What other cities you Chicagoan have lived at and how did it compare? (Charleston: insurance, condo)

[Jesse69]

I've mostly lived in Chicago, but I took temp jobs in Bowling Green KY and Houston Texas. It was very fun and adventuresome living at these 2 places!

How these cities compare to Chicago:

Bowling Green - small town very little traffic but good selection of fast food, at least it has a Sonic and Waffle House. Best dentist I have ever had was here. Inexpensive living, but for big city fun drive S to Nashville.

Houston - I love this city BETTER than Chicago! Better fast food, shopping, groceries, less traffic, NO WINTER SNOW, more shopping malls. But doesn't have a park that can compare to Chicago's LSD. Hurricane Season and expensive electricity and high insurance rates hurts though. Chicago has better hangouts to meet people, and is a better "biking" city. Houston has way cheaper rents and Housing. I almost bought a Medical Center Condo for $38,000!

Who knows what city will be next? I'm starting to go on a Nationwide jobhunt soon after my Sept 26th vacation to France!

[surlycue]

Originally Posted by Jesse69

I'm starting to go on a Nationwide jobhunt soon after my Sept 26th vacation to France.

Must be nice milking the system.

[Jesse69]

My mom paid for the trip. I'm not milking the system when I do deserve SSDI. And companies unjustly discriminate against me because of my felony. So I'm not being given a chance in Life to earn a living so yeah, I'll milk the system. I'm gonna write a pardon letter to the Gov to get rid of my felony.

Now get back on topic.

[long101]

Houston has better shopping then Chicago??

More fast food options is the reason why Houston was the fattest state a couple years back.

[manchesterUnited]

Within the last few years I spent a summer in Louisville and Indianapolis.

Indy: this was an OK city, but not really unique when compared to every other city in the midwest. Things were cheaper, especially housing. The downtown was OK compared to some, but it seemed to be on the decline (e.g., the circle center mall had almost as many closed-down stores as open ones).

Louisville: I liked this city more than Indy. It has an especially cool (though small) downtown. In fact, there's a ceiling built over the most active section of downtown, so rain doesn't get in the way. Pricewise it was almost identical to Indy.

Both Indy and Louisville have traffic issues. I know Chicago traffic sucks, but at least we have public transit to fall back on. I also feel like pretty much every city in the midwest is cookie cutter. All have small downtowns with the same chain bars and restaurants. All have massive malls with the same stores. All have the same big box stores. There seems to be less and less separating them as time goes on.

[noid_1985]

Originally Posted by long101

Houston has better shopping then Chicago??

More fast food options is the reason why Houston was the fattest state a couple years back.

well what year did they make Houston a state ....

[Venom]

Juarez, Chihuahah, Mexico
Santa Maria Del Oro, Durango, Mexico

They sucked and there was no technology.

We barely got electricity and water in the late 90s.
We had to get water from wells and bathe in rivers.
There was more freedom though... much more..

[Power-I]

I lived in Vegas, and am about to move to Chicago, so I can't really compare to Chicago yet, but I'll talk about Vegas some.


Vegas pros: lots to do...if you like gambling. And yes, that includes the all important trip to Terrible's gas station, when you get the urge to fill your gas tank up, buy a snickers bar, and drop a $20 in the video poker machine all at the same time.

You have mountains you can ski in the "winter" time, and then come back down to the valley and have it be 70 degrees. Kinda nice to have the best of both worlds.


Vegas cons: absolutely horrendous mass transit. They have buses, and its not a good system of buses at that. Plus, they stop in the middle of traffic on all major roads at stops. You are guaranteed to rear-end 3 buses per year.

Black widow and scorpion infestations. These are the worst animals to ever live on earth.

[Drover]

In addition to Chicago and various suburbs, I have lived in:

-Madison. Nice town for its size. Great place to be young, drunk, virile and stupid. Great place to raise a family. Bizarrely seamless blend from one extreme to the other. Raucous and civilized all at the same time.

-Pittsburgh. A truly strange place in some ways. Pittsburgh hates itself even as many first-time visitors fawn over the place. An interesting combination of East Coast vibe with Midwest cultural values. Great urban aesthetic for those who like a mix of old-school charm and industrial grit. I periodically consider moving back.

-Charleston IL. Hick town with a smallish state university that only barely mitigates the city's hickitude.

-Mattoon IL. Hick town 10 miles west of Charleston that doesn't even have the benefit of a smallish state university to redeem its unrepentant hickitude.

[synapse]

I've lived in Denver, Milwaukee, Chicago, and Phoenix.

Denver's got a fun downtown, and its light rail is kind of like Chicago's system, with a main "loop" downtown that extends out from there. Like Chicago, it's a very sports oriented city. Like Chicago, it has clear winters and summers, though both of them are more mild in Denver than in Chicago. Denver isn't as interesting looking a city, though, and is on the plains, so it's still quite flat - you can see the mountains in the distance, though, and that's quite pretty. Most significantly, though, it's missing a lot of the culture of Chicago - not as many museums, theater, art, etc.

Milwaukee really is a small Chicago. It's got a nice downtown with a terrific art museum, and the same gorgeous lakefront, same weather, same type of midwestern lifestyle. The problem with Milwaukee is that it's constantly in the shadow of Chicago - none of its festivals, art, music, and culture quite match up. Still, Chicago's only 90 miles away, and Milwaukee is considerably cheaper.

Phoenix is the most affordable and is filled with Chicagoans, so despite being western in culture it's surprisingly midwestern-like in its friendliness. Phoenix's mountains are right in the city, making the city surprisingly scenic once you step away from its endless strip malls. That's the biggest problem in Phoenix. Sprawl. It just goes on for miles, and there's no "center" - downtown is limited. Phoenix has some fantastic art museums, theater, art, and culture, some of which is as good as Chicago's - but it's all so far apart, you have to drive miles to get there. It's also blisteringly hot in the summer, though the winters are great.

On the whole Chicago is still my favorite of the cities, though. Nothing matches that culture, lakefront, and architecture.