Will Chicago feel like a worldly, cosmopolitain city coming from San Francisco? (Kansas: day care, quality of life)
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When I move, I want to play the angle of a regular midwestern guy when I meet all those cute California hotties. "Urban" as many here define conjures up images of east coast Italian Americans that flirt too aggressively, (like Jersey Shore). Chicks don't like that. I want to be confident that I as the grounded down-to-earth guy coming from the midwest is going to be a breath of fresh air, from the Hollywood wannabe douchebag kind of guys, by making where I'm from seem more earthy and country. Unfortunately, while I grew up fairly far out, it was still very much a suburb, and not a small town. (About 30 miles from the loop). And I see more couples with a city girl and the country guy.
OK, thats the reality. There.
You say you're going to act like a regular Midwestern guy, but what do regular Midwestern guys do? That's right, they stay in the Midwest and meet regular Midwestern girls. So girls in California are going to assume you were unable to do able that, unless you show that you have a real reason for being out there.
When I move, I want to play the angle of a regular midwestern guy when I meet all those cute California hotties. "Urban" as many here define conjures up images of east coast Italian Americans that flirt too aggressively, (like Jersey Shore). Chicks don't like that. I want to be confident that I as the grounded down-to-earth guy coming from the midwest is going to be a breath of fresh air, from the Hollywood wannabe douchebag kind of guys, by making where I'm from seem more earthy and country. Unfortunately, while I grew up fairly far out, it was still very much a suburb, and not a small town. (About 30 miles from the loop). And I see more couples with a city girl and the country guy.
I apologize for wasting space and time with incoherent cathartic releases.
I use this site sometimes for bouncing crazy ideas and seeing what kind of feedback I get to get a sense of how to interact with real people based upon the feedback I get. Its like I get to predict how people I encounter in the real world based on here, so I can preserve myself by anticipating what people value in different places.
But I realize I shouldn't do that. Thats not what this site is for.
urban, urbane - Urban refers to a city; urbane means polished and smooth, as in a person's demeanor.
See also related terms for polished.
I realize this site is not an online therapist/counseling to speak whatever pops up into my brain to see what feedback I get. I apologize for all the diarreah of the brain I dumped here.
I realize everyones different. Personally I find as a native Chicago suburbanite, I LOVE metro areas with very URBAN SUBURBS, with office complexes, universities, dense housing, international population yet more car-oriented with great nature close by. These are the places that "blow me away."
Chicagoland more than coastal metro areas generally offer more quiet, dull spaced out residential suburbia or super-urban, dense concentrated world class city living, with little in between.
I just needed to figure it all out and I understand the area of the country I grew up in. But I think this is my last draw.
Berkeley, Palo Alto, Sausalito, Mill Valley, Alameda, even Walnut Creek are pretty urbane. I didn't say urban. They have nice walkable downtowns, sophisticated restaurants, etc. that in the Chicago suburbs you can only find in Evanston and maybe Oak Park. I find California (esp. Bay Area) suburbs much more interesting and diverse than suburbs in the rest of the country.
I'd say Berkeley is the most urbane of the group since it alone abuts one of the Bay's major cities, Oakland (I suppose one could include Alameda, too, but a channel separates it from Oakland).
Evanston and Oak Park end up being what they are because of the Chicago grid and their positions as first towns north and west of the city, right on the city limits.
I'd also give Sausalito and Mill Valley some urbane qualities; it sort of comes with the territory in Marin.
Chicagoland more than coastal metro areas generally offer more quiet, dull spaced out residential suburbia or super-urban, dense concentrated world class city living, with little in between.
I get your point, Tex, but I think it might be more applicable to west coast cities than east. And certainly the Bay Area would be at the top of the list.
As for the east coast, if we were to compare suburban New York to suburban Chicago, I'm not sure that we'd all that many differences. Obviously more Evanstons and Oak Parks, but the general concept of suburbia is pretty much the same. Westchester has a lot of overlap with our North Shore and Long Island has a lot of pure suburban sprawl that dominates the outer fringes of all of Chicagoland.
I think the one thing we don't have are the towns that line Hudson due west of Manhattan. But that might well be a geography issue. There are no areas outside of Chicago that are as close to the city's core as that little skip across the Hudson from Jersey City or Hoboken.
