Quote:
Originally Posted by The North One
The main reason I usually hear from white middle-class families leaving Chicago are the high taxes.
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As compared with where, exactly? Seriously, I know of very, very few cities even remotely close to Chicago's caliber with respect to overall amenities with much lower overall tax rates. Chicago has no additional city income tax over the Illinois state income tax (which is pretty much middle of the road, honestly), and while property taxes certainly aren't low by any standard, they're not any higher than most other major cities I know of. Quite a bit lower in terms of percentage of assessed value than many, honestly.
I think it's the continual perceived crime issue that really does affect people leaving, especially white middle-class families. Keep in mind it's just the PERCEPTION of crime, not that they've actually been personally AFFECTED by said crime.
Look, I'm not trying to sugar-coat the actual real problem in Chicago when it comes to its criminal element. But let's be honest here, Chicago is FAR from the only large city with a crime problem, and Chicago's far from the worst in terms of per capital crime statistics.
One city that's quite notorious for crime is actually one that seems to get a lot of love from everyone not on SSP, that being Houston. Not just the city of Houston, but the entire metro area. And damn it, there are quite a few parts of Houston I would be just as, if not more worried about being in late in the evening than Chicago.
For some reason, it seems everyone loves to piss on this city. Not sure why, exactly. But speaking as someone who CHOSE to move here only 6 months ago, it's an amazing city, despite some annoyances. Maybe I'm seeing the best of Chicago since I'm on the north side in Lakeview East, but I've seen pretty fantastic areas all across the city.
Ah well, perception is perception. It's what keeps a certain percentage of people still liking our so-called "president."
Aaron (Glowrock)
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