I am considering a move... (Chicago, Lincoln: environment, apartment, hotels)

[erin.bean28]

Hello all,

I currently live in Boston MA and have grown increasingly disgusted with life in this small city. I am looking to move within the next year and am heavily weighing Chicago as my possible new place of residence.

My major concern is the quality of life in Chicago. I am 22 years old and I live with my boyfriend (he would be moving along with me!). I am a photographer and my boyfriend is an actor/musician so art in general is very important to both of us. Our favorite things to do are sit at a local coffee shop and talk, view beautiful sights, meet new people and participate in an artistic community.

I am looking for a nice apartment in the $900 and under price range that has at least 1 bedroom (no studio) and possibly a small yard. I am also seeking an office job (secretary/admin. assistant) at around the $30,000 salary range.

Does this sound feasible for a city such as Chicago, or am I looking in the wrong place?

I do appreciate anyones help/advice!!

[NYrules]

Originally Posted by erin.bean28

Hello all,

I currently live in Boston MA and have grown increasingly disgusted with life in this small city. I am looking to move within the next year and am heavily weighing Chicago as my possible new place of residence.

My major concern is the quality of life in Chicago. I am 22 years old and I live with my boyfriend (he would be moving along with me!). I am a photographer and my boyfriend is an actor/musician so art in general is very important to both of us. Our favorite things to do are sit at a local coffee shop and talk, view beautiful sights, meet new people and participate in an artistic community.

I am looking for a nice apartment in the $900 and under price range that has at least 1 bedroom (no studio) and possibly a small yard. I am also seeking an office job (secretary/admin. assistant) at around the $30,000 salary range.

Does this sound feasible for a city such as Chicago, or am I looking in the wrong place?

I do appreciate anyones help/advice!!

It sounds like you will want to look around the north-end of the city like Lincoln Park, Bucktown, or Lakeview for what you and your bf like to do. The rent there though is rather on the high side. I don't know that you will find too much for $900 a mo. there. Rents there start at about $1200 a mo. from what I have seen. Salaries for sec./admin. assis. start at about $28K a year with some college. With degree you should find something for about $30K esp. working in a medical field like physical therapist's office or something like that.

[erin.bean28]

That info is really helpful.

Are the people there friendly and outgoing or does everyone try to keep to themselves? I notice that up here in Boston no one would offer you a helping hand even if you were being physically hurt by someone else!

I really want to move to a soothing friendly environment within the city feel!
For example, if you were sitting at a cafe and sipping a cup of coffee, would someone be willing to talk to you at the next table? Or would they rather read their newspaper alone and shoot you nasty looks for asking them for directions?

[Drover]

Midwest culture is generally a bit more relaxed and less coarse than East Coast culture, and it seems that also holds relevant for respective cities. New Yorkers who move or visit here frequently comment on how much more relaxed the atmosphere is here. I don't know how Boston compares to NYC in that regard, but my few trips to urban New England suggest that it's more like NYC than Chicago. But make no mistake, this isn't California or the Deep South, meaning we don't have an endless well of "understanding" or hospitality. We only suffer fools so much before we let 'em know what we think of 'em. Just be decent and don't be an abrasive loudmouth, and you'll get along plenty fine here.

[NYrules]

Originally Posted by erin.bean28

That info is really helpful.

Are the people there friendly and outgoing or does everyone try to keep to themselves? I notice that up here in Boston no one would offer you a helping hand even if you were being physically hurt by someone else!

I really want to move to a soothing friendly environment within the city feel!
For example, if you were sitting at a cafe and sipping a cup of coffee, would someone be willing to talk to you at the next table? Or would they rather read their newspaper alone and shoot you nasty looks for asking them for directions?

Generally people here are friendly, but believe me there are exceptions. By the end of the Christmas season for example seems to be when people are at their wits end around here and are the rudest to one another surprisingly. They are shopped out, sick of dealing with the crowds, and the weather grows increasingly hard to cope with. Also people here seem to get rather edgy after we have been subjected to cloudy weather for weeks on end. Typically that will occur in late Feb-March and also in Nov.

I notice a major change in people around here on nice sunny days like it has been here over the past two weeks. I guess it all has to do with sunlight deprevation. People over the past couple of weeks seem to have been in real good moods though for the most part, less road rage, more pleases and thank yous, more smiles, etc. You know, the general "be nice to your neighbor" skills your mom taught you when you were a kid that people tend to forget as they grow up.

