tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14162253.post8210032478336353760..comments2024-03-28T18:57:15.124-06:00Comments on Wash Park Prophet: What Happens When A DA Commits Lots Of Brady Violations?Andrew Oh-Willekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537151821869153861noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14162253.post-37441925979026818162019-06-17T15:46:09.181-06:002019-06-17T15:46:09.181-06:00One of Chicago's main problems is that it is a...One of Chicago's main problems is that it is a Rust Belt city whose manufacturing base (some of which spills over into Gary, Indiana) has not yet hit bottom. This is in common with Milwaukee, Detroit, Baltimore, Pittsburg, Buffalo, St. Louis, Cleveland, Toledo, Youngstown, Flint, and other cities similarly situated which I've omitted.<br /><br />Denver and the West Coast never had a heavy manufacturing base, so it didn't have one to lose and drag it down in the process. Transitioning from a manufacturing based economy to a diversified economy isn't easy and many places that have attempted to do so have failed. The decline of the U.S. manufacturing industry and its transition to a post-industrial economy is a complex issue, but the most important thing to keep in mind for purposes of your question is that it was almost entirely a product of national level policy decisions, not state and local decisions. Relatively conservative Wisconsin, for example, has not responded better to the long running economic obstacle than Minnesota, which was economically and demographically very similar to Wisconsin, but dealt with the decline of manufacturing more successfully. Increasingly conservative Ohio likewise did a very poor job of managing this decline.andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08172964121659914379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14162253.post-89153953500908770222019-06-17T15:37:40.696-06:002019-06-17T15:37:40.696-06:00Almost everywhere murders take place more often in...Almost everywhere murders take place more often in city centers than in the suburbs although the difference isn't as pronounced as it used to be as we are in the process of an inversion of wealth with more affluent people returning to central cities (which is where they have lived for most of history) and the less affluent migrating to suburbs and exurbs (which is the historical norm despite an interruption starting around the time that the interstate highways were built and street care systems were dismantled in the 1950s, with the turnaround starting perhaps sometime in the 1990s). Chicago is somewhat lagging behind its peers on that measure, although not by very far.<br /><br />We do know that high crime rates do not have to be permanent. For example, NYC was once a murder-capitol of the nation and is now among the safest cities in the nation. Denver once had much higher crime rates and so did San Francisco and Los Angeles and Washington D.C. Welcoming immigrants is one of the best way to reduce crime, empirically speaking, something that has been a particular success in Saint Louis, Missouri, and in other cities (like Minneapolis, NYC, DC, San Fran and LA) which have seen declining crime rates.<br /><br />I'm not quite sure what you see as the issue with pensions in Chicago or in Illinois that is particularly different than anyplace else. Defined benefit pension plans in the public and private sectors alike tend to be underfunded and that isn't good. But, it is just as much an issue with Chrysler-Fiat as it is with Oklahoma or Kansas, as it is with Illinois and Colorado. All of this has secondary personal relevance to me and my family as we are self-employed and have been for a very long time, so we don't have defined benefit pension plans. The health of a pension system largely depends on the quality of the work done by its actuaries, and the quality of its investment decisions, neither of which are particularly partisan issues. Pension health largely boils down to a most non-partisan question of who almost as a matter of random chance, had better or inferior pension managers over the key years.andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08172964121659914379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14162253.post-19247887162914966532019-06-17T15:37:30.996-06:002019-06-17T15:37:30.996-06:00First of all, both Denver and Chicago are Democrat...First of all, both Denver and Chicago are Democrat run cities and Democrat run states. And, yes, I would far prefer to live in Chicago to many other places in the world. Indeed, I got engaged to my wife while she was living in inner city Chicago, my middle name is the name of one of my mother's teachers when my parents lived there for several years (in Hyde Park, which outside the University of Chicago remains a very "bad neighborhood" although it was worse in the early 1990s at the peak of the recent nationwide violent crime wave when I visited while college touring), and I recently spent several days with a cousin who lives there while my wife ran the Chicago half-marathon last fall. I've been there on business more than once as well over the years, and visited frequently growing up. <br /><br />Chicago would be in my top ten list of places to live although perhaps not at the very top. If it was #1 I'd probably have chosen to live there and I didn't.<br /><br />The taxes there are integral to its success. There isn't a single place in the U.S. that doesn't have a diversified broad based economic base that is successful that is also at the bottom of the list in terms of tax burdens, and there is nothing unjust about it. California and New York are among the post productive and economically healthy states in the Union and have high taxes. Minnesota saw a surge in economic growth and quality of life when it increased taxes. Low taxes pretty much destroyed the socio-economic fabric of Kansas. Likewise, localities that refuse to incur debt to invest in themselves (Weld County, Colorado whose county seat is Greeley, Colorado comes to mind) tend to stagnate.<br /><br />Chicago could manage crime better than it does and more decisive (but intelligent) action is in order. There are absolutely too many shootings in Chicago. But, unless you spend some time there you don't have a feel for how vast Chicago is as a city to put that into context. Part of the problem is that it is hamstrung by national policies and laws that limit its ability to regulate guns and has been slow to discontinue the war on drugs. On the whole, red states have higher rates of violent crime than blue states and that is true of both whites and non-whites in those states. andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08172964121659914379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14162253.post-77791206235785192172019-06-13T10:21:31.584-06:002019-06-13T10:21:31.584-06:00Andrew
since you're a liberal democrat, would...Andrew<br /><br />since you're a liberal democrat, would you like to live in a democrat run city and state say inner city of Chicago Illinois, why or why not?<br /><br />on the one hand Illinois Governor signed abortion rights into law, which i agree with, and elected a lesbian liberal democrat mayor for chicago, on the other hand the taxes, pension and crime in that state is through the rough, and democrats have been in charge.<br /><br />suppose liberal democrats turn your state, colorado, into a debt ridden Illinois, and your city, into the inner city of Chicago, would you be pleased with the consequences of your ideology?neohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16769182614452171312noreply@blogger.com