[DCReid]

Originally Posted by destroycreate

Ok, don't come for me--just hear me out.

We hear about cities like Houston, Atlanta, Dallas, etc. blowing up. People are "fleeing" LA/SF and NYC for cheaper cost living enclaves.

What I don't get it is...why doesn't Chicago seem to have more pull? It is a world class city, truly urban through and through, offers traditional cosmopolitan major city life, and save it for a few crime-ridden parts, is pretty safe and most importantly exceptionally affordable for a city of its kind. Atlanta is apparently the land of $36k-salaried millionaires, but who wants that when you can live in an urban brownstone-lite in a compact neighborhood in Chicago that boasts the arts, transit, culinary enclaves and more? If I'm also understanding correctly, you can find McMansions galore in the Chicago ex-urbs too.

Anecdotally, when I speak to people in Seattle, LA, SF, or SD, I rarely hear anybody yearning to move to Chicago. But they'll be open to relocating to Austin, Dallas or Miami.

Is it just the weather? Is that honestly such a big deal for people? Lack of higher paying jobs? To me, Chicago is an amazing city which I think most us can agree on--but shouldn't it be exploding with growth and becoming a major go to? It seems like it's just been sort of stagnant—growth seems more like a slow burn than making front page news stories.

From what I understand, Chicago is indeed exploding with growth/a major go to city -- for the highly educated millennials, mostly whites and Asian-Americans. That's why the downtown areas, including near south, west, and north sides remain fairly vibrant. However, that growth does not offset the exodus of lower and middle class, mostly African- Americans, and the cessation of high Latino immigration that benefited Chicago in the prior decades before 2000. That's why the south and west sides that are not adjacent to downtown have serious crime and blight issues that the city is having a hard time to resolve.