Posted on 02/06/2021 5:19:20 PM PST by simpson96
Mayor Lori Lightfoot rightly wants to turn back Chicago’s troubling exodus of Black residents.
But her recent proposal to hold a “reunion weekend” to invite Black folks who have left to just “come back home,” strikes us as a surprisingly naive way for a mayor to recoup a lost population of at least 100,000 people.
Lightfoot made the comment, perhaps off the cuff, while moderating a virtual panel that discussed rebuilding wealth on Chicago’s chronically disinvested — and predominantly Black and Brown — South and West sides.
Editorials It was a thoughtful discussion but then the mayor came out of left field with this:
“One of the things that we have planned going into the future is a reunion weekend. We’ve lost a lot of population over the last 10-plus years. People leaving Chicago, particularly Black Chicago, going to other places in the country — Atlanta, Dallas and even just moving to the suburbs because they didn’t feel like Chicago was welcoming and their home.”
She continued:
“We’ve got to change that around, and when we open back up we’re gonna be heavily marketing to all areas of the country that we know the Chicago diaspora has gone to and say, ‘Come back home. Give us another look. We are a different city. We want you to come back home.’ I’m excited about that and other opportunities as we open up.”
Chicago’s Black population has dropped from 872,000 in 2010 to 797,000 in 2017, according to the UIC Great Cities Institute, and this was a continuation of a longer trend. Almost 1.1 million Black people lived in Chicago in 2000.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicago.suntimes.com ...
Where are they going to ruin now?...
Can you imagine how many people would get shot at a reunion weekend in Chicago?
In what way? Lower taxes? Better streets? Better schools? Lower crime rate? Better business climate? Better weather?
I suppose the population decline correlates with lower housing prices, so that's something, unless the tax, insurance, and utility charges cancel out price declines.
The ones who can leave, do leave.
The only ideas that Groot has are bad ideas.
“ Mayor Lori Lightfoot rightly wants to turn back Chicago’s troubling exodus of Black residents”
Assumes facts not in evidence.
They are not a different city. Not in a good way that would make anyone want to come back.
“I am Groot.”
She could try to argue that there is a lower crime rate and better schools since all those folks moved away. She just might do that!
We are going to have all the criminals turn in their guns. It will be safe to come home. //sarc off//
The blacks that could - escaped.
The blacks that could not are doomed to live the lives of slaves ruled by the liberals..e.g. DemocRATs.
Yes, the party of the KKK lives on, and it’s leader is not our (ptui-ptui) president.
Most of the suburbs in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin have been overrun with hood rats.
The worst school system in America.
An astonishingly high murder rate in black neighborhoods
High taxes.
Noise.
Yea, throwing a party will bring them back.
Idiots.
L
My thought exactly...
My guess is: Georgia.
I imagine White residents have been leaving in droves too. Does she care about bringing them back?
I would think so. They’re the ones with the money and businesses that can be taxed!
You are right, those who can leave, have left. Decent black people, who don’t want to live in a cesspool of gangs and drugs and God knows what else, vote with their feet and leave that place behind.
The black folks left behind are going to be increasingly the poor and less educated and prone to gangs and drugs.
I suppose any mayor will want to promote the good points of their cities, in trying to attract new residents and new business. But what exactly does Chicago have to offer? Does she offer nostalgia, as people who left are nostalgic for having grown up in Chicago, for example? But in most cases the neighborhoods they grew up in have changed for the worse. After reunion weekend, they will be eager to get the hell out of Chicago, and will be reminded of why they moved away.
Who wants to live in a shooting gallery?
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