Liberal Place: Chicago, IL

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As a lifelong Chicagoan, I can say that there IS no Republican party in Chicago. Although I wish our mayor were a bit more progressive, Chicago's just about as liberal as any city in America.

I grew up in Hyde Park, a racially integrated South Side neighborhood and by far the most liberal neighborhood in Chicago. It is home to the University of Chicago. Growing up in Hyde Park taught me to be tolerant, compassionate, and to always vote Democrat.

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chicago is simply a great place... and you may want to consider that chicago is a great place exactly because of the liberalism of the irish catholics who made the city... the suggestion that chicago's liberalism is in spite of irish catholics is the kind of ethnic bashing that does liberalism no good and, besides, it is simply empirically wrong!!! and, it may be that the election of a black women to the us senate was long overdue... but, why, oh why could we not do better than that committed defender of nigerian tyranny, ms. mosely-braun???

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I have lived in Chicago all of my life. It is, to say the least, a schizophrenic town. For as liberal as some areas of the city are, growing up on the Southwest side as I did, I would never consider putting Chicago on a list of "liberal friendly" towns. Chicago is the most segregated major city in the U.S. Just a few days ago, a black 13 year old boy was beaten into a coma by three students from DeLaSalle high school, a predominantly working-class Roman Catholic high school in Bridgeport.

This was an abomination, but it was not an abberation. The racist, homophobic, violent, testosterone-poisoned attitude of these three boys is pervasive in working-class communities in Chicago's Southwest and Northwest sides. When I attended Quigley South Catholic Seminary High School in the '70's, there were numerous instances of boys posting signs saying "Nigger Beware" or "Ban Spics" which they obtained from nearby Rockwell Hall, the then local headquarters of the American Nazi party.

In 1984, I was 23 years old, wearing a blue pinstripe suit on my way to work, when I stopped at the firehouse to vote. The Republican precinct captain was standing in front handing out Vrdolyak literature. As he handed his garbage to me, he said under his breath, "Be sure to vote for Vrdolyak and keep the niggers out".

If you want to separate the "civilized" parts of Chicago from the "neanderthal" parts, I'll give you a clear and infallible rule of thumb. The sections of town with a Starbucks on every other block is the "liberal", gay-friendly, progressive part of town. The rest of Chicago is bleak and dismal, and not just from the lack of palatable caffeinated beverages.

Chicago is practically run and owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese. The city council bans R rated movies from showing on cable within the city except at night. The police are heavy-handed and habitually violate individuals' rights when there are no witnesses. Thankfully, sometimes there are witnesses, and lately some of these abuses have been reported in the press.

In addition, we pay an 8.75% sales tax (9.75 downtown) plus a surcharge on any beverage that is not at least 50% juice, on movie tickets, parking fees, cellular phone bills, regular phone bills, gas bills (how onerous for the poor and elderly), electric bills, gasoline (we have the highest tax in the country)... all while our local press continuously uncovers ghost-payrolling, city "workers" clocking in then going to their non-city jobs or loafing, and just plain arrogant wasting of tax dollars by our corrupt one-party city government. And if you think the Chicago Democratic party is "liberal" you've never been here. Just think of the Dixiecrats of the 1950s. That's the Chicago Democratic party, but with a different spoken dialect.

Chicago is no haven of liberalism. Rush Limbaugh gets good ratings here on WLS, the station with only one token liberal who is on at night out of the station's entire local staff.

I've lived here all my life. I am a liberal. And I don't love Chicago.

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I, while not living in Chicago proper, lived in a Western suburb for fifty years. I agree with the previous commentator that Chicago is hardly a bastion of liberals, especially in the Southwest and Northwest sides. I worked as a real estate appraiser for fifteen years in Chicago, and I agree that there can be no more racially segregated city in the US. As if that weren't bad enough, the people in the "white" neighborhoods not only dislike blacks, but they hate them with a boundless, murderous passion. After spending a half-century in Chicago, last year I moved to Tucson, Arizona. Here, in my small neighborhood, I have black and Asian neighbors - I never had such neighbors in suburban Chicago, and few Chicagoans have such neighbors either, simply because they are systematically excluded. Please don't misunderstand; I have absolutely no objection to these neighbors here in Tucson, but as a Chicagoan, I was surprised to find them here. (No Chicago or suburban neighborhood is integrated; they are either all white, all black, or all Asian.) I guess that, even after being a policeman for twenty-four years, that makes me naive, but, having lived in segregated Chicago, I didn't expect such integration. But, I have found that my multi-racial and multi-cultural neighbors here are far better people than my all-white (and all-bigoted) neighbors were in the Chicago area. Except for its racial biases, major character flaws as they are, Chicago and its Cook County environs are truly basically open-minded and liberal, with the working people and union members being well-respected. But, racial hatred is so deeply ingrained in Chicagoans that bigotry has become the city's major ideology. We can only hope that that will change.

