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* Tribune…
Between 2014 and 2015, more than 9,000 black residents left Cook County, and since 2010, the Chicago area, which for the census includes parts of Indiana and Wisconsin, has lost more than 35,000 black residents. The exodus is greater than in any other metropolitan area in the country.
“I have very little desire to return to the city,” said Roosevelt Johnson, 47, who moved to Lake County 10 years ago when he first saw the writing on the wall: limited services on the South Side, where he grew up, and unaffordable housing on the North Side, where he later moved. “It became a rat race of having to try to get from Point A to Point B with raising our family. Making sure everyone is in the place they need to be, despite escalating costs. It became too much for us to handle.”
Chicago itself lost 181,000 black residents between 2000 and 2010, according to census data. The numbers are indicative of a larger pattern of Illinois’ general population loss, which dropped by 22,194 residents between 2014 and 2015. The Chicago metropolitan statistical area, defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as the city and suburbs that extend into Wisconsin and Indiana, lost an estimated 6,263 residents between 2014 and 2015, the area’s first population dip since at least 1990. […]
Census numbers also show that African-Americans continue to move to the suburbs, a pattern that slowly began in the 1970s, when manufacturing jobs started to dry up, and picked up in the 2000s. Stephanie Schmitz Bechteler, director of research and evaluation at the Chicago Urban League, said suburbs in DuPage and Kane counties have better housing and job opportunities, citing the Interstate 88 business corridor in DuPage.
“They’ve got lower taxes, more job opportunities, maybe better-funded school districts. All of those things are available in Cook County, too, but not as strongly,” she said.
* Related…
* The CHA’s great upheaval — a Sun-Times/BGA special report
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 9:34 am
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Who wouldn’t try to get better opportunities for their families? People discover more services, better schools, lower taxes outside of the city. How long before they ask themselves “why is the grass greener here?”.
Comment by A guy Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 9:46 am
@ A guy
Lower taxes?LOL the suburbs, which largely fund their schools out of their own pockets, have far higher tax rates than Chicago.
This migration was largely planned by City Hall. They got rid of most of the CHA young residents and shifted them to section 8 housing in suburbs.
It got rid of many of the social expenses to city hall while maintaining complete Dem domination.
Daley dumped his problems on the burbs, and Springfield gave him the tools to do it. Clever politics, bad policy.
Comment by Illinois Bob Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 9:57 am
Lower sales taxes but higher property taxes in the collar counties.
Comment by DuPage Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 10:00 am
Um, moved to Lake County because they have lower taxes? Maybe for a cocktail or a pack of smokes, but in every other way and to an extent that makes me think this interviewee was prompted rather than offered her reasoning, the taxes in Lake County are much, much, MUCH higher. How much? Highest property taxes in Illinois, and the 13th highest in the entire freakin’ U. S. of A.!
Has tronc decided to join the IPI in its “Everyone is fleeing Illinois and it must be the damn taxes” silliness?
And no, A Guy, the suburbs to not “largely fund their own schools.” The state picks up their share of pensions, but not CPS’s.
Comment by Springfieldish Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 10:04 am
I drove down the I-88 corridor yesterday and went to beautiful St. Charles. I saw the economic development along the way and can see why people would want to move there. The Chicago metro area ranked #1 in corporate relocation deals for two years in a row recently–that means more than just Chicago and Cook County.
Comment by Grandson of Man Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 10:08 am
I should read the entire article before making a comment! Yeesh. The “moving to the suburbs because of the taxes” came from the Urban League’s researcher. My bad.
And, come to think of it, using sales taxes to make up for artificially low property taxes unduly impacts lower incomes than higher. Still, sales taxes in Gurnee, Highland Park and Downer’s Grove are ramping up pretty quickly.
Comment by Springfieldish Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 10:12 am
All the cuts being forced by Rauner disproportionately affect people of color. Expect this trend to accelerate. But he’ll be juuuuust fine.
Comment by Albany Park Patriot Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 10:15 am
The Tribune yesterday quoted a young man, whose 19-year-old pregnant girlfriend was shot over the weekend. He feels as many do, apparently.
=I should just call it a day and move the heII out of Chicago.=
Comment by Formerly Known As... Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 10:35 am
I’m not sure this is necessarily “bad news.”
It might just be evidence of normal generational migration patterns that have been followed by various ethnic groups for more than a century: start in crowded apartment in the inner city, move to a modest house in a city neighorhood, then to a bigger house in the burbs, then out-of-state to the sunbelt. The movement is fueled by crime, a search for better schools, and upward economic mobility. It’s been true for the Irish, Jews, Germans, Italians, and now African-Americans, whose movement has been slowed by racially-motivated housing policies and practices.
