Paying Too Much For Housing/Transportation in The City?

By Sean Corbett in News on Oct 20, 2006 7:04PM

A study recently released by the Center for Housing Policy identifies the current trends in housing and transportation costs around the nation. MSN has a short summary of it. On average, Chicagoans spend 33 percent of their incomes on housing and transportation combined. Chicagoist has noticed in the past few years that more and more young people with professional jobs are moving into the city after growing up in the suburbs. Apparently this trend hasn’t picked up enough steam to change the well known wealthy suburbs/working class city situation yet though. City residents actually spend a bit more than that average on transportation and housing costs than suburbanites. This is attributed to the commute more and more people are doing from Chicago to sub-urban job centers combined with a transportation system designed for the opposite direction of commuting. Chicagoist has several friends who are stuck driving out to jobs in the burbs everyday so we know how much of a pain it can be.

What are we doing in Chicago to combat the trend of housing that’s too expensive for the working class in the city? The Department of housing has a pretty active website and is working hard to keep the city on the right track. Much of the violence and crime in the city has been attributed to decades of poor housing planning; it’s prime time to address those problems. The Balanced Development Referendum is on the ballot this November in the 43rd ward (read as: vote for it because Chicagoist told you to.) Similar Referendums are hot topics in Logan Square and other neighborhoods. Check this convenient map of Chicago Wards if you don’t know which one you live in (or if you want to see what a long history of gerrymandering looks like.)

Thanks to PhillipC for the image.