What innocuous things irritate you about Chicago? (apartment, condo)

[Boddicker]

I'm not talking about violence, taxes, or weather.

I'm talking about, for instance, the well-meaning twentysomethings who camp out on street corners (like Clark & Diversey) with their clipboards and approach you like you're long lost friends.

"Hey buddy, do you support equal rights?"

"I see you there! C'mon now. Wanna chat?"

I appreciate political activism, but when you've pitched me three times in the last hour, and 150 times in the last five years, I lose patience. Alas, I now have to hop to the other side of the street. It's irritating, but I can live with it.

Anyway, my intention here is to have a fun little lighthearted thread

[Vlajos]

I really hate all the dogs and the poop they leave in my yard.

[tribecavsbrowns]

Originally Posted by Boddicker

I'm not talking about violence, taxes, or weather.

I'm talking about, for instance, the well-meaning twentysomethings who camp out on street corners (like Clark & Diversey) with their clipboards and approach you like you're long lost friends.

"Hey buddy, do you support equal rights?"

"I see you there! C'mon now. Wanna chat?"

I appreciate political activism, but when you've pitched me three times in the last hour, and 150 times in the last five years, I lose patience. Alas, I now have to hop to the other side of the street. It's irritating, but I can live with it.

Anyway, my intention here is to have a fun little lighthearted thread

My problem with it is it takes advantage of what I feel is a natural human instinct to greet passers-by and organically find out whether you are friend or foe and see if you can offer each other anything. It makes people more likely to avoid strangers, which is sad because random interactions with strangers are maybe the best thing about living in an urban environment, if done under the spirit that we're all in this together. The clipboard clowns pervert that dynamic -- it becomes their world (one where they're getting paid for their time, and you're not for yours), and you're just means to an end. I despise everything about the practice.

[lepoisson]

I could write a novel:

• Parking dibs
• Too many people have active dog breeds who shouldn't be locked in an apartment all day
• People not cleaning up after their dogs
• Panhandlers everywhere. I expect them downtown, but it's annoying when they are harassing people outside my local CVS.
• Potholes and poor road condition
• Clueless tourists downtown who run out in front of cars and mob up the sidewalks
• Not really Chicago, but living here has made me realize that I dislike living in close proximity to other people.

[jwaiter]

Sewage odors in summer.

[fusillirob1983]

A lot of mine deal with the aloofness and/or tone-deafness, for lack of a better word of how people move about.


-People who insist on standing right inside the door on the El at all costs
-"Stair guardians" on the Metra, (i.e. people who try to "reserve" their spot at the bottom of the stairs on a Metra car and treat allowing people onto the 2nd floor as a major inconvenience)
-Groups of tourists riding Divvy bikes 5mph 3 or 4 deep on the path
-People who insist on being in the front of a pack waiting for a walk signal in the Loop, only to then walk like they're dragging weights.

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by fusillirob1983

A lot of mine deal with the aloofness and/or tone-deafness, for lack of a better word of how people move about.


-People who insist on standing right inside the door on the El at all costs
-"Stair guardians" on the Metra, (i.e. people who try to "reserve" their spot at the bottom of the stairs on a Metra car and treat allowing people onto the 2nd floor as a major inconvenience)
-Groups of tourists riding Divvy bikes 5mph 3 or 4 deep on the path
-People who insist on being in the front of a pack waiting for a walk signal in the Loop, only to then walk like they're dragging weights.

reading this put my into a quiet rage

[Maintainschaos]

Not too much Chicago-specific that isn't also rampant in other big cities.

[Boddicker]

Here's one that's very Chicago specific:

The city has just built this very nice, additional bike lane along the beach. Now there are two parallel but separate lanes for walkers/joggers and cyclists. If I do say so, it's beautiful and very well done. Yet each time when I walked southwards last month (i.e. Diversey harbor down to North Ave. beach), numerous cyclists would wend their way through throngs of people trying to walk.

[Rambo2018]

People who own great daines and live in small condo in dense city.