Tell me bout Chi (Chicago, Plainfield: to live in, price, vs)

[OleSchoolFool]

what's the situation with public service jobs, esp in the criminal justice system like probation officers and just govt workers in general? (besides police)

[Ilovehockey85]

Dude, im from Upstate NY, schooled in NJ (Kean), lived in NJ (Somerset).

Chicago > NY. Everything all the Chicagoans are telling you on here is spot on.

I agree very much with your views on NYC too, so I think we are in a similar boat here.

People are too infatuated with whats on the coasts to know how amazing Chicago is.

[Ilovehockey85]

Originally Posted by OleSchoolFool

Living and visiting are completely different things
I wouldn't live in manhattan if someone paid me. Matta fact seems like a lot of people live in manhattan jus to say they live in manhattan, but that's for another thread.

Turns out we are on the same boat.

That **** is annoying, isnt it?

Im glad I left the city and went back upstate.

Manhattan is a shell of its former self. Way too commercial, EXPENSIVE and transient.

[Ilovehockey85]

Originally Posted by nana053

Chicago is definitely less crowded and more spacious in feeling. That's one reason I would not go back to live on the east coast.

I was born and brought up near but not in NYC. I have relatives who live in Central Park West and in Newburgh (about 4 hours upstate). Houses are closer together, there are more people per square mile. Even in the actual city of Chicago things feel more spread out to me.

One thing that is interesting to me is that when I first moved to Chicago and would go down to the loop and walk around, it annoyed me how *slow* people walked compared to NYC. After I had been in Chicago for some time, I found that I had slowed my pace. Chicago does have big city hustle and bustle, but no where near what you find in NYC.

While parking is expensive in the loop and some parts of Chicago, I never found that it was a problem. Living in Evanston, it was NOT tough to drive or park, except that there are parts of the burb where you need a residential permit (not hard to get and really not that expensive). You can get guest passes to use when friends are visiting as well.

I LOVE Chicago and I wish I could move back, but circumstances don't favor it for me at the moment (we are in the suburbs of Houston now).

Newburgh is not 4 hours. Its an hour and a half. How the hell?

4 hours from NYC gets you up near the damn Adirondacks.

[Ilovehockey85]

Originally Posted by OleSchoolFool

They call it the CHI, relax.


I'm guessing it's not as many ghettos in the burbs as in NJ? Cuz I only heard of Gary, but round here we got a buncha Garys

No, Chicago has its share.

Youre prolly talking about Newark, Irvington, Paterson, etc.

Chicago has no shortage.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by OleSchoolFool

what's the situation with public service jobs, esp in the criminal justice system like probation officers and just govt workers in general? (besides police)

I can't give you spot on info, but I doubt there's no jobs available in it. I mean, it's a big city with a good amount of crime in some areas, and there's going to be a lot of people on probation and what not.

Govt workers in general..pretty sure there's jobs. My friend interviewed for an engineering one lately, and I have a few other friends in govt here. It's a big city, so there's a lot of govt jobs. How many available? Not sure, but I'm sure you can find that online somewhere.

[OleSchoolFool]

^o kul-ilovehockey
i actually applied to kean and thought bout going there
im not an expert cuz im not a native, but seems like that many parts of nyc are shells of their former selves, all the decent n'hoods are incredibly expensive and the bullsht hood parts are expensive too, just to put it into perspective when i looked at places in nyc thinking bout moving there from nj for school tuition purposes (my school is in nyc), the best i could find for $1200 was a raggity azz studio in da bx, i went to check it out, and the neighborhood didn't seem that bad from what i read on c-d until i actually went there and saw crackheads lurking like roaches next door, on top of that i got my car towed even tho the sign that prohibited parking was like a 100 ft away, im not the type to judge, but the bronx stigma didn't form outta nothing, i don kno bout chicago, but i have to say half of nyc is like a 3rd world country, its really puzzling to me why so many people think it's the center of the universe and the greatest place to live, seems like nyc is jus living off its hype from the media, movies, etc when reality is quite different

[Ilovehockey85]

Originally Posted by OleSchoolFool

^o kul-ilovehockey
i actually applied to kean and thought bout going there
im not an expert cuz im not a native, but seems like that many parts of nyc are shells of their former selves, all the decent n'hoods are incredibly expensive and the bullsht hood parts are expensive too, just to put it into perspective when i looked at places in nyc thinking bout moving there from nj for school tuition purposes (my school is in nyc), the best i could find for $1200 was a raggity azz studio in da bx, i went to check it out, and the neighborhood didn't seem that bad from what i read on c-d until i actually went there and saw crackheads lurking like roaches next door, on top of that i got my car towed even tho the sign that prohibited parking was like a 100 ft away, im not the type to judge, but the bronx stigma didn't form outta nothing, i don kno bout chicago, but i have to say half of nyc is like a 3rd world country, its really puzzling to me why so many people think it's the center of the universe and the greatest place to live, seems like nyc is jus living off its hype from the media, movies, etc when reality is quite different

Chicago goes harder than NY dude. There are a lot of other cities IMO that do. Chicago doesnt have that media tag hanging over it like NY does. It doesnt have to do a lot of "impressing" or "showboating" like NY does just to be itself. Chicago can just be itself. NY survives a lot on image IMO. Im not saying it isnt the center for many things, but I doubt so many people would aspire to move there if not for how much its romanticized. When you think about it in real terms, its not practical. Chicago is.

Everything romanticized about NY is about Manhattan. Nobody around the country or the world is clamoring to live in Sunset Park Brooklyn, ya know? Or the ****ing Bronx or Staten Island. Its all about Manhattan, and what it has become, im not a fan of. Chicago is much more "real" to me. Everything about it. It does city living much better than NY does, IMO.

Yeah I went to Kean, graduated in 08. Lived in Somerset/NB last year. Worked in S Plainfield.

There are definitely neighborhood similarities between NY/NJ and Chicago. Only difference is scale. NYC is 19 million metro, Chicago is 10.

Even coming from NY/NJ, I was damn impressed by Chicago. It really blew me away when I first went.

[marothisu]

That's a good way of putting it. It's highly romanticized. You can be like "oh man I want to live in a loft behind a big clock" or I don't know. You just watch movies or shows and everything about it is romanticized. Never thought about it like that, but it's extremely true. I'm guilty of that growing up, I"ll admit it.

I think it depends on who you are and what you're looking for. You know like, certain types of artists or fashion industry stuff (actual fashion designer, even if Chicago has some of that) and NYC will be better. I used to want to live in NYC badly (it's where my mom and her side is from) but now that I"ve lived in Chicago, I see what is and what is not. If I'm going to move to another big city after this, I am not even thinking of NYC (Istanbul in reality). Music? Plenty of music stuff going on here just like NYC. NYC you might get discovered faster, who knows, but there's tons of music venues here, and then clubs, and artists doing their own thing.

A lot of what NYC offers, you can find in Chicago, just on a cheaper and smaller (although still big) scale. Not everything, but a lot IMO.

[Ilovehockey85]

You had a question about weather. NY/NJ and Chicago climate are basically the same. 4 seasons. Only difference is Chicago is slightly colder in the winter. NY/NJ averages a bit more snow.

We get Noreasters, they dont.

Im Upstate, so the winters here are much much worse than either.

Chicago summers are also sunnier than NY/NJ as well.