Historically to currently, why is Chicago so insanely populated?

[Verbal Kint]

Nah. Chicago's suburbs are losing population too. Black people are literally relocating to many to different Southern and Western States.

Chicago is still losing population
The metro area fell below 9.5 million for the first time since 2010. The nation's two biggest cities, New York and Los Angeles, also slipped last year.
Chicago is still losing population



Downtown Gaining Residents, While People Are Leaving The South Side, South Suburbs In Droves
Read more at: Taking A Deeper Dive Into The Chicago Area's Population Loss

That's true and all but areas that technically aren't in the metro area are growing. McHenry county is just outside of Cook and Lake county and has been growing over the last 10-20 years. A lot of folks. in Lake County are moving across the border to WI and the Kenosha area which is growing a ton. IL property taxes are crazy so a lot of folks are moving to WI

 

[ZEupTWN]

Chicago is a great city

 

[Samori Toure]

It's not land locked it sits on one of the largest fresh water sources on earth. The Great Lakes combined are like the size of certain seas.

Its centrally located for rail, trade, industry and the sort. Also, you cannot negate the Great Migration which flooded Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and the sort with MILLIONS of people (and not just black people).

Likewise we can not negate that Chicago is in the middle of an incredible trend that has White people shook:

"...One thing is certain: Illinois’ population has declined by 157,000 residents over the past five years, making it one of only two states — West Virginia is the other — to lose people over the past decade. ...Illinois’ predicament is a perfect storm of ...long-standing economic discrimination against black residents, high housing costs, and the continued draw of residents to the Sun Belt... A 2016 poll by Southern Illinois University found that nearly half of Illinois residents wanted to move to another state... Between 2017 and 2018, 114,000 more residents left Illinois than moved in from other states. Those who left mostly moved to Florida, Texas and Indiana, IRS data shows... ."

"Since peaking in 1980 at nearly 1.2 million people, the black population of Chicago has dropped by more than 400,000 people, and the trend continues. Black residents are leaving Chicago for the suburbs and for neighboring states such as Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Some are reversing the Great Migration of the first half of the 20th century, returning to Southern cities including Atlanta, Dallas and Houston, said Pete Saunders, an urban planning consultant based in the Chicago area who has written extensively on this issue.

“They just feel frozen out of opportunity,” he said. “They feel Chicago is a closed system. They can’t get ahead here. It’s designed for others to get ahead.”"

"...Chicago is among a handful of metropolises that are losing their black residents, including Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose.

The high rate of black residents leaving is the main cause for Chicago’s stagnant population, and the drain could get worse, several fair housing advocates and urban demographers said.

More than a third of young adults want to leave Chicago, a January survey from the University of Chicago’s GenForward Project found. Participants, especially African Americans, said the biggest reason for wanting out was racism and how that affects policing, job opportunities and neighborhood development.

Chicago’s new African American mayor, Lori Lightfoot, seems keenly aware of this challenge, calling it “the proverbial canary in the mine shaft” when asked in April about the city’s population decline by the Chicago Tribune... ."

Why Are Residents Leaving Illinois in Droves?

 

[Ya Sinning Mane]

Idk shyt I’m here for answers like u

 

[Originalman]

That's true and all but areas that technically aren't in the metro area are growing. McHenry county is just outside of Cook and Lake county and has been growing over the last 10-20 years. A lot of folks. in Lake County are moving across the border to WI and the Kenosha area which is growing a ton. IL property taxes are crazy so a lot of folks are moving to WI

Exactly they are just basically expanding the chicagoland area. The problem is the stats usually only look at the metro area. But the chicagoland area keep expanding and expanding. Even when folks technically move out of northern Illinois (where chicago is located) that population gets replaced by people all over the midwest.

Folks look at the chicago reduction of population similar to places like detroit and Cleveland when it is absolutely not the same.

For example all the folks I grew up with in lincoln park got priced out so once they grew up they could never live there. So what did they do? Move to the suburbs such as bolingbrook, broadview, maywood, evanston and other suburbs.

Hell even when they tore down the greens they just moved all those black folks to the suburbs on vouchers.

 

[Samori Toure]

That's true and all but areas that technically aren't in the metro area are growing. McHenry county is just outside of Cook and Lake county and has been growing over the last 10-20 years. A lot of folks. in Lake County are moving across the border to WI and the Kenosha area which is growing a ton. IL property taxes are crazy so a lot of folks are moving to WI

People are no doubt moving to those areas, but those are not suburbs. Those are usually called exurbs.

 

[Samori Toure]

Actually, Dusable was the first to settle the area, but other traders and explorers had already traversed the area.

Remember the area of Illinois was originally part of French North America and so you already had a few French traders and explorers that had been through the area before DuSable came in and settled.

Explorers like René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

And Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette.

DuSable was the first non-native though to come in and settle the area and build a homestead right at the mouth of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan.

I get what you are saying, but I guess what you are calling traders; I have usually referred to as trappers. I guess in the truest sense they were traders.

 

[Taadow]

It's on a huge body of water + it was one of the first major railroad hubs = port city


Look at every big U.S. city and this is usually the case.

 

[Verbal Kint]

People are no doubt moving to those areas, but those are not suburbs. Those are usually called exurbs.

I never called them suburbs. I specifically said they're not technically apart of the Chicago metro area that those stats were coming from. You can move from Fox Lake to McHenry and that's moving OUT of the Chicago metro area even though you're closer to the city. I got people that work in the city and live in Kenosha.

 

[How Sway?]

I wouldnt consider it to be insanely populated. Tbh chicagoland could easily support another 2-3 million more people, but the insane taxes and the economy are preventing that from happening.
Doesnt help that its cold and dreary half the year and depending on where you live it can get rather sketchy (yes violence does not only exist within the city limits.)


To answer your question...
Chicago was the manufacturing hub of the usa during most of the 20th century. Its central location and access to waterways was what attracted manufacturing and other sectors like transportation to the area.

 

[invalid]

there's nothing to see geographically except for the great lake I guess, but I've never been, what makes it such a great place?

Just some Great Lakes coastal geography....

Minnesota -





Upper Peninsula -





Wisconsin -





Illinois -







Indiana -



Michigan -

 

[invalid]

I never called them suburbs. I specifically said they're not technically apart of the Chicago metro area that those stats were coming from. You can move from Fox Lake to McHenry and that's moving OUT of the Chicago metro area even though you're closer to the city. I got people that work in the city and live in Kenosha.

Technically Kenosha all the way down to Lake County Indiana have become subsumed under Greater Chicago. Metra goes up to Kenosha, South Shore Line to Indiana. The Chicagoland geographical area is expanding to the point that some folks are now starting to include DeKalb/Sycamore within the boundaries. I don’t agree with that but some people do.

 

[Verbal Kint]

Technically Kenosha all the way down to Lake County Indiana have become subsumed under Greater Chicago. Metra goes up to Kenosha, South Shore Line to Indiana. The Chicagoland geographical area is expanding to the point that some folks are now starting to include DeKalb/Sycamore within the boundaries. I don’t agree with that but some people do.

Yea I consider that the Chicago area since I live in Kenosha but I'm in Chicago way more than Milwaukee

 

[Luck]

People aren’t leaving Chicago like that, stop parenting that nonsense. Drive down 94e and look at the plates...mfs moving to Indiana to avoid these dumbass taxes and honesty I can’t blame em even though I wouldn’t do the same.

Their property taxes are a fraction of ours and Indiana in general is more friendly. There building subdivisions like crazy on NE Indiana now

 

[levitate]

Prohibition