Can we blame this on parking meters and the Olympic bid too?
According to Forbes, Chicago is the third-worst city in America for high-paying jobs.
Of course, that's ludicrous - as these kinds of magazine ratings almost always are.
The best cities to live in, for example, are often places none of us who live in Chicago would ever dream of moving to, no matter how clean their water is.
If you have fewer than two baseball teams in town, you are a lesser place to live.
That sort of thing never gets figured into these rankings.
Worse, while Chicago gets rapped in the latest Forbes fiasco, Peoria is picked as the ninth-best place in America for high-paying jobs.
Local
"With a professional and business services sector that has grown 35% since 2008, the local economy is driven by agriculture and manufacturing," Forbes says. "Peoria is home to construction giant Caterpillar, which employs roughly 18,000 people. With a solid high school attainment rate, there is a large population of educated, qualified individuals to fuel the workforce at a price point considerably lower than nearby Chicago's - and that allows companies here to hire more workers."
Perhaps, but did we mention that it's in Peoria?
Here's what Forbes says about Chicago:
"Like Los Angeles and other major metropolitan capitals, Chicago's economy is not based on any one industry. But even without dominant strength or weakness, the city as a whole is in decline. The core's population has been stagnant, while high taxes, corrupt politics and a shrinking banking industry have spurred massive job losses in the professional and business services sector."
All true.
But Chicago is mostly a lousy place to live for those with low-paying jobs.
Plus, it's not in Peoria.
Steve Rhodes is the proprietor of The Beachwood Reporter, a Chicago-centric news and culture review.
