Chicago - Split from The USS Retribution a historic sailing ship impressed...

[kato13]

I would think especially after most of the remaining military units either got pulled to the Pacific Northwest to stop the drive on Seattle or down to stop the Mexicans. With them gone and electricity generation almost completely stopped and no fuel - things must have gotten very down and very dirty very quickly in any large urban area.

Someday I want to work on what happened to Chicago. They had the 49th Armored stationed during the initial strikes. I expect that would have helped things in the short run. Canon has them leaving the city a few months later to solidify control on 3 more rural areas as the city is starting to spiral out of control. The entire area is pretty much abandoned by federal forces when the Mexicans invade. Lots of material there.

[Olefin]

Someday I want to work on what happened to Chicago. They had the 49th Armored stationed during the initial strikes. I expect that would have helped things in the short run. Canon has them leaving the city a few months later to solidify control on 3 more rural areas as the city is starting to spiral out of control. The entire area is pretty much abandoned by federal forces when the Mexicans invade. Lots of material there.

Be interesting to see what happened there - especially among the large Greek population after the US and Greece went to war or how the Polish Americans there fared with Polish troops fighting against the US.

[kato13]

Be interesting to see what happened there - especially among the large Greek population after the US and Greece went to war or how the Polish Americans there fared with Polish troops fighting against the US.

I have a neat map from the 80s which shows the ethnic breakdown of the city. If I get a chance to scan it I will upload.

Personally while there might be a bit of ethnic stress during the conventional phase of the war, I personally never saw any animosity towards Russians during the cold war as generally the thought was "if they are here they don't support their homeland".

I see things going racial once things go bad. Our city is quite segregated (and was even moreso 2 decades ago). The powers that be felt that there were lessons to be learned from the '68 riots and actually built expressways that could be flooded to act as a barrier against racial unrest. Also public buildings build in the 70s looked like fortresses.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_a55hc4AgcY0/SI9OSwdk90I/AAAAAAAAEEY/21Mn6yF_PBE/s320/IMG_7141.JPG

I think it would break down with:

the cops holding the north side.
the gangs holding the west side
power block mixture of organized crime and unions holding parts of the south side

[kato13]

Chicago has quite a few advantages over other major cities.


Very fire resistant. - We learned our lesson when over 1/3 of our city burnt to the ground. Our building codes were among the most stringent in the nation and open spaces (to act as fire breaks) were almost never shortchanged.
A water system which has both plentiful supply and is relatively EMP resistant (by virtue of its age).
Relatively close to large areas of farmland.
Major and Minor military installations
Access to the Great lakes and major river systems.
Of the 50 most populous cities in the world in 1997 it was the least dense population wise. With the greatest amount of open space (if we are going to try improvised farming).
Lakefront is 90% undeveloped with parks covering most of the area.
Well equipped Police who are not timid about use of force and actually live in the city. (in LA 81% don't live in the city)


There are of course negatives.


Cold Temperatures - While fires my not spread as far, they might be more frequent especially during that first winter.
Well armed street gangs. - Their organization peaking during the early 90s

[mpipes]

That winter of 1997 is going to be brutal in the cities. No way for most homes to heat. VERY little food as the transportation infrastructure is mostly out of commission. And no growing anything till spring.

[kato13]

Chicago is a central hub for quite a bit of food processing. That may help as a bit. It also was a port of departure for military goods (the 49th was placed here in the hope it would eventually be deployed from here). I think 35th Engineering Brigade was also there to assist shipping. The rail lines from the North, West and South should still be in ok shape. The ones leading to Joliet and directly east would of course have issues due to nuclear strikes.

I also think the 49th Armored during the first few months would seize the huge fuel tanks near the military section of Ohare Airport so hopefully there would not be a total breakdown.

The city was in good enough shape in 1998 to allow for the formation of the 85th Infantry Division so that also indicates everything didn't totally fall apart.

[kato13]

Not that power is a given, but Illinois has the highest percentage of power generated by nuclear power (51% in 1997). Not as good as hydro, but not as dependent on raw materials as gas/oil/coal.

I also really want to figure out what happened to the Rock Island Arsenal.

[Olefin]

I would think that the city may have actually been in pretty good shape until the 85th and 49th left the area - you still have substantial MilGov units in the general area in Robinson and Cairo so you may still have MilGov patrols doing reclamation work that come into the southern suburbs of the city from time to time.

Once the 85th left though probably things went downhill pretty quickly after that.

As for food - I agree that the food processing areas would have provided Chicago with food that most cities wouldnt have had post TDM - probably enough to get thru the winter of 97 where other cities pretty rapidly went into starvation - but by 98 those supplies would have been exhausted - one important source of food for them would be fishing out of Lake Michigan and the rivers - those fishermen might be some of the richer people left in the city as most likely thats the last source of decent protein (unless you like rat burgers) left in the city