Does anyone remember when Chicago was known as “the city that works?”
Now it is the city where nothing works.
The two articles below ran in Chicago papers on the same day this week. They pretty much summarize the reason that people and businesses are fleeing the Windy City. Between 2020 and 2021 alone, Greater Chicago lost more than 91,000 people.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s decision to tie property taxes to inflation may result in mammoth bills next year: “If Lightfoot decides to collect the full amount allowed under her annual tax formula, the tax increase would nearly quadruple in 2023 to $85.5 million, according to a Tribune analysis of the mayor’s policy.”
As violent crime in Chicago soared, arrests fell to historic lows: “The decline mirrors a drop in nearly every category of officers’ activity tracked by the Chicago Police Department…The police have made arrests in just 12% of crimes reported last year, according to a Chicago Sun-Times analysis. That’s the lowest level since at least 2001, the first year the data was made publicly available.”