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The Cubs are a fun team to be a fun of. Greatest fans in sports, best ballpark, and after the game you get to enjoy the greatest city in the world.. Sure beats going to one of these little hickvilles that "claims to be a baseball town", where their ballpark is almost always half empty, even on nice days, and even when they've had good teams.
Just sayin....
You're going to find people with bad attitudes like that in any city in America, especially on a forum like this where people are constantly dissing other cities for some reason or another. You can't really take a lot of what is said on this forum to be an accurate representation of people in general. That sort of attitude is not in any way dominant in Chicago, and in the past few years when I lived there, I never really heard people make fun of other cities...most people in Chicago or any other city for that matter don't really think about other cities very much. I once knew a guy from Indianapolis who lived on my dorm floor in college, and I remember he would complain every time he had to visit his relatives in their "redneck town" in southern Indiana. I'm sure there are some others from Indianapolis who may have a similar attitudes about places in Indiana outside of Indianapolis, but those few people are not an accurate representation of the general population of Indianapolis...same thing goes for Chicago.
Its funny cause the other regions like the east and west coast and even some places in the south talk down on the midwest all the time. Take a look at some threads. They talk down on the rest of the midwest very harshly
but on the flipside i have seen people from other midwest states talking about the south(in real life). Irony
that said I think everyone is loking too much into it.
As for Chicago, they seem to care less about other places in the midwest. Many Chicagoans I've met will minimize or stereotype other midwestern places for whatever reason. Inferiorty complex? Which is ironic because they think they are not as narrowminded as other small places.
I think it's more of a superiority complex.
Chicagoans seem to enjoy one-upping each other for various reasons, too. Here's a typical conversation:
Person A from Chicago: "Yeah, I went to St. Paul last month and it was so cold!" Person B from Chicago: "I bet it wasn't as cold as Chicago. Why were you there in the first place?" Person A: "I had a job interview. In fact, just last week they contacted me and told me I got the job." Person B: "Uh...why would anyone leave Chicago for St. Paul? There's plenty of jobs here." Person A: "I just prefer the quality of life in the Twin Cities." Person B: [head explodes]
Chicagoans seem to enjoy one-upping each other for various reasons, too. Here's a typical conversation:
Person A from Chicago: "Yeah, I went to St. Paul last month and it was so cold!" Person B from Chicago: "I bet it wasn't as cold as Chicago. Why were you there in the first place?" Person A: "I had a job interview. In fact, just last week they contacted me and told me I got the job." Person B: "Uh...why would anyone leave Chicago for St. Paul? There's plenty of jobs here." Person A: "I just prefer the quality of life in the Twin Cities." Person B: [head explodes]
That is retarded. Sorry, there's just no other word for your post.
Not necessarily. Consider the political corruption, resulting level of taxation and crumbling infrastructure.
I've heard this mentioned a few times, and from someone who moved here from elsewhere - it kinda confuses me.
Midway just had a major upgrade 8 years ago, O'hare is currently going through one, half of the double decker Wacker Drive was rebuilt from scratch a few years ago with the other half starting this year, the Kennedy was completely rebuilt 10 years ago, I-57 and I-80 were completely rebuilt and widened, the Dan Ryan was completely rebuild 2 years ago, the Stevenson was rebuilt about 8 years ago, almost the entire 200+ miles of the Tollways system are brand new and widened, and the Eisenhower is going to be rebuilt in a few years. Southern Lakeshore Drive was rebuilt about 5 years ago, the Pink Line and Green Line were totally rebuilt within the past 10-15 years. The southern portion of the Red Line had major work, the Brown Line was rehabbed, and all the Subway portion of track along with the O'hare Branch of the Blue Line also replaced in the past 2 years. The Daman Ave bridge and the North Ave bridge are new replacements within the past 10 years, CREATE is spending billions on rehabbing the freight rail, with METRA tracks and cars in pretty good shape.
I know there were huge issues with potholes and all the horrible slow zones on the CTA that were repaired the past 2 years - but otherwise I really don't see Chicago as a city with cumbling infrastructure. If anything, the city really has some modern large infrastructure compared to most cities.
I've heard this mentioned a few times, and from someone who moved here from elsewhere - it kinda confuses me.
