Considering Moving to Chicago next year

[AAVC]

Originally Posted by ChiGuy2.5

Where do you live? Based on your post history it appears you might be in NYC. Do you really know anything about Chicago? High taxes and being shot? PLEASEEEE.

Chicago's cost of living is significantly better than NYC's and our shootings are generally isolated to certain areas, and ESPECIALLY not where the OP is considering moving to. I'm not saying Chicago doesn't have a crime problem (car jackings, burglary, etc) but shootings are VERY rare on the near north side.



OP, don't be alarmed by what others are saying. I recommend renting to see where housing prices end up and to ensure you actually enjoy the city. I see no reason why you wouldn't like living in Chicago given your history of living in NJ and DC. Obviously Chicago is nothing like So Cal but you can expect similar vibes to NJ for sure.

As for areas to consider, I do LOVE Lincoln Park. Close to the lake, close to many parks, shopping and dining options. Close to the Lincoln Park Zoo and the beach. Public Transit is great in that area.

Your budget should allow for any of the areas mentioned, but Lincoln Park, Goldcoast, and Lakeview are all great options you should consider. I would avoid the Loop, Old Town, and Streeterville as those areas are either sterile or have some bad spots you will need to learn to avoid at certain times of day.

Thank you for the encouragement, I agree. The only thing is, it would be hard for us to move twice... I regularly visit my son and daughter-in-law in Lincoln Park, and although visiting is not the same as living there, it gives me enough... And just like with any move, it will be some adjustment required... Looking forward to becoming a midwest resident.

[Kmanshouse]

Originally Posted by Cool Arrow

Biggest critics tend to be from suburbs or small little towns in the middle of nowhere.

And conservatives who live here see crime stories as justification to hate the place and its political issues.

[quigboto]

You know, I hear conservatives/haters throw the term "utopia" around a lot, as if they think liberals see a city like Chicago as perfect, but the only people who expect it to be perfect are the people criticizing it. Most of us acknowledge that crime is a problem (here as well as elsewhere) and needs to be addressed, but it is always going to be part of living in a big, densely populated city no matter what. The question is, how? Many of us will disagree on that as well. (And thats OK)
And as somebody so succinctly pointed out, whomever is mayor, they can't be expected to parent parentless kids. You can laugh and scoff at leadership's call for community solutions to try to give kids an alternative to street activity, but all I've seen the other side offer up as solutions are mass incarceration or vigilante shoot em up fantasies, both of which would only leave us with an entire new generation of fatherless kids, which is what the critics themselves claim is the root cause of all of this nonsense.
And before the usual wise-asses chime in, while most of you read about the looting/rioting on the internet or heard about it from so and so, I was actually in the midst of it, so there is nothing, absolutely nothing that any of you could tell me about living in Chicago, so don't even try.
Critics of Kim Foxx claim she is lenient because of race, but refuse to acknowledge that jails are already overcrowded and the justice system has finite resources that are already stretched to their limit. So if the answer is to lock everybody up, where do the resources come from to do that?
I was hoping Vallas would win because I believe we need more police, and need to rebuild the concept of community policing. I also believe that stop and frisk is unconstitutional and any conservative who claims to be an adherent of the constitution that calls for it is an absolute hypocrite.

Addendum: Anyone who uses the dumbass term "Chiraq" should be banned from this forum. It's not even remotely clever or original, Hasn't been for over a decade.

[Kmanshouse]

Originally Posted by quigboto

You know, I hear conservatives/haters throw the term "utopia" around a lot, as if they think liberals see a city like Chicago as perfect, but the only people who expect it to be perfect are the people criticizing it. Most of us acknowledge that crime is a problem (here as well as elsewhere) and needs to be addressed, but it is always going to be part of living in a big, densely populated city no matter what. The question is, how? Many of us will disagree on that as well. (And thats OK)
And as somebody so succinctly pointed out, whomever is mayor, they can't be expected to parent parentless kids. You can laugh and scoff at leadership's call for community solutions to try to give kids an alternative to street activity, but all I've seen the other side offer up as solutions are mass incarceration or vigilante shoot em up fantasies, both of which would only leave us with an entire new generation of fatherless kids, which is what the critics themselves claim is the root cause of all of this nonsense.
And before the usual wise-asses chime in, while most of you read about the looting/rioting on the internet or heard about it from so and so, I was actually in the midst of it, so there is nothing, absolutely nothing that any of you could tell me about living in Chicago, so don't even try.
Critics of Kim Foxx claim she is lenient because of race, but refuse to acknowledge that jails are already overcrowded and the justice system has finite resources that are already stretched to their limit. So if the answer is to lock everybody up, where do the resources come from to do that?
I was hoping Vallas would win because I believe we need more police, and need to rebuild the concept of community policing. I also believe that stop and frisk is unconstitutional and any conservative who claims to be an adherent of the constitution that calls for it is an absolute hypocrite.

Addendum: Anyone who uses the dumbass term "Chiraq" should be banned from this forum. It's not even remotely clever or original, Hasn't been for over a decade.

Great post. Agree with all of it.

Exactly where do you put people when jails are full?

This is why more and more people support going after root causes, because there is no more room at The Prison Hotel. You can't just kill people for causing a ruckus.

I did see on the news that a couple of community leaders set up events in church gyms, etc. with pizza, music, a place to hang out, and hundreds showed up. That's a start.