Wanna complain about Chicago? (Naperville, Cicero: relocate, transplants, gated)

[rgb123]

yeah....I had the hit and run too.....

also got in a bad accident when a cabbie blew a red light and slammed into us (totaled the car). He went to court and tried to blame it on us...we won.

But yeah....my dad told me not to have a car in chicago and I think he is basically right. It sure does help to have a garage.

[Milliano]

One thing that I don't understand why people complain about though, is parking tickets. Cops are crazy about parking tickets in my town too. I don't see what the problem is. Why should you be allowed to cheat and get free parking, and then complain when you get fined? You're making traffic worse and harming the local economy if you don't get caught.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Milliano

One thing that I don't understand why people complain about though, is parking tickets. Cops are crazy about parking tickets in my town too. I don't see what the problem is. Why should you be allowed to cheat and get free parking, and then complain when you get fined? You're making traffic worse and harming the local economy if you don't get caught.

I don't think you understand the full breadth of offenses for which you can receive a parking ticket in this town, many of which have nothing to do with the manner in which you've parked. You can get a parking ticket for having a "For Sale" sign in your car window. You can get a parking ticket for having tinted windows -- even if it's a factory tint. You can get a parking ticket for having a broken tail light. You can get a parking ticket for a missing front license plate. You can get a parking ticket for having an expired plate. You can get a parking ticket for parking your pickup truck on a residential street after 6pm. (I never figured out why you're allowed to park a 6,000lb hulking SUV on a residential street after 6pm, but not a Chevy El Camino or a Subaru Brat.) You can get a parking ticket for parking too close to a crosswalk even though you're several feet away from it and the curb isn't yellowed or there's no sign or any other indication that you're not supposed to park there except that you're expected to possess an encyclopedic knowledge the millions and millions of highly detailed parking regulations.

[Milliano]

Originally Posted by Drover

I don't think you understand the full breadth of offenses for which you can receive a parking ticket in this town, many of which have nothing to do with the manner in which you've parked. You can get a parking ticket for having a "For Sale" sign in your car window. You can get a parking ticket for having tinted windows -- even if it's a factory tint. You can get a parking ticket for having a broken tail light. You can get a parking ticket for a missing front license plate. You can get a parking ticket for having an expired plate. You can get a parking ticket for parking your pickup truck on a residential street after 6pm. (I never figured out why you're allowed to park a 6,000lb hulking SUV on a residential street after 6pm, but not a Chevy El Camino or a Subaru Brat.) You can get a parking ticket for parking too close to a crosswalk even though you're several feet away from it and the curb isn't yellowed or there's no sign or any other indication that you're not supposed to park there except that you're expected to possess an encyclopedic knowledge the millions and millions of highly detailed parking regulations.

Heh I didn't know that! Wow. What I do have happen is I'll be totally confused as to whether I'm parking legally or not. All these signs will be around, saying do not park at this particular spot, and I don't know if they mean the whole block, or right at that sign, or after, or before, or what! So I only park next to another vehicle ("hopefullly they're obeying the rules") as a guide. If going downtown I just park way down State St in Douglass and ride a bicycle from there.

[Chi2NYC?]

the worst is the street cleaning tickets. i swear i've parked somewhere late at night without seeing any signs, and lo and behold the next morning the no parking signs for that day will be up and my car and several others nearby will have a ticket. argh.

[j33]

Don't get my started on the time the city 'moved' my car for me and when I called to report it stolen was told by a cop 'go for a walk and call me if you can't find it' ... i found my car two blocks away, parked in a school zone, with a ticket.

ugh

[AngryTypingGuy]

I came from NYC and I couldn't stand the trains in Chicago. The service was always interrupted or late and the trains were so goddamn slow. In NYC, the trains would fly from one station to another no matter how close they were.

They city lacks diversity or at least the segregated areas were far away from the city center because I hardly saw any minorities, as a minority myself this was a problem. In a given week, it might be a day or two before I spotted another Asian on a street. Furthermore, because there aren't many minorities located in the city center or rather the Lincoln Park area, a lot of the food wasn't as good as it is in NYC. Tons of Mexican and Thai restaurants (I was surprised how many Thai restaurants there were because in NYC Chinese rules the city). Japanese restaurants were OVERPRICED! Holy crap, man. I guess there's not that much competition there. But that's how it is, most immigrants flock to coastal cities than the Midwest.

It bothered me a little too that most Chicagoans consisted of people out-of-state. A lot of people from Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. So around the holidays it got pretty empty and service slows down because everybody was visiting family or friends elsewhere.

This wasn't a problem for me but a lot of the restaurants have BYOB signs up on their windows. I guess liquor licenses are much more expensive out here than other cities.

Chicago strives to be like an east coast city but I feel places aren't as conveniently close as they are in cities like NYC or Boston. But I have a possible explanation as to why that might be. Unlike NYC and Boston, Chicago doesn't have any natural borders to deal with like rivers (nevermind Chicago river) or islands. NYC is on a single island and Boston is limited by its rivers. So for Chicago everything is spread out and you might have to walk pretty far to find a decent restaurant.

I ABSOLUTELY HATED IT WHEN PEOPLE CALLED IT CHI-TOWN! ARGHHHHHHHH! All these ridiculous nicknames we have nowadays: P. Diddy, A-Rod, J. Lo, etc.

I will admit that Chicago is very safe as long as you don't go down south and try not to hang around the Loop past 9 on the weekdays. I lived in Lincoln Park right across from DePaul University and I hardly saw any cops or cop cars in the area other than the DePaul security ones. I could probably count between 5-8 occurrences when I spotted a Chicago cop. That should give you a pretty good idea of how safe it is there and how crazy it must be down south, that must be where the police force is concentrated.

Oh, and Chicago pizza sucks. Though, I love their hot dogs.

[Chi2NYC?]

Originally Posted by AngryTypingGuy

I Chicago strives to be like an east coast city but I feel places aren't as conveniently close as they are in cities like NYC or Boston. But I have a possible explanation as to why that might be. Unlike NYC and Boston, Chicago doesn't have any natural borders to deal with like rivers (nevermind Chicago river) or islands. NYC is on a single island and Boston is limited by its rivers. So for Chicago everything is spread out and you might have to walk pretty far to find a decent restaurant.

the natural border issue is a factor, but i think a bigger one was that chicago sprang up a couple centuries *after* those east coast cities. and (very unfortunately, in my view) a good bit of it happened under the influence of the city beautiful movement, which meant grid plans, wide boulevards, monuments at key intersections, and boring predictability imo.

City Beautiful movement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[j33]

I've always found it amusing when people move to Lincoln Park and rarely leave, and then complain that there is no diversity in Chicago.

Live a few years in Albany Park or Rogers Park over by Western and Devon, Hyde Park, Uptown, or probably a dozen other neighborhoods I could rattle off and then come back and tell me this again ... hilarious.

[Frank the Tank]

Originally Posted by AngryTypingGuy

Oh, and Chicago pizza sucks.

Sacrilege!!! Any self-respecting person knows that pizza shouldn't fold!!!

OK, actually I consider myself a pizza connoisseur and I do enjoy a good NY slice every once in awhile. But nothing beats deep dish Chicago pizza for a meal.