"I'm from Chicago" boundaries (Rockford, Aurora: crime, school, living)

[Irishtom29]

Originally Posted by radiojunkie2006

Chicagoans like to know what neighborhood and sometimes Catholic parish you're from, that is if you're Catholic.

How can you tell a Jew is from Chicago?

You ask him what neighborhood he's from and he says "Resurrection".

[gramirez2012]

I've lived in the Chicago suburbs all my life, and to this day I continue to say "I'm from Chicago." Deal with it!

[trainfan87]

I started a conversation with a young person and she stated she loved "the city" and loves the train ride in on metra and loved "downtown". Hands down, most people would have associated this with an image of downtown chicago mabey an image of the skyline and nightlife or a busy loop. However my comment was that i too loved downtown and had an appreciation for the skyscrapers. Her comment was "o i didnt know of any sky scrapers in wheaton". Once again, depends on who your talking to. Person was from elburn and never went as far as Chicago.

[Irishtom29]

Originally Posted by gramirez2012

Deal with it!

Deal with it? I'm surprised you didn't also say "nuff said!".

How often does the carnival hit Barrington? You smoke Winstons and wear a Marlboro hat?

[chet everett]

I dunno.

I just got back from the Blackhawks game (pity the poor kids from Montreal sitting near me that drove 15 hours to see their team eviscerated by our best in the league skaters...) and I think that a whole lot of really stupid people live where they have a 606xx zip code but drive about 12 mph on the Ike and then there are people like ME that know that despite the lack of hipster bars and other "must have" amenities I can FLY down a certain Blvd to get my share of tinga tacos before the puck drops (or hang out at the Billy Goat "Inns" packing my face with cheebooogee for a heckuva lot less money...) and avoid the idiots that work in Oak Brook or Itasca but live in Wicker Park ...

Until there's a requirement to pass some kind of Chicagoland IQ test it is false to assume that swilling down PBR and riding a fixie has any bearing on "urban clued in-ness" that allegedly comes from having a particular zip code prefix.

To me "being from Chicago" is a partly a state of mind but also having a brain that knows stuff that people from Columbus OH or Terre Haute IN just don't. You gotta get woozy thinking of the Bulls winning 6. The Sox winning ugly all the way through the World Championship. Be able to name at least six different places that will build your beef wet, with giardinara. Have sport peppers and celery salt in your cupboard, just in case. Be able to sing the chorus from Hardrock, Coco and Joe back to back with Suzy Snowflake. Know which Metra trains leave Olgilvie vs LaSalle vs Millennium Park vs Union Station. The fastest way to get from Midway to O'Hare. Know whose house is at the corner of Chicago Ave and Forest in Oak Park.

Stuff that matters...

[A2DAC1985]

Originally Posted by ToriaT

Well sometimes I do say that. I hate when people really care about such things as this...its really not that important.

This isn't directed at you, but the sentiment in general:

It's not important? I would beg to differ.

I can tell people I live in the same high rise as Michael Jordan, and people would be impressed. It certainly says something about me that I can afford to live in the company of such a well-known and respected individual.

Then people would ask me, "Do you live next door to him?"

And I would say, "No."

"Oh... Do you live on the same floor?"

And I would also reply, "No."

"Okay... Do you ever go up to his floor to maybe try and talk to him? Maybe catch a glimpse?"

To which I would say, "I can't. They won't let me up into the building."

And then the person I'm talking to does one of these:

And then I would explain, "You see, I live a couple neighborhoods away in another apartment building where, if I go onto the rooftop, I can see the high rise that Mr. Jordan lives in. In fact, I also travel by the building all the time, and I stop into the convenience store in the lobby on a regular basis as well. Therefore, I can say that I live in Mr. Jordan's high rise because it doesn't really matter if I'm inside the building or not, so long as I have access to the area of the high rise that matters."

Then the person I'm talking to would probably do one of these:



But then, I move out to the suburbs to get more living space. I want a pool in my back yard. So I have an Olympic sized swimming pool built. I throw pool parties and invite all the neighbors on my block.

Can the people who live around me on different streets say that they have an Olympic sized swimming pool in their backyard? They come over and use it when I have parties, does that mean they can claim it as their own?

What about my next door neighbors? I know them extremely well, and I let them come over and use my pool without having to ask me beforehand. Can my neighbors say that they have an Olympic sized swimming pool? Or should they say, "I have a neighbor that lets me use the pool whenever I want, so it's almost like I have my own pool"?



I decide to better myself through higher education. I graduate. I go for a job interview. The potential employer looks at my resume and asks, "Northwestern, huh? Pretty nice school. I went there myself back in the day. Were you going up to Evanston or down in the Loop for classes?"

And I would say, "Neither."

