CHICAGO | General Discussions

[F1 Tommy]

NASCAR and an IMSA race.


https://sportscar365.com/imsa/imsa-t...OdVddaYvL9Kdos

[twister244]

Originally Posted by F1 Tommy

NASCAR and an IMSA race.


https://sportscar365.com/imsa/imsa-t...OdVddaYvL9Kdos

I was really hoping the route would be longer and go up/down LSD, but I also don't watch NASCAR, so I really have no clue how long these routes realistically are. Still happy to see this though.

[left of center]

Wow, interesting.

You can definitely see the collapsing African American population numbers in the city with the changes on the west side. It almost looks like the NW side and SW side Latino clusters will eventually join as the African American numbers in Austin, Garfield Park and Lawndale shrink.

The outer 'city employee neighborhoods' are also shedding a lot of whites, presumably being replaced by Latinos (this is clear in Garfield Ridge and Clearing, less clear in Beverly and the far NW neighborhoods near O'Hare).

The neighborhoods from the South Loop to Hyde Park are diversifying substantially, with many tracts in those neighborhoods having no clear racial majority.

I could stare at maps like this for hours on end. Thanks for posting it!

[Steely Dan]

yes, fascinating maps.

also clearly on display is the white gentrification push westward over the river from near north and lincoln park into west town and logan. and even from north center into eastern avondale and irving park, though not to the same extent yet (but it's coming).

also, it doesn't look like there's a single census tract left in the city that's >90% NH white.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

also, it doesn't look like there's a single census tract left in the city that's >90% NH white.

Which is a good thing. You are seeing those borders becoming blurry as people choose different neighborhoods to live in. One of the things I love (coming from Denver) is how diverse neighborhoods are here. I love walking around a number of areas and seeing all walks of life. I suspect that trend will continue for the coming years as long-standing historical inertia of segregation continues to erode away with time.

At least that's my hope.

[Steely Dan]

^ yep, the fewer tracts we have that are >90% any one group, the better it is for the city overall.

more light shades and yellows, please.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^ yep, the fewer tracts we have that are >90% any one group, the better it is for the city overall.

more light shades and yellows, please.

There's still over 125 tracts in the city that are 90%+ Black, and 25 more that are 90%+ Hispanic. None for White or Asian are 90%+ for 2020. I think there's around 25 tracts that are 80-89.999% White, and 1 for that level Asian.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by left of center

The outer 'city employee neighborhoods' are also shedding a lot of whites, presumably being replaced by Latinos (this is clear in Garfield Ridge and Clearing, less clear in Beverly and the far NW neighborhoods near O'Hare).

It may be a racial change but not a political one. These are still conservative city employees with ugly social attitudes, but now they have names like Lopez and Flores in addition to O'Keefe and Frankowicz. Ah, the melting pot!

It's always been interesting to me that, with such a huge city, the city workers are *still* so heavily concentrated in these corner neighborhoods even regardless of race, crime/safety, etc. Why do Streets and San workers not live in Avondale, Hermosa or McKinley Park?

The neighborhoods from the South Loop to Hyde Park are diversifying substantially, with many tracts in those neighborhoods having no clear racial majority.

I think a lot of it is Prairie Shores and Lake Meadows (maybe South Commons too?). Those enormous complexes have emptied out of Black middle class residents and filled up with a mix of whites and Asians. But because those areas are sort of isolated from the rest of Bronzeville by a physical and psychic barrier, the rest of Bronzeville still feels as black as ever.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Why do Streets and San workers not live in Avondale, Hermosa or McKinley Park?

some of them have to, right?

my wife's good friend is married to a cop and they live in irving park (montrose/kimball-ish)

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

some of them have to, right?

my wife's good friend is married to a cop and they live in irving park (montrose/kimball-ish)

It is shockingly concentrated in just 5 corner neighborhoods.

https://informationportal.igchicago....d-census-data/

Avondale has 236 city employees
Hermosa has 133
Irving Park has 432
McKinley Park has 124

Norwood Park has 1,966
O'Hare has 1,159
Dunning has 1,094
Mt Greenwood has 1,983
Garfield Ridge has 1,617

Note this data only includes direct city employees, not quasi-independent agencies like CTA or the Park District who also have a residency requirement. Potentially that might change the geographic results, as those agencies may have a different racial mix in their employees (CTA is certainly majority-Black, and the city's direct employees are plurality-White).