Comment by Ricardo Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 10:47 am
Ricardo makes a good point about ethnic migration patterns. Black parents want better schools and less crime, just like the groups that migrated from the City before them.
Comment by anon Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 10:58 am
it’s news, not bad or good. were they supposed to keep the developments? and did people have to stay in the neighborhood where they lived? or can they, like anyone, make decisions based on price and availability of housing? it is certainly upheaval….talk to the police about how this has affected patterns of people in neighborhoods….but people have choice.
Comment by Amalia Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 11:03 am
I would move from the city also. To much crime and the school system has to many issues. One top of that it is still hard to find employment for many American Americans, college degree or not in Chicago.
Comment by Mario Fanta Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 11:04 am
@Illinois Bob
I have to agree with you. I wonder what Rep. Danny Davis district demographics will look like in 15 years?
Comment by Mario Fanta Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 11:09 am
So is #Chexit (or Chexodus) the new Chiraq?
Comment by thechampaignlife Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 11:56 am
Around the expanding central core and the north side, Chicago is becoming increasingly wealthier and whiter.
Poor black people are being priced out of the city, or confined to the segregated shooting galleries.
Check the real estate listings and you can see it by the numbers.
Comment by wordslinger Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 12:25 pm
=And no, A Guy, the suburbs to not “largely fund their own schools.” The state picks up their share of pensions, but not CPS’s.=
Suburbs, especially the wealthier ones, often get flat grants from the state that are usually less than 10% of the per student operating costs. The suburban taxpayers pick up the rest. They often, foolishly when you consider that staff raises were never “negative”, often agree to pick up the employee cost of the pensions.
Take a look at www.isbe.net under the report cards and you’ll see how much the state gives to CPS compared to the suburban districts. Even with the state contribution to TRS, the amount given to CPS per student is largely WAY over what the suburbs receive.
Comment by Illinois bob Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 12:42 pm
@GRandson of man
unfortunately, GOM, if you actually got off of I-88 and looked at the buildings you’d see an alarming number are vacant. Navistar, Daily herald and a bunch of other huge buildings are like ghost towns. Small businesses are behind the growth, not major, large companies.
Comment by Illinois bob Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 12:46 pm
Being replaced by Hispanics at a very rapid rate. In 2015 Chicago S.D.299 was 39.6% Black, 45.6% Hispanic. Just 12 years before in 2003 it was 50.4% Black and 36.8% Hispanic.
Comment by Federalist Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 12:51 pm
When figuring the reasons behind “black flight” from Chicago, remember to count the “tax” of police criminality. CPD detective Jon Burge put many men on death row, all black.
This year the Chicago Police Board held a series of open community meetings to get feedback re. a new Chicago Police Superintendent. After an exhaustive process, the Board sent Mayor Emanuel three picks. Emanuel disregarded the Board (and the people of Chicago) and named a Superintendent of his own choice that was not on the list supplied to him.
Chicago residents of all colors can see that the unelected police bureaucracy runs the city, not the Mayor, not the people. No wonder many move out.
Comment by Payback Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 12:53 pm
From the CHA article:
==The CHA doesn’t know where thousands of others ended up.==
Yeah they do. People from Chicago who were displaced and needed Section 8 vouchers were told they could get off the waiting list for housing if they were willing to move to Rockford or DeKalb. In DeKalb, at least, many ended up once again in segregated squalor, primarily in one private housing development that hasn’t been properly inspected by HUD since 2009.
Comment by yinn Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 2:48 pm
Illinois Bob you are Correct @9:57 post. This shift created big issues for suburban schools too. Over crowding and trying to make up for lost time for many students placed big burdens on them. It was exodus by design.
Comment by the Cardinal Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 4:07 pm
“- Ricardo - Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 10:47 am:
I’m not sure this is necessarily “bad news.”
It might just be evidence of normal generational migration patterns that have been followed by various ethnic groups for more than a century: start in crowded apartment in the inner city, move to a modest house in a city neighorhood, then to a bigger house in the burbs, then out-of-state to the sunbelt. The movement is fueled by crime, a search for better schools, and upward economic mobility. It’s been true for the Irish, Jews, Germans, Italians, and now African-Americans, whose movement has been slowed by racially-motivated housing policies and practices.”
This sounds good, but the fact is that the majority of big cities - including old northeast and midwest cities that can no longer annex - have been gaining population while Chicago has been declining.
Comment by Claude Peppercorn Monday, Jun 27, 16 @ 9:18 pm