Does Chicago "feel" like a megacity? (Manhattan, Walnut: neighborhood, construction)

[M4rT1N]

Originally Posted by j33

You seem awfully sure of that. Do you mean Chicago in its entirety, or just your neighborhood. Because I can assure you, I can walk up the street about 4 blocks at 1am on a Wednesday night and there will be plenty of people out and about. But I've also lived in areas of the city where at 1am on a wednesday night, the only things out are the crickets and rats. It all depends on where you live.

.......the original poster referred to hustle and bustle. I view hustle and bustle to mean.... is the city alive, vibrant? thousands of commuters walking through the city at 8:30 am on their way to work, is to me, just that, a crowd of people on their way to work. I suppose you could classify this as part of the hustle and bustle though.

Make no mistake about it, Chicago's a great city, (World class museums, good summer festivals and so on) but I just don't see it as 'alive' most nights, with the exception of the weekend. Chicago actually IS a city that sleeps.

walk along the mag mile in mid summer, anytime before 7 p.m. and the people flow never stops. There's a flip side to that. Walk along the mag mile after 8 or 9 and you'll only see a small fraction of the number of people that were there during 'working' hours. The Gold Coast for example is much the same..... fairly quiet. This, to me, applies to the majority of the city. Hey, there's nothing wrong with that, it's just the way I perceive it to be.

Take Lincoln Park as an example, as this is one of the more stereotypically labeled 'happenin' areas of the city (and rightfully so); for every quarter mile of busy Lincoln Park bars at night, there's another 10 miles of desolate areas in the rest of Chicago most nights. The whole geographical topography of Chicago is cool enough, in that, people's homes, condos etc.. are intertwined with business areas, shopping districts and so on. However, there aren't that many central areas of the city that are all that busy at night, Sun - Thurs

During the week, the areas of the city that are lively, or hustle and bustle, are limited to a few isolated corners or pockets of the city. For example, this statement, from the quoted post above....

"Because I can assure you, I can walk up the street about 4 blocks at 1am on a Wednesday night...."

is saying that you'd walk half a mile to hit a busy bar. That's pretty much my point.

I don't know.... to me, overall, most of Chicago does sleep at night. Most of the city starts to get quiet around 7 and is really quiet after 10..... Sun - Thurs

[j33]

M4rT1N - most every city is like that in parts, including new york city. I have a friend who lives in a quiet part of Brooklyn, in which it is same situation, the area directly by her home is quiet, there are a few neighborhood bars, but mostly in the evening, there isn't a whole lot going on in the street unless you go for a bit of a walk to the more vibrant, less residential part of the neighborhood. I also noticed the same thing in many parts of Manhattan, so I'm not exactly sure what your point is. There is no city on earth in which the entire city is Times Square.

... I can go three doors down from my house and find a crowded bar, but I have to go for a bit of a walk to find loads of people wandering the street at 2am on a Wednesday night.

[Lookout Kid]

That's what I was going to say as well regarding New York. I've been on MANY deserted Manhnattan streets at various times of day and night.

Chicago is not as vibrant and happenin' as NYC, but it is more vibrant than just about any other North American city, day and night. The only other one that comes close is San Francisco, in my experience.

[coldwine]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

That's what I was going to say as well regarding New York. I've been on MANY deserted Manhnattan streets at various times of day and night.

Chicago is not as vibrant and happenin' as NYC, but it is more vibrant than just about any other North American city, day and night. The only other one that comes close is San Francisco, in my experience.

When I was living in Manhattan, my apartment was nearly ground floor (I actually lived in a very Carrie Bradshaw-esque brownstone) and it was off what was apparently a major intersection.

There was a one week span where the same car sat in front of my apartment. Traffic didn't move. It was ludicrous.

I had good friends who lived a few streets over, and it was like visiting Oklahoma. I might as well have gone upstate for the crickets chirping.

[mattywo85]

Chicago does have a megacity feel to it, that's because it is. LA is to spread out and lacks a true skyline. NYC is probably the only city more congested and faster paced in my opinion.

[COOLIDGE AVE]

Originally Posted by Tex?Il?

I'm posted similar posts as this before

"downtown Chicago" (no definite boundaries to that definition) is absolutely the most bustling place in the U.S. next to New York.

One thing that makes Chicago unique among other American cites/metro areas is that employment and attractions are SOOOOO centralized compared to many other places (ie. San Jose has more people and employment and population than San Francisco even though San Fran is really the true Urban center. Southfield, MI has more office space than downtown Detroit. Las Colinas in Irving, Texas has more office space than downtown Dallas).

The extreme centralization leads suburbanites and exurbanites in the region to more likely to consider themselves "Chicagoans" than suburbanites in other parts of the counry to identigy with their central cities. However there is a bit of an issue with this.

Lifestyles and attitudes in say Dupage county are so fundamentally different than what you would find on the north side of the city proper. Its soccer mom country, it could be a cold/non-Texas version of Dallas-fort Worth, at least economically conservative, and in many cases socially as well.

The south suburbs have more in common with the Detroit or Cleveland areas with a high percentage of unionized blue-collared workers and higher unemployment rates.

All this leads to people from across NE Illinois to identify themselves as Chicagoans, even though one side is totally different from another. This is great thing really that everyone feels the Chicago pride, but it leads visitors and even natives into believing that based on downtown and the north side, that the whole region is more "urban sophisticated, and cosmopolitan" than other middle-American cities. Well its not.

