I've never even been to Chicago, but I'm moving there! (Evanston: homes, to buy)

[displaced]

Well, I personally ADORE Chicago and currently live in a hellhole suburb of Atlanta. I'm originally from the New Orleans area and since it is NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE to make a decent living in the ENTIRE southeast USA (Atlanta excluded), I'm thinking about relocating to Chicago myself. I lived in Iowa City for 6 years and graduated from the U of I, but was born and raised in the deep south. I must say that the midwest is a great part of the country to me.

No offense to any other fellow southerners reading this posting, but there is a reason why we are nearly last in EVERYTHING (except the obesity ratio). I am so sick of not being able to comfortably relocate back to the Gulf Coast region (my "home") that I just may take the plunge. At least in Chicago there ARE opportunities to live a comfortable life. I've already found some great places to live online that are not much more or on par with what I pay now.

BTW-- Vito and Nicks has the BEST pizza I've ever put in my mouth!!

[redboar]

To answer the southern person who went to U of I and longs for the Midwest, all I can say is "familiarity breeds contempt". I personally believe the midwest is the worst part of the country, and the reason I say this is because I grew up in the Chicago area and also got to know people from Morris, Peoria and Decatur, which admittedly are very different in terms of where they're located in IL yet all good examples of what the midwest is about. The most common misconception is that midwesterners have "family values" and this is just rubbish. They have a more traditional value system that has been preserved in more rural areas, yet there is more of what I would call a protectionist attitude toward outsiders akin to the south. From what I know about the south (and I could be wrong), this attitude is present, whether by design or not, in order to protect an actual tradition and culture preserved over several generations. In the case of rural Illinoisians, all it's there for is to give outsiders the finger and preserve a mentality of superiority and self-righteousness. Again this is based upon experience, I wouldn't want to go out of my way to judge anyone but it is warranted with this part of the country and crucial to understand what's really going on.

In Chicago you're either a white collar yuppie or blue collar sports addict, it's as imagey as LA but in a different way. Just try to say you hate hot dogs with mustard, or you're not a Cubs or Sox fan and see how people react. The midwest is a joke, people have hangups and Chicagoland is the epitome and exaggeration of all its problems and people who surround it.

[j33]

Funny -- I grew up in and around Chicago as well, my experiences do not mirror yours at all. Yes, I did grow up blue collar in the south suburbs, and yes, my first baseball game was a Sox game, and no, I don't put catsup on my hot dog, but that is pretty much where it ends.

My family was not sports addicts. I only went to a handful of baseball games growing up and my parents were more the 'hippie' sort (newsflash: not all 'hippie' sorts are wealthy or highly educated, I’m the first person in my family to go to college, so my I grew up with a few sorts that had what I call a funny hippie/factory worker ethos) so we didn't even have a television in my house for a good part of my childhood, and the arts and cultural activities were a huge part of our lives (e.g. museums, free concerts in the park, art fairs, Lincoln Park zoo, etc). We were even members of a food cooperative and I remember helping my parents ‘work off’ our monthly commitment, and I was not alone, we knew several families like ours (one of my dad's friend's worked in a factory during the day and made pottery he exhibited at art fairs at night, another was in a band). For someone who grew up here, you don’t seem to know a whole lot about your fellow Chicagoans, and certainly like putting us all in boxes.

That being said. I know nothing about the rural midwest, my family are east-coast transplants to Chicago, so I can't speak to anything you've stated about that part of the country, but I can certainly say your experience in Chicago has not mirrored mine in the slightest.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by j33

I can't speak to anything you've stated about that part of the country, but I can certainly say your experience in Chicago has not mirrored mine in the slightest.

Nor that of about 95% of the Chicago-area folks who post here. And the handful of rural area and downstaters who post on the Illinois forums also don't seem to have such a grim view of Illinois. Best I can tell, the vast majority of folks who live in the Chicago area truly enjoy it. The downstaters I encounter during my visits down there a) are not hostile to me as a city-slicker outsider, and b) seem pretty content with their lot in life.

To the OP: Check out the Chicago, Suburban and Illinois forums. Get a good feel for peoples' attitudes and demeanor, and see if they actually comport with what our naysaying poster says about us. Then, as a basis of comparison, to find out what it would be like to live in a place where pessimism reigns, check out the L.A. forums for a while, and then check out some of the epic battles that have raged over at the Pittsburgh forums. Then come back and compare to the Chicago-area forums again.

[Marcus23]

If you make 110,000 annually, you should consider buying a home in the suburbs, if beats buying a condo or renting in the city.If you're looking buying a single family home in a good neighborhood youll ending spending 400,000+. You should try looking into the high income suburbs such as lake bluff, highland park, or even westmont northwest if you want to buy a home.

[redboar]

I'm indeed shocked, you can google the phrase "101 reasons why Chicago sucks" and go to the website's guestbook at the bottom to get my sentiments echoed over and over again. All good cities including NYC have an aspect where people will debate how good or bad it is, in fact my friend who traveled there several times with a group of New Yorkers often heard them say "New York sucks" over issues that a Chicagoan would be relieved to take advantage of here. Chicago is devoid of any debate, most people who hate it aren't sitting in their north shore fortresses posting on a message board during the day (I'm at work), and if not for the censorship already apparent on this board, I'd keep posting evidence of how hated this city is the world over. No doubt, no room for debate, period. People who constantly play and have money in Lincoln Park or similar areas of the city leave no room for debate, again it's the midwest protectionist attitude of "nothing can possibly suck here". OK here's an example, is there anything uglier than the renovation of Soldier Field? It looks like a scene out of Independence Day. Yet the only voice I heard criticizing the design and cost and rightly so, was none other than Steve Dahl! It takes a person like that to notice how awful and wasteful something is in that city?!? How pathetic.

I'm done posting here, your comments against my own are laughable and I really wish nothing but the worst for anyone who proclaims the virtues of Chicago, because to a logical human being who's done any kind of travel or soul searching for that matter, there are none.

P. S. Most people who like this city either don't live in the city limits or are women.

[j33]

Originally Posted by redboar

I'm done posting here, your comments against my own are laughable and I really wish nothing but the worst for anyone who proclaims the virtues of Chicago, because to a logical human being who's done any kind of travel or soul searching for that matter, there are none.

P. S. Most people who like this city either don't live in the city limits or are women.

You wish the worst for people who like Chicago, wow, that certainly makes you a charitable and gracious human being!

What does being a woman have to do with anything? Seriously, that doesn't even make sense. It seems like your problem with this particular area of the country goes much beyond simple personal preference, there are clearly some deep seated issues you have to work out.

Hell, I'm none too fond of rural Michigan, or Phoenix, Arizona, but I don't wish ill toward those who like those place and extol their virtues. It quite simply doesn't mean that much to me that someone else might have a different opinion than mine. Apparently, from what I gather, you wish ill on those who have a different opinion than yours, and nothing good can come of that.

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by redboar

I'm done posting here,

We can only hope you really mean that.

[Akhenaton06]

Originally Posted by displaced

it is NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE to make a decent living in the ENTIRE southeast USA (Atlanta excluded)

This gets the "Most Asinine Comment of the Year" award.

[unexplained bacon]

I hear these negative comments about Chicago from time to time, and it just perplexes me. People here are, on the whole, so much nicer than where I'm from (CA), the traffic is a snap, the winter is, seriously, really not that bad (this is coming from someone who used to bust out the heavy coat once it dropped below 60) and one of the most wonderful things about this place is the food IMHO. You can get fancy, top-shelf stuff, or you can eat marvellously, things you never even knew existed, for very little at small ethnic restaurants.