Tourists get robbed after being in Chicago for only 4 hours (Paris: houses, neighborhoods)

[yeahwrite]

Originally Posted by emathias

I won't say it's better than New York, but I do prefer it to New York.

This is correct. NYC is awesome, one of the greatest cities to visit - but I'd rather live in Chicago.

Other cities mentioned may well be "world class," but that doesn't make them good. LA is one of my least favorite places on the planet. It would probably be my LEAST favorite American city, were it not for unbridled awfulness that is Phoenix, AZ.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by yeahwrite

This is correct. NYC is awesome, one of the greatest cities to visit - but I'd rather live in Chicago.

Agreed, though if you had a lot of money, NYC would be still great. I could live in Manhattan if I really wanted to right now, but in the end I feel as if I have more room to enjoy Chicago since I'm not a millionaire or close to one.

LA is one of my least favorite places on the planet. It would probably be my LEAST favorite American city, were it not for unbridled awfulness that is Phoenix, AZ.

Phoenix (and Tucson) are terrible places...It's funny about LA too since half my family lives there. When my Uncle visited Chicago for the first time, he kept bad mouthing LA and saying how much it blows. He's originally from Queens but has lived in LA for about 30 years in one of the nicest areas of the city (he married my Aunt, who is born and raised LA. He's not blood related to me in case anyone can't figure that out). I personally don't hate LA, at one time I REALLY wanted to move there (moreso since half my family lives there and I never grew up where they were right around me like that), but it's interesting listening to someone from NYC who's lived there for 30 years.

[MassVt]

Originally Posted by emathias

I'm sorry, I'll try to be more temperate.



In my experience, people are a lot less likely to say the sort of extremist anti-Chicago stuff you see on here in person, which means there's much less reason to get annoyed and defensive in real life.

You're not the person I was referring to--btw, the real culprit appears to have left, anyway.

Also, I was given an infraction by an earlier moderator for using the word "H-E-double hockey sticks". Some of the older moderators were bizarre, to put it mildly.

[ERS-One]

Originally Posted by treemoni

Well you must be blind. The proof is in the archives.

What archives? I don't see where I can view what other people have flagged as inappropriate. What I meant was - how would you or I anyone else know what other people flag and what gets deleted subsequently because of that? It might be a feature I'm not aware of.

[tollfree]

LA is also partially hated because as much as people don't want to admit it, and although you probably won't see them, it's a city that caters to movie stars and entertainment industry. Regular people are better off in Chicago, Dallas, Houston, etc.

It's easy to feel insignificant there, knowing the people who starred in whatever movie you most recently watched probably live there.

I'd wager to say no other city in the world has that effect to the same level of LA.

[marothisu]

Meh. The entertainment/movie industry in LA is huge, but there's a lot more than that to LA. You don't have to work or know much of anybody in those industries to feel important in the city or area. Not to mention that importance comes from within, so if you think you're worthless because you don't know any celebs, then that's your own problem.

Only a few people in my family in LA actually work/worked in the movie industry and only a few of our friends do too. It's not hard to know an actor, actress, or producer if you live in certain areas. My aunt and uncle work in the law field, but they are neighbors and friends with actors and actresses and I have a distant cousin who was one of the largest agents in the business.

However, my great uncle worked for the JPL on some amazing government stuff, and I have other friends and family members who work/worked for companies like Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon. I have another cousin who owns a software company there too. My grandmother's cousin was a jeweler in Beverly Hills for about five decades (though he knew his fair share of celebs). I have another cousin who is a lawyer too in LA for nothing to do with the entertainment industry.

They all do extremely well for themselves there, live in nice areas, and while they each know their celebrities personally, none of them make that actually define them. LA is a social city of sorts, but you don't need to be in the entertainment industry or know very famous people to feel your worth to society. There's a lot more to LA than just Hollywood, even if it's a large portion of it. Not to mention some amazing research/educational institutions such as Cal Tech, UCLA, USC, RAND Corporation, etc and companies like ones I mentioned above, just to name a few. Obviously entertainment (film, movies, etc) and fashion is huge there, but there's a lot more than just that which a "normal person" can do and feel fulfilled/important doing.

Life is what you make of it, and if you really think that you are worthless because you don't know a celebrity or whatever it may be, then perhaps you should think about how insecure you really are about yourself.

[tollfree]

Let's not turn this into "about yourself", it's not that.

Obviously LA has a lot of everything, it's a major city.

The point I am making, when you compare "trendy" parts of LA against other major cities, people from other parts of the country see a constant barrage of people who simply look a lot better than them (or what they are used to seeing around them), in shape, toned, attractive, fashionable, driving flashy cars, etc. A lot of regular people try to go for that in LA's trendier neighborhoods, where in midwest that can sometimes be looked down upon and seen as superficial. In parts of LA, it's baseline. That's a big reason why it's hated.

