what makes downtown Chicago so clean compared to other cities?

[Maki_Chicago]

It's alleys. When I am in NYC, the bags on the curb are gross. Still love NYC, though.

[ehanson]

I wouldn't call Chicago spotless.... The touristy Loop, River North and Michigan Avenue are "clean" due to keeping up appearances for tourists. Though take a walk under the L tracks on Wabash in the Loop and you'll notice plenty of litter. Travel to some areas of the city and they look as dirty as parts of the Bronx circa 1983. (BTW, as a former NYer who lived all over the 5 boroughs the Bronx gets a bad rap. Look up the neighborhoods of Riverdale, Parkchester and City Island for reference)

Head underground to a Red or Blue line stop or even walk through the pedway from Millennium Station to State Street during rush hour when the sanitation crew is having an off day and you'll think you've been transported to the Port Authority as I've seen litter around trash cans and urine on the floor, rusty water stains on the walls from decades of melting snow seeping down... Chicago is the 3rd largest city after all.

Ironically you live in LA. When I visited LA I found it to be cleaner on a whole than Chicago... Even the Metro stops were cleaner and better maintained then many L stations (but the CTA infrastructure is much older to be fair) and Downtown seemed to be mostly liter free. Then again I didn't venture over to Skid Row and Long Beach, otherwise I'd change my tune.

[DavePa]

Originally Posted by ehanson

I wouldn't call Chicago spotless.... The touristy Loop, River North and Michigan Avenue are "clean" due to keeping up appearances for tourists. Though take a walk under the L tracks on Wabash in the Loop and you'll notice plenty of litter. Travel to some areas of the city and they look as dirty as parts of the Bronx circa 1983. (BTW, as a former NYer who lived all over the 5 boroughs the Bronx gets a bad rap. Look up the neighborhoods of Riverdale, Parkchester and City Island for reference)

Head underground to a Red or Blue line stop or even walk through the pedway from Millennium Station to State Street during rush hour when the sanitation crew is having an off day and you'll think you've been transported to the Port Authority as I've seen litter around trash cans and urine on the floor, rusty water stains on the walls from decades of melting snow seeping down... Chicago is the 3rd largest city after all.

Ironically you live in LA. When I visited LA I found it to be cleaner on a whole than Chicago... Even the Metro stops were cleaner and better maintained then many L stations (but the CTA infrastructure is much older to be fair) and Downtown seemed to be mostly liter free. Then again I didn't venture over to Skid Row and Long Beach, otherwise I'd change my tune.

I disagree with Chicago downtown as a whole as if not clean.... or only for tourist and spotless is generally reserved for downtown.... but close-in many good neighborhoods too I'd say. I still say .... many hoods west and Southside are cleaner then many older small cities and towns in the east and even Large cities. Just in a street-view vacation LOL. I'm serious too.

OMG if you ever went into many NYC subway stations... even in Manhattan. YOU NEVER get a ... I found NYC clean or cleaner then I expected or EVER SOOOOO CLEAN kind of comments Chicago gets? So that MEANS SOMETHING IS DIFFERENT... if you hear it a lot. I won't comment on LA. Just too different a city also with ONLY NEW subways it recently got and expanding. I find the L elevated stations clean. Of course, the subways are not freshsmelling by far. and yes I've seen some water staining walls. But after NYC's ..... it isn't bad at all.

Then Chicago's frontage and standard sidewalks and curbing WITH The UGLY Power-line Poles NOT in fronts ..... helps it look uniform and yes cleaner and less gritty IMO. Oh and alleyways throughout help too and ALL the city still has street-sweeper service at least twice a year.

One Big Eastern city (I won't mention) has NO street-sweeping outside its downtown (there businesses pay to have its core done).

I must see a TOTALLY DIFFERENT Downtown Chicago especially on my visits? Including neighborhoods North side at least....

[andrew61]

Although the downtown area is mostly clean, sometimes the areas under the El tracks smell a little... the stations themselves, too. There are homeless people, of course, who sometimes relieve themselves in public spaces due to necessity, no doubt. Outside downtown, various neighborhoods can be clean or dirty. Much of the Uptown area smells a little to me, for example... even Wrigleyville can smell sometimes on warm, humid Sunday mornings when the dumpsters are overflowing from the night before, and you can often see vomit stains on the sidewalks from young people who couldn't hold their liquor. I thought Albany Park had quite a bit of litter, more so than many other North Side neighborhoods... as I said, it varies.