Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Illinois > Chicago
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 10-26-2015, 01:55 AM
 
Location: Below 59th St
672 posts, read 757,900 times
Reputation: 1407

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by ColdAilment View Post
Why does this bother you so? Debate is a healthy pastime in the right case. What is reminiscent of an "overgrown high schooler" is descending into a debate and calling everyone else juvenile.
You're right - it shouldn't bother me. I just love the city and would rather see discussion on its future, urban fabric and culture than on where it stands in some kind of specious pecking order.

Which means I should have stayed right out of this thread in the first place.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 10-26-2015, 05:44 AM
 
Location: Chicago
6,359 posts, read 8,836,776 times
Reputation: 5871
Quote:
Originally Posted by reppin_the_847 View Post
This is not true about everyone in Chicago, but there are certain folks in town that do have an inferior complex when comparing the town to NYC.
yes, there are. there are also many chicagoans who have a superiority complex when comparing the town to NYC.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-26-2015, 06:11 AM
 
309 posts, read 308,115 times
Reputation: 460
I find it ironic that the ones with the biggest "anti-Midwest" complex are Chicago transplants... Seems like those from the east coast are the ones making the strongest argument about Chicago's "east coast" qualities and the ones trying the hardest to compare it to NYC.

I'm curious as to how Chicago natives see Chicago in relation to is Midwestern peers and whether or not Chicago natives see themselves as Midwestern...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-26-2015, 08:50 AM
 
Location: East Central Pennsylvania/ Chicago for 6yrs.
2,535 posts, read 3,282,012 times
Reputation: 1483
Quote:
Originally Posted by reppin_the_847 View Post
This is not true about everyone in Chicago, but there are certain folks in town that do have an inferior complex when comparing the town to NYC.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2000_Watts View Post
I find it ironic that the ones with the biggest "anti-Midwest" complex are Chicago transplants... Seems like those from the east coast are the ones making the strongest argument about Chicago's "east coast" qualities and the ones trying the hardest to compare it to NYC.

I'm curious as to how Chicago natives see Chicago in relation to is Midwestern peers and whether or not Chicago natives see themselves as Midwestern...
All they do is NOTE Chicago has DARN GREAT QUALITIES They NOTE. Even up against NYC. Once you sort of ADOPT a city as HOME. They generally are a BIGGER SUPPORTER AND CAN BOAST for their new home. That may stay with them even if they later in life no longer live there... like me.

But Locals CAN AND SHOULD BE PROUD OF THEIR CHICAGO'S DOWNTOWN and Neighborhoods. ONCE CHICAGO'S DOWNTOWN WAS A FRACTION OF GRANDURE OF NYC'S. BUT THE MANHATANIZING and Super-Tall and plenty of other Skyscrapers.... including so much High-rise to Skyscraper living downtown and up its Norah Shore..... GIVE IT A RESPECTABLE WARRANT TO SOME BOASTING AND PRIDE.....

TOURIST AND VISITORS NOTE IT. .....But HONESTLY. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH A INFERIOR COMPLEX TO NYC. NYC GINED ITS STATURE by WW2.and before. It is a WORLD'S CITY NOT.... CHICAGO IS STILL AMERICA'S QUINTESSENTIAL BIG CITY......

Downtown Chicago continues to grow in Stature and even getting DISNEYESQUE.... I mean in good qualities that key making it......FAR MORE THEN JUST A PLACE TO WORK..... Manhattan needs to CLEAN UP MORE..... but getting a but overbuilt also can take away.... BUT HECK ..... IT IS STILL NYC... THE WORLD RECOGNIZES.... NO ONE IS STEALING THAT.

It is not about a MIDWEST COMPLEX TILL OTHERS BRING IN DEMEANING ASPECTS IN INTENT.... THEN DEFENSE MODE IS WARRANTED.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-26-2015, 10:29 AM
 
309 posts, read 308,115 times
Reputation: 460
No intent to demean or offend from my end. Simply pointing out the irony of the fact that the ones arguing so hard for Chicago to be related more to the east coast than to its Midwestern peers are NOT Chicago natives, but instead, transplants to Chicago.

I don't see too many people actually (on this site or in real life) FROM Chicago trying to compare and build it up as the second coming of NYC. I haven't known born and bred Chicagoan EVER compare Chicago to anything other than Chicago...

