I want to move from Houston to Chicago... Are there many differences? (living in, cost)

[MobileDave]

I want to move to Chicago because after living in Houston for so long I don't think I could move to a smaller city. New York is too big and L.A. is too wierd. I love food and freezing weather so I figure Chicago would be the only other place as diverse as Houston.

I am sick of the 100+ days a year we spend over 90F and sufficate in 70F+ dew points. (This year we've already had 87 days and on are track for like 140+.) I'm also tired of nighttime temps that don't drop below 80F and winters that feel like an ocean breeze.


Would I have a hard time adjusting to Chicago life?

[Tex?Il?]

Originally Posted by MobileDave

I want to move to Chicago because after living in Houston for so long I don't think I could move to a smaller city. New York is too big and L.A. is too wierd. I love food and freezing weather so I figure Chicago would be the only other place as diverse as Houston.

I am sick of the 100+ days a year we spend over 90F and sufficate in 70F+ dew points. (This year we've already had 87 days and on are track for like 140+.) I'm also tired of nighttime temps that don't drop below 80F and winters that feel like an ocean breeze.


Would I have a hard time adjusting to Chicago life?

I think you would love Chicago based on what you are saying.

Even in this hot summer, it has not quite gotten to 100. In fact I think it may have actually been several years since it got to 100.

If you love freezing weather and good food, then you would love Chicago. Although keep in mind good barbecue, tex-mex, chili, cajun certainly does exist here, but is fewer and further in between.

If you think New York is too big, and LA too weird, but don't want to go smaller, then Chicago is your place.

Also in terms of diversity, Houston is on par with Chicago at least in terms of the four major categories of race. Chicago has the white european ethnic (Polish, Jewish Greek, German, Irish, Italian, etc.) heritage that the older east coast and midwest cities have that you don't really have so much in southern cities.

I don't think it would be all that much of an adjustment at all.

[RingWalk]

If you love food you'll love Chicago. Eating and drinking is pretty much our thing here. I would imagine, no offense, that it's a far more interesting city than Houston.

The winters are brutal but...without them we'd have all those yahoo granolas from San Francisco and Portland living here, so I'm cool with them.

[Tex?Il?]

Originally Posted by RingWalk

If you love food you'll love Chicago. Eating and drinking is pretty much our thing here. I would imagine, no offense, that it's a far more interesting city than Houston.

The winters are brutal but...without them we'd have all those yahoo granolas from San Francisco and Portland living here, so I'm cool with them.

I guess we have different opinions. I think Chicago would be a more socially attractive city if we DID have more of those people.

[MobileDave]

Originally Posted by Tex?Il?

I think you would love Chicago based on what you are saying.

Even in this hot summer, it has not quite gotten to 100. In fact I think it may have actually been several years since it got to 100.

If you love freezing weather and good food, then you would love Chicago. Although keep in mind good barbecue, tex-mex, chili, cajun certainly does exist here, but is fewer and further in between.

If you think New York is too big, and LA too weird, but don't want to go smaller, then Chicago is your place.

Also in terms of diversity, Houston is on par with Chicago at least in terms of the four major categories of race. Chicago has the white european ethnic (Polish, Jewish Greek, German, Irish, Italian, etc.) heritage that the older east coast and midwest cities have that you don't really have so much in southern cities.

I don't think it would be all that much of an adjustment at all.

Thank you for your post. It is looking more and more like Chicago is the place for me. I guess I wouldn't mind going smaller but I would have to have pro sports and other big city aminities within a reasonable drive from where I live.

[RingWalk]

Originally Posted by Tex?Il?

I guess we have different opinions. I think Chicago would be a more socially attractive city if we DID have more of those people.

I am partial to the grit and urbanness. I find a lot of those people annoying and pretentious. So yes, we definitely have different opinions.

[Isotope-C14]

Originally Posted by RingWalk

I am partial to the grit and urbanness. I find a lot of those people annoying and pretentious. So yes, we definitely have different opinions.

If I could give more reputation, I would. You are so correct. I lived out on the west coast a while due to a possibility of starting up a winery with some of my relatives.

The west coast monoculture is extremely boring and predictable. I found that once you met one person out there, you basically met them all. And yes, they all have some kind of granola perspective if they live, and enjoy living there. Most of them have no idea how anything biological or chemical works, so that is why "alternative granola medicine" is so popular out there. I've actually had the numbskulls tell me that the magical toxin removing foot-pads work because gravity makes the toxins come out of the feet...

Texans that I knew who moved there, who are still trapped there, hate/hated it. People don't hold the doors open (very odd), there is very little genuine friendliness and overall people socially are a strange mixture of aloof and passive aggressive.

Some people say that Chicago drivers are insane. I'll drive in Chicago happily after living there, where everyone drives all the same speed: 10 under the speed limit. NO ONE will move from the fast lane over to let you go the SPEED LIMIT. And yes, they will all do this in a row, so no one can pass them. Of course the signs that say "slower traffic keep right" doesn't count when everyone is driving the same speed, right? Since none of them are really *slower* than the one right next to them!

After living in that cesspit of north-face vest wearing, kayak strapped to the top of the car-year-round (for decoration), land of clone-people I had to move back to the windy city, where pad thai doesn't cost $20, you can go 70 in a 55, and have people still come up on you quick (and then you change lanes to the middle for a while ), where you can find *any* decent inexpensive mexican food, where people will debate topics and talk to strangers in a bar, and even end up becoming friends!!!

Done with my granola rant, sorry but it's true.

If the OP likes cold and food. I can't think of a better fit than Chicago.

[RingWalk]

That's hilarious. I spent a week in Boulder Colorado once and had the same experience. People talked so much about the environment that toward the end of the trip I was just staring at them in disbelief, thinking, 'Are you for real? More of this?' It was like a religion. Even here I sometimes get sick of people talking about food too much...farm to table local ingredient blah blah blah...KILL IT AND EAT IT AND SHUT UP.

[Isotope-C14]

Originally Posted by RingWalk

That's hilarious. I spent a week in Boulder Colorado once and had the same experience. People talked so much about the environment that toward the end of the trip I was just staring at them in disbelief, thinking, 'Are you for real? More of this?' It was like a religion. Even here I sometimes get sick of people talking about food too much...farm to table local ingredient blah blah blah...KILL IT AND EAT IT AND SHUT UP.

Next time I grill Brats, hopefully all 100% factory farmed johnsonvilles, I'll invite you over for sure!!!!

HHHAHAHAHAHA

[grapico]

haha... you guys...

ugh... I want to join in, but have to go...

I know EXACTLY what you are talking about.