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Chicago, as a well rounded city, is still more world class than DC, as a well rounded city, which you yourself have just admitted it's largely only known/cared about because "that's where the capitol is". I agree DC could be seen as world class, but if you seriously think the level of nightlife, dining, culture, character, dynamic, and so much more in DC is on par or higher than Chicago on a "world class" level, I'd have to laugh at you. Yes, a lot of government monuments and government jobs are in DC, as well as a recent influx of tech jobs. But I'd still say Chicago has a great diversity of different kinds of jobs, monuments, and features that on the whole, make the city itself more world class.
The Chicago skyline is still the most known skyline of all U.S. cities outside of NYC and maybe LA. Just because the Sears Tower isn't the tallest anymore doesn't really mean anything, though I would say there's a good chance foreigners at least recognize it if you showed them a photo of it.
The government jobs stereotype of DC is a little overblown when looking at the greater DMV region, but inside the beltway the presence of government jobs and related culture is pretty big. There is a larger presence of government workers in that region than you will find anywhere else (i.e. if you live in the DC region, you will know someone working for the federal government).
It’s also a stereotype that you have to be wealthy to live in DC. There is a healthy middle class, but like everywhere else the percentage of truly wealthy people is small. That was evident during the last government shutdown when you saw furloughed crowds of DC federal employees lining up at food banks and trying to get substitute teacher jobs during the shutdown, which was a little over a month. The fear and panic about finances that you see throughout the year from federal workers in DC around potential shutdown times, show that few are truly wealthy.
Chicago offers a more traditional big-city feeling than DC, and rightfully feels a lot bigger in terms of scale. However, DC is a nice city that keeps evolving. It just depends on what you’re looking for.
I'm just sharing my imagery of our city, the special essence I get from Chicago:
I've used "unique" a lot to describe Chicago. And I do think it is a city like no other, a special place. When people compare Chicago to New York, to suggest that it is some kind of miniature version of New York, we bristle.
But I think we bristle for reasons that have nothing to do with insecurity or anything second city-ish. I think our buttons get pushed because we don't see ourselves like New York, we have no desire to be New York or any other city for that mater. That what we have is unique.
There is nothing like Chicago. Not even remotely. And if unique is being used, Chicago belongs in that category every bit as much as places like Boston, New Orleans, San Antonio, or San Francisco.
Our uniqueness runs through our neighborhoods, but I would like to concentrate on the core of the city, the greater downtown area:
There is something about the place that is incredibly special, an environment it creates like no other. The setting for Chicago could not have been better than what we have. This may sound strange and counterintuitive, but bear with me...
Chicago rises above an inland sea to its east. Our core is like no other, arguably globally. Its rise along open waters is unique in the sense that coastal areas never build their cores directly on the roughed coasts....no downtown area can be exposed to such a locale. So of the world's great skylines, when it comes to open water, the only one that I can think of that has that type of meeting of land and water is Toronto.
East is the lake. The other three sides of city spread out from the core to the north, west, and south. Flat as a board. The skyline looms over the landscape. It towers above all. In this most centralized of all American cities, the core comes across as the Emerald City. Flat and gridded is so much about what the character of the city is. It is interconnected, it flows. And it flows towards the center.
Downtown Chicago, IMHO, is in a locale that is pure Chicago, everything about it is Chicago. No place like it. Let me explain: Our core is bordered only by other portions of Chicago and a lake that we cannot see across. Chicago is all about Chicago. I would concede that both Manhattan and San Francisco, an island and peninsula respectively, offer the most identity within their confines, being a place apart.
But in both Manhattan and San Francisco, the views bring areas outside of the city into the mix. Manhattan has no other another city but another state across the Hudson. Manhattan stares directly across the East River from Manhattan. And in todays's NY/NJ, Manhattan is not the only thing that sticks out...Brooklyn and Jersey City do as well.
Downtown SF may be removed from any neighboring cities, but the topography and geography place areas around the bay into the view from San Francisco...so the hills and mountains across the Golden Gate in Marin are part of the SF landscape, as are the Berkeley Hills that line the horizon in East Bay.
In Chicago, it is the city itself that takes full center stage, rising over its own flat neighborhoods with no view of anything past city limits.
Add to this the platform that is the flatness of the lake coming west from the lake: lake, beach, park, towers, a unique setting for a big city. And the platform works so well because it is aligned on one side by the lake and that the river gores through it.
The government jobs stereotype of DC is a little overblown when looking at the greater DMV region, but inside the beltway the presence of government jobs and related culture is pretty big. There is a larger presence of government workers in that region than you will find anywhere else (i.e. if you live in the DC region, you will know someone working for the federal government).
It’s also a stereotype that you have to be wealthy to live in DC. There is a healthy middle class, but like everywhere else the percentage of truly wealthy people is small. That was evident during the last government shutdown when you saw furloughed crowds of DC federal employees lining up at food banks and trying to get substitute teacher jobs during the shutdown, which was a little over a month. The fear and panic about finances that you see throughout the year from federal workers in DC around potential shutdown times, show that few are truly wealthy.
Chicago offers a more traditional big-city feeling than DC, and rightfully feels a lot bigger in terms of scale. However, DC is a nice city that keeps evolving. It just depends on what you’re looking for.
I agree, DC also has become a serious player in the tech field, and is definitely moving beyond the reputation of strictly being only about government. The city has definitely changed a lot even over the past decade alone. Still, I'd probably put it right behind Chicago and SF in terms of "world class" rankings, but I would definitely consider it world class; and it certainly is upping its reputation every single passing year it seems.
And I agree, Chicago is more a New York esque kind of city; way more high rise driven and focused, while DC is kind of its own beast. I didn't mean to belittle DC here, I just wouldn't say it's above Chicago in terms of world class rankings, which it sounds like smegmatite and some others on this forum are trying to imply.
I'm just sharing my imagery of our city, the special essence I get from Chicago:
I've used "unique" a lot to describe Chicago. And I do think it is a city like no other, a special place. When people compare Chicago to New York, to suggest that it is some kind of miniature version of New York, we bristle.
But I think we bristle for reasons that have nothing to do with insecurity or anything second city-ish. I think our buttons get pushed because we don't see ourselves like New York, we have no desire to be New York or any other city for that mater. That what we have is unique.
There is nothing like Chicago. Not even remotely. And if unique is being used, Chicago belongs in that category every bit as much as places like Boston, New Orleans, San Antonio, or San Francisco.
Our uniqueness runs through our neighborhoods, but I would like to concentrate on the core of the city, the greater downtown area:
There is something about the place that is incredibly special, an environment it creates like no other. The setting for Chicago could not have been better than what we have. This may sound strange and counterintuitive, but bear with me...
Chicago rises above an inland sea to its east. Our core is like no other, arguably globally. Its rise along open waters is unique in the sense that