The CHI as a second coming of NYC thing is NOT a product of Chicagoans' inferiority complex. If anything, many Chicagoans have a slight superiority complex about the city, and not just in relation to its Midwestern counterparts, but in relation to most of the US as a whole. New York while respected and admired from afar, is HARDLY on the minds of the everyday Chicagoan (from Chicago) nor on the minds of those in any other Midwestern city...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-26-2015, 01:55 PM
 
774 posts, read 2,496,828 times
Reputation: 737
17 pages and I don't believe a single person has pointed out Chicago's true doppelganger: Toronto. In all seriousness, that's by far our closest counterpart in terms of size, diversity, urban feel, etc.

So, we're obviously a Canadian metropolis that happens to be located in the central part of the United States.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-26-2015, 02:01 PM
 
Location: Eastchester, Bronx, NY
1,085 posts, read 2,292,966 times
Reputation: 516
Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank the Tank View Post
17 pages and I don't believe a single person has pointed out Chicago's true doppelganger: Toronto. In all seriousness, that's by far our closest counterpart in terms of size, diversity, urban feel, etc.
I don't know about that. Outside of downtown and most of Yonge Street, Toronto is WAY more spread out and "sprawly" than Chicago is.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-26-2015, 02:28 PM
 
11,975 posts, read 31,799,921 times
Reputation: 4645
Maybe everyone just needs to reconsider their concept of "Midwestern" to include a large, cosmopolitan city like Chicago. Clearly the Midwest is a large geographic area with a diversity of peoples, densities, landscapes, and architecture. So if Chicago doesn't feel quintessentially "Midwestern" to you, perhaps you have an outdated or entirely false notion of the Midwest in 2015.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-26-2015, 02:42 PM
 
774 posts, read 2,496,828 times
Reputation: 737
Quote:
Originally Posted by K 22 View Post
I don't know about that. Outside of downtown and most of Yonge Street, Toronto is WAY more spread out and "sprawly" than Chicago is.
I was concentrating more on the similarities of the downtown areas, although I see what you're saying.

Regardless, I understand the reason why this is such a hotly debated topic. As some others have mentioned, it all stems from the fact that the outside perception/stereotypes of the Midwest (i.e. conservative, either dying Rust Belt cities or small rural towns, simple, slow-paced, etc.) are (a) negative and/or patronizing and (b) don't fit Chicago at all, so Chicagoans naturally want to run away from those characterizations. There are certainly many Midwestern attributes to Chicago just as there are, say, many Texan attributes to Austin, but Chicago and Austin have many *fundamental* cultural differences compared to their respective regions (and Miami is in an entirely different category from the South). The cultural differences between different West Coast cities or East Coast cities seem to be more on the margins, whereas Chicago compared to the rest of the Midwest or Austin compared to the rest of Texas seems like much more of a gulf. Chicago is obviously *in* the Midwest physically, but it's not necessarily *of* the Midwest culturally at this point. It might have been different 30 or 40 years ago, but it isn't the case anymore.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-26-2015, 02:57 PM
 
774 posts, read 2,496,828 times
Reputation: 737
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lookout Kid View Post
Maybe everyone just needs to reconsider their concept of "Midwestern" to include a large, cosmopolitan city like Chicago. Clearly the Midwest is a large geographic area with a diversity of peoples, densities, landscapes, and architecture. So if Chicago doesn't feel quintessentially "Midwestern" to you, perhaps you have an outdated or entirely false notion of the Midwest in 2015.
I agree with you... but unfortunately, it's going against the headwinds of everyone else that's the problem. For various reasons, a lot of the positive attributes of New York City and Boston seem to get passed down to smaller cities on the East Coast (and, by the same token, many positive attributes of LA and San Francisco seem to get passed down to the smaller cities on the West Coast). In contrast, Chicago looks like complete outlier compared to the rest of the Midwest. Mind you, none of that is actually all true, but that's how it is perceived from the outside.

Also, for whatever criticisms that people have against the South, the people down there 100% *own* that they are Southern. It doesn't matter if you're in Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte, etc. - they run *to* the Southern mantra. (The exception is Florida, which has an entirely unique mix of people born elsewhere, whether inside or outside of the US.) Midwestern people don't do that - maybe it's because it's a more reserved culture, maybe it's because of the weather, maybe it's because of other attributes - but there isn't the same type of unity that you see with other regions. So, if other Midwesterners don't seem to be proud to be Midwestern, it's even harder for Chicago to champion being Midwestern when it already looks so different from the rest of the region.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Illinois > Chicago

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 06:36 PM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top