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I'm thinking LA would be a better music city for the reason you mentioned.
However, some of the best musicians I know were raised in and still live in Chicago. Not interested in the industry, but I do know the industry attracted A-list musicians.
Yes, let's put it this way though. Both cities you can pretty much see any big act as they go to both cities all the time for obvious reasons. Now, if you're a musician and want some lessons - you can get that in both obviously, but if you wanted to shell out the $$, then you can get lessons from more studio musicians in LA than you can in Chicago. Or if you want to be in the music industry itself, then of course LA will be better for that. If you're the type of person who just likes music then both cities offer it big time.
Chicago also has some huge music festivals in the summer (Lollapalooza, Spring Awakening, etc) and also a lot of smaller street festivals where most have live music at them.
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Diversity?
I'm black. But, I know that both LA and Chicago are very, very diverse. At the same time, my interests are such that, my being black wouldn't make me lean more towards one city more than the other. Not overly concerned about race relations. I grew up in a southern town where race was a REAL issue, and I was still indifferent to all of it.
Yeah both are very diverse cities but Chicago is a bit more segregated than LA. The city used to be known as a more racist city but it's much better now than it used to be. Not perfect, and LA probably has better white-black relations than Chicago. If you grew up with real race issues, then this would be no big deal from what I know in either city. You may find people in gentrified neighborhoods get scared when a group of black teens with baggy jeans is approaching them with nobody else around, but for everything else nobody really gives a **** it seems...at least in my neighborhood (Gold Coast, which is downtown). The trendier areas of town like Gold Coast and River North (which are downtown) and also South Loop (also kind of downtown, just south of it) and areas like Wicker Park (just NW of downtown) will have a lot more mixing of races as far as daily enjoying your life type of stuff goes. The percentages aren't huge, but if you're curious, check out this map I made of Chicago. It's by census tract and you can see the makeup racially of every tract in town:
Some people may report problems, but in these types of areas you won't have much of a problem. I dated a black girl last summer who hung out downtown all the time and I had conversations with her about race relations. She never had a problem, and when we hung out nobody ever said anything to us. I also had a girlfriend before her from SE asia for over a year - no problems.
Chicago is a pretty liberal city though I think LA is a little bit more progressive overall.
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I'm kind of 'it is what it is' about a lot of things. lol. Life is in no way perfect. People aren't perfect - and I have no expectations of being loved and embraced by everyone.
Yeah, that's how I am. It's a good way to go Unless it's just really terrible, then there's other options out there of course.
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COL is important if there is really no difference between LA and Chicago based on my criteria. If LA was heads and shoulder above Chicago in those areas, then I'd choose LA.
LA is more expensive than Chicago on average. You can spend a lot on a place in Chicago, but you don't really have to. You can find 1 bedroom apartments in nice neighborhoods of Chicago for around $1000/month or even less. My 1 bedroom apartment on the 25th floor downtown costs me $1400/month and includes a gym, doorman, etc. Under average but you can get a nice one for not much more.
Cost of food is probably about even, but the thing to consider is that it's probably easier to live without a car in Chicago, so when you consider transportation + housing, then Chicago is for sure cheaper if you don't require a car.
If you've never been to Chicago then you should visit, and this summer I'd recommend. I would never move to a place blind unless I got a good offer, personally.
...I'm just making it known that the usual things that people rave about LA/So. Cal don't matter. However, I know LA is more than weather and beaches.
I knew those things would come into the discussion/debate, so I wanted to make it known up front that those things didn't matter.
However, when I visited LA, I enjoyed myself A LOT. There are so many things to do there. I'm sure I've barely scratched the surface.
To me Los Angeles is such a fun city to live in. It has probably more things to do and places to see than just about anywhere. I am still thoroughly impressed. I do have to rave about the weather because wherever I lived I was never able to enjoy any of them almost 365 days a year. And don't think the weather is the same everyday and LA has no seasons because it does. Just not as extreme as most places. There's so much more to LA than beaches and great weather. Much more.
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Unless it's just really terrible, then there's other options out there of course.
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