Chicago Man 'Giving Up' On Illinois, Moves To Indiana
(CBS) -- Fed up and heading out.
One Illinois resident is so done with the state, he is outta here.
His name is David Mansfield. He is tired of everything from not having a state budget to a possible teachers strike in Chicago.
And he's not alone, CBS 2's Charlie De Mar reports.
In just a couple of days, Mansfield will be making the one-way drive from Chicago to Indiana.
Mansfield says he's fed up.
"The economic vibrancy of the city and the state are hurting. I don't know where it's going to go, I don't see a way out, and I don't want to be here when it goes flat," he says.
Done with Illinois politics, done with his current taxes, he is packing up his Lincoln Park home and leaving the Windy City that he loves.
"I see the $100 billion of pension debt, where I have no idea of how they are going to pay that off," he says. "I see me having a huge target on my back."
Mansfield isn't alone. Census data shows Cook County leading the nation in population loss with about 10,000 fewer residents in 2015 than the year before.
Rob Paral heads a demographics and public policy consulting firm. He says the exodus is nothing new for Chicago and Illinois.
"It goes back to 1950," he says.
Says Mansfield: "It would have been nice to stay, but it's gotten to the point where I don't see that can happen. So, I'm giving up."
There are a number of factors that go into population shifts, but this dropoff isn't just happening in Illinois and Chicago. It's happening across the Midwest.