 |
| Fewer residents, but many more visitors?!? |
For
it was all over just about every publication Thursday that Chicago’s
overall population is, once again, on the decline
TO
BE EXACT, Chicago’s population dropped by 0.23 percent. In fact, just about
every place in Illinois was on the decline, with the percentages being larger
in other places. Which means that the losses hurt those places more, since
Chicago has so many more residents it can spare.
 |
| Credit, or blame, for Rahm? |
So
how exactly does Chicago choose to combat this factoid – which can be used as
ammunition by those people of ideological leanings that make them want to
lambast the city for everything they see as wrong with the state of Illinois as
a whole?
We
got city officials to release their official study of tourism to Chicago.
Which
officials said was at a record-high of 57.7 million people during 2018.
 |
| Made front page of World's Greatest Newspaper |
ALL
OF WHOM stayed at hotels, ate at restaurants and shopped at stores buying all
kinds of the tacky trinkets most of us wouldn’t even think of buying. Too
touristy!
The
increase continues a trend dating back to 2013, which means this is something
that soon-to-be former Mayor Rahm Emanuel will boast about when discussing the legacy
of his eight years as the head of Chicago city government.
Which
might make him like the almighty Wizard of Oz, telling us to “pay no attention
to that man behind the curtain” every time someone brings up the fact that
Chicago’s population has declined ever so slightly every year since 2015.
Placing
us even closer to that day likely to come some time by 2030 when Houston
manages to surpass Chicago as the nation’s third largest city – we’re Number
Four will be the chant we’ll have to take up. Even though as far as anyone who
lives here already knows, our city is really Number One. Something that all
those millions of tourists have figured out for themselves.
-30-
No comments:
Post a Comment