Not at all. It's just hard to believe any of your spin when I see all the data. It's like Martin arguing in the Japan thread that Abenomics is an "unmitigated success". Kinda falls short when you see the data. Chicago may have just been rated junk, but it's been in the toilets for some time now. There's no light at the end of the tunnel.
We have very high RE taxes due to this scam, constitutionally-bound *** 4% *** union teacher COLA. There is no answer outside of bankruptcy. You've got some pretty myopic blinders on, my friend. $150 BILLION in unfunded fraudulent pensions. Ask yourself why Chicago RE is in the toilet and why such an outflow of white-collar?
You've been "gentrified": http://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/7/71/824466/police-two-dead-one-hurt-humboldt-park-shooting
I have a home on Ridge Ave at Grove St in Evanston, IL that I rent to an IB from Blair. It's a college town as well as a "North Shore" address. My property taxes have doubled in the last ten years and have gone up each year for the last 20. 2015 was the first year in which they have declined by a few bucks.
Near North Shore Chicago is the closest you get to Bay Area+Manhattan living without the real estate sticker price. Last I heard, they have worse State income taxes. Imagine it as a co-op with minimal appreciation but high quality of living paid thru assessments. But honestly, this is rich people problems. I am out of my depth. Rogers Park has no business being cheap. I felt this way even before the real estate boom.
They tax the people who can pay...to hand it out to those that choose not to work. Worked well for Greece...for a while. Didn't I hear something like 100 people got shot in Chicago in one weekend recently? And the news gal actually said that was an IMPROVEMENT over the same period of the previous year...so you're correct...things are indeed getting better.
Illinois has loosened up gun control in recent years by a lot. People I know, who I would never think of buying guns, have all become hobby shooters. I should visit Maxon's in Des Plaines. Remember when golf was big in Chicago during Tiger Wood's peak? A lot of inner city, colored kids where getting into Golf. I miss the old days, when you could quietly stab somebody.