What do you love and hate about where you live? (Chicago: credit, homes)

[MassVt]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

What I love:

-My kids can walk or bike to school, parks, a large swimming pool.
-Lot's of kids around playing outside in groups.
-I have great neighbors. I'm convinced it's the best neighborhood in town.
-Glen Ellyn has a nice, charming downtown area that we can walk to, including a movie theater, restaurants, bars, shops, a library, and other amenities
-The tree-lined streets and rows of beautiful houses provide an an aesthetically pleasing backdrop.
-Glen Ellyn is one of the more hilly suburbs out there.
-Lot's of community festivals and activities--feels like a distinct town with its own identity, not part of a large metro area.
-The Illinois Prairie Path and Great Western Trail run through town.
-We have an incredible park district with tons of activities. 30 parks for 27,000 residents.
-Access to forest preserves, lakes, and nature is greater in this corner of DuPage.
-Access to shopping in Oak Brook, Yorktown, Wheaton....
-The Metra stop is close to my house--providing quick, easy access to the heart of Chicago.

What I dislike:

-Cost of living, primarily property taxes.
-Traffic on I-290 for those times I want to drive in to the city.
-A culture of status seeking and entitlement that seems rampant in well-off enclaves.

The status-seeking and entitlement parts are pretty hard to ignore anywhere, but some communities have more of it than others. Old-timers tend to blame the "nouveau-riche"...LOL.

I'll never understand people who have conversations about how well-off they are, what kind of watches they wear ( of all the dumb things, this takes the cake), how their kids are honor roll students ( what kids AREN'T today?), etc. The "special snowflake" syndrome, in all its glory.

Down-to-earth, smart, unpretentious people are very hard to find sometimes..

[pvande55]

Originally Posted by MassVt

The status-seeking and entitlement parts are pretty hard to ignore anywhere, but some communities have more of it than others. Old-timers tend to blame the "nouveau-riche"...LOL.

I'll never understand people who have conversations about how well-off they are, what kind of watches they wear ( of all the dumb things, this takes the cake), how their kids are honor roll students ( what kids AREN'T today?), etc. The "special snowflake" syndrome, in all its glory.

Down-to-earth, smart, unpretentious people are very hard to find sometimes..

In this area that's mostly true in the rich parts. But it's true all over some of our country's regions.

[Sunduri]

I've lived in PA, NJ, MD, NC and spent time in WVa & MA (but not in winter). Been in Chicagoland for 2 years now. Moved here for work and plan on leaving in the next 2-3 years if possible. What I like about living in the northern suburbs: its very safe, people are friendly, summer is beautiful, there are lots of nature preserves and parks to take my dog to, they're really good about plowing the streets in the winter. What I don't like: its a bit cookie-cutter compared to where I've been before, gotta drive far for shopping or variety in restaraunts (mostly meat and potatoes around here), taxes are ridiculous, higher cost of living in general, if you aren't a fan of snow/ice/cold, weather is HORRIBLE from mid-November through mid-April, and the land is flat as a pancake.

I miss the hilly terrain, historical buildings, variety in cuisine and proximity to the ocean one has living on the east coast. I miss the long, gorgeous springs and falls and short, mild winters of NC. In the next couple of years, I want to move someplace where it rarely or never snows, is close to an ocean and where loads of ethnic cuisine is close by.

[Justabystander]

Originally Posted by Sunduri

I've lived in PA, NJ, MD, NC and spent time in WVa & MA (but not in winter). Been in Chicagoland for 2 years now. Moved here for work and plan on leaving in the next 2-3 years if possible. What I like about living in the northern suburbs: its very safe, people are friendly, summer is beautiful, there are lots of nature preserves and parks to take my dog to, they're really good about plowing the streets in the winter. What I don't like: its a bit cookie-cutter compared to where I've been before, gotta drive far for shopping or variety in restaraunts (mostly meat and potatoes around here), taxes are ridiculous, higher cost of living in general, if you aren't a fan of snow/ice/cold, weather is HORRIBLE from mid-November through mid-April, and the land is flat as a pancake.

I miss the hilly terrain, historical buildings, variety in cuisine and proximity to the ocean one has living on the east coast. I miss the long, gorgeous springs and falls and short, mild winters of NC. In the next couple of years, I want to move someplace where it rarely or never snows, is close to an ocean and where loads of ethnic cuisine is close by.

