CHICAGO | Politics and Current Events

[the urban politician]

I think that suburbs should merge with eachother, if not with Chicago.

Not sure why nobody has explored this idea

[left of center]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

I think that suburbs should merge with eachother, if not with Chicago.

Not sure why nobody has explored this idea

We have literally dozens of suburbs with populations under 5,000 residents, and a handful under 1,000 residents (McCook: 230, Forest View: 700, Bedford Park: 580, etc). Start with those first, and work our way up. Any suburb under 10k residents should be pushed to amalgamate with neighbors in order to achieve tax savings through economies of scale.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Chicago will start annexing suburbs again in 10-20 years as they begin to fall to the same issues that plagued Chicago in the second half of the 20th century. The depreciation cycle in these burbs is heavily synced and a lot of places are getting old and shitty quickly. Turns out not that many people want a 1950's or 60's ranch home that hasn't been updated in 50 years and is loaded with asbestos. At some point certain suburbs will pass the point of no return where they essentially collapse like many Chicago neighborhoods did post-war. However, they will be unable to ever see good times again without a larger municipality to carry they until things can be fixed as Chicago has carried it's South and West sides. I don't see a way out for a place like Maywood or some of the south burbs once they go ghetto. The only way to get additional resources will be annexation on Chicago which is much the same reasoning why so many burbs were annexing around the turn of the century. Chicago offered transit and financial resources those burbs needed to transform from pseudo farming communities to actual developed areas. Same will happen in a couple of decades once Chicago has cleared out more of its inventory of downtrodden neighborhoods and offers resources and expertise to adjoining burbs that are down on their luck.

Originally Posted by left of center

Sources: Federal agents raid powerful Chicago Ald. Ed Burke's City Hall office
Source: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...129-story.html

Federal agents raided the City Hall office of longtime powerful Chicago Ald. Ed Burke Thursday morning, sources familiar with the development confirmed.

Agents arrived at the office early Thursday morning, told employees to leave and papered over the glass windows at the office’s entrance to conceal the investigation going on inside, a source confirmed. A woman who left the office and did not identify herself said FBI agents were inside.

Burke’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Burke is the longtime chairman of the City Council’s Finance Committee, where he controls much of the legislative purse strings at City Hall. He has held office since 1969 and is running for re-election to a record 14th term.

Go directly to Jail, do not pass Go, do not collect $200...

Excellent news, maybe the Feds are about to show up and clean up these alderman now that Aldermanic Perogative and it's abuse has moved into the public spotlight. If Burke goes down you can bet your ass a bunch of lower alderbeasties will bite the bullet as well. He is basically the last remaining center of the clout machine in City Hall and all things clout go through him. I can't imagine what goodies the Feds might find in that office. I know for sure that several alderman like Moreno who are known for abusing their power learned it from Burke and are likely tied to him in enough ways to get their own offices raided after this...

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

Chicago will start annexing suburbs again in 10-20 years as they begin to fall to the same issues that plagued Chicago in the second half of the 20th century.

I guess it’s possible, but don’t underestimate the pigheadedness of suburban residents, even in failing towns. “It might be bad here”, they’ll say, “but at least we don’t have to pay those high Chicago taxes and send our kids to CPS!”

The first round of annexations happened at a time when joining the city meant a serious step up in amenities and quality of life, not to mention access to Lake Michigan water and city sewerage. Can’t really say the same today, the suburbs will need a powerful incentive to join themselves to Chicago and I don’t know what that would be. For a more recent example you’d have to look at Indy, Louisville, or Toronto where city and county governments were merged. In Toronto that directly led to the election of suburban idiots like Rob Ford to public office.

Plus, why would the city want these failing burbs? Most have poor transit access and don’t really make sense as city neighborhoods. Cicero and Berwyn have good housing stock, but I think they’ll be fine on their own. (A Pink Line extension to Harlem could work wonders though.)

[LouisVanDerWright]

^^^ If this scenario comes about, it's likely the vast majority of Chicago itself will have been redeveloped. At some point grabbing and turning around inner ring suburbs might make sense for a city with SF or NYC like affordability issues. This probably won't take 10-20 years like I said, but probably within our lifetimes. You and I will be old men, but it's the reversion to the mean. Innercities are NEVER cheaper than surrounding areas anywhere else on earth or at any other time in human history. At some point things will revert back to normal in the US and the central core will be expensive, followed by a ring of impoverished suburbs, followed by wealth country villa types further out. That's how Paris is, that's how London is, that's how ancient Rome was, that's literally how it works. The only exception was post war America where you had the tail end of the most radical technological transformation in history combined with a economic juggernaut that had just murdered everyone on earth that disagreed with them save for the Soviet Union. That's where our unique donut hole of land values came from and it's simply not going to be sustainable as the US reverts back to a less dominant multipolar world.

[Kenmore]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

^^^ If this scenario comes about, it's likely the vast majority of Chicago itself will have been redeveloped. At some point grabbing and turning around inner ring suburbs might make sense for a city with SF or NYC like affordability issues. This probably won't take 10-20 years like I said, but probably within our lifetimes. You and I will be old men, but it's the reversion to the mean. Innercities are NEVER cheaper than surrounding areas anywhere else on earth or at any other time in human history. At some point things will revert back to normal in the US and the central core will be expensive, followed by a ring of impoverished suburbs, followed by wealth country villa types further out. That's how Paris is, that's how London is, that's how ancient Rome was, that's literally how it works. The only exception was post war America where you had the tail end of the most radical technological transformation in history combined with a economic juggernaut that had just murdered everyone on earth that disagreed with them save for the Soviet Union. That's where our unique donut hole of land values came from and it's simply not going to be sustainable as the US reverts back to a less dominant multipolar world.

this is a libertarian fever dream

the midwestern suburbs are not europe, not of this is applicable

[Baronvonellis]

Yea, I don't know about all that. In Europe middle class middle age people tolerate living in small apartments in 5 story walkup buildings on top of their neighbors. Even small towns in the countryside they live mostly in dense apartments. It's kind of mind blowing to see coming from the US, that they will live in a dense apartment living next to farm fields. The US suburban tract housing never went there. It's all density and then farms. I just don't seeing the average person in the US wanting to live in dense housing ever, it's not in our DNA. Outside of a few select urban centers, most people don't want to live in a true urban environment.