Big Brother Chicago

I just don't like the way Illinois is headed. I've had this discussion with extremely liberal friends, which I am not, and they agree: The government is out of control here. What's funny is how people sound like they are so powerless to do anything about it, or they just don't care. Rather than try to correct it, a lot of my friends just either move out of state or they just take it up the ass and act like things are no different. But I feel things are different lately. For instance, just the other day I headed to Culver's for some frozen custard (there are none in the city) and I was going a good 11-12 miles over the speed limit in some area west of the city around Oak Park, and some traffic camera caught me and took my picture for speeding! The whole night lit up like lightning struck nearby, but it was just a traffic SPEEDING camera flashing a photo at my license plate! Now I have to worry about getting a ticket mailed to me? Where the heck is this metro headed? These things about living here is starting to wear on me, I'll be honest. Since I've moved here just mere years ago, the following has happened: Taxes on restaurants and shopping has increased to the point that, yes, it DOES feel slightly oppressive and I have changed my shopping habits a little bit (for the better, I'm spending less and saving more), CTA has gone through TWO fare hikes (!), the Taxi fees have gone up to the point it feels very expensive to take a cab, probably 2000 cameras have been installed across the city and now there is a proposal to move them into private businesses, toll rates have DOUBLED, and now there are cameras that will send you a ticket if you go 11 over... all automatically! At this rate I won't be able to leave the house in 5 years. I'm just waiting for the proposal from Daley to deploy "the robots." LOL. Is any other metro expanding it's government fees and intrusion as fast and as heavily as Chicago has in the past couple of years? At the very least it's horrible press--I've seen our insane amount of cameras reported by the major national news outlets for instance. It's not exactly a welcome mat for outsiders considering Chicago.>