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Old 08-27-2013, 08:14 PM
 
12,999 posts, read 18,802,215 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MSchemist80 View Post
Truth be told I could tolerate the bad weather but the dysfunctional govt here is just killing me. It really does affect people and it seriously degrades the quality of life in Illinois. They are like a drowning man trying to pull you down with him. First the sales taxes hit 10%, then the income tax went to 5%, the tolls doubled, but the property taxes are killing us. My mother pay $8k a year which is almost a third of her retirement income. It is just totally out of control. They can raise it every year even when prices drop with little trouble and they have no reason to exercise any fiscal discipline.

Frankly I hate the govt here. They take all this money and the services are not great and they give us nothing but corruption and oppression. The roadways still suck, the facilities are significantly inferior to other counties and definitely other states. There is not one good dog park in my area and dogs are banned from all the regular parks. The forest preserves are run down. Try riding the Desplaines river trail from Cook into Lake county and see the difference.
Perhaps I am showing bias for my home County but I insist Lake County Forest Preserves are far superior to Cook County's. Not as crowded, better maintained, more dog areas, more lakes. OK, sorry for getting off the subject a bit.
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Old 08-27-2013, 09:36 PM
 
Location: OC
12,734 posts, read 9,376,175 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RJ8089 View Post
Not much talk about Seattle. The Seattle-Tacoma metro area offers the big city (13th largest metro in U.S.) and the great outdoors. It is also one of the prettiest cities in all of the U.S. The only two downsides are the weather and the city being so far away from everything else in America. If you look at Seattle on a real map, you'll find that it's higher on the globe than Portland, Maine or even Nova Scotia for that matter. I have lived in Chicagoland, it's a great city as well. But consider Seattle and don't let people scare you about the rain.
It seems awesome, maybe slightly more manageable than Chicago, but it's burbs don't seem as strong, they're either expensive or the public transportation does not match up to Chicago's.


Could live in Seattle proper, though that could be pricey as well.
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Old 08-27-2013, 10:23 PM
 
17,183 posts, read 22,767,204 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RJ8089 View Post
Not much talk about Seattle. The Seattle-Tacoma metro area offers the big city (13th largest metro in U.S.) and the great outdoors. It is also one of the prettiest cities in all of the U.S. The only two downsides are the weather and the city being so far away from everything else in America. If you look at Seattle on a real map, you'll find that it's higher on the globe than Portland, Maine or even Nova Scotia for that matter. I have lived in Chicagoland, it's a great city as well. But consider Seattle and don't let people scare you about the rain.
When my daughter was living in Seattle, I witnessed my one and only perfect zipper merge in traffic there. I do like Seattle, but my dd left partly because of seasonal affective disorder.
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Old 08-28-2013, 08:32 AM
 
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After living in Chicagoland for 21 of my 22 years, I have to say I have a lot of disdain for the area. There are also some pluses I've found as well.

Winters are horrible. I tire of having an electric bill of over $150 each month past December. I've also had the pleasant experience of having my pipes freeze, which was not fun at all. People are often rude the closer you get to the city from what I've experienced, which I know is dependent on person to person. I don't like how Chicagoland developed, as I would love to live on the 'north side', but due to horrific traffic patterns, it makes the commute that I have unbearable (2hrs+). The bad parts of Chicago are extremely bad, and 290's almost always backed up to the point that I have to drive through the ghetto's just to get to the heart of the city. There feels to be a sort of ignorance in the air with the mentality of the city and inner ring suburbs. I find often that people who love Chicago live and frequent only certain areas and most haven't ventured into areas like west Humbolt Park, Austin, Garfield Park, Harvey (suburb), etc to visit family like I have... I also like to venture out into areas I live near, so I personally could never survive in areas like Oak Park-River Forest-Forest Park-Berwyn whom are surrounded by pitiful examples of horrid corrupt management and politics that Chicago has to offer (Cicero, Austin, North Lawndale, Maywood, Bellwood). My mother, whom's mother lived in Cabrini Greene in it's heyday, is now too afraid to drive through Maywood despite having lived in some of the rougher areas for the first 25 years of her life. I've also found that the family I have whom didn't live in the ghetto's (and for the most part actually had a choice to leave) went to at least Northbrook or La Grange or further out. My own immediate family, having my father grown up in Uptown and my mother in a variety of places, decided in the 80s to leave and chose first way out in Aurora at first which influences my views on just how bad my family dislikes the city, even been told that they would prefer me live in NYC or Boston (which I've expressed interest in since I love those cities). I also hate alleys as they've always given me an unsafe feeling. I'll take things being slightly more dirty (not really the case for Boston) for a higher sense of safety any day. The education in the city is on average rather poor quality as well. I've had friends in the area east of Midway comment on how their education didn't prepare them enough for college, which led to their more recent dropout status. The taxes suck, I never drink or eat in Chicago because they 12.5% sales tax on food and drink is insane. I'm just glad my property taxes are about 6k. Property tax is pretty bad in most of the popular states though.

That all being said, there are things I like about Chicagoland. While winter's suck and we essentially had no Spring (went from 20 degrees to 60 degrees in a matter of a week in May), September - December are beautiful temperature wise. I also find the North, Northwest, and Lake County suburbs very nice from my perspective as I enjoy places like Gameworks, Mitsuwa, and the countless parties and raves that played music of a German, UK, French, and Japanese variety (Gabber, Happy Hardcore, Harstyle, etc). I also find the people generally nicer and less pretentious than even the far west suburbs. Certain architectural styles have also piqued my interest, the brick/stone bungalows and brick brownstones. I've found most brownstones are in rather undesirable (to me) places unfortunately, but bungalows are here and there in even the farther out areas like Downers Grove, Glen Ellyn, and Naperville.

