What If Northwest Indiana Was Part Of Chicago?

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ABC 7 Chicago's new anchor Ron Magers and WLS AM's Roe Conn discussed the concept of extending Chicago's city limits eastward to encompass Northwest Indiana as well as New Buffalo, Michigan the other day.

It's a very seductive concept.

At first thought, I'd go for the concept of merging Northwest Indiana with Chicago to create a whole new city-state of "Chicago, Chicago," as was mentioned on the radio show.

Who in Northwest Indiana wouldn't?

Northwest Indiana and Southeast Michigan are more closely aligned with Chicago than other parts of their home states. We get our television and entertainment from Chicago, rather than Indianapolis. Reading the happenings in Indianapolis on BlogNetNews.com's Indiana blog round up, I am always struck by how all of the downstate news seems to far away and somewhat foreign.

I know Mitch Daniels is my governor and he does a great job reaching out to Lake County, but I always seem to hear more about Illinois' Rod Blagojevich. (Maybe it is a function of seeing all of the Rod Blagojevich, Governor signs on the IPASS equipment driving on the Tri-State Expressway).

I know more about what's happening in Illinois' statehouse than what transpires in Indianapolis. It's the nature of getting most of our news from Chicago. It's also a function of our legislature not working full-time fighting with each other like they do in Springfield.

The pull of Chicago could be seen last year when the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears faced off. Northwest Indiana could be counted on to support the Bears, while places a little further south went for the Colts.

The economic powerhouse that is the Alpha city of Chicago is something that cannot be ignored. I suppose if Chicago was to woo Northwest Indiana, the attraction would probably be too much and we'd give into the temptation.

As much fun as it is to dream about Northwest Indiana being annexed by the Windy City, I'm sure Northwest Indiana's residents wouldn't want to feel the tax pain those in Cook County are feeling now with all of the talk about CTA Doomsday and tax increases on anything and everything from bottled water to real property.

Maybe we're okay just as we are in Northwest Indiana just as we are. We get all of the benefits of Chicago -- it's just a short drive or train ride away -- without all of the hassles of paying all of those Cook County and Illinois taxes.