Amerika

An uncommonly forthright article in several areas from New Geography:

Like many old, big industrial cities, Chicago peaked in the 1950 Census with a population of 3,620,962. In the 1950s over two percent of the entire U.S. population lived within Chicago city limits. Over a half century later, while America’s population doubled, Chicago’s population declined. The 1960, 1970, 1980, and 1990 Census numbers showed Chicago losing population.

The white flight out of Chicago continued with 150,000 non- Hispanic white people leaving Chicago from 1990 to 2,000…With Chicago’s 150,000 white population decline from 1990 to 2000: Chicago was only 31.3 percent non-Hispanic white….The entire Chicago Public School System is only 9 percent white. Not a single public high school has a population that is majority white.

Chicago’s political elite love to give speeches about the importance of public education, but not for their children. Mayor Daley sent his children to private schools. Deborah Lynch, the former head of the Chicago Teacher’s Union, sent her kids to private schools. America’s newest political superstar, Barack Obama, sends his kids to private schools. With the exodus of the rich from Chicago’s public schools, 69 percent of the children in the Chicago Public School system are poor.

The horrible public schools, high taxes, and crime have driven families out of Chicago. The city’s job base cannot compete with anti-union places like Houston and Phoenix.

New Geography

I’m always amused at the two-step. To be a politician, you must have humility and be a man/woman of the people. But unless you have a hole in your head, you’re going to take advantage of wealth. Send those kids to private schools. Buy that second, third or eighth home as an investment. Use those business connections.

I’m also saddened to see the decline of Chicago.

I think this article captures only some of what’s happening:

A wealth white/Asian elite, about 1/3 of the population, lives in really nice housing on the north shore or downtown lofts.

The rest labor for them and increasingly hate them.

At some point, the elites will be replaced, leaving a city with entirely third-world abilities.

Tags: barack obama, elites