As for Chicago itself, it's interesting to say the least. I don't find the lakefront all that great, but it is a beauty (I prefer a nice relaxing breather in Washington Square Park or Prospect Park in NYC personally). The zoo's in Lincoln Park and Brookfield are nice, though I have definitely found a more wow factor at the Bronx Zoo. Chicago has a lot of blue collar culture, whether that fancies your boat or not. It is generally cheaper, though I have found that prices in the good areas are a bit on par with East Coast level, which in regards to NYC, you have to consider that most people only reference Manhattan and Northwest Brooklyn for price. I've found stuff in Bay Ridge for 900-1200/mo and considering what I had to do was in Brooklyn, it was pretty ideal.

Anyways /rant cause I know talking down about a city and it's area on the board about that city/area is frowned upon by it's residents. I'm 'stuck' for another year, but after that, I'm gone~ Even if I end up in Wisconsin or Delaware (interesting areas for a variety of reasons personal to me) rather than the NYC or Boston area, I'd probably enjoy life a good deal more than I do now! Pittsburgh is also quite nice, though more of a place to raise a family.

Also, Lake County is BEAUTIFUL. I wish I had the ability to live up there for my last year in this state!!
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Old 08-28-2013, 09:41 AM
 
11,973 posts, read 31,635,920 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Domino369 View Post
\Anyways /rant cause I know talking down about a city and it's area on the board about that city/area is frowned upon by it's residents. I'm 'stuck' for another year, but after that, I'm gone~
This is a pretty common attitude for people of your age about their home town/city, regardless of where it is. New York and Boston are great places. Get out of Chicago, check them out, and perhaps in about ten years you'll start to appreciate more about Chicago. There is no utopia, though NYC is about as close as you can get for a young 20-something with no kids. But it can be a very challenging place to live in to your thirties and forties due to the cost. But could be a great experience.
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Old 08-28-2013, 10:01 AM
 
14 posts, read 36,839 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lookout Kid View Post
This is a pretty common attitude for people of your age about their home town/city, regardless of where it is. New York and Boston are great places. Get out of Chicago, check them out, and perhaps in about ten years you'll start to appreciate more about Chicago. There is no utopia, though NYC is about as close as you can get for a young 20-something with no kids. But it can be a very challenging place to live in to your thirties and forties due to the cost. But could be a great experience.
Oh yeah, I won't doubt it. I spent a good year on the east coast, and it was a nice refresher and gave me a chance to get out of my comfort zone. My experiences have left a bit of a sour taste about the Chicagoland area, but the next ten years or so should prove interesting for the country as a whole. Chicagoland has a lot going for it, but it suffers from a lot of internal issues that I hope are worked on in the future. I don't know if I would ever return to this cold, particularly January-February, again though. I can deal with the extreme heat we get in the summer and I like my seasons, but the dual wind currents we get from the west and south that cause the rather low temperatures are brutal. I didn't believe the Atlantic current moderation until I experienced it.
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Old 08-28-2013, 04:10 PM
 
Location: OC
12,734 posts, read 9,376,175 times
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wow,12.5% sales tax in restaurants? That is insane.


I'm a Texas guy, so I don't know how I'd do with cold. I will say the heat here is suffocating. And it's not just June through August. September is ferocious and an 80 degree Thanksgiving sounds great, but it kind of ruins the holidays, imo.
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Old 08-28-2013, 04:20 PM
 
14,802 posts, read 17,562,567 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaylord_Focker View Post
wow,12.5% sales tax in restaurants? That is insane.


I'm a Texas guy, so I don't know how I'd do with cold. I will say the heat here is suffocating. And it's not just June through August. September is ferocious and an 80 degree Thanksgiving sounds great, but it kind of ruins the holidays, imo.
Sales tax in restaurants is not 12.5%.
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Old 08-28-2013, 04:52 PM
 
14 posts, read 36,839 times
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Not restaurants, but the sales tax is absurdly high in general (quoted from wikipedia, and it's about right):
Quote:
The city of Chicago has one of the highest total sales tax of all major U.S. cities (9.25%).[...] Chicago charges a 2.25% food tax on regular groceries and drug purchases, and has an additional 3% soft drink tax (totaling 12.5%). An additional 1% is charged for prepared food and beverage purchases in the Loop and nearby neighborhoods (the area roughly bordered by Diversey Parkway, Ashland Avenue, the Stevenson Expressway, and Lake Michigan).
The grand impact of sales tax is much less than that of say the income tax in NYC, but it's still a tax I'd rather avoid, like living in NJ across the water in Hoboken or Leonia thus avoiding said tax in the end.
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Old 08-29-2013, 12:54 AM
 
2,115 posts, read 5,386,394 times
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Been having to spend extended periods of time in Michigan for the past year or so. There's a certain feeling I get whenever I'm back in the Chi. Only other city where I get that feeling is NYC. NYC has its own special place but Chicago is always home to me.

Other honorable mentions go out to the happening areas of cities like Atlanta, Miami (Miami Beach in particular), Southern California, Houston, etc.
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