The fight over the regional map
Friday, May 8, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From Gov. JB Pritzker’s Q&A yesterday…
Governor, I know you’ve said the regional breakdowns for your reopening plan are based on EMS regions. But why are counties like Grundy, Kankakee and Kendall being grouped with Cook County, which will be the last county in the state to be able to open? If the numbers are vastly different for those counties compared to Cook, could their businesses be able to reopen quicker?
So first I would say that there’s probably no way to draw these lines that would satisfy everybody.
But I’d also say that people who live in counties that are within a region where people feel like ‘Well, hey nobody in my village or my town or my city has gotten it, or I don’t know anybody who has,’ remember that many of the people in outlying counties around Cook County, around the collar counties travel in and out frequently sometimes for their job to those locations. And so that is one of the reasons why those counties are where they are. It has in part to do with the radius from from the collar counties, which have significant numbers of cases.
Not to mention that people in Cook County might very well venture forth into Kankakee, Grundy and Kendall counties.
* More on that topic…
Gov. J.B. Pritzker is taking “under serious consideration” a request to leave Kankakee County and surrounding areas out of the Chicago region in his plan to reopen the state, Rep. Lindsay Parkhurst said Thursday.
Parkhurst, a Republican representative of the 79th District, said Pritzker called her Wednesday evening in response to a letter she wrote explaining her disagreements with the plan.
She said the plan “blindsided” legislators, as they were not consulted regarding their regions.
Parkhurst argued in her letter that Kankakee and Grundy counties and Peotone in southeastern Will County represent significantly fewer COVID-19 cases (less than 1 percent of the state’s total) than Chicago and its surrounding suburbs (92 percent of the state’s total).
* Some suburban mayors are also arguing that they shouldn’t be in the same region as Chicago and Cook County…
Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso said by combining the city of Chicago and Cook County with the collar counties, Pritzker’s plan will prevent DuPage towns from advancing to phases with fewer restrictions.
“We can follow the plan and be successful, but we will still have to wait for Chicago and Cook County,” where the majority of coronavirus cases in Illinois have been reported, Grasso said. “He has taken our hope away.”
* Not everyone is unhappy with their regions, though…
Sangamon County falls in the central region with counties like Macon and Champaign counties.
“I know the administrators were all dealing with our own issues but also talking about the re-opening and what’s going on in our region. Those conversations have just started,” said Gail O’Neill, the Director of the Sangamon County Health Department.
Looking at data from the Illinois Department of Public Health from May 1-6, the central region had an average of 47% ICU bed availability and a COVID-19 positivity rate under the 20% threshold.
Barring a major uptick, Springfield is moving to the next phase on May 29.
- Annonin - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 11:47 am:
And then the busloads og steak eatin’ gplfers can motor down and leave a little virus behind.
- Lynn S. - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 12:15 pm:
Lots of folks who seem to think that they can just cite the raw number of cases in Chicago and win an argument.
If I start looking at a per capita rate for each county by taking case numbers in each county and dividing by the population in that county, then did a color-coded map with low rates a light color and high rates a dark color, I suspect a lot of folks would be in a county whose map color changes.
I could start with Jasper County: 45 cases divided by 10,000. .0045
- cermak_rd - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 12:15 pm:
Burr Ridge? For the love of Pete, I can be there in 20 minutes from my home in Berwyn, which is most definitely part of Cook County and has had cases and deaths.
- Frank talks - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 12:17 pm:
Burr Ridge is Cook and Dupage so what’s mayor want to do put a duct tape line down the middle of the city? Like fighting siblings?
Is he having less cases on the Dupage side of his city than the Cook side?
Are people really this dense?
- West Side the Best Side - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 12:22 pm:
Does Mayor Grasso want the DuPage part of his town to be in a different region than the Cook County part? Wonder what Hinsdale’s thought is on that.
- Just Another Anon - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 12:23 pm:
Since Chicago and Cook County routinely tout their uniqueness and how the rest of the state’s law ought not to apply to them when the weigh in on matters in Springfield, why not make Chicago and Cook their own region? The collars are always lumped together, so it seems reasonable that they should be their own region. I suspect that this decision was made for political reasons and to punish the collar county economies for calling on for a loosening of restrictions which are economically punishing for a majority of residents and small businesses.
- Pot calling kettle - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 12:25 pm:
Since when to people not travel from the suburbs to the city to work (and vice versa)? Where are all of the people on METRA going every day? Why is there rush hour traffic? If restaurants and shops open in the burbs, will no one from the city venture out?
- Oswego Willy - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 12:31 pm:
=== I suspect that this decision was made for political reasons and to punish the collar county economies for calling on for a loosening of restrictions which are economically punishing for a majority of residents and small businesses.===
(Sigh)
Make sure the tin foil used for your hat is changed regularly.
As a Kendall resident, knowing how many (anecdotally) are traveling “east”, to Cook and Chicago for work, maybe these legislators aren’t in tune with who lives in Kendall?
It’s like “these” legislators forget where jobs in this region are, and why place like Oswego want commuter train stops.
- Lynn S. - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 12:51 pm:
A few places that have been mentioned:
Randolph County 203/33476 .006154
Chicago 28441/2694236 .006513
Kendall County 363/114736 .00316
(Sorry, Willie. This is aimed at the electeds, not you.)
Kankakee County 428/113449 .0037
Champaign County 229/209689 .00109
- NotRich - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 12:57 pm:
JB’’s first mistake during this pandemic.. drawing these regions in secrecy and not alerting members of the Legislature.. plus I don’t think that the Werhli/Manley incidents are the only times his staff have had cross words with legislators.. also hearing things are not all rosy between JB & daMayor
- Oswego Willy - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 12:59 pm:
- Lynn S. -
It’s all good.
Question?
You think those numbers are blind luck or social distancing working.
Oh, part two, the meat plants, nursing homes, and prisons, their tragically bad rates… are they bad luck alone?
Respectfully.
Also, stay well.
- Lynn S. - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 2:08 pm:
Willie,
Lots of factors in Chicago, mostly related to density and all the folks who have to use public transportation.
Champaign County? Social distancing definitely working. You take out the 52 cases at the pork plant in Rantoul (so far, only 200 of 700 tested), our per capita goes down a little bit more.
Even if you take out the nursing home in Newton, Jasper County still has about 12 deaths in a population just below 10,000. Yikes (banned punctuation)
And no, you don’t get to take out the clusters, like nursing homes or meat packing plants. Almost every case in Coles County is someone who works in the Sheriff’s office. Everyone who’s able-bodied in those clusters is out at the grocery store and the gas station, not to mention the time they spend with the folks who share their homes. All those folks are still potential vectors for another set of cases.
As always, with respect. Take care and have a great weekend.
- Leigh John-Ella - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 2:08 pm:
Get used to this line:
“So first I would say that there’s probably no way to draw these lines that would satisfy everybody.”
- Lynn S. - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 2:14 pm:
@NotRich,
Those regions weren’t drawn “in secret”.
They’re public health regions that have been around for years, if not decades.
Folks don’t mind them during a tornado. They just use them as an excuse to whine now.
- Frank talks - Friday, May 8, 20 @ 2:36 pm:
The collars are part of Chicagoland, it’s just the reality. Look at the Metra trains everyday, look at the 290, I55, I90, I94- all of these roads are jammed during rush hour. You open th collars they will be jammed with city folks so you might as well consider them the same.