Chicago pillaging its suburban neighbors, again -- what's your solution?

Chicago pillaging its suburban neighbors, again

By Ray Hanania

History is replete with instances where Chicago has dipped its corrupt government hand into the back pocket of suburbanites to pay for their own mismanagement and sweetheart deals.

In the 1980s, it was the CTA which needed cash. In fact, when has the CTA never been a “Cash Tapped Agency?” To help cover the CTA’s deficit, suburbanites were forced to pay through appropriates by the Illinois General Assembly.

Now, Chicago is demanding that suburbanites pay for the poor water service they receive from the polluted waters of Lake Michigan. Does anyone swim in that lake any more thanks to the pollution that spills in to its waters from city-based polluters?

Mayor Rahm Emanuel even wants to charge suburban drivers who come in to work in the city an extra parking fee.

Most suburbanites fled the corruption, racial strife and the increasingly unsafe neighborhoods. We moved to the suburbs to get better deals on homes, better deals on schools and better police protection. For the most part, suburban services far exceed Chicago services.

But Chicago is the heart of the powerful Democratic Machine that Daley built in the 1950s and was handed down to his son. And what Chicago wants, Chicago gets.

What can suburbanites do about it?

How about we find some leaders who have the courage to fight back.

The fact is there is more crime in Chicago than in all of the six county suburban communities combined. So why are suburbanites being forced to pay for the incarceration of these Chicago hoodlums?

No one keeps these statistics because if they don’t keep them, then you remain ignorant. That’s how dictators control the public. They prevent you from knowing the truth. And the Chicago media is complicit in these crimes of denying citizens the facts.

The media plays up Chicago news stories and ignores stories in the suburbs, only reporting on the most negative incidents, usually exaggerating them.

What can suburbanites do? Well, for one, as voters you to reject any politician who puts Chicago’s interests about the interests of the suburbs.

Why shouldn’t suburbanites put themselves first for a change?

We’ve talked about dividing Cook County in two to counties, Cook County and Liberty County. The fact is the suburbanites of Cook County pretty much pay the bulk of Cook County’s bills, which provide hospital care mainly for people living (and dying) in Chicago.

Why should the suburbs carry the Chicago healthcare and violence load?

That would be the easiest thing to do.

Breaking from Cook County would also mean ending all of the things we do in Chicago. When you go to a restaurant in Chicago, you are screwing the suburbs. When you go to a Cubs Game, a White Sox Games, a Bears game, you are screwing the suburbs.

For those of you who care about the financial imbalance that Mayor Rahm Emanuel is using to bail out the cash-strapped city, you have choices. Go to restaurants in the suburbs. Stay at hotels in the suburbs. Seek out entertainment in the suburbs.

Freedom comes from make the tough choices. And viewing Chicago as an addiction rather than as a necessity is one step in changing this unfair relationship, one in which the suburbs pour out the cash to bail out the always problematic City of Chicago.

If you have more ideas on how to fight back against the city, please share them and I will publish hem in future columns or on my blog at SuburbanChicagoland.com.

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