Ever seen the rich in DC? They look insufferably boring. It doesn't stand out to someone from the midwest. Chicago actually has trendier people in some of the suburbs with high concentrations of Russians or Eastern Europeans than the city's yuppie neighborhoods.

Of course, LA is not all glitter, the majority of it is not. But it's not like people visiting make it a point to go check out Watts.

[marothisu]

I'm establishing something here. Anybody can say anything they want, but in the end there's a difference between theory and real life (1st or 2nd person) experience in something. Anything. It's the internet, and if you want to be taken 1% seriously, you have to establish a little bit of credibility. My point wasn't about ME, it was about people I know who live in LA (which is a lot) who have nothing to do with the entertainment industry who are all completely fine and don't all measure their self worth in knowing various people, wearing the absolute latest fashion (versus something just a few months ago), or keeping up with the Joneses.

LA is one city where keeping up your looks can be a good thing, but to think it's the only one or the one ahead of everything else is false. Afterall, since the film (and music) industry is so big, it's all about image. That's really not a secret at all. LA is not the only city with that. NYC has a lot of it, so does Miami to an extent, and so does Vegas. Chicago in small batches has it as well, but not as much on average as an LA or Miami does (everyone should know this). I know what you're saying about DC, but I've seen my fair share of fashion in DC before too.

I know exactly what you're saying, but at the end of the day, that's one thing that defines a city and its people, not the complete picture. There are good looking people in many cities that actually have good fashion taste. Some cities have it more on average than others, but that doesn't mean it can be discredited in the other cities. While there are obvious things at play here - high fashion retailers and designers pick their locations for a reason. Besides LA and NYC, the cities with a lot of this include Chicago, Miami, Las Vegas, Boston, Dallas, San Francisco, DC to a small extent, etc. Even modeling agencies, if you take a look, the tops are obviously NYC and LA, and then Miami, Vegas, and Boston, and Chicago has a few major ones such as Ford.

Anywhere where a lot of big business and sales happens as well, there will be people who care about how they look. There's a reason why people in these industries are sometimes hired on looks. The entertainment industry is not the only one where looks matter. Yes, perhaps not looking "gorgeous" and a step down doesn't matter when you're the VP of a company, but being good looking helps a lot even if you're in sales.


However, as someone who loves fashion - completely relying on fashion, looks, etc for a city will get you into trouble. No, I'm not saying fashion is not important. What I'm saying is that it's one aspect of the feeling out of a few other ones. They all play into each other.

[tollfree]

In Chicago, if a man is a little too into fashion it can still get his sexuality questioned. Actual fashion (not hipster, not guido, not expensive business attire) is still seen as something reserved for gay men. A lot of guys in LA/Miami want to emulate David Beckham or Cristiano Ronaldo's look & style, in Chicago you see it as well, but just not nearly as much. There are a lot of fatboys in Chicago and that could be part of it.

Women can dress as fashionably as they want really anywhere.

One thing I like about Europe, even in smaller cities like Triste, Italy (similar size to Des Moines), you see the status quo dressing like Parisians or Milanese. Similar style to what you see in Manhattan, except better.

All those from surrounding states bring this mentality, although it's already there to begin with. The midwestern US is what it is, it's never going to magically become impressive to anyone except those town criers on their respective city forum.

[marothisu]

I'm not saying that Chicago is more/as fashion forward as LA, Miami, or NYC, but there are many people who are, and there are designers and high fashion retailers in Chicago for a reason. As a straight male living in Chicago who does wear fashionable things, I rarely get my sexuality questioned in Chicago. VERY rarely. When I was living in a few other locations in the midwest - Minnesota and Iowa, I would get it all the time. In Chicago? Very, very, very rare. VERY rare here. In my neighborhood, most people are fairly fashionable day to day (not everyone).

Most guys who go out, especially in areas like River North, Streeterville, and some of the clubs in other parts of town are fashionable. They do not wear t-shirts and the like out at these types of places. Most places in town now in these areas will not let you into their places if you are wearing a tshirt (unless it's a really fashionable one and it's at the Mid or something) or anything less than nice, non tennis shoes (or if they aren't fashionable shoes). Really, very standard.

Again, I'm not saying it's at the level of NYC, LA, or Miami, and I don't know how long ago you supposedly lived in Chicago, but nowadays, people don't think twice about a guy being fashionable unless he's in some far out very working class neighborhood. I've gone to dive bars in some "normal" working class neighborhoods after other, nicer bars with nice fashionable stuff on numerous times and nobody gives it a second thought. While Chicago is still technically a blue collar city, with a lot of white collar in there, it's certainly less blue collar than it was even 5-10 years ago and it continues on that trend. There are always nice or half way trendy places opening up in town as well. Now I am actually curious as to when you actually lived in Chicago, considering you made a mention of Club XL in another thread.