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I guess that calling Chicago liberal or not really depends on what you think is liberal. The city has been run under by big business and it's even worse in the suburbs. Look at Sears - evacuating the tallest building in the world for a suburban site that they got for free. The main attractions here are business - shopping and sports. As far as environmentalism, there is a strong upsurge of interest in land preservation, but there really isn't much left it seems. The majority of people don't care. There are more bicyclists on the road but it's very difficult to actually get anywhere.

On the other hand, maybe because of the way business steamrolls over the city, there is a lot of wreckage to play in. Perhaps this is not exactly "liberal," but there is a strong, very bohemian underground in Chicago right now as far as art and music are concerned. I'd say that many of the people involved appear to be more or less politically apathetic, but it is a very un-self conscious integrated community that works toward progressive goals in a less typically political, more individualistic way.

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As someone who has lived in Topeka, KS, all my life, when I moved to Chicago two weeks ago as a freshman in college I didn't know what to expect. Perhaps it's because I have only to compare it with the Kansas conservatism, but Chicago seems liberal to me. I went to a meeting of the College Democrats, which was well-organized and well-attended. I hope to learn more about the political leanings of the great windy city as time goes on.

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It is truly amazing to see the homeowners in ostensibly liberal areas like East Rogers Park and Peterson Woods pack Mayor Daley's (ostensibly a Democrat) community policing meetings and howl for a Chicago cop on every corner and an end to the U.S. bill of rights.

While Daley's police routinely round up and frisk any group of kids who just happen to be in a park, Chicago's liberals hop on the bandwagon to support a petition drive to urge the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn rulings that have held Daley's anti-gang loitering law - the source of such blatantly unconstitutional police actions - to be just that.

Chicago's alleged liberals will send incompetent blowhards like Carol Moseley Braun to Washington to assuage their guilt but hotfoot it out to Skokie or Evanston as soon as the kids are old enough to join a pee-wee soccer league.

Excepting the strongholds of the Reagan and Buchanan Democrats on the NW and SW sides, Chicago votes quite liberal and is arguably the most cynical political culture in the country.

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Being a chicago resident all my life I believe that Chicago's voters are overwhelmingly liberal but the general population is not so clear-cut. As previous readers have mentioned, Chicago is the most racially segregated city in the U.S., and this isn't going to change overnight. I also believe there are pockets of political segreation. Republicans tend to concentrate in community areas like Norwood Park, Edison Park (both on the North Side), and Beverly. The 41st ward, covering Norwood Park & Edison Park, has the distinction of having the city's only Republican alderman (although aldermanic elections are non-partisan), Mr. Brain Doherty. Mr. Doherty admits, though, that he's more liberal than some of the Democrats in the City Council. It is typical for the 41st ward to be the only ward taken by Republicans in primary elections.

Chicago is a very strange city, that's for sure. However, there are certainly liberal-friendly areas in the city. Areas like Rogers Park (Home to Loyola University Chicago) & southern Evanston (a suburb), and Hyde Park (Home to University of Chicago). If you're a liberal looking to move to, or visit, Chicago, I recommend checking out the local establishments in these areas. You will find them especially friendly.

But there are also very liberal-unfriendly areas like the Republican-dominated ones I mentioned. No one will chastise you for your beliefs in Chicago, though. Chicago is a very laid-back city..there's a place for everyone here.

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I think with any large city, there will be diversity in viewpoints. However, it can be pointed out that the city recently extended benefits to same sex partners for city workers, and a few years ago (95-96) when Newt was doing a lot of public appearances in the area, he was forced to make them out in Rosemont, because everywhere he went in the City, he was met with protests. (those were fun, btw) However, there is corruption in the police force, and the racially and ethnically segregated neighborhoods remain a fact.

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A minor note, Chicago is one of the very few places I've ever been which has any real union memory. There are still a handful of I.W.W. folks around town who can point you to some of the bloody historical sites of the American labor movement.

Current activity? You've got to be kidding, the Democratic party in Chicago is about patronage jobs, ghost-payrolls, and keeping the archdiocese happy.

Still, it's one of the most liberal (at least liberal-tolerant) cities I know of.

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Chicago is a lot like New York. The people are generally friendly, and outspoken. I can't remember a time when the city had a Republican Mayor. The Arts are a vital component to the life of the city, with a theatre district rivalling anything New York offers. Universities abound in the city. Beyond the coporate mega-shopping district of Michigan Ave., Chicago is a place where interesting privately owned shops still exist. Chicago is a great city. It's New York Jr. without Giuiliani's Gestapo.

