I live in Chicago but commute to Dallas every few weeks where my wife now lives. The difference is striking. In Illinois, taxes are high yet the government has failed to provide me with tangible services. I have been robbed and the police never did anything. I am left wondering where all the money goes. Meanwhile, my wife enjoys many government run programs in Texas and pays next to nothing in taxes.
What I am trying to say is avoid Illinois if at all possible.
I was robbed on the border between Oak Park and Chicago and the Chicago police had 2 of the 3 people who did it in under 10 minutes. It was pretty impressive.
> Chicago is a world class city. Sorry you had a rough time.
I moved from Chicago to (hard to have a sailboat in Texas) Florida because of how terrible the financial situation is in Illinois. Sure, great food, nice tourist city, fabulous architecture.
Cons: Property taxes that continue to increase to fund unfunded pensions. An income tax that continues to increase to close a unbalanced budget.
World class city? New York and San Francisco are world class cities.
On Wikipedia doesn't make it so. I'll give you that Chicago is a transportation hub, solely because of its geographic location with regards to air transport and rail. Other than that, its seriously deficient as a city.
Have you ever lived there? I'll answer that, no. I have, not in the suburbs, downtown Chicago (South Loop). You're wrong. Since you didn't elaborate (because you have no reasoning), that's all you're getting for now.
Illinois owed UIUC somewhere around a half-billion dollars while I was a student (circa 2011). I remember my professors having to go on furlough because of this.
It's amazing how good of a school UIUC is in spite of the awful mismanagement of the state.
Out of curiosity, how familiar are you with CPS? I remember the dropout rate being ~ 50%. Apparently it is now closer to 70%.
I don't think Illinois stands up to the likes of London or New York.
It's the same in some of the provinces in Canada. I'm not sure of all of them, but at least in British Columbia and Ontario you have to buy liquor from Government owned stores, though not beer and wine... in Alberta however, you can buy liquor, beer and wine from regular private stores. At least in Ontario, whoever is in charge of procurement seems to do a relatively decent job of making sure the stores have a reasonably high quality selection, so it's not so bad. In B.C. when I lived there though, it sucked, you could barely get anything that wasn't run of the mill. Admittedly, that was 6 years ago and things may have changed since then.
And in Texas, they execute the innocent and the mentally ill.. basing your view of an entire state on a few extreme outlier situations doesn't make much sense.
Would you define Illinois as a business friendly state? Of course not (compared to Texas). With that said, would you define it as a citizen friendly state? Again, clearly not! The only class of people Illinois is friendly to are politicians, the politically connected, and unionized labor in its death throes (note: I'm not against unions, but don't choke the golden goose to death. If you have to increase taxes to unsustainable levels to fund pensions to the point where people leave your state, you've already lost).
What I am trying to say is avoid Illinois if at all possible.