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
|