I am not sure if the whole acting midwestern angle is going to work for you... They will probably be well, glad you got out of there, welcome to the real world in California, let me show you the ropes.
The metro areas that I think would fit what you are looking for are SF, DC and Boston, smaller cohesive urban core, then with nice other urban small-mid cities surrounding it. Not sure if LA is going to fit that bill or vibe.
NY-NJ-Philadelphia, Chicagoland and LA all have that big metropolis feel. I think Houston in the next 30 years will have that similar overwhelming feel also.
I am not sure if the whole acting midwestern angle is going to work for you... They will probably be well, glad you got out of there, welcome to the real world in California, let me show you the ropes.
The metro areas that I think would fit what you are looking for are SF, DC and Boston, smaller cohesive urban core, then with nice other urban small-mid cities surrounding it. Not sure if LA is going to fit that bill or vibe. NY-NJ-Philadelphia, Chicagoland and LA all have that big metropolis feel. I think Houston in the next 30 years will have that similar overwhelming feel also.
Actually I think all MSAs or CSAs over 5 million to a lesser extent can fee like this too.
In addition to Houston, I would say Dallas-Fort Worth and Atlanta are becoming like that, although still very suburban. Metro Detroit-Ann Arbor is a little like the opposite of the three southern cities but at about the same size, it was becoming a big metropolis, but economic stagnation slowed that down.
In addition to the Bay Area, Boston, and DC, I would probably add the Miami-Fort Lauderdale as a small, but dense and vibrant city connected by narrow urban corridor to other cities. But where you have undevelopable mountains in the Bay area, you have the Florida coast sandwiched between swamp and ocean.
Also, Toronto is much like Chicago, but its suburbs are very dense, and therefore you hit farms much sooner than in Chicagoland.
I think Houston in the next 30 years will have that similar overwhelming feel also.
Mine is far removed from conventional wisdom, but I'm one of those who is not convinced that Houston is going to explode in size in the next 20 or 30 years.
Seems to me that growth in Houston is far too based on energy in the form of fossil fuels and that very industry is the one that is going to take a hit (for the record, another city that I would have concerns about in the coming is New York, which, IMHO, is far, far dependent on finance which has exploded in size in the national economy, far beyond where it should be. when the s hits the fan, NY will feel it. Big time. Big apple time.) Point is, do you want oil and gas to be the basis of your economy in 2012 and beyond?
Houston, like the rest of Texas, is low tax country. That means incredibly low services, so Houston becomes less and less desirable in terms of quality of life. Add to that many of Houston's jobs being low wage, service jobs, I can't help but feel doubtful about what others see is explosive growth. At least that's my spin.
Mine is far removed from conventional wisdom, but I'm one of those who is not convinced that Houston is going to explode in size in the next 20 or 30 years.
Seems to me that growth in Houston is far too based on energy in the form of fossil fuels and that very industry is the one that is going to take a hit (for the record, another city that I would have concerns about in the coming is New York, which, IMHO, is far, far dependent on finance which has exploded in size in the national economy, far beyond where it should be. when the s hits the fan, NY will feel it. Big time. Big apple time.) Point is, do you want oil and gas to be the basis of your economy in 2012 and beyond?
Houston, like the rest of Texas, is low tax country. That means incredibly low services, so Houston becomes less and less desirable in terms of quality of life. Add to that many of Houston's jobs being low wage, service jobs, I can't help but feel doubtful about what others see is explosive growth. At least that's my spin.
I'm not convinced any trends will stay the course over two or three decades. However, if this was the 1980s than I would see your point about Houston. But Houston's energy economy is diversifying as well as the general economy itself. For that reason, I believe it can withstand whatever problems the fossil fuels could have. Remember, Texas is the leader of Wind Power and most of those HQ's I believe are getting ready to set their HQ's in Houston if they are not there already. Not to tout Houston's horn, but they have a fast and growing medical field and a seaport that's getting ready to maybe become the largest and most used port in the US when the Panama Canal expansion finishes in 2014. Not the same Houston anymore. Also, their development has is slowly transitioning from single family homes to townhomes and apartments.
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how about just being yourself
