Chicago (Paris, Bridgeport: transplants, sales, renting)

[Drover]

Originally Posted by HCC

Well there is no point in arguing it unless you can tell me some way to prove it.

Here's a way to prove it, or at least go a long way toward it: stay out of the Chicago forums. Same goes for Chicago discussions in the City v. City forums. Try going one month without talking about Chicago. Let's see if you have any other interests besides a pathological obsession with how much Chicago sucks.

[oakparkdude]

How did I miss this thread all day? I want to pull out the popcorn too.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by LakeShoreSoxGo

mas 23 deserves a standing ovation for exposing this jag

Yes he/she does.

[Costa Rica Chica]

Originally Posted by HCC

Why the anger Lakshore? Obviously I touched a nerve. An angry, inferior, bitter Chicago nerve...

First you say you are not insulting the people who live here, just what you don't like about the place - then you speak of inferiority complexes and bitterness and expect everyone to play nice?

[Milwaukee City]

The only think I hate about Chicago is traffic and cubs fans. I like everything else about Chicago.

[nanannie]

The OP certainly was in dire need of some attention-and he certainly got it.
However, some good laughs on the thread.
Rare to see a New Yawka with so much insecurity.
He gives insecure, gay/with a girl friend, bully, lonely,friendless, unpopular, east coasters a bad name.

[aragx6]

Wow HCC, you're just making enemies with regulars on all the forums you traverse. Maybe that should tell you something ...

There's plenty I dislike about Chicago and I could have probably given you some credit for some of what you said, but claiming that people come up and shoulder check you for no reason? Puh-leaze.

[jcarlilesiu]

Typical hipster.Look at me! Look at me! Why can't you all be like me! This place sucks because nobody is like me!First off, you aren't nearly as worldly as you think you are. Your degree doesn't mean anything to anybody in a place like Chicago which bases peoples intellect not on what piece of paper they hold but rather how they view the world and are able to communicate with others and their surroundings. Secondly, everybody in Chicago has met people like you. We get it. We know your type. Quite frankly, we just don't care. Im a young professional, concentrating in the design industry, Architecture to be specific, living in a "faux loft", and get this... I like to drink a domestic beer and watch my cubs play a game while wearing my jeans and an old T-shirt. You know why? Because I don't have such a self confidence problem causing me to feel like I have to live my life treating everybody as if my intellect is superior to theirs, or that my experiences or interests somehow makes me "deeper".If I wanted to wear some stylish clothes, walk around and try to prove to everybody how worldly I am, while sipping a glass of merlot, and speaking of how the disposable design of our current infastructure and the negative impact on society, while Damien Rice plays quietly in the background... I know where to find that. For those of us confident in our own lives and successful to the point that we don't need to show it off... its a budlight and WGN, and for me designing buildings I think would actually benefit our society rather than just talking about it.Thank god your gone.

[jcarlilesiu]

That formated horribly wrong. I do appologize.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by HCC

...
1. Passive-aggressive. ...

I've seen and worked with people who were passive-aggressive everywhere. I haven't noticed Chicagoans being any more or less passive aggressive than people in other cities. If anything, "real" Chicagoans - by which I mean people who actually grew up here - seem generally to either be direct or to ignore people they don't want to interact with (which isn't the same as being passive-aggressive). As for people who move here, newcomers aren't usually representative of the city they live in and even in New York, the new people who claim themselves a New Yorkers are often the butt of jokes and singled out as bad apples for their overly-aggressive, rude behavior. If you found yourself only dealing with newcombers, you couldn't have been very aggressive in seeking out more agreeable friends.

2. People are thugs-they really are! ...

I've been in Chicago for almost 15 years now, and I live in River North currently, home of a lot of nightlife attracting belligerant types. But still, the only bar fights I've seen have been in other cities (Paris stands out in my mind for that). I know there are bar fights here, but if I've lived here 15 years and never seen one then certainly they can be avoided here.

3. Intellectual stimulation. F'uggetaboutit!
...

I've certainly met and talked to a lot of people with graduate degrees in a diverse set of subjects who are more than qualified to talk up both their area of expertise and world events in general with a deeper understanding than anything that would show up in magazines or newspapers. If you couldn't find them, I have to say you must be pretty bad at picking friends.

5. Totally racist. I was shocked by the attitudes. ...

Some Chicagoans are racist. I've been disappointed at some of the things I've heard gay Chicagoans say in that area, too.

But to say "totally racist" is a pretty large overstatement of the situation. The majority of Chicagoans aren't racist in my experience. And to call the lingering neighborhood segregation here a symbol of contemporary racism is to greatly, injustly, oversimplify the dymamics and history of race in Chicago (indeed, of race in the U.S. at large).

6. The accent. ...

This is just silly. You follow up a critique of Chicago as racist by openly declaring a predjudice based on the way (some) people speak? A bigot is a bigot, and you'd just very clearly outed yourself as one.

7. Obsession with sports bars. ...

Chicago has a lot of bars in general, including sports bars. But they are nowhere near the only type of bar, especially once you get outside of Wrigleyville and the Depaul area. That you think Chicago is obsessed with sports bars very clearly says you didn't spend much time outside of those areas no matter how much you may protest otherwise.

9. Drunkards abound! My girlfriend in Chicago had gone to one of the Big 10s and was in a sorority where they had t-shirts made that said, "Alpha-holics." Her girlfriends would get together for their "Sex and the City" viewing nights and wear these t-shirts proudly. I would see girls at 3 AM putting their finger down their throat trying to puke on the sidewalk, guys completely passed out on top of each other, people holding on to cars as they tried to get home. Everyone there leads a life of desperation and the only way to forget about it is to get ****ed up every night of the week. ...

If I had a girlfriend like that, with behavior I was willing to ridicule online as a reason to hate a city, ... wait, I wouldn't have sucha girlfriend, because I don't date people who exhibit behavior I find ridiculous or stupid. The fact you do date people who act in ridiculous or stupid ways is your problem, not Chicago's.