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themafia a day ago

[flagged]

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don_neufeld a day ago | parent | next [-]

Chicago has over 50 millions tourists per year and rising.

https://cdn.choosechicago.com/uploads/2025/07/Chicago-Touris...

https://abc7chicago.com/post/chicago-sees-record-breaking-ho...

Is that a lot?

Well, Rome - which people the world over would consider a “tourist destination” only has 35M tourists per year.

https://hotelagio.com/rome-tourism-statistics/

Even Paris is less, around 47M

https://parisplaybook.com/paris-tourism-statistics/

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themafia a day ago | parent [-]

Those are overall visitations. There's no indication that they're vacationing or tourists. Does Chicago have more global business interests than Rome?

My Mother went to Chicago every year for Emergency Room training. Was she a tourist? Or was she there because Chicago, for all it's problems, has one of the most competent and practiced set of ER doctors in the entire country?

	▲	don_neufeld a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		“Does Chicago have more global business interests than Rome?” Given that the GDP of the Chicago area is ~5x the GDP of Rome, I suspect the answer is YES! Chicago: ~900B USD https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_metropolitan_area Rome: ~190B USD https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_metropolitan_area If you were to take exports as a good proxy for “global business interests”, then the USTR would show you that Chicago exports 57.9B in goods, making Chicago’s exports almost 1/3 of Rome’s entire GDP. https://ustr.gov/map/state-benefits/il
	▲	arianvanp 19 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Does it really matter? Both tourism and business fall under the same ESTA Visa Waiver programme. In both cases you have people visiting without any visa but just an online application at cpb. I dont even think they stamp passports anymore during entry in the US. It's all digital now.

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testing22321 a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Yes, the US is a country of immigrants. Built by people from all over the world.

There’s even a massive statue near some famous city welcoming immigrants.

Are you so xenophobic you missed this?

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themafia a day ago | parent [-]

Are you so enamored with a statue that you missed the overwhelming gang violence? Stop being simple and looking for opportunities to push your narrow politics into a conversation.

Chicago is simply _not_ in good shape. Ask anyone who lives there. Ask them if these problems started with or predated Trump? Ask them if they think their problems has one wit to do with national politics.

	▲	testing22321 a day ago \| parent [-]
		Yes, many places have problems with gang violence. That has nothing at all to do with secret masked police ignoring the constitution and people getting abducted regardless of citizenship.