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Those who speak about Chicago's stratification may not be familiar with Chicago's South Loop area. I don't have figures but I'd guess it's about 50-50 in terms of the percentage of African Americans and Caucasians living there. It's one of the city's most interesting architectural areas--a loft district that was formerly commercial plus many new townhomes. Mayor Daley is our most prominent resident. Its convenient proximity to police headquarters means that police are always nearby--speaking as a woman, this is a good thing, as Martha Stewart likes to say. Public transportation is so abundant that you really don't need a car although most people have one. On one side, it's bounded by the now-picturesque Chicago river and is about a mile from Lake Michigan. And yes, it has a Starbucks and all the amenities.

Do I sound high on this area? It's a clean, friendly version of Soho without the tourists or the inflated prices. I honestly think this area is heaven although it is expensive.

I don't doubt the city has pockets--maybe canyons--of ignorance and bigotry, but it is possible to spend your entire life here without really encountering them. I grew up in a pleasant Jewish neighborhood on the North side, where liberalism was the norm. True, I experienced a fair amount of culture shock when I left, but I'm grateful to my parents for not fleeing to the suburbs. In high school, I had the luxury of going to the Art Institute whenever I liked, seeing a lot of theater, going to lectures and concerts at Northwestern and the University of Chicago.

I've lived in other parts of the country where I had to work to find an enlightened enclave. That's not true here.

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s a life-long Chicagoan (well, born there at least; most of my life I've lived in nearby Skokie), I must chime in.

Chicago, as it's been alluded to in other comments, is a very complex city. Any city of 2.7 million and metro region of well over 7 million is going to have something of everything, Yes, Chicago is horribly segregated. It has been that way for ages, going back to white ethnic immigrants (there are/were not only black and white neighborhoods, but Polish neighborhoods, Czech neighborhoods, Swedish neighborhoods, German neighborhoods, Irish neighborhoods, Greek neighborhoods, Italian neighborhoods, Mexican neighborhoods, Puerto Rican neighborhoods, Vietnamese neighborhoods, Indo-Pak neighborhoods, Korean neighborhoods, Chinese neighborhoods, etc.). Chicago is very much known as a city of neighborhoods, and often these places are mini-universes unto themselves, with varying degrees of interaction with adjacent neighborhoods (though traditionally very little, just short of being hermetically sealed from each other). There are, however, pockets of diversity and integration, such as Uptown, Hyde Park, Lincoln Park, and especially Rogers Park (both East and West). Even Beverly, widely known as a conservative Irish area (Pat Buchanan campaigned there in 1996 during a St. Patrick's Day parade), is now a fairly mixed neighborhood now (there was some controversy lately in trying to carve out and map a black ward that includes parts of Beverly, but both blacks and white there protested that they did not want to divide their now integrating-community).

It is safe to say Chicago is overwhelmingly Democratic. However, sticking the "liberal" label to the city is much more problematic, in lieu of the various neighborhoods I've listed above. There are various fault lines and fissures in the party in Chicago, which is why the primary is all that really ever counts. There is of course the old-guard "Machine" characterized by both Mayors Daley, more or less aligned with the established Irish and other white ethnic blocs. The current Mayor Daley is generally considered a moderate on balance. There is also the strong African American political community, mostly represented on the South and West sides. Traditionally African Americans have been in opposition to the Machine. In the 1980's we saw the rise of the "lakefront liberals", who were basically left-leaning white professionals living near the lake in upscale apartments and high-rises ("yuppies", if you will, although of the progressive and somewhat activist variety) and rebelled against the Daley Machine (this was most evident in the "Rainbow Coalition" election of Harold Washington in 1983, the city's first African American mayor). The 80's and 90's also saw the budding Hispanic vote, which now has a seat in the U.S. Congress via the newly-created 4th district linking the Mexican areas on the Near Southwest Side (Pilsen and Little Village) and the largely Puerto Rican areas on the Near Northwest Side (Humboldt Park and Logan Square). Hispanics have generally supported Daley, but there has recently been what's known as an "independent" Hispanic movement, which has a more populist bent and champions such causes as encroaching gentrification, and is generally more critical of Daley. However, thus far I am not aware that this independent Hispanic faction has aligned with other groups such as African Americans. With the exception of the Machine, all of these groups have different flavors of liberalism. And even within the Machine, there are liberal elements (gun control, for example), and even some officials who could theoretically be at least lukewarm liberals.