Grew up in California, now live in the western suburbs. Here in the western suburbs, particularly in Hinsdale where I live, we have most that you are complaining about missing; hilly terraine, historical buildings, a wide variety of great housing and a variety of cuisine in a historic downtown. The kids have a great education, and we are close to Oak Brook for all the shopping that I want. I can get to downtown on a train in 22 minutes express. I know not every town is Hinsdale, but there are plenty like it. Sometimes I feel the winters are a bit long (especially in early March) but it could be worse, we could be in Massachusetts this year. To me, Chicago is a great city that is a prettier, cleaner, smaller version of New York. The places you have lived, particularly PA and NJ contain some of the ugliest urban areas that I have, or ever will visit, so if the northern suburbs bother you, I am not sure what enviornment you are looking for. As far as your complaints about weather, the Northeast gets slammed every year by N'easters, so I don't get that comparison as well. Illinois does have its faults, but has alot of great attributes as well.

[4122]

At least we don't have the amount of snow the Northeast is getting. They got 36 inches one week, 18 inches from the same snowstorm we got? And they're getting 18 inches today into Tuesday. But they never had negative degree temperatures this winter and a twenty degree November.

[MSchemist80]

If you are looking for nice winter weather you will strike out with pretty much the entire northern 2/3 of the USA.

[JTW2013]

Originally Posted by MSchemist80

If you are looking for nice winter weather you will strike out with pretty much the entire northern 2/3 of the USA.

Everyone wants better weather but there are probably only a handful of American cities that have perfect weather, meaning warm winters and summers that aren't too hot and muggy. I'd guess only Southern California and Honolulu qualify. Housing prices are through the roof in LA and San Diego. I have no idea about Honolulu but I'd rather not live that far from the rest of the US. DH and I visited Hawaii a few years ago and met people who had never been to the "mainland." It made me think that things are pretty isolated there if you don't have much money.

I'll settle for visiting San Diego in February if I was still living in Chicago and in July now that we live in Phoenix.

With that in mind, IMHO, Chicago winters aren't that terrible. And honestly if I had to go through winter, Chicago is a good place to do it. They clear the streets quickly. There is more snow than ice. There isn't much lake effect snow. No Noreasters. It's not as cold as in MN and WI. All in all, Chicago's not a bad place to spend a winter.

[mr roboto]

Originally Posted by JTW2013

Everyone wants better weather but there are probably only a handful of American cities that have perfect weather, meaning warm winters and summers that aren't too hot and muggy. I'd guess only Southern California and Honolulu qualify. Housing prices are through the roof in LA and San Diego. I have no idea about Honolulu but I'd rather not live that far from the rest of the US. DH and I visited Hawaii a few years ago and met people who had never been to the "mainland." It made me think that things are pretty isolated there if you don't have much money.

I'll settle for visiting San Diego in February if I was still living in Chicago and in July now that we live in Phoenix.

With that in mind, IMHO, Chicago winters aren't that terrible. And honestly if I had to go through winter, Chicago is a good place to do it. They clear the streets quickly. There is more snow than ice. There isn't much lake effect snow. No Noreasters. It's not as cold as in MN and WI. All in all, Chicago's not a bad place to spend a winter.

Chicago is just barely not as cold as WI and MN and people in those areas don't ***** about it and hibernate for 4 months.

I love that chicago is a truly world-class city. I love the variety around the area. I really like the blue collar work ethic feel in all but the richest enclaves.

But raising a family in the burbs... there are many places that are cheaper with lower taxes and as good or better QOL. It's a great area for the city and the truly upwardly driven. It's increasingly a tougher place to carve out a slice of the middle class moderate existence.

[4122]

Honolulu is also very expensive. I think it's actually more expensive than San Diego. Chicago winters are the coldest behind WI, MN, MI, and North Dakota. Chicago's average high temperature is identical to Billings, Montana's.

[MSchemist80]

Many places in the south have a shorter more temperate winter. Of course the summers are quite warm and humid in the SE. The main issue down there is jobs. There are not many professional jobs there and the wages there are total crap. Even factoring in the lower cost of living the wages are still crap. In my profession I would probably not break $35-40k and most others as well. I've heard of mid level managers getting paid only $35k, IT professionals <$30k