General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: state by state speak your mind about...illinois [View all]abowsh
(45 posts)I lived in Chicago for a spring internship a few years back. I absolutely loved living in Lincoln Park. Chicago is beautiful, especially in the summer.
However, it's hard for me to get past the corruption of Chicago and the State of Illinois. The Mafia was very strong in Chicago, and it seems that mentality hasn't fully left the city. You routinely hear about crooked politicians, you read about people being placed into high level positions with no prior experience, or areas of the city that are ignored by the police.
The rest of the state is odd. The state politicians like to take advantage of Chicago. Obviously, Chicago is the most important city and market in the state. But I constantly read about policies and programs that are being paid for by Chicago mostly (hotel taxes) but the programs are for the rest of the state. It creates a lot of tension between Chicago residents and the rest of the state.