[erin.bean28]

Originally Posted by NYrules

Generally people here are friendly, but believe me there are exceptions. By the end of the Christmas season for example seems to be when people are at their wits end around here and are the rudest to one another surprisingly. They are shopped out, sick of dealing with the crowds, and the weather grows increasingly hard to cope with. Also people here seem to get rather edgy after we have been subjected to cloudy weather for weeks on end. Typically that will occur in late Feb-March and also in Nov.

I notice a major change in people around here on nice sunny days like it has been here over the past two weeks. I guess it all has to do with sunlight deprevation. People over the past couple of weeks seem to have been in real good moods though for the most part, less road rage, more pleases and thank yous, more smiles, etc. You know, the general "be nice to your neighbor" skills your mom taught you when you were a kid that people tend to forget as they grow up.

[SIZE=2]Thank you to all of you your info has been very helpful to me. Yes, Boston is very much like NYC just less crowded. Everyone up here is on a mission to make money and screw their neighbor, it is a complete dog eat dog world up here and it just sucks the life right out of you.

We don't want to move to far away from our family and friends but we want to move just far enough away that it doesn't feel like Massachusetts anymore! Does that make sense? A more laid back atmosphere sounds like a wonderful change!

How is the general night life over in Chicago?
[/SIZE]

[CarolinaBredChicagoan]

I moved to Chicago about three and a half years ago. I was straight out of college when I moved here. I found a 2 bedroom apartment for 900 bucks in the heart of Lincoln Square (a REALLY great neighborhood for doing the things you mentioned). Rents around here have gone up since then, but you can still find places in Lincoln Square, Ravenswood, or Roscoe Village for around 900. Just check craigslist.

I also found a job making 33k. It was an office job. Pretty standard. Full benefits. 35 hours a week (8-4 with an hour lunch). I've moved on since then, but it was an amazingly beneficial platform for starting a life in this city.

It's definitely a friendly place, too. I'm from the Deep South, and it's not THAT kind of friendly, but people are helpful and generally polite. Some neighborhoods are better for this than others. I still remember being up here when I was around 19. I hadn't been here since I was a tiny kid, and I was working for an arts festival as an intern. I had to deliver postcards to concierges at a list of hotels in the loop/mag mile, and we could barely stop to look at our map without having people stop and ask us if we needed help. That included businessmen with briefcases and suits, moms with strollers, etc. It made a good impression.

Night life? You name it. It's not a 24 hour town like NYC, but there are bars and clubs to suit any preference if you know where to look. I may or may not have been out until 4 this very weekend....

For the things you seem to be looking for, it sounds like Chicago might be perfect.

[Pffister]

Erin, You have "West Coast" written all over your face. Don't take me wrong, but Chicago is not what you seem to be looking for. It is really a big city, with all the good and bad that it takes. Public transportation sucks. Yes, there is public transportation but the commutes are endless, stations look dirty, old and rusty. Another thing is that, and maybe coming from the East Coast this doesn't bother you so much, the size of the bedrooms are usually beyond small, they are tiny. It is really hard to find a nice place in a nice neighborhood. Chicago it's the quintaessential gritty city. Lots of culture, affordable, can find a decent and cheap place (if you have lots of patience), nice people and a good night scene... but it seems like you will be as disappointed as I was 3 years ago when I moved here from Seattle.

[Drover]

Wait -- "public transportation sucks" and then you proceed to recommend the west coast?? There are few cities in the U.S. that have as comprehensive a public transportation system as Chicago, and those that do are not found on the west coast.

Small bedrooms might be an issue if you confine your search to the most crowded parts of the city, namely the neighborhoods along the lake shore. Those of us who don't mind living further west usually don't have such problems. I found plenty of good-sized bedrooms in my apartment search, mainly because I was looking away from the lake. My bedroom has a queen-sized bed, two nightstands, a chest of drawers and a highboy. My other bedroom is identically sized.

[Pffister]

Drover: Public transportation in Chicago sucks. And that's a fact if you compare public transportation in Chicago with public transportation in at least 5 more cities in the U.S. I did not make a recommendation for the West Coast based on public transportation. Public transportation in LA or San Diego is way worse than Chicago's. Seattle's doesn't even have such a thing like the L (sometimes I think they are better off without it), but Portland and San Francisco are in the West Coast and their public transportation is light-years beyond the crappy CTA machine.

In regards to the size of the bedrooms: you are totally right, the farther you live from the lake the bigger. The farther you go from the lake, the longest and nightmarish your daily commute will be.

Let's face it: there are at least 5 more cities with better public transportation than Chicago's and if you compare Chicago's CTA to European systems or even some Latinamerican city's system, Chicago's L trains and stations look from the third world.