And I take issue with the broad and unfair characterization of Chicago's suburbs as all hopelessly segregated in the same fashion as the city. There is a world of difference between more or less stereotypical "white conservative" suburbs like Wheaton, Wood Dale, and Wauconda, and richly diverse and creatively progressive places like Oak Park, Evanston, and even Skokie (I'm biased toward Skokie since I've lived there for 21 years). Oak Park, despite its proximity to Chicago's notoriously poor and crime-ridden Austin neighborhood, is a vibrant community that is known to be fairly well-integrated and has a registry for gay and lesbian partners. Evanson, despite residual and vesitigal effects and elements from past conservatism (such as the Women's Christian Temperance Union), is more or less equally well known as progressive of a suburb as Oak Park. Northwestern University provides at least some liberal influence, and the city in general is known for reasonable civic action and activism. For example, no other school district in the Chicago area has tried harder than Evanston's to meaningfully narrow the academic performance gap between blacks and whites. Skokie, despite only a small African American and Hispanic population, is nonetheless one of the most diverse communities in Chicago, and fully embraces multiculturalism in a very sensible middle-class Midwestern sort of way (i.e.: it is not the Balkanizing, hyper-activist, in-your-face multiculturalism found on many college campuses). There are various numbers of Jews (who signficantly influenced the cultural pulse of the village when they moved in during the 50's and 60's in large numbers; now there are also many recent Russian arrivals), Koreans, Filipinos, Chinese, Thais, Indians, Pakistanis, Romanians, Greeks, Serbs, Croats, Assyrians, Bahai's, among others. Over half of Skokie's high school students speak a non-English language at home, yet have shown exceptional academic performance despite being in the shadow of wealthier, whiter, and academically superior New Trier. Skokie was one of the first Illinois communities to pass fair housing laws, and has a Human Relations Commission to mediate and judge both public and private allegations of racism and discrimination. Skokie is one of the few suburbs to have a CTA rail station to connect it to the city, and it has always been looked upon by residents as a great transportation and infrastructure asset rather than some nefarious conduit for crime to flow into the suburb. The village has long had one of the biggest and best public libraries in the northern suburbs, and has one of the most comprehenseive parks and recreation system (now boasting a water playground/park, extensive fitness center, nature center, and a sculpture park where sculptors can be sponsored and display their work). Skokie is more moderate than Evanston, but is fairly safe Democratic territory. Niles Township, where Skokie is located, is one of the few majority-white suburban townships that stuck with Senator Carol Moseley-Braun in the 1998 election. All this and the village has a relatively low crime rate. In my opinion Skokie is the Toronto of Chicago suburbs.

And even several so-called "white" suburbs, while generally conservative, have shown that they have been reasonable in accepting non-white neighbors, such as Naperville and Schaumburg. The latter's Asian community is now quite large, and the former's is growing fairly rapidly. These suburbs have shown to be more progressive than suburbs in northern DuPage, such as Wheaton (where a white mother pressured a dayschool program into testing a black boy for HIV and strep after he shared his snorkel with her son), Elmhurst, and Addison (where a proposed tax-increment financing (TIF) district was found by a court to have discriminated against a Hispanic enclave). Both of these communities, while unfortunately showing tell-tale signs of suburban sprawl, have nonetheless demonstrated forward-thinking policies that trying to increase the quality of life. Naperville has a river walk in its central core and the suburb was named most kid-friendly city over with 100,000 people. The mayor of Schaumburg surprised everyone by strongly suggesting and promoting the idea of extending Chicago's Blue Line subway from O'Hare Airport all the way out to his fast-growing, high-tech suburb, since there is a shortage of workers in that area and the city has residents who could use the added access to get to the good jobs there. No talk of the "crime" bogeyman; the mayor has been hailed as a visionary, and this is prime Republican territory.

Some upscale suburbs, particularly on the North Shore, and to some extent southern DuPage County, have shown to be very moderate and pragmatic Republican areas with a strong streak of independence. Wealthy areas such as Wilmette and as far north as Deerfield have elected centrist Democratic state legislators, and these areas brand of Republicanism has been a fairly progressive one. The North Shore is represented in the U.S. Congress by Republican John Porter; he is known for very strong fiscal conservatism but is quite liberal on human rights (one of the biggest supporters of the Kurds) and the environment (he was endorsed by the Sierra Club). Southern DuPage, northwestern Will County, and soutwestern Cook County will now be represented by Judy Biggert of Hinsdale (the Wilmette of DuPage County), a pro-choice Republican.

Ok, so I know that was very long. But needless to say Chicagoland is not terribly different from, say, the larger Los Angeles region. Both are highly diverse and complex. Both have plethoras of pockets of both liberalism (Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Henry Waxman), conservatism (Henry Hyde and Dana Rohrabacher), and everything in between.