12.6 million live in Illinois. Cook county (which Chicago resides in) has 5.2 million, and counties contiguous with Cook have about a combined almost 4 million. A lot of those almost 9 million total are dependent on Chicago and it's suburbs for their jobs. Unfortunately they're all mindless robots that vote as peer pressure demands. If you and yours are stuck in amongst the misled 9 million I don't mean to insult you but I'm in N.W. Indiana 30 miles from Chicago. People from Chicago and it's surrounding suburbs are moving here in droves. They are in no way having a positive effect on life here.
Or across the Cheddar Curtain.