elsewhere. The worse the true "Affordability crisis" cities get, the more we benefit, but it's going to take time for the new talent Chicago has been accumulating to become known to the general population. But it is happening and if you are tuned in the "scene" here is growing rapidly and word is spreading where it really matters: among artists and pre-gentrification types.