From WBUR, Boston:
Thousands Of African-Americans Are Leaving Chicago Each Year. Why?
Thousands of black residents are moving away from Chicago every year in what some have called a "reverse Great Migration."The mass exodus comes as Chicago is set to have a black woman as its mayor for the first time in history. Attorney Lori Lightfoot will face Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle in a runoff election on April 2.
Chicago's black population is on track to shrink to 665,000 by 2030 — down from a peak of about 1.2 million, according to the Urban Institute. One factor in many African-Americans' decision to leave is Chicago's rising cost of living."As much as I love the city and the friend base that I've developed here, I just feel like the cost of living is getting out of control," says Kristin Ware, who lives in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. "I need to go to someplace where my dollar will just stretch a little bit further. And then also the school system here just isn't the best and there's a lot of things that go along with getting into the schools that are really good in the city. So it's very competitive from that standpoint."...
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