closure: the incredible, catastrophic, fatal decline of Chicago! (Detroit: live in, to move)

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by jessicas4rabbits

Lots and lots..to use the midwesterer's parlance..of inferiority complex in this thread. The extreme sarcasm and overly defensive nature of the op and others reveals that a nerve of truth was hit somewhere. If you genuinely think Chicago is an awesome amazing city that keeps you busy and interested, you would all not be wasting so much time and energy, day after day, defending this very aesthetic and energetic, yet highly dysfunctional city . Just realize, big cities have always been targets. Get over it.

jessica, I'm sure you are a lovely person and bunny rabbit cute. but pardon me, my dear, but I have to ask:

do you know how to friggin' read?

I'm that op who you somehow think was hit by some nerve due to my totally sacrastic and satirical observations. and did I make them because I "think Chicago is an amazing city that keeps interested." heck, no, even though Chicago definitely is an amazing city that keeps my interests (can't help it; love the place despite the warts and all, even though for some reason you thought I didn't know the warts were there. strange. weird.)

No, darling, I didn't write for any reason other than to poke holes in the endless stupid Chicago questions that get asked on this forum.

Are we unique in that respect? No. Could I have written the same kind of piece on the New York, Los Angeles, Washington, San Francisco, Boston (all great cities) forums, as well? Of course, I could.

Where on earth did you get my fun-with-nonsense to have one element of self-defense. Usually irreverence comes with the idea that one doesn't mind poking fun at oneself.

Of course, you'd know that one, sweetie, if you were able to read.

Have a great Chicago, Jess....and get a life.

[ForYourLungsOnly]

wait... are people really not getting that this is sarcasm? I'm worried...

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by ForYourLungsOnly

wait... are people really not getting that this is sarcasm? I'm worried...

some of them are still waiting for trickle down economics to work; that worries me more!

[edsg25]

i guess my goal to make this a thread where the notion, Enough with the dumb Chicago questions, and the further point of, Stop making every excruciating comparison between cities, didn't quite register with the genpop.

It brought out the crazies who told us that Chicago is overrated and thinks too much we think way too much of ourselves and that my city can can win a pissing contest with yours.

oh, well.

still, I have to scratch my head and wonder:

do these geniuses realize that Chicago and all the other American cities sit together, joined at the hip and are in deep, deep trouble because, well, frankly they are American cities, but being American today isn't about to move you up any list (or at least any one you'd like to move up on). Sure, Chicago is going down the tubes, but its taking NY, LA, SF, DC, Bost, etc., down with it.

So we continue to move our little US city pieces around the game board, oblivious of a world beyond the 3000 mile wide, hermetically sealed bubble that just doesn't get that pumped up about us anymore, losing any desire to emulate us, and enjoys the notion of cleaning our clock (which, BTW, they are doing).

So let the silly games continue. They are so delightfully immaturally American. One genius from India-no-place, IN, even boasts of the power of Houston, the fossil fuel capital of the world in the Land Of Rick Perry,......... and its rising population. Yep, you the know: not only oblivious to what sarcassam and satire are, but apparently oblivious to that 7 billionth birth that supposedly took place this week, making sort of a joke out of any notion of "pride" over a rising population anywhere.

When are these folks going to realize in today's sadly modern world, cities no longer have any real control over their destinies, that they are merely plugged in to some global grid with interchanging parts and interchanging people brought in and sent out all the time. They are not masters of their own fate, don't even have the pocketbook to do anything about it.

Doubt that? Than ask yourself what other era could have made an institution like Marshall Field's, so much a part of this city (where once it was based) disappear from the face of the earth with the unthinking and unfeeling sweep of a pen in a board room some 800 miles removed from here.

That's hard for some to get, those who think that the days of Venice and its trade over the Medeteranean and beyond to the lands of the east is still the model of the self-sufficient, self-operating, city state. Guess again, boys.

[linicx]

I think ti is safe to say that Chicago is many things to many people. Ir will be difficult for most cities in America to dethrone the dominate city in the Midwest because it is what it is. Size is only one of many reasons it is an Alpha city.

[ForYourLungsOnly]

Originally Posted by linicx

I think ti is safe to say that Chicago is many things to many people. Ir will be difficult for most cities in America to dethrone the dominate city in the Midwest because it is what it is. Size is only one of many reasons it is an Alpha city.

