Most Chicagoans can conjure up the name of someone who fled town for good after a fearsome winter.
Saya Hillman can list 42 in the last 14 months. She has nicknamed it the “Mass Exodus of 2014.”
“Forty-two. FORTY-TWO. And I mean leave-leave,” Hillman, 36, wrote on her blog. “Not move to the suburbs, I mean go to where they talk funny. If I included the people who moved to the ‘burbs, that number would be … well, 42 + a lot. I’m also not counting couples where I am friends with both, that’d also increase the number.”
To 48.
Proof she is not exaggerating: She listed their first names and surveyed 22 of them as to why.
She even asked for primary and secondary reasons for leaving, testing her thesis that although many factors were at play — job dissatisfaction, job opportunity, children, etc. — last year’s great polar vortex was to blame.
“Every year people complain about the weather, but last year especially, it was just ridiculous,” the Evanston native said. “And I am not one to complain about the weather, but it was just horrendous. I think most of these people, where weather played a part, it wasn’t, ‘Oh I’ve never thought about moving before.’ The weather was the kicker. It was the thing that pushed them over the edge.”
From December 2013 through April in Chicago, “it was easy to hate,” she concluded.
Here’s the stunner. Well, maybe I shouldn’t be stunned. Of the 22 friends Hillman surveyed, 16 left for California.
Yes, the land of high taxes, for all those Chicago suits who whine that taxes are ruining our economy. Taxes were cited by one survey respondent as one of seven “secondary reasons” for leaving. That person moved to Seattle.
“The default is always to say they left for California for the weather, but there are lots of other places you can go for good weather,” Hillman said. “I feel like some of it is because of the circles I run in, being entrepreneurial, people at startups. And I know a lot of creatives, improvisers, actors. So they’re obviously going to LA”
But isn’t California expensive?
“I’ve heard tons of stories that the cost of living is one of the hardest things to deal with — you’re paying so much money for a crappy apartment in a crappy neighborhood,” she said. “But most everybody I talked to, it’s not a big enough deterrent.”
Hillman has built her business, Mac & Cheese Productions, around the theme of “Life of Yes.” She offers sleep-away camps for adults, hosts “minglers” to help them make friends and runs something called the “Fear Experiment” in which participants learn a talent (stepping, storytelling, improv, a cappella singing) with strangers for several months before performing with them in front of hundreds at the Park West theater.
So this is not a random sample. Nor is it a scientific survey. One possibility: The mass exodus is really pent-up demand now that the recession has lifted and job mobility is increasing.
Half of the respondents were in their 30s.
One left to embark on “a road trip to find 100 of the best couples across America” and write a book about it. Another quit work to travel for 10 months. Several said they left seeking “mountains” and “nature,” “organic farms” and “alternative energy,” even “year-round sailing.”
But 10 cited the weather.
“As I get older, I don’t want to deal with shoveling snow, and brushing snow off of my car,” one wrote.
Other survey participants provided reasons that should set off alarms for economic development officials, particularly Chicago’s dearth of parkland per capita.
“I really missed wilderness, and (Washington) D.C. has a giant straight-up forest — 1,750 acres right in the middle of the city — with hills, streams and hiking trails,” one wrote.
Or this: “Gun violence was way high and since we were living right outside of the West side border, crime was particularly high. I can only imagine what is going to happen when welfare programs (food stamps, Section 8, etc.) start getting cut.”
Or this: “Daily micro-aggressions and overall racial tension in the city was driving me mad.”
Or this: “Violence uptick/shooting in Rogers Park and the winters.”
Or this: “Greater professional opportunities.”
Which gets us back to Hillman.
She has always dreamed of launching her “Fear Experiment” in other cities.
She’s thinking about leaving, an idea she floated at a going-away lunch for a mutual friend who is headed to Long Island to raise her daughter near family. Hillman omitted this friend from her “mass exodus” list, so the true number should be 43.
Hillman says envy — envy of “everyday exploration” — is what’s driving her to consider new places. So she posed some questions for herself, including whether she should travel more or move.
Will I miss Chicago? In a good way? In a bad way?
Will Chicago miss me?
As someone who has moved from city to city for career advancement, telling her to stay would be hypocritical.
But I can say, yes, Chicago will miss you.
We’ll miss all of you.
Twitter @chiconfidential
