Boat ramp traffic way down and fewer boats on the water?

[Lost But Happy]

That's a bummer. My wife is from northern IL but her parents retired to AZ back in the 90s because of taxes and such

Yep. I live in the burbs of Chiraq and can't wait to get the h*** out of here. Still have 15 more years though

 

[LaqueRatt]

Let us know where to send the flowers and can I have your boat? Sorta kidding, sorta not. Think you'd be safer in Iraq actually. Hardly anyone I know has been to Chicago in years even though it's 45 mins away. It's just not worth it. Better get out of there while you still can.

 

[Lost But Happy]

Let us know where to send the flowers and can I have your boat? Sorta kidding, sorta not. Think you'd be safer in Iraq actually. Hardly anyone I know has been to Chicago in years even though it's 45 mins away. It's just not worth it. Better get out of there while you still can.

LOL

Born and bred here and my business is on the West side of Chiraq (Lake St and Western if you are familiar).

The house is out in the western burbs at least, though it's gettin worse by the day. No gettin out till I sell the joint. Ugh.

 

[Lost But Happy]

My grandparents were from back of the yards. They moved out here when everything started going to hell. @ 1950. Up until then it was pretty much all working class WHITE people.

If you could put up with a longer commute, you might be able to sell your current house and buy a 3000 sq ft house on 10 acres in IN and your taxes would be like $3k/yr. Plus nobody cares how many boats you have in your yard. As an added bonus you can buy and conceal carry without a permit and shoot your gun behind your house.

Honestly you don't know what you're missing. What burb you in anyway?

Lombard. Oh, I know what Im missing, brother. Trust me. And it kills me.

I looked into getting a place in Dyer or St John's a few years ago, but the commute was too far. Not to mention if something goes sideways at work and I have to be get quickly.

 

[Hooligans]

I'm the curious kind when it comes to other places. I have pretty good memories of northern IL from 89-91 times.. can't imagine what's gone so wrong there. I think I take freedom for granted in AK and forget how it can be elsewhere.

 

[Lost But Happy]

I have pretty good memories of northern IL from 89-91 times..

Ya, so do I Now, not so much.

 

[1pc@atime]

Let us know where to send the flowers and can I have your boat? Sorta kidding, sorta not. Think you'd be safer in Iraq actually. Hardly anyone I know has been to Chicago in years even though it's 45 mins away. It's just not worth it. Better get out of there while you still can.

Its kind of the same way around here with Philadelphia, I'm 45 minutes away and other than the few times when I 'drive through' on Rt 76 heading elsewhere in PA, I don't go there. Not many do. At night you can hear the gun fire like your in a war zone these days. If you want a real view of what its like do a search for 'Kensington' section in Philly.

I half grew up there and it was borderline in the 60's and 70's but not really what I'd call dangerous, there were bad areas but now it seems its all bad and its spilling over into the suburbs too.

When I was a kid, in the mid 60's we moved out of Philly, since I had relatives teaching there, my parents heard what was going on and moved to better area, now that better area is no longer better, NJ has become a dumping ground it seems. As a kid I never thought I'd have to ask if anyone speaks English when I go into some places here. Most places require bilingual employees now.
An area which had 5k people in the late 60's now has closer to 80k in a couple square miles, with 20k being newly added residents and they didn't build any new homes. They lost houses but gained projects and apartment complexes that go through a nasty cycle. They open up as top dollar rentals, they slowly they turn into section 8 housing and either become a war zone or end up burning down or being abandoned. As someone who drove a delivery truck, most of those places were off limits, the company would not go to most of them. Now the better neighborhoods are full of crack houses and drug dealers that no one ever does anything about.

I can't wait to get out but I hate to leave the place I've known most of my life, but in reality its no longer that same place.
The problem is, as we get older, no one wants to be so far out in the woods that medical help can't reach you when the time comes. The only places that are still affordable are like that it seems.
It becomes a race of whether your health, the taxes, or the neighborhood will get you first before you can get out.

I've been watching the boat ramps here all spring and summer after seeing this post, other than Memorial Day and the following week, the water here has been all but devoid of boats. Every so often I see an old timer with some 6hp put putting around fishing in the shallows near the ramp but rarely do you see a boat heading out to fish the deeper water in the back bays. Even the shoreline seems abandoned most days with almost no one fishing. The fact that they cut back on all the fish limits don't help but I feel most are either too broke to drive there, can't afford bait, can't afford gas in their boat, or have just given up on it altogether. The only fish that seem to bite inshore lately have been catfish and sharks, with the occasional small flounder. Crabs seem super plentiful, a trend that's been going on for a few years now.
I hadn't had my boat yet this year, but did pickup another on which I hung a smaller motor that can run all day on only a few gallons. A 9.9hp four stroke on a 16ft aluminum boat is slow but its also cheaper than running my 50hp all day. Just the run to the bay down stream about 8 miles or so would kill most of a 6 gallon tank, with the 9.9 on a second boat it'll let me launch closer to where I'm fishing and it won't cost me more than $30 a day in fuel and oil. Which is tolerable if I catch fish. Lately though its been a toss up between the cost of fuel in the truck to get the boat closer to where I need to be or launching further up stream and running the boat there. At 11 mpg in the truck, its not cheap anymore and the extra 20 miles or so by road can mean the difference of it being worth while or not. After all, the whole purpose of fishing is to be able to eat fish which I can't afford in the store these days.

 

[timm gage]

Born and raised in Chicago. In 1950 on the south side, {back of the yards}. After 3 years in the Army, lived there until 1974 when I moved to Bolingbrook. Stayed there til 2006 when I retired, at 56, and moved to central Florida. Miss some of the fishing holes there and Wisconsin but not the snow and ice! Carried a 1911 .45 with me a lot. To heck with the law! Now have a carry permit here in Fla. Cut back to a Colt officers model. Haven't had to shoot anyone yet. Leave Chi Town as soon as you can. Just my two cents.

 

[Canoe]

We don't allow discussions of race, religion, or politics in this community. Please stay away from these topics.

This is the way it has always been. It is the way it will stay.

 

[LaqueRatt]

The old ways are over brother. You can't ignore race and politics on this forum much less anywhere else in the USA. You just can't. It is just pervasive in modern society.

 

[LDUBS]

Well, being (ahem) among the guilty, I agree we should keep it about boating and fishing. Shouldn't be that hard.