[Steely Dan]

^ thanks for the link. very interesting data.

but it's too bad that it only covers a fraction of city workers (ie. those directly employed).

in addition to the CTA and park district, that data also doesn't include the big kahuna of city workers, CPS, which employs around 40,000 people all by itself.

[sentinel]

Edit

[Randomguy34]

So, y'all know how we've been noticing a lot more Texas and Florida license plates as of late? Apparently folks in the Albany subreddit have been noticing many folks from Texas moving to the city. One person pointed out the Worcester, MA subreddit has also been noticing more folks moving from Texas. Many folks in the comments gave their reasons for moving to Albany from the South. The #2 reason folks seemed to have moved was because they wanted to be somewhere more liberal/less extreme conservatism. The #1 reason though boiled down to cost of living.

Stuff like housing, gas prices, taxes, minimum wage, etc seems to at the breaking point for many folks in the South. The only places that are more affordable are small cities in the Northeast and mid/large Rust Belt where mortgages/rent aren't completely unaffordable and there's some semblance of public infrastructure. This would explain why I've been seeing so many out-of-state license plates across the South Side: from Bronzeville all the way to even Greater Grand Crossing. There are parts of Hyde Park and Kenwood where I've seen rows of parked cars from different places in the South.

Albany subreddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Albany/comm...x_of_extexans/

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Randomguy34

So, y'all know how we've been noticing a lot more Texas and Florida license plates as of late? Apparently folks in the Albany subreddit have been noticing many folks from Texas moving to the city. One person pointed out the Worcester, MA subreddit has also been noticing more folks moving from Texas. Many folks in the comments gave their reasons for moving to Albany from the South. The #2 reason folks seemed to have moved was because they wanted to be somewhere more liberal/less extreme conservatism. The #1 reason though boiled down to cost of living.

Stuff like housing, gas prices, taxes, minimum wage, etc seems to at the breaking point for many folks in the South. The only places that are more affordable are small cities in the Northeast and mid/large Rust Belt where mortgages/rent aren't completely unaffordable and there's some semblance of public infrastructure. This would explain why I've been seeing so many out-of-state license plates across the South Side: from Bronzeville all the way to even Greater Grand Crossing. There are parts of Hyde Park and Kenwood where I've seen rows of parked cars from different places in the South.

Albany subreddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Albany/comm...x_of_extexans/

I've been stalking some reddit posts for a few Chicago boards. A few weeks ago there was one asking why there were so many Florida plates. Hilarious because some people were like "it's all rentals!" but then a bunch of people from Florida were chiming in saying they'd just moved to Chicago. Also I'm sure some are rentals, but I've seen many a car from these states that are obviously not rentals (i.e. have dealer plate or alumni outlines (whatever they're called) from those states, or are just old enough where you know not even the cheapest rental agency would ever rent out the car. On these Reddit subs, there are multiple posts a week from people mostly in states like Texas, Florida, Kentucky, California, etc asking about moving to Chicago who are either doing it soon or are considering it. Some international people as well. There seems to be a fair number from what I've noticed of people who are LGBTQ who are basically trying to gtfo dodge in the south and looking at Chicago as a viable option because of the affordability, the community, the fact of public transit/walkability, and how they figure they will be treated better here than where they come from.


Funny thing is yesterday I got contacted out of the blue by someone I used to work with in NYC who moved to Dallas 5 years ago. He was asking how the Chicago office is. He grew up in India, not very well off - and they were tired of living with their kids in a cramped NJ place so they bought a big house in a Dallas suburb. He told me they're bored out of their mind now - all they can do is eat and watch movies - and want to move back to a city type of atmosphere. So they're looking into Chicago. When I brought this up to some other co-workers and friends, each one of them had stories of some people they knew who moved from Chicago to TX in the last 5 years and are now wanting to move back for various reasons, like being bored out of their mind.