Although downtown Chicago is extremely urban, the outlying areas by comparison very "snoozeville." you might say this is the case everywhere, well its not.

Compared to other metro areas, the outlying areas of Chicago have some of the least amount of attractions. SF. Bay area has Berkeley. While Berkeley is considered Berkely and not San Fran. Berkely probably has more in common with San Fran, than River Grove, IL has in common with River North by the Mag Mile, even though both in Illinois would consider themselves Chicagoans.

Other examples: Orange County, California have higher density suburbs than Chicagos, etc. New York City has New Jersey urban area such as Hoboken across the river. Chicago has nothing in comparison outside or on the edge of the city limits. It can be argued that even Detroit, yes Detroit with Windsor, Ann Arbor, Greenfield Village, Royal Oak has more to do outside its city limits that outside Chicagos city limits.

in a nutshell, Chicagos downtown/near north side is undoubtedly in a class by itself, the metro area as a whole though is rather comparable to at least a half dozen metro areas across the country.

when you say urban centers and jersey hoboken isnt really one of them newark and jersey city paterson are nj urban centers hoboken is a highly dense small town not more than 50k ppl i think

[linicx]

I hate to say this but the Windy City is hustle and bustle 24/7 if you know where to look. Its a different hustle after the stores close. Sunday night is somewhat more sedate, but not by much. .

[rainrock]

Originally Posted by hsw

Phila feels like a dumpy, high-crime small town, despite its population....a lackluster/weak regional economy...outside of Wharton and the Penn campus, many of the major offices w/high-income jobs in Phila region are scattered around the suburbs...much like Detroit region....and Phila has the antiquated freeway infrastructure of a decrepit Eastern town....

Chic is arguably US' most "mega-city" place outside Manhattan....but Manhattan has a distinctive 3rdWorld feel....decrepit freeways/roads leading into Manhattan; smelly streets; lack of modern parking garages under key office bldgs/valet parking in front of key restaurants; lack of many new office and condo towers in upscale locations in Midtown/UES/CPW....

In many ways, Chic is quintessentially American....fusing many aspects of LA's car-based feel/infrastructure w/a centralized, high-powered economy (vast majority of Chic's high-income jobs are in Loop's financial industry)....Chic region clearly lacks the more decentralized set-up of the LA and SiliconValley economic regions...

First off let me say I am a big fan of Chicago and props to an especially amazing downtown. But you are woefully misguided in your overall perception of the Philadelphia area.

Metro Unemployment rate-July 2008

Philadlephia-5.6%
Chicago-7.3%

http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/regi...df/mpi0808.pdf


Metropolitan per capita income-2007

Philadelphia- $45,560
Chicago- $43,714





Dumpy small town? Thats absolutely absurd.

Center City Philadlephia has 9 Fortune 500 Companies.

SF,LA + Boston have a combined - TEN - Fortune 500 Companies downtown.

Fortune 500 companies

Center City Philadelphia-9

Sunoco 64
Comcast 66
Cigna 130
Aramark 215
Rohm + Haas 286
Crown Holdings 321
Lincoln Financial 328
Unisys 372
Soverign Bank 493

Downtown Chicago - 10

Boeing 2
sara Lee 111
Exelon 144
Aon-237
RR Donnelly265
Smurfit274
Ryerson371
Tribune388
USG 420
Wrigley 482

As far as the decrepit highways.If you want new 12 lane cookie cutter expressways cutting through town this absolutely ios not the place for you. The city and region is 300 years old, the highways followed old horse and indian trails that had to navigate around rivers and steep hills. Nobody in this region is going to apologize for being a huge part of the genesis of US history.

Dont get carried away with the population figures either.Philadlephia's location has it next to the 800 pound gorilla. Mercer County NJ is 10 miles from Philly, 70 miles from NYC. It inexplicably gets included in NYC's metro. Its a joke. In all due respect If Philadlephia was allowed Chicagos metro parameters it would probably be 12-13 M people.

Like I said props to Chicago,its my kind of town, but you are dead wrong about the Philly region.

If I may be so brazen I would add that If the Philly region had a coastal/Lakefront setting like LA-Sf- Bos-NY-Chi
it would be in the upper echelon of US regions. As is its holding up quite well and extremely comparable if not economically superior to Chicago Land.

I have to hit with some photo representation.

Small dump! Why you little............

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/108/3...98e4049d_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2320/...d2c387d4_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2324/...8841cf730a.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/95181770.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2188/...d54b3ad7_o.jpg

[Lookout Kid]

I love Philly! Downtown Philly isn't nearly as vibrant as Chicago, but it has residential blocks that are much more charming. Philly has great potential, and will get better in time. If my family lived in the Northeast, Philly would definitely be on the list.

[rainrock]

I was walking in Center City Philly a few weeks ago. Strolling down 18th amidst a sea of people rounding onto Walnut into an ocean of people. I overheard a couple businessmen ahead of me and I quote.

Businessmen #1 "Are you sure we didnt land in Chicago?"

Businessmen #2 " Ehh Chicago? I think we landed in Midtown Manhattan.

hsw apparently has Philly confused with some other city. I tend to laugh in bemusement of the pre conceived notions that outsiders have of Center City Philly.