The city is well on it’s way to losing its middle-class tax base. In the 50’s, Austin was a decent area; now it’s a run-down drug market for the western burbs. In the 70’s, South Shore was upper-middle class, with a thriving Jewish community; today it’s another violent extension of the ghetto, with enough killings to warrant the monicker “Little Beirut”. In the 60’s, you could still commute via the El station in West Englewood; today you’d take your life in your hands if you tried that. In the 70’s, Auburn-Gresham was solidly middle-class and largely crime-free; nowadays it’s one the leaders in murder statistics. Uptown was livable 40 years ago; today it’s a dump, and Rogers Park is on the way as well. Pullman and Roseland were middle-class and lower middle-class in the 60’s; much of that area looks like Detroit today. Jeffrey and South Deering on the far South Side, Gage Park and Ferndale on the Southwest Side - civilized 50 years ago, they are mostly trashy today.
The deterioration of the city continues to expand South, Southwest, and Northwest (it’s already made it to the city limits due West), and as it does, the residential tax base evaporates - if cops, firemen and other city workers weren’t forced to have home addresses in the city limits, the collapse of that source of revenue would be even more rapid. All many residents need as an incentive to pull up stakes is another tax increase - it’s no wonder Rahm is trying to finesse that policy.
You’re right. Last year, I left the northwest side after 58 years, moved to the next county west and am headed out of the state in the next 5-7 years. Adios, Chicago, Cook County and the State of Illinois. Lincoln’s spinning in his grave. My family has been in Illinois and the Chicago area since the 1880’s, will only come back to visit relatives and cemeteries. All our kids left the state years ago, too. Pathetic.