[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright

I just signed a contract with a buyer at $395k for a gut rehabbed 5 bed, 2.5 bath bungalow I renovated just outside of Avondale and Old Irving Park in Belmont Cragin. While that might sound pricey, it's totally affordable for a household with $100k/yr combined income. Similar houses that haven't been totally rebuilt sell for $250k in good condition in that area. If you think Chicago has an affordability problem you simply have no idea what you are talking about.

And on the point of school quality, I've repeated myself like a broken record: CPS does not have a funding problem, it does not have a teacher problem, it does not have a facilities problem, it does not have a violence problem, it has a parent problem. The reason so many schools are poor quality is that the students in them come from families that are unwilling or unable to provide the necessary support and involvement to give their kids the education they need. As soon as parents with the resources or family structure necessary to support their children's education move into an area, the schools start to change overnight. This is no secret and has been happening constantly as the gentrification has spread outwards from the north side. Anecdotal example: Schurz High School on the NW side which was notoriously poor quality and even dangerous just five or ten years ago has been coopted by legions of yuppies piling into Avondale, Portage Park, and Old Irving Park. It now ranks much higher in quality and features international baccalaureate programs. This change will only continue to intensify over the coming years and the improving school quality in the area jacks up land values creating a virtuous (or evil if you ask the Somos Logan square commies) feedback loop. Now you can find quarter block or larger developments of $500k new SFHs even West of Cicero and South of Irving.

But I digress, the point is that If you took the entire staff and facilities of the worst school in Chicago, lifted it up on jacks and rolled it into Lincoln Park and populated it with Lincoln Park students, it would become one of the best schools in the city instantly. People talk about school quality as if it is some sort of permanent rigid thing totally impermutable rock lodged in the sands of time when in reality it is totally fluid and linked almost solely to the resources dedicated to pupils outside of classroom hours.

This is 100% true.