As long as Chicago remains mecca for midwestern post-college living, it'll attract and maintain sufficient industry to sputter along, even if it's been going a bit sideways in recent years.

Companies need worker bees; hard-working and educated worker bees are the holy grail. Chicago sucks them up from the surrounding states, even finds a few in its home state of Illinois. But it's all the Wisconsin and Michigan and Iowans and Minnesotans and Missourah and even the god-awful Ohio post-college transplants that elevate Chicago above St Louis/Indy/Milwaukee/Cleveland. For a nano-second there a few years back Detroit was attracting more than its expected share of recent graduates--East Coasters were getting into the Detroit thing--but that's pretty much been shut down, as far as I can tell. Oh, and Nashville -- Tennessee is one of like 4 states left that still lock up its citizenry for weed, so who wants to live there?

In Illinois, you are either from Chicago or downstate. Nothing else exists to the rest of the world.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Let me guess...everything north and northwest of the city is Wisconsin?

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Yep!

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

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I, for one, am grateful that all the city dwellers who lack TWTW will be jumping off the bandwagon in a couple years.

Their acceptance/embrace of mediocrity emboldened the McCaskeys for decades. The suburbs will hold the beloved to a higher standard.

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If anyone believes that this is anything but a way to raise the value of the team for the McCaskeys to sell after Ginny dies, well, I have some beachfront property in Iowa to sell you.

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DOes it have a condo on it?

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Naturally

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To you?

isn't your life experience Kenosha and somewhere in Arkansas?

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I've traveled to four continents, lived abroad and lived on the East Coast and I'm considered the pom pom waver of the board for Chicago.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

One would think so. Get it set up for the next owner, whether it is someone new or Ryan and company buy out the McCaskey family and build RSG or Aon Stadium out there or use it to to leverage something downtown.

What aspect of life do you want addressed? I'll let you in on some info, in whichever area you choose, Chicago will posses something worthy of pride.

Business, education, culture, food, leisure, architecture, natural beauty...chicago has significant and very tangible items that not only lead the region and country but the world.

I think the truth of the matter is that YOU need to travel more and recognize the problems every urban center faces.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

by the way, I'm sure I'll learn to hate him but I like this stats guy.

Early nomination from me for rookie of the year.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

What constitutes better and superior is inherently subjective.

To think otherwise is hubris.

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Some are talking about this move eventually raising the estimated team value to 10-12 billion. I don't know how, if you are a great grandkid or a great great grandkid of Halas, how you are not looking to at least cash in on some of that. This genetically deficient family doesn't seem to take particular joy in the management of the team. Find an investor for, say, 51%. Take your money and still be an owner who gets trotted out as a link to the beginning of the league.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

University of Chicago is world renowned and consistently at the top of the list of international universities but Jbills thinks their cafeteria sucks so it is nothing to him.

Second City has produced leaders in every aspect of entertainment but Jbills saw a clunker of an improv show.

I understand what you are saying but at some point you do have to bow to the collective esteem something is held. There is objective truth.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I think you’re missing the point.

Different people value different things.

The problem you have when these discussions arise is that you don’t have the ability to look at the city as an outsider.

That’s fine tho.

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and I don't denegrate other places. A pastoral type of life sometimes seems like an attractive alternative to having to deal with the irritation caused by living in close proximity to people. I go to these suburban baseball fields and am amazed at the amenities even some very modest places offer to their residents. I find great aspects of just about everywhere I go. I don't think Chicago is the only but it certainly is defensible.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Spoken like a man who never lived in Ft. Polk.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Outsider or lifetime Chicagoan, in the areas that gd posted-- Business, education, culture, food, leisure, architecture, natural beauty, and beyond-- there are some areas in each category where Chicago is objectively second to none. That doesn't mean Chicago is without faults.

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That’s fair

I take back my previous criticism

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Nothing compares to NYC, but there is no good argument outside of the weather, in which Chicago isn't equal to whatever town is #2 on your list.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Sure, but MANY people don’t need all that to feel like they have a better life.

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but there are objectively great things this city offers that almost everyone would agree are unique to only but a few places on this earth. In the meantime, the complaints are almost universally applicable to anywhere where people have to bump into each other every day.

The fiscal situation is pretty particular and it worries me. I don't quibble with that.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Chocolate, vanilla.

You certainly don't NEED to have all of those. But they are there if you want them just about every day of the year in Chicago. And if you want to open things up to the suburbs, hat gives even more options.

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MANY people don't need a Ferrari but it doesn't mean that their Kia is a better car.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Natural beauty?

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And even though it's north, also considered "downstate".

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

I love NY. It's a great place and I'd be happy to visit there every year.

Take any of the complaints about Chicago we have seen enumerated here and replace the name NY for Chicago. They would still be applicable.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.