Save Us From Chicago's Fate....

Great piece in City Journal about the struggles of Chicago.  From the "Second City" to a second-rate city, what seems like small yet accumulating troubles to some smells to me like the beginning of the end, Detroit-style.

Two examples that really jumped out at me:

At the city level, Mayor Richard M. Daley papered over deficits with such tricks as a now-infamous parking-meter lease. The city sold the right to parking revenues for 75 years to get $1.1 billion up front. Just two years into the deal, all but $180 million had been spent.


A fortune, squandered by the Chi-town Democrats in stunning fashion.  They sold a valuable commodity to get five minutes worth of relief, then are forced to go hunting for more sources of, ahem, "revenue".

Which leads me to ask:  If Obama and the Democrats get all the tax increases they want directed into Washington, DC, do you really think it will be plowed into anything creative or constructive?  Or will it just run the same trajectory as the Chicago "meter money"?  And once Obama has drained the rich, where will he turn next?

The hunting ground of the predatory species known as "liberals"...

The second warning lesson of Chicago:

An entrepreneur who wanted to open a children’s playroom to serve families visiting Northwestern Memorial Hospital was told that he needed to get a Public Place of Amusement license—which he couldn’t get, it turned out, because the proposed playroom was too close to a hospital...


Barack Obama wants to hire more government employees on the state and federal level.  Once on the job, they will need to justify their existence by regulating private industry out of existence.  And when the money runs out to pay them, well...

Maybe Obama can sell a national parking revenue deal to someone.  Or more likely, since he'd never fire a government employee, he's have to find another way to raise the revenues to pay his salary.  Which brings us to this:

Of the 15 largest cities in the United States in 2010, Chicago was the only one that lost population; indeed, it suffered the second-highest total loss of any city, sandwiched between first-place Detroit and third-place, hurricane-wrecked New Orleans. While New York’s and L.A.’s populations clocked in at record highs in 2010, Chicago’s dropped to a level not seen since 1910.


They're running.  Because while Barack Obama may not be chasing them down (yet), his spiritual and political brethren in Chicago are...