what do you love about Chicago area?

[pw72]

Originally Posted by Chi2NYC?

even though sf has an overall lower density, to me downtown chicago basically looks like downtown sf, only there's a lot more of it in chicago. chicago's also geographically huge, with big chunks of the outlying areas consisting of bungalows. i'd wager that accounts for the density difference. i've only live in areas with mostly three-story walkups, which i find at least as dense as residential sf.

if you like cities, chicago is a great one. especially for the price.

please don't underestimate the winter weather here. seriously. i grew up in the southeast, so basically went from one extreme of being too hot much of the year to being too cold much of the year with much less sunlight. plenty of people do seem to adjust, but i'll tell you this much: you will find plenty of lifelong chicagoans that get depressed in the winter or otherwise gripe about it being a pain. to me, it's unreal the amount of time i have to spend indoors in an apartment because it's too cold to enjoyably be outside. it is for this reason i'll be taking the question mark off my username.

i've also never gotten used to midwestern culture. there's just something standoffish-yet-superficially-nice about it that i can't put my finger on, but i suspect the large european catholic heritage and demographic, and suprisingly low (relative to big coastal cities) extra-regional immigration, might have something to do with it. i just know that the friends i feel most comfortable with here aren't from the midwest.

It's interesting that there are so many cities that can also be described as "standoffish-yet-superficially-nice", in the U.S. It just isn't Chicago. It is places like Denver, Seattle, Las Vegas, etc., anywhere there are a lot of newcomers. I think it is simple human nature, although I wouldn't expect a lot of that in a big established town like Chicago. Seattle, in particular, has a reputation of being a very friendly city on the outer side, but very un-welcoming on the inside. An interesting psychological pattern to say the least!

[crbcrbrgv]

I am a native of La Grange, Illinois which is about 16 miles southwest of downtown Chicago. I lived there up until five years ago. I moved to Houston, Texas.
I miss Chicago, but I would never return. Houston has as much to do as Chicago and the weather is much nicer. Without a doubt Chicago is much more beautiful than Houston however the weather more than makes up for any of Houston's aesthetic deficiencies.
If you are used to a steady diet of temperatures that rarely dip below 50 then Chicago is probably not going to be for you. The winters are generally harsh and when they are mild every day is cloudy. You can literally go 25 days in a row with one hour or less of sunshine per day.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by crbcrbrgv

The winters are generally harsh and when they are mild every day is cloudy. You can literally go 25 days in a row with one hour or less of sunshine per day.

Puhleeze. Really. PUHLEEZE. In the dead of winter, we still have a 50% chance of sunshine, thats average. Youd be hard pressed to get a week w/o clouds, let alone almost a month. LOLOLOLOLOLOL Trust me, I drive due East to work, and every other morning in winter Im driving into the blinding sun, with the super-bright snow in my eyes, coupled with the melting snow splashed up on me from other cars, making it super hard to see. It was so sunny last winter that I was begging for cloudy days just so I could get to work w/o getting a headache from squinting so much and having to drive in almost zero-visibility conditions.

Ya see, the problem with people around here is that they only dwell on the bad, they never remember the good. You can get 5 days of clouds in a row, and those folks would rush to CA and say "oh, its cloudy all the time". Or you can have a week of high-humidity and theyll say "oh, its soooo hot and humid all the time". I know, I hear it everyday, and its as annoying as all get-out! To them I just say "yeah, last week was soooo horrible wasnt it? Remember the 80 degree highs, 30% humidity, 60 degree nights? Yeah, what a shame, thats so horrible." I love watching them reply "yeah, that was heaven!". But if they were to rush to CA, theyd tell all their new friends how "bad the weather is in Illinois all the time." To them I say: NONSENSICAL LIES. Sure it blows at times, but where doesnt it? Id trade off some nice cool months for Houstons swamp crap summers. Or Id take some humid days here rather than deal with Phoenix's hellish heat, etc, etc, etc. There are no perfect places to live, but telling people lies is just silly.

[pandabear]

The weather out here has really been unco****table.

[pw72]

Originally Posted by gardener34

Never been to frisco - but the thing I like best about the Chicagoland area is the food. You can get any food you like here. Great restaurants anywhere.
And a great theatre scene if you are into that.
Job market in chicago generally is reflected in how each industry is doing. I don't know how biotech is here, Abbott labs is a big employer here still I think.
Prices are very good around here - compared to NYC and anything in California. But still not really cheap, taxes are high, but again nothing like the coasts I am sure. You may also find it pretty segregated in the suburbs.
Gas prices are high - IL has the highest gas tax in the nation along with New york.
This winter was bad and long - but they are usually not that bad all the time - We get a lot of freezes and thaws all winter. But remember the "not too bad" comes from a lifelong chicagoland-er who has seen the -27F and the big snows of 1968, 1978 and 1979.
Most schools in the suburbs are pretty good. Although those are also best judged on an individual community basis as well since our state property taxes cover the bills on those.

Totally agree. There is something about the food in Chicago. Perhaps the standards and expectations are just higher. From high-end eateries, to even the local fast food, it always seems to taste better in Chicagoland!

[Songsmith]

Things I love about Chicago (in no particular order)
- Diversity of EVERYTHING. Ultimately, every demographic, every type of cuisine, every type of professional/amateur sport, jobs, every lifestyle, the arts, music, shopping ... there is a wide selection (not just little pockets) of everything for every taste in the metro area.
- The most beautiful skyline in the world. The architectural capital of the world.
- A lake that visually is the equivalent of an ocean. 30+ miles of lakefront with great parks, bike paths, etc.
- Wrigley Field
- Lincoln Park Zoo, Brookfield Zoo
- The Art Institute of Chicago, the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium, Chicago Symphony, all within walking distance of each other.
- Old factories, bungalows, suburban malls, Oak Street sophisticates, little old Polish women, stockbrokers, Mike Ditka
- Taste of Chicago

That's a start...

[Frenchy64]

Postive is definitely the food. One of the negatives about the cold weather during winter is many times there is no snow but it is bitter cold and gloomy for days on end so any outdoor recreation is out of the question. It would be nice if we had the blanket of snow for the entire winter so cross country skiing or snow shoeing could be a choice of exercise and recreation but many times its just cold and gloomy and depressing. That's when eating a big bowl of mashed potatoes, taking a hot shower and going to bed early sounds good!