Is Chicago Underrated? (Madison, Detroit: house, law school, college)

[Nysee53]

Chicago is very underrated because of its midwestern location and the fact that it doesn't have quite the vibe of Los Angeles and New York. Chicago is in the midwest and the midwest for the most part is dying and boring. Chicago is very anti-midwest, but some people just don't quite understand that.

[Drover]

There I have to disagree. Chicago is an international city and all, but a big part of Chicago is quintessentially Midwestern on a mega-urban scale. That's one of the things that makes it so unique. There's just nothing else like it. There's flashes of it in places like St. Louis, Cleveland, Milwaukee, etc.... but Chicago just wouldn't be the same place if it weren't in the Midwest.

[Lookout Kid]

To some people, the midwest is an overweight woman from Iowa wearing cutoffs and a fanny pack. To me, the feeling of the midwest, and specifically Illinois, is captured nicely in the album Illinois by Sufjan Stevens (sometimes refered to as Come on Feel the Illinoise). I don't think the midwest is anything to be ashamed of, and we've got a very unique midwestern brand of cool in some of our urban areas.

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by Nysee53

Chicago is very underrated because of its midwestern location and the fact that it doesn't have quite the vibe of Los Angeles and New York. Chicago is in the midwest and the midwest for the most part is dying and boring. Chicago is very anti-midwest, but some people just don't quite understand that.

I think this is the root of the issue. People always say the midwest is "boring" as if that sums up hundreds of thousands of square miles and over a dozen states with 66 million people.

People think the midwest is dying because Gary, Detroit, Cleveland, Youngstown, East St. Louis and a handful of other cities are doing very poorly. Those areas all combined maybe have 2 million of the 66 million people living there. This is the problem. Cities that have 3% of the areas population are defining it for the rest of the 97% to everyone else in the country. There are tens of millions of people living in very nice cities, suburbs, towns and villages all through the midwest that lead very successful, happy and prosperous lives.

The midwest grew by 5 million people in the 1990's, and it's continued to grow in the current decade... just like it has been for 200 years.

It's not DYING.


Most people live in the suburbs of our large cities across the country and don't make it into the central city on an average day.

Do people living in Riverside, California, Troy, Michigan, Elmhurst, Illinois, Springfield, Virginia, Marietta, Georgia, Arlington, Texas, Everett, Washington, Aurora, Colorado, St. Charles, Missouri REALLY living enormously different lives just because they're in the northeast, southwest, south, midwest or northwest? It's not like we ALL live IN New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago or Seattle, etc etc. Just cause you live by an ocean or the mountains doesn't mean everyone in the metro area is out there surfing every day or climing up in the mountains every night after watching Lost. People just live their normal lives 99% of the time and get perceptions about others based on stereotypes.

[MachineKnownAsLosAngeles]

Originally Posted by Chicago60614

I think this is the root of the issue. People always say the midwest is "boring" as if that sums up hundreds of thousands of square miles and over a dozen states with 66 million people.

People think the midwest is dying because Gary, Detroit, Cleveland, Youngstown, East St. Louis and a handful of other cities are doing very poorly. Those areas all combined maybe have 2 million of the 66 million people living there. This is the problem. Cities that have 3% of the areas population are defining it for the rest of the 97% to everyone else in the country. There are tens of millions of people living in very nice cities, suburbs, towns and villages all through the midwest that lead very successful, happy and prosperous lives.

The midwest grew by 5 million people in the 1990's, and it's continued to grow in the current decade... just like it has been for 200 years.

It's not DYING.


Most people live in the suburbs of our large cities across the country and don't make it into the central city on an average day.

Do people living in Riverside, California, Troy, Michigan, Elmhurst, Illinois, Springfield, Virginia, Marietta, Georgia, Arlington, Texas, Everett, Washington, Aurora, Colorado, St. Charles, Missouri REALLY living enormously different lives just because they're in the northeast, southwest, south, midwest or northwest? It's not like we ALL live IN New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago or Seattle, etc etc. Just cause you live by an ocean or the mountains doesn't mean everyone in the metro area is out there surfing every day or climing up in the mountains every night after watching Lost. People just live their normal lives 99% of the time and get perceptions about others based on stereotypes.

at the end of the day, its still the midwest.

[crbcrbrgv]

Chicago is also underrated because of the weather. I'm a Chicago native and became number to the gloomy winters over the years however when one moves away and experiences a winter several years later you realize just how cruddy Chicago weather is overall. I think my grandpa had it right. If not for the weather, Chicago would be the greatest city on earth.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by MachineKnownAsLosAngeles

at the end of the day, its still the midwest.

And at the end of the day, you're still a troll.

[raleightransplant]

Chicago is underrated, but not by much. It's highly thought of everywhere you're going to go. NYC gets the most attention, and rightfully so. As a city unto itself, Chicago is more highly thought of nationally than LA in my opinion. LA has the nice weather, but I think most view Chicago the better actual city.

Off topic a bit, but people keep mentioning the midwest as if it's what drags Chicago down. I love how Chicago is a cosmopolitan city, yet remains tied to the Midwest. The two don't have to exist completely separate from one another. Seattle's a pretty cosmopolitan city---are we to believe that the farmers in the hinterlands of Washington state are different than those in Wisconsin? Seems like a double standard to me. This sounds crazy, but count me as someone who thinks the midwest (or parts of the midwest like the Great Lakes) will be viewed as favorable or even "hip" in the future. It all goes in cycles, IMO. Hell, there are TONS of people moving up/down I-95 from the Northeast (NY/NJ/CT in particular) and Florida (as well as California) to NC for a new life and it's not just because it's more affordable-although that is a factor...those "top places to live" magazines like Money, Forbes, etc., started coming out in the 90s and the growth has been contagious. That never would have happened in the south years ago. Times change and places change. Drive around Cary, NC today and if you ignore the pine trees it's as if Long Island moved south.

We live in a mobile society now...it's not the way it was even 20 years ago. That's where jaded elitists from NYC and LA get it wrong. You're thinking as though it's 1988...it's not anymore. You're not the only game in town. Denver's hot, Portland, OR is too. Minneapolis is on the move. History shows that people move like locusts where they take the new "best place", chew it up, and spit it out..move on to the next place.

There are some pretty progressive and dynamic cities in the Midwest outside Chicago. The Twin Cities, Madison, and Columbus come to mind. In the Great Lake states--Add in the fact that you're near fresh water, some underrated natural beauty, and some historic urban centers...it's not much of a stretch to think there is potential there. With the spread out car-driven cultures of the West and South (and with people looking twice about wanting to live that lifestyle), I wouldn't be surprised to see something of a reverse migration pattern in the next 20 years. Weather is a problem to some people, so it might be less dramatic. I still think that will happen, though. People are friendly, too which is a great trait to have.

[tb4000]

There are still people on either coast that think this area is basically a "flyover" type thing. Honestly, I'm from Indiana and before I went to cities like St. Louis, Des Moines, etc. I just assumed it was all farmland...there are urbanites in every state, but most states only have several really big metropolis type cities, the rest of the state is composed of wildlife, farm land, or the suburbs.

[aragx6]

Ouch. Can't believe you just used a city with 3 million in its metro and a city with 550k people in its metro in the same sentence