And he would do one of these:

And I would explain that, "I went to UIC, but because Northwestern was a place I partied at up in Evanston, and I went to the Loop a lot to look at buildings and shop and stuff, I consider myself a Northwestern graduate as well."

And the potential employer says, "Get out of my office, now."



How many zoos does Chicago have? If boundaries (arbitrary or not) do not matter, Chicago has 2 zoos while Brookfield, IL has 0. Or is it that Brookfield, IL has 2 zoos and Chicago has 0?

I should really check out Schaumburg, IL because that's where the Sears Tower and Hancock building are, and then after that I should go into Chicago and take a look at LEGO Land. Is that acceptable to say?

If I live in Downers Grove, and I write "Chicago" for my address on everything... Do you think I would get any of my mail? Would my debtors understand me not paying my monthly bills because, "The Post Office is sooooo stupid. They never sent me any bills even though I clearly live in Chicago (Downers Grove) and that's what I write for my address!"

What about people with kids in the suburbs? They will claim Chicago as their residence but when asked about where their children attend school, I would bet money that those people DO NOT respond with, "A Chicago Public School."



Finally, I would like to relate this back to where I moved from: Indiana.

I lived in three different places in the Indianapolis, and two places in the suburbs. When asked, I would respond:

"Where were you born: Indianapolis"
"Where do you live (when I was in the city)?: The Westside." "The Northwest Side"
"Where do you live (when I was in the suburbs)?: About 15 minutes outside of Indianapolis." "I live in Fishers, just outside of Indy."

I could have claimed the "City" at any point in my life while living in the state of Indiana... but I didn't. Why?

Because there IS a difference between the city and the suburbs of the city.

Family told us (after moving to the city after college), "Don't live South of 96th Street... You know what? Just to be safe, you shouldn't live South of 106th Street."

96th Street is pretty much the Northern boundary for Indianapolis. Even though I lived on the North/South dividing street in the city, less than 2 miles West of downtown, I was told everything below 96th Street was just too "iffy" for us. We would "have to" live 9-10 miles North of downtown to be, "safe".

Living on the Westside exposed me to gangs, drug dealers, drive-by-shootings (the neighbor's house still has the bullet holes in the siding), police chases through our back yard, pools of blood on basketball courts, etc. And my family STILL slept with the windows open in the late spring/early fall. And family from the suburbs, who have NEVER LIVED in city limits, are going to tell me the only safe place for me inside the city is... outside the city?

So when I did live in the "Prestigous" (the city's PR word, not mine) suburb of Fishers, I would say that I was from Indianapolis, but I lived in Fishers. People move to Fishers to say they DON'T HAVE TO DEAL with all the things I dealt with living on the Westside of the city. For me to live in a place where people only expected sunshine, roses, and unicorns in their daily lives, I would have felt... dirty, for lack of a better word, to still claim a place where drive-by shootings are a real possibility as my place of residence.

Once again, this isn't directed at a particular person, but the idea that boundaries and where one resides, "doesn't really matter". Because like it or not, boundaries do exist, and they DO have a very real impact on the world.

[Jandur]

Originally Posted by Lorielicious

This is a stupid explanation that I hate when people make. If you're in Aberdeen, South Dakota, sure, then of course no one knows where Naperville is, but what's so hard about saying you're from "the Chicago area" or "near Chicago"? I mean, really, "near Chicago" tacks on one extra syllable fer Chrissakes, and is both clear to anyone, no matter what their familiarity with Chicagoland is, and moreover it is accurate.

Why does it matter? Near Chicago is vague. "Where near Chicago? Do you live in Aurora? My Aunt lives there. Do you know here?" blah blah blah.

You need other things to worry about.

[chet everett]

If being from Chicago implies that you need to deal with bullet holes and send your kids to whatever crap school that serves your designated attendance area then would that mean that people that go through the trouble of finding a safe neighborhood and jumping through hoops to get their kid into a selective admissions school are not "from Chicago"???

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by chet everett

If being from Chicago implies that you need to deal with bullet holes and send your kids to whatever crap school that serves your designated attendance area then would that mean that people that go through the trouble of finding a safe neighborhood and jumping through hoops to get their kid into a selective admissions school are not "from Chicago"???

[gomexico]

Originally Posted by s0nginmyheart

What do you think the boundaries are for claiming you are "from" Chicago? City proper? Or should they be saying Chicagoland if they're from some far out suburb/exurb?

I don't see a huge problem if someone from Evanston, Lincolnwood, Park Ridge, Niles, Skokie etc. claim Chicago. But there have been some tv programs I've watched where people from Crystal Lake or Naperville say they are from Chicago. A bit of raised eyebrow there, but not being native to IL, I just wonder if it's even a big deal...

Who cares?