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Anything can create stress if it makes you unhappy. For me, commuting long hours by car and living by strip mall after strip mall can create stress. Chicago creates no more stress than anything else in life.
Agreed! However Chicago's urban core is one of my favorite places in the world
I would have thought the "myths about big city living" would be the decades-old scares about decay, hopelessness, and dysfunction, which remain many people's vision of a "city" even today.
But apparently the "myth" is merely that city living is a viable alternative?
But I will disagree with the notion that there is a very "wide range of opinions" on city data from many of these so called "insular urbanites" who dominate the boards. There is a bizarre fixation with touting large cities for traits such as core density and , snobbing at suburbn sprawl, drooling over diversity, and placing amorous angles on some alluring but aggravating ammenities. Sorry I am exhausted !
So true. I never realized diversity was the number one thing anyone looked for when considering a move until I came here. I always figured affordable housing, job opportunities, and quality schools among other things were bigger draws.
So true. I never realized diversity was the number one thing anyone looked for when considering a move until I came here. I always figured affordable housing, job opportunities, and quality schools among other things were bigger draws.
Lifestyle is a big deal to many people, whether it be recreation/outdoors or bars/restaurants. Diversity can factor into that in some ways.
I think maybe it's a difference in perspective between single and married people. Especially married people with kids. Single people have more social needs and get bored more easily.
Okay, so I checked into the author of this book, and listened to a couple of You-Tube interviews/trailers with the author, and he comes off as a whiny, naive, privileged, melodramatic hack lacking any real perspective. I'm sorry his experiences when he first moved away from home were bad. I too have a few harrowing stories involving disgusting slumlord-run apartments (complete with rats), sketchy gangbanger neighbors, bad neighborhoods, and endless packages of ramen noodles washed down with cheep beer when I first lived on my own when I moved out as a teenager, however, I'll admit that it was mostly brought on by naivety and poor budgeting skills, so I'm not going to blame an entire city for them.
Why he slept in a closet when he had an entire apartment in which to sleep is beyond me, was it so he could write some sad little missive about how his life is so awful he had to sleep in the closet? Most people I know who have or had studio apartments slept in the main room of the apartment, as people have been doing in studio apartments for generations. During my first years on my own, I have more than a few odd sleeping and/or living arrangements due to having roommates, working for a pittance, and my shockingly poor apartment hunting skills, but, for the most part, when I reflect back on that time (about 20 years ago now), it is with a bit of a laugh.
Nick Vandermolen didn’t move to Chicago for the bright lights or the tall buildings, and certainly not for the over priced coffee. He moved there to confront his biggest fear: the real world. In his new book I HATE CHICAGO Vandermolen collects essays chronicling his adaptation into the Windy City, the rules of adulthood, and why he hates them both so much.
Vandermolen’s first month in Chicago almost defeats him. He sleeps on a couch, can’t find a job, and settles for whatever he can get. He finally moves into a small, overpriced apartment where he sleeps on a cushion in his closet and wonders why he left the safety of his home in Michigan to live in misery.
I HATE CHICAGO is an examination of the modern metropolis wherein Vandermolen debunks the fabled perks of city living and instead suggest that cities stifle their inhabitants. He comes to the painful realization that cities embody a “real world†where adults abandon therir dreams and become part of a meaningless and destructive cycle.
This collection in is entirety is a compelling argument against the metropolis an an advocate for human growth, in which Vandermolen gives a raw and startling account of his confronting maturity and his attempt to reinvent adulthood.
I HATE CHICAGO | NAN BU NAN PUBLISHING (http://www.nanbunan.com/store/books/i-hate-chicago/ - broken link)I HATE CHICAGO | NAN BU NAN PUBLISHING (http://www.nanbunan.com/store/books/i-hate-chicago/ - broken link)
I have to agree sleeping in a closet is crazy. Michigan could be a better alternative if you have employment, like nature and enjoy a slower life pace with friendly people. I am originally from Michigan I never thought I would miss some of those things but I do. Also Chicago brown and urbaness really messes with my mind being around older brown Victorian buildings depressed me and I would not care how many activities I would have to do especially if most of them do not interested me to begin with like going to bars, museums and culture events.
Quote:
Originally Posted by coldwine
Rarely was it more aggravating. I did it for years and years, and while I had legitimate complaints about the quality of service at times, it was hands over heels better than driving everywhere.
Your commute may be exasperating, but no one who whizzes by on the L while staring at the suckers sitting on the freeway in their cars would trade places.
The author comes across more as someone who whines and grinds about having to deal with the real world. Or the (gasp) horror of being minorly inconvenienced. I have no idea why Michigan would be considered a better alternative, unless you're an agoraphobe who enjoys the misery of midwestern weather but enjoys having nowhere to go.
Also, seriously? You slept in a closet? Just buy a sleeping bag and get a studio, you idiot. Or a futon for $100.
I don't need a book to know I'd hate city life.
Small spaces, crowding, expensive, congested, noisy, stifling, claustrophobic, crime-ridden, dirty, grey...
I don't like bars and how many times a year can you go to a museum?
So true. I never realized diversity was the number one thing anyone looked for when considering a move until I came here. I always figured affordable housing, job opportunities, and quality schools among other things were bigger draws.
Don't forget living within walking distance of bars. This seems to be quite important to some urbanites. One might assume these people have a drinking problem.
Location: Pittsburgh (via Chicago, via Pittsburgh)
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so basically this thread has turned into complaining about why people don't like cities.. not sure how this relates to Chicago at all. So Victorian buildings depress you, crowds annoy you, and you think cities are 'grey' or full of crime... then don't live in a city! Personally, it works the opposite for me.. Living in a small town ripe with Dollar Store's, terrible local bars where people who have never left town try and put down any other place but the town they live, a Walmart and a 15 minute drive to an average mall with a food court just jumping with middle school rednecks is my idea of Hell and would create more stress and feelings of missing out on life than any crowded city sidewalk could ever create.
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