Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Dan
of course the mass loss of middle class manufacturing jobs has caused a great upheaval in chicago residential patterns, as it has elsewhere in the rust belt, but to pretend that racial paranoia wasn't also a major factor in the radical demographic changes that occurred in many chicago neighborhoods is to deny reality.
who's implying anything about neighborhood racial demographic changes? i'm only talking about the reality of what happened, not making a value judgement about any of it being "good" or "bad".
who thinks black flight is a good thing? there has been tons of ink spilled over the past decade about black flight from chicago, and i can't recall any of it being positive. it's a gigantic problem facing the city of chicago.
so far, no one seems to have any good solutions to stemming the exodus. mayor lightfoot's funding shift for the neighborhood opportunity fund might be a starting point, but it's way too soon to tell.
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These posts don't always translate actual intent but my response was rooted in the point raised by another poster that the cause of decline and white flight was about ''crime'' coming into neighborhoods. Blacks moving in meant crime so whites moved out; you weren't making a value judgment, the poster that implied was, that's all.
Blacks are fleeing Chicago due to crime and opportunities outside the city, the metro, and now the state. Just like everyone else. Today the narrative is that the white people (many ethnics living in their old neighborhoods) left Chicago because of ''blacks moving in''.
While there's a lot of ink about black flight, no one is complaining or blaming them for fleeing Chicago or other cities for that matter. Certainly no complaints about blacks abandoning their neighborhoods and cities. When the shocking Chicago 2010 census figures were released, the reaction and blame was placed on the those blacks that lived in the old projects. Actually, Chicago was and is suffering from middle class flight, a rust belt legacy that continues to be a drag on the city.
Perhaps Lightfoot's increased funding share in her neighborhood opportunity fund program may help; given Chicago's past with these incentives and public aid, one should be skeptical. However, with Lightfoot's determined efforts to reform Chicago, perhaps there will be real results instead of $ lining developers and their cronies pockets.
Let's just hope Chicago continues to be less ''rusty'' as it was.