Bryan W. Alaspa 1Chicago’s sprawling monster
July 22nd 2009 13:41
Chicago, like most American cities, has a problem with too many cars on the road. The interesting thing about Chicago, though, is that the city is not up against mountains and an ocean and it is not on an island. In fact, if Chicago wants to keep expanding it has all of Illinois and then Iowa if it wants to just keep sprawling. In fact, it has been doing exactly that, slowly swallowing one city after another and making it part of the Chicago Metropolitan Area.
Chicago is like a giant city-swallowing monster. I find it amusing, however, when those cities try to resist. If you head into other areas of this state and the hatred for Chicago starts to become very strong. Heck, you get more than a few miles south of Chicago and people start talking with twangs and acting like they grew up in the deep south and Chicago is just a bunch of Yankees.
You can understand where the resentment comes from. To much of the rest of the state Chicago is a giant leech stuck on the neck of the state, slowly sucking the money out of the rest of the area. Every time Chicago needs something, like a new stadium, the governor and the rest of the state government agrees to fork over some tax money and help get it built. Chicago funnels a lot of money into the state coffers, so the state government treats us like an annoying son who keeps asking for money but you love anyway.
Of course, the rest of the state has a bit of an argument here. Why should they have to pay more taxes for a stadium they are very unlikely to ever visit. That’s why so many in southern Illinois are Cardinals fans. The Cards are just closer and it’s easier to get to Busch Stadium and see a game than U.S. Cellular or Wrigley. Of course, more than likely, they helped pay for the new U.S. Cellular Stadium and they should probably head north to check out their investment.
The thing about it is that we here in Chicago don’t care. Like a bully, we just kindly rub the heads of the kindly southern Illinois people and then punch them hard in the arm and tell them to go do our homework for us. We know we walk loudly and carry a very large stick and we just keep absorbing more and more communities. We need space, people. We have a lot of people to house and traffic concerns and, dammit, we just need to absorb places like DeKalb and Joliet into our orbit.
You can tell just how big Chicago is getting by watching the weather on the local news. Slowly, over the years, the scope of the weather forecast has grown and grown. We now tell the weather all the way up to Wisconsin and well into Indiana. Even places as far north as Kenosha and as far east as South Bend get their weather forecast from Chicago.
So, you can fight all you want Rockford, but at some point Chicagoans are going to be looking at condos and apartments in your neck of the woods. I am putting you on notice, Milwaukee, you can kick and scream all you want and call us as many names as you want, but Chicago appears to be continuing to grow and it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop.
Better pick which baseball team you like right now. I am going to suggest the White Sox, but then again, I am a bit biased. Now go do my homework before I give you a swirlie.
Chicago is like a giant city-swallowing monster. I find it amusing, however, when those cities try to resist. If you head into other areas of this state and the hatred for Chicago starts to become very strong. Heck, you get more than a few miles south of Chicago and people start talking with twangs and acting like they grew up in the deep south and Chicago is just a bunch of Yankees.
You can understand where the resentment comes from. To much of the rest of the state Chicago is a giant leech stuck on the neck of the state, slowly sucking the money out of the rest of the area. Every time Chicago needs something, like a new stadium, the governor and the rest of the state government agrees to fork over some tax money and help get it built. Chicago funnels a lot of money into the state coffers, so the state government treats us like an annoying son who keeps asking for money but you love anyway.
Of course, the rest of the state has a bit of an argument here. Why should they have to pay more taxes for a stadium they are very unlikely to ever visit. That’s why so many in southern Illinois are Cardinals fans. The Cards are just closer and it’s easier to get to Busch Stadium and see a game than U.S. Cellular or Wrigley. Of course, more than likely, they helped pay for the new U.S. Cellular Stadium and they should probably head north to check out their investment.
The thing about it is that we here in Chicago don’t care. Like a bully, we just kindly rub the heads of the kindly southern Illinois people and then punch them hard in the arm and tell them to go do our homework for us. We know we walk loudly and carry a very large stick and we just keep absorbing more and more communities. We need space, people. We have a lot of people to house and traffic concerns and, dammit, we just need to absorb places like DeKalb and Joliet into our orbit.
You can tell just how big Chicago is getting by watching the weather on the local news. Slowly, over the years, the scope of the weather forecast has grown and grown. We now tell the weather all the way up to Wisconsin and well into Indiana. Even places as far north as Kenosha and as far east as South Bend get their weather forecast from Chicago.
So, you can fight all you want Rockford, but at some point Chicagoans are going to be looking at condos and apartments in your neck of the woods. I am putting you on notice, Milwaukee, you can kick and scream all you want and call us as many names as you want, but Chicago appears to be continuing to grow and it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop.
Better pick which baseball team you like right now. I am going to suggest the White Sox, but then again, I am a bit biased. Now go do my homework before I give you a swirlie.
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