Midway just had a major upgrade 8 years ago, O'hare is currently going through one, half of the double decker Wacker Drive was rebuilt from scratch a few years ago with the other half starting this year, the Kennedy was completely rebuilt 10 years ago, I-57 and I-80 were completely rebuilt and widened, the Dan Ryan was completely rebuild 2 years ago, the Stevenson was rebuilt about 8 years ago, almost the entire 200+ miles of the Tollways system are brand new and widened, and the Eisenhower is going to be rebuilt in a few years. Southern Lakeshore Drive was rebuilt about 5 years ago, the Pink Line and Green Line were totally rebuilt within the past 10-15 years. The southern portion of the Red Line had major work, the Brown Line was rehabbed, and all the Subway portion of track along with the O'hare Branch of the Blue Line also replaced in the past 2 years. The Daman Ave bridge and the North Ave bridge are new replacements within the past 10 years, CREATE is spending billions on rehabbing the freight rail, with METRA tracks and cars in pretty good shape.
I know there were huge issues with potholes and all the horrible slow zones on the CTA that were repaired the past 2 years - but otherwise I really don't see Chicago as a city with cumbling infrastructure. If anything, the city really has some modern large infrastructure compared to most cities.
I know there were huge issues with potholes and all the horrible slow zones on the CTA that were repaired the past 2 years - but otherwise I really don't see Chicago as a city with cumbling infrastructure. If anything, the city really has some modern large infrastructure compared to most cities.
You're correct about the freeways through Chicagoland, but the trouble is getting anywhere on them in a timely fashion. Chicago's city streets are abysmal, IMO. The Blue Line still has some slow zones, the Purple Line Express isn't very express-like and many the CTA stations are in poor shape. Don't get me wrong -- I enjoy using the system, but it's one that even Chicago leadership concedes is in dire need of millions, if not a billion, dollars of upgrades (which was supposed to come had the Olympics been landed).
I feel like there's a lot of animosity towards Chicago from people in Northern Indiana...just an observation, s'all.
From reading this thread, I think that there is a lot of animosity from Colts toward Chicagoans.
On a personal note, as someone from Chicago, I can't say that I've given much thought, positive or negative to much of the rest of the Midwest. I've visited some of the other Midwestern cities and I can't say that I've found one that I'm interested in moving to, as most of them have struck me as rather small, a bit insular and conservative, and not quite to my taste if I were considering a place to move. However, on the other end, I've visited many of the huge cities on this planet, from Sao Paulo, to Moscow, to London, to New York, and I found them a bit too large and complicated and also not to my taste as anything but a place I'd like to visit (but wonderful to visit), and I imagine that the residents of those cities probably have a similar impression of Chicago than I do of some of the smaller Midwestern cities (I know that some of my friends who live in New York do, we like joke about it sometimes).
You think Chicagoans writing off the rest of the Midwest is an inferiority complex? I've noticed almost all larger and more powerful cities will tend to write off and sterotype other smaller or "less important" areas around them. LA, New York, Atlanta, etc. Their residents will tend to minimize or sterotype Midwestern cities, as well as rural or stagnant areas within their regions. That's not the standard definition of an inferiority complex.
Actually, it's the exact definition of an inferiority complex, otherwise, what's the reason for the writing off and stereotyping??????? Superiority complex? Not bloody likely. So called "superior" people don't display the hypersensitivity to criticism that Chicagoans do. It also cannot be a superiority complex because people who live in Chicago (or other large cities) are not by default "better" or more superior than those living elsewhere in the same region. In reality, the vast majority of people in Chicago are not even affluent, upwardly mobile, first class, cultured citizens, etc. Most are in hospitality, telcomm, healthcare, service, tourism. My point? It first takes a truly superior person or group in order to have a superiority complex. Chicago does not have that across the board. No place does. Only a portion of Chicago's (mostly suburban) population has anything that remotely resembles a superiority complex. Plus, there are plenty of so called "superior"people who are living so called "superior" lives far far away from cities like Chicago. Its not the center of the universe, in case you didnt know.
You could argue that the actual city of Chicago is superior (buildings, variety, amenities, etc). But that argument falls apart quickly because the city itself can be enjoyed by anybody in the world and does not need to be enjoyed on a daily basis. It's not some private club with a giant wall around it. Therefore, no superiority there either. In fact, many many many people who live hundreds of miles away from Chicago get to enjoy Chicago 'the city' more than alot of the locals do. Know why? Because the locals are too busy on city-data talking about how great their city is, or at the local strip mall in Chicago's sprawling suburbs, or they are working that second job to pay for King Daley's new throne. The visitors have it the best. Go there, enjoy the good parts for a while, and get out of that mess.
Nope. The only reason for a lowlife Chicago slave to put down another midwesterner or anyone else for that matter is simple. They are overcompensating. Textbook inferiority complex. The rest of the midwest sits backs and laughs and says,
"Yeah, I've been to Chicago many times. Nice place to visit, but...." And that is reality.
Thank you ladies and gents! Try the veal!
Last edited by pam21; 01-19-2010 at 01:44 AM..
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