Much bigger conversation I'm happy to have off-thread (email me). I agree with everything you've said. I own an apartment building and the rent on a 1BR close

Much bigger conversation I'm happy to have off-thread (email me). I agree with everything you've said. I own an apartment building and the rent on a 1BR close to downtown is $875/month. Mind you, this is 2 blocks from a commuter rail station in a reasonable building that includes water and parking, in a city with a great park district, good schools, and plenty to do. I didn't say you're living high on the hog--you're getting by. The household median income in Homewood is 57k. It's no Palo Alto, just a relatively modest town with reasonable local government and people who seem to care a lot. I like this. Illinois is clearly on a fiscal crash course. I have no doubt about that and now that the fair tax was defeated at the ballot box, it's going to accelerate the insolvency. The state needs to get its pension obligations in line with its funding levels. Obviously that's going to take a decade. But I'm pretty convinced that this state's strengths (Chicago, great universities, lots of competent local governments) could make it bounce back. Especially seeing the direction a lot of other states like California are going, or San Francisco, a city that can't seem to balance its $13 billion annual budget after it increase 50% in the last 5-10 years. Any idiot can run Palo Alto, where the median household income is $140k. It takes a lot more to make a city with about 60% less income function.