Quote:
Originally Posted by mark0
Laugh it up. I'm in Florida right now because we enrolled our kids in school here to avoid the insanity up north. Condos in our building are doubling in price and our realtor friends say that they cant even answer all the calls every day from Blue state refugees. I am literally surrounded by business owners and former business owners who have packed up and moved out of MA, CONN, NJ, NY & IL. This is no longer funny, it is very real. I also know of 2 billionaires who re-domiciled out of IL in the last few months. One of them sat down to lunch with JB and told him he cant make up the revenue and never will and urged him to change course because IL is going to be the first state to test the constitutionality of state bankruptcy. Its that bad. Laugh at FLorida but it's growing and accelerating that growth while IL is shrinking. In fact the year I was born, IL was larger than both TX and FL. Now TX is 3 times the size of IL and FL is 2x while IL is literally the same population. Thats 50 years of stagnation.
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Now I don't know all the information on this topic so please correct me if I am wrong, most of this is my own observation as a single man in his late 20's.
Chicago itself in the past few years has seen a growth in young educated professionals, and has been offsetting the natural population aging and loss of other areas in the state, hence the stagnant growth. Predictions do have its population growing up to 12+ mil metro in the next few years to become the only US entry to the mega city category. This of course was pre-pandemic.
I myself grew up in South Florida and let me tell you, I dislike it, to me it feels stagnant, and I have spent 6mo here now due to the pandemic WFH visiting family, and it feels the same (it is currently a big laughing stock among many young people due to its poor leadership with Covid as well). It's growing but with a population that is older, and don't stimulate the economy as much as I'd like to see or find super beneficial for locals. In my field, staying in SFL was not an option for long term growth, and the livability of a place like SFL for a young person with student loan debt is not ideal. There is no public transit, a lower base pay, a high cost of living (unless we're talking moving to places like Port St. Lucie or other smaller towns which again, great for some but for people looking to grow offer next to nothing) and frankly not many cultural institutions.
I wouldn't trade my life in Chicago for a few less tax dollars in SFL (though I could do without the -10 degree days) as it would lower my quality of life which I can afford comfortably in Chicago. Like me there are many, I can tell you almost everyone that I went to High School with (class of '12) who were pursuing complex careers or had big aspirations left and none of us have/plan to come back, (in fact when we talk one of the first topics we bring up is how happy we are that we left). We've gone to Chicago, NY, DC, LA/SF, Seattle, and some to Texas, we also grew up in a nice suburb with a well funded school. Now this isn't a thing that can't be reversed, but I have found myself seeing a brain drain occurring there in my opinion. However I will say I find public schools, in certain counties here, far better than Chicagoland.
I do think Florida will continue to grow, and let me tell you if I hear one more New Yorker here say how much they miss New York I will scream. But I think you gotta look at how Chicago is setting itself up for the future (life science and tech hub) and how it is handling it current growth, I think its being done well and in fact its gaining traction amongst the younger professionals which I'm afraid will raise prices.
One must also look at the climate issues threatening both places as it starts to play an even bigger role for the coming generations, Chicago sits at the best odds globally along with Toronto, not to mention the great lakes megalopolis is already one of the most populated mega regions in the world with over 50mil people. Meanwhile, dealing with constant flooding (more so in the actual suburbs not so much the condos on the barrier islands) is getting to be excessive, excessive heat (in 2001 our summer highs were around 80-90 to now around 90-100+ many days), we still have people with roofs that haven't been repaired or in insurance claim disputes from Hurricane Wilma in 2005, which was only a category 3.
Businesses are closing in Chicago, due to the pandemic and our tough restrictions, which are warranted, but I have also seen a plethora of businesses surprisingly opening, not to mention the amount of major corps in Chicago and start-up attitude the city has which is appealing to many. I think Chicago will have a tough time in the near future, as most major cities will, but will still come up on top later. There is a lot more that people look at aside from taxes when choosing where to move, and for many in the under 30 category thats not something we really look at in general for now. Not to mention that nothing compares to a Chicago summer, the festivals, events, the general atmosphere, really unmatched.
But that is my 2 cents based on my observations, you make valid points as well, but again 2 sides to every story.
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