re: Who's familiar with Chicago area?

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everything outside of Cook County is beet red

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I had four counties when I commanded in the Chicago Area: DuPage, Kane, Kendall and Grundy. DuPage and Kane counties are DARK blue.

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ou’ll be pretty far removed from Chicago out there, but don’t let the idiots on here fool you, everything outside of Cook County is beet red. And not the religious crazy red you find in the south.

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The guy is 27 years old and newly single. For that reason I wouldn't suggest those far flung burbs...it's about an hour from St. Charles into the city.

Also, your point about everything outside Cook County being red is just wrong. If you're talking the collar counties, every one of them went Clinton in 2016.



Politico - Illinois voting by county

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ou’ll be pretty far removed from Chicago out there, but don’t let the idiots on here fool you, everything outside of Cook County is beet red. And not the religious crazy red you find in the south.


The guy is 27 years old and newly single. For that reason I wouldn't suggest those far flung burbs...it's about an hour from St. Charles into the city.

Also, your point about everything outside Cook County being red is just wrong. If you're talking the collar counties, every one of them went Clinton in 2016.

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I didn't realize the dude was 27 and newly single. That changes the calculus significantly. I'd maybe find somewhere near Union Station and take the train out everyday, but goddamn, that is 2 1/2 hours of your life, every single day, spent on a train. I am not sure that's the best decision. Maybe he could find some friends in the city to sleep on their couch on the weekend.

As for the collar counties, I'd call them purple turning slightly blue. The collar counties were a major national Republican stronghold for a very, very long time (like a century) before they started turning purple when Obama ran in 2008 - every single county in northeast Illinois went for Bush in 2004 except Cook. They generally don't produce nutbags like Cook County does; as an example, Brad Schneider is a fairly moderate guy in the House. I don't think people outside this region of the country realize that the collar counties by themselves (~5 million people) are the equivalent of a major U.S. metropolitan area and are a big voting bloc if you can capture them.

It's an interesting phenomenon to observe and has been driven by a few things:
- Many of the traditionally Republican voters in the collar counties have fled to Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, et al over the years to escape Illinois' tax and fiscal situation
- A lot of middle class and upper-middle class immigrants have moved into those counties over the last generation or so (think physicians, IT professionals, middle management at Chicagoland F500 firms, restaurant owners, and so forth); I believe Dallas has had a similar phenomenon
- There has been a fair amount of migration from the Southside and Westside of Chicago itself to the collar counties since the 1990's; it's typically, though not always, Latino and African-American working class and middle class families who want to escape the hellhole neighborhoods in which they had lived in the city itself; they are not nearly as liberal as Cook County voters and are pretty conservative in some ways, but they do still tend to vote blue more often than not

Also, not to be pedantic, but McHenry is technically a collar county as well, and it is still redder than shite.

Just my experience, but the collar counties outside of Lake are definitely still socially pretty conservative in outlook, pretty laid back, very Midwestern, and still have a pretty standard middle class attitude to them even in wealthy communities outside of some pockets like Hinsdale and the ultra-wealthy North Shore towns.

Chicago has hot bartender

Schaumburg and Barrington are real nice and close to Elgin.

Rt 31 between Elgin and Crystal Lake is loaded with shopping and neighborhoods. Crystal Lake is ok, has a Metra stop. Lake In The Hills and Algonquin are typical suburbia with some nice spots.