River North vs Lower East Side (NYC) (Chicago, Manhattan: neighborhoods, luxury)

[chicagovsnyc]

Do you guys think River North is better than many neighborhoods in NYC? For example, I could pay $2300 and live in One Eleven or I could pay the same and get in NYC (much ****ter). What would you do?

Like I don't think LES in NYC is better than River North. Is there a better NYC neighborhood?

[cheddar]

Is this really your choice set? River north vs nyc

[chicagovsnyc]

Originally Posted by cheddar

Is this really your choice set? River north vs nyc

Unironically, yes. I just think River North is a better neighborhood and significantly cheaper / better quality of life than 90% of NYC.

[DeeDee533]

Affordability wise - River North is better.



It depends also what you want your place to be. A place to live or place to shower/sleep. NYC is completely different lifestyle and mindset.


I always like the UWS in NYC. Not sure why. I just can walk for hours up in that area.

[Javawood]

This is a bad comparison afaik. I know both areas well and would say River North has much more in common with Murray Hill. LES is more like Logan Square, and even then not really since sports bars seem to overwhelmingly dominate the Chicago scene. I always thought of River North as a place to go to after work to hang out or bring your mom to (which is how I've treated it) whereas Logan Square is a destination to go to to have fun, similar to the LES. Big difference here though is that the LES is extremely condensed and the next bar you go to could be in the same building. Logan Square seems to relate more to Williamsburg in this regard where places are a little more spread out.

You can get paid more, much more in NYC in my case which was an enticing opportunity in 2010 when the best I could get in the Loop was $55k (blegh). I also worked hard with a bit of luck to get my situation cheap and now live in luxury on the 22nd floor for $1600 with just me and my girlfriend, but that's a bag of worms that isn't very easy to replicate. I actually started the process to get a lux 2bd hopefully for $1900 in the LES, but we'll see how that goes. We could use the extra room. What's extremely nice is the 15-20 min commute to virtually any job in Manhattan (Financial District and Midtown are the 2 largest CBD in the world).

I would say it depends and tbh I might just stick wherever you are until corona, BLM protests, and probably the elections are over. Cuomo and DeBlasio basically wrecked nightlife for the moment. I'd rather we had not left Tokyo.

Also keep in mind QOL is subjective.

[Koji7]

You can always give the COL to Chicago, if that’s your main criteria NYC is not for you, depends what you want. But you’re comparing to completely different neighborhoods here.

[citylove101]

If you're simply saying that you can get more for your money in Chicago than New York, well of course you can. If you're asking which neighborhood is preferable, that's just a matter of personal taste. Personally I wouldn't live in either one, though both are nice to visit every once in a while.

[IronWright]

Old Town in certain areas is somewhat reminiscent of the Lower East Side. It has the potential to be a seamless extension of downtown but there's a lot of urban scarring and suburban retail still plaguing the area. Some quality density and height was added over the last boom but Nimby's reduced or stifled quite a few transformative proposals. North Ave. has dozens of lots to dramatically enhance the scale to a high rise corridor.

There were a few mid and high-rise projects in the pipe-line planned for Clybourn pre-pandemic but who knows anymore. Chicago needs to get over the long standing irrational fear of height in the neighborhoods and start building an environment with a scale worthy of "Second-City" status. These restrictive zoning laws are keeping neighborhoods from significantly transforming and also stagnate populations as they fight to keep them museums.