Why is everyone leaving Chicago? (Schaumburg, Charleston: best city, real estate, condos)

[beaniemac]

I'll be leaving in a month myself. I lost my job in april, and then the job I was offered in chicago paid like 20K less than my previous job.

then a few weeks later, I was offered a job in texas that pays 10K more than my previous job. and since my wife is already down there, it's pretty much a no brainer what to do.

[CGab]

Originally Posted by beaniemac

I'll be leaving in a month myself. I lost my job in april, and then the job I was offered in chicago paid like 20K less than my previous job.

then a few weeks later, I was offered a job in texas that pays 10K more than my previous job. and since my wife is already down there, it's pretty much a no brainer what to do.

Congrats on your new job and your move!

[wase4711]

Originally Posted by beaniemac

I'll be leaving in a month myself. I lost my job in april, and then the job I was offered in chicago paid like 20K less than my previous job.

then a few weeks later, I was offered a job in texas that pays 10K more than my previous job. and since my wife is already down there, it's pretty much a no brainer what to do.

where in Texas? That was my second choice after Phoenix

[lepoisson]

Originally Posted by beaniemac

I'll be leaving in a month myself. I lost my job in april, and then the job I was offered in chicago paid like 20K less than my previous job.

then a few weeks later, I was offered a job in texas that pays 10K more than my previous job. and since my wife is already down there, it's pretty much a no brainer what to do.

Congrats!

I moved to Chicago from Texas. I miss some things from Texas, but other things I like better in Chicago.

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by Berteau

My point was that all major cities have densely populated trendy neighborhoods. The poster was saying that other cities don't have neighborhoods like lakeview and that's why Chicago is better.

I lived in (and loved) Lakeview for 20 years, then moved back to my native Cleveland a couple years ago due to financial and other pressures. Although there are pockets of the city that can be regarded as hip and trendy areas, I can't find any place that quite compares to Lakeview here. The trendiest neighborhoods in Cleveland offer at most a hint of what I enjoyed in Chicago. And the density isn't really there, either.

[SkylarkPhotoBooth]

Originally Posted by lepoisson

Maybe I wasn't clear in my original post. I get funny looks when I venture further south. If I take the red line past Sox 35, I am often the only white person on the train.

I've gotten the head to toe staredown before, as well as the "what are you doing here" look. I think most of the time it's just a surprised look.

Yep. I have experienced that, too, and a simply think it's a matter of curiosity. Unfortunately, when we've managed to segregate our city to the point that some neighborhoods are 95% Black, anyone else is going to stand out.

[brodie734]

Originally Posted by andrew61

I lived in (and loved) Lakeview for 20 years, then moved back to my native Cleveland a couple years ago due to financial and other pressures. Although there are pockets of the city that can be regarded as hip and trendy areas, I can't find any place that quite compares to Lakeview here. The trendiest neighborhoods in Cleveland offer at most a hint of what I enjoyed in Chicago. And the density isn't really there, either.

Yeah, there's trendy and then there's trendy. What's the difference? Look at food: Detroit, the second largest metro area in the region, has three Yelp pages for poke... Chicago has 29 pages. Detroit has 10 pages for bubble tea, Chicago has 44. You can't just attribute that to volume, those things were trendy in Chicago years and years before they migrated a mere 4 hours down I-94. For smaller cities like Cleveland, you get even fewer results.

Places like Indy, Cleveland, St. Louis, etc. have their trendy bits. But they will never be as trendy as Lakeview, just like they won't be as trendy as Brooklyn or Echo Park or San Francisco. There is a hierarchy of American cities and only Chicago, among it's regional peers, is in the top tier and it shows. If you can't tell the difference, you probably weren't much apart of that scene anyway, in which case more power to you in following your bliss.

[goofy328]

Originally Posted by andrew61

I lived in (and loved) Lakeview for 20 years, then moved back to my native Cleveland a couple years ago due to financial and other pressures. Although there are pockets of the city that can be regarded as hip and trendy areas, I can't find any place that quite compares to Lakeview here. The trendiest neighborhoods in Cleveland offer at most a hint of what I enjoyed in Chicago. And the density isn't really there, either.

Andrew you sound like me. It's part of the reason I can't seem to leave Virginia. Yes, we have some trendy, hipster, bourgeois, neighborhoods, and things get even better in DC and even better in Philadelphia and even better in NYC. So why would you ever want to leave the Coast? People act like it is a privilege to live here; if you were born here, maybe you can't afford to leave?

But at the end of the day I should be living someplace like Cleveland I can actually afford. Paying over 80% of your income to stay somewhere gets old after a while. People look down on Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh. But at least one can afford to live in those places and afford to have some money to play, instead of just hearing about what great time everyone else had. Tourists come to this area and do stuff I never think to do and I live here.

Enjoy what Cleveland has to offer. If you want more, go back to Chicago again and pay the cost.

[Atlanta_BD]

Originally Posted by Chicago South Sider

If you are a black person living in the city of Chicago you pick your poison. Do you want to live around ghetto black people or racist white people? This is how it is with very few exceptions. The way I see it, the only thing worse than a ghetto black person is a racist white one. So, I pick the south side for now. That may change though, the way things are going.

I live in Edgewater. It is diverse and I love it here. Maybe it is the exception as you say and I have only been back for a couple of months now. But so far everyone has been pleasant to me regardless of ethnicity and I am enjoying my neighborhood.

[mjtinmemphis]

Originally Posted by goofy328

Andrew you sound like me. It's part of the reason I can't seem to leave Virginia. Yes, we have some trendy, hipster, bourgeois, neighborhoods, and things get even better in DC and even better in Philadelphia and even better in NYC. So why would you ever want to leave the Coast? People act like it is a privilege to live here; if you were born here, maybe you can't afford to leave?

But at the end of the day I should be living someplace like Cleveland I can actually afford. Paying over 80% of your income to stay somewhere gets old after a while. People look down on Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh. But at least one can afford to live in those places and afford to have some money to play, instead of just hearing about what great time everyone else had. Tourists come to this area and do stuff I never think to do and I live here.

Enjoy what Cleveland has to offer. If you want more, go back to Chicago again and pay the cost.

I was just telling my neighbor about this. St. Louis and St. Louis type of cities, just aren't t big enough to have that type of big city experience of Lakeview and other premium big city neighborhoods.

In a way, I don't have to have it. If I have fun places to go, good restaurants and can afford to save for retirement while living in a neighborhood that is fun, I am happy.