[pip]

I'm in Boston and it's the same thing here. Snowbirds? My parents had Florida plates.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by pip

I'm in Boston and it's the same thing here. Snowbirds? My parents had Florida plates.

Maybe some, but there's a lot who aren't. Anecdotally we have a poster on here who made the move and his entire family is too (some already have). Some other people on here said previously they met people who made the move that aren't snowbirds. I've met some too, and on Reddit there's been more than you'd think who are chiming in saying they've moved to Chicago from Florida - not snowbirds.


I mean I think some of it is that, but there are a lot of plates from all over, and it's not just all warm places. I've seen a bunch from CO, MO (not super cold but not warm year round), MA, NJ, NY, etc lately.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Maybe some, but there's a lot who aren't. Anecdotally we have a poster on here who made the move and his entire family is too (some already have). Some other people on here said previously they met people who made the move that aren't snowbirds. I've met some too, and on Reddit there's been more than you'd think who are chiming in saying they've moved to Chicago from Florida - not snowbirds.


I mean I think some of it is that, but there are a lot of plates from all over, and it's not just all warm places. I've seen a bunch from CO, MO (not super cold but not warm year round), MA, NJ, NY, etc lately.

Maybe it's just because Chicago is an amazing city with the right balance of size, affordability, food, culture, etc. Of course it has it's issues, but for so many of us, these get eclipsed by what we have here. I lived in Denver for over five years. Great city, loved exploring the state, but at the end of the day, I care more about my community and the amenities my city offers me. Chicago just has more of that at every level for the same price, if not cheaper.

[pip]

edit:

Twister I totally agree with all you said. It has all the ingredients and the right balance. There is some serious issues though.

marothisu. This is all anecdotal. Boston is the same thing from what I see. Plates from all over and lots from Florida and other winter destinations. Not trying to downplay Chicago. I hope the best for it.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by pip

edit:

Twister I totally agree with all you said. It has all the ingredients and the right balance. There is some serious issues though.

marothisu. This is all anecdotal. Boston is the same thing from what I see. Plates from all over and lots from Florida and other winter destinations. Not trying to downplay Chicago. I hope the best for it.

Right. What I say is anecdotal. I agree, but what you are also saying is anecdotal as well. Also sounds like you aren't in Chicago anymore so perhaps you aren't really experiencing what many of us are actually seeing.

When I lived in Chicago for 8 years prior, this never happened to this scale a single year I can remember. Also I was seeing this in February, March, April, etc. In no way did it just start in the summer. Also jibes with what multiple realtors at multiple companies in town were telling us as we started looking to buy places starting in the fall - they were seeing a sudden influx of people from CA and NYC moving here looking for places to buy or scoping out places to buy before they moved. Usually they told us after they found out we had moved back to Chicago from NYC ("oh yeah...we're seeing a sudden influx. People from there contacting us left and right. Do you have any idea why??")

[Vlajos]

Apologies if this was posted before, but this census analysis from Crains is very encouraging for Chicago's future.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/opin...ulation-growth

Some good notes from the article:

The number of college graduates in Chicago increased by 203,000 between 2010 and 2020, more than any other U.S. city except New York and Los Angeles, and higher than both on a percentage basis.

Chicago's college grads aren't usually thought of as immigrants, but, like traditional immigrants, they're primarily newcomers. According to the census, 55% weren't born in Illinois, and based on reasonable assumptions, the share of city-living graduates who are Chicago natives may be just 10%.

Some analyses have purported to show Chicago's middle class has almost vanished, but census data indicates these claims are exaggerated. Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan research group, defines middle class as having household income between two-thirds and 200% of the regional median—in metro Chicago's case, $50,000 to $149,000 for 2020. By this standard, 62% of city households were middle income; 34% were lower; and 4% upper. Ten years earlier, the numbers were 62% middle; 37% lower; and 1% upper.

The citywide poverty rate—20% in 2000—rose to 24% in 2012, and has since fallen to 16%. The city's median household income still lags that of the region, but the gap is narrowing. In 2010, the city's median income was 77% of the region's; in 2020, it was 83%.