It doesn't matter. Chicago will continue to get some of the most negativity thrown towards it more than any other city on this website.

[TheSunshineKid]

Originally Posted by ForYourLungsOnly

It doesn't matter. Chicago will continue to get some of the most negativity thrown towards it more than any other city on this website.

Oh so true. I understand people not liking the city or preferring it to others, but whatever weakness Chicago has it is used against it like it dominated the entire city. I could name a handful of posters that just berate it. Some even compliment the city only to expand on a negative(s). Sometimes they succeed into making me think that Chicago doesn't deserve to be called an Alpha/world class/cosmopolitan/real city. When it comes to that point, I step away from the computer and just breath a heavy sigh.

When Chicago is whipped, it's whipped bare naked and I find that both pathetic and unfair. I mean, I can actually show you the remarks some people make about Chicago whether it be about its architecture, its universities, its "old school Chicago" neighborhoods, its art scene etc. that makes your heart sink, and people ask "Why are Chicagoans so defensive? Why are they so insecure?" I just guess the unwritten sticky on this website is that Chicago deserves all the criticism that comes their way and then some. Any genuine compliments are thrown like bread crumbs which the residents should be grateful for.

[TheSunshineKid]

Originally Posted by jessicas4rabbits

Lots and lots..to use the midwesterer's parlance..of inferiority complex in this thread. The extreme sarcasm and overly defensive nature of the op and others reveals that a nerve of truth was hit somewhere. If you genuinely think Chicago is an awesome amazing city that keeps you busy and interested, you would all not be wasting so much time and energy, day after day, defending this very aesthetic and energetic, yet highly dysfunctional city . Just realize, big cities have always been targets. Get over it.

wtf? You do realize Chicago is sh*tted constantly and if you haven't been on this site for several years (*I've been a lurker for sometime) that maybe people who have lived here for sometime are getting tired of the questions and insults the OP listed. People can only take so much abuse, and you just added to it. Now I bet deep down inside you want us to say "Yea, Chicago IS a piece of crap. As is the entire state of Illinois."

Instead of defending the city I'll just throw away the civic pride and agree with what the rest of the haters say.

world class city: not really - it's just a big town disguised as world class city
creativity: nah. devoid of it.
transit system: you mean those hunk of metals that slither between buildings?
diversity: black. white. hispanic. that's it. Maybe a sprinkle of asian. Maybe.
education: Northwestern overrated. U of C . . . what? DePaul, Loyola, Colombia??
culture: watered down
art scene: CSO is overrated. Lyric Opera & Joffrey Ballet are amatuers.
weather: falsely advertised
restaurants: expensive and under cooked
ghettos: right next to Detroit. Of course, it's SECOND to Detroit.
youth: Midwestern kids. The.Worst.
sports: There's always next year!

Conclusion: yep, looking back and thinking of what others have said, what makes Chicago so "world class"? Gosh.

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by TheSunshineKid

wtf? You do realize Chicago is sh*tted constantly and if you haven't been on this site for several years (*I've been a lurker for sometime) that maybe people who have lived here for sometime are getting tired of the questions and insults the OP listed. People can only take so much abuse, and you just added to it. Now I bet deep down inside you want us to say "Yea, Chicago IS a piece of crap. As is the entire state of Illinois."

Instead of defending the city I'll just throw away the civic pride and agree with what the rest of the haters say.

world class city: not really - it's just a big town disguised as world class city
creativity: nah. devoid of it.
transit system: you mean those hunk of metals that slither between buildings?
diversity: black. white. hispanic. that's it. Maybe a sprinkle of asian. Maybe.
education: Northwestern overrated. U of C . . . what? DePaul, Loyola, Colombia??
culture: watered down
art scene: CSO is overrated. Lyric Opera & Joffrey Ballet are amatuers.
weather: falsely advertised
restaurants: expensive and under cooked
ghettos: right next to Detroit. Of course, it's SECOND to Detroit.
youth: Midwestern kids. The.Worst.
sports: There's always next year!

Conclusion: yep, looking back and thinking of what others have said, what makes Chicago so "world class"? Gosh.

and Michael Jordan couldn't shoot

[TheSunshineKid]

Originally Posted by edsg25

and Michael Jordan couldn't shoot

That's back in the day. Also, Jordan was born in Brooklyn, NYC so he's just as much as theirs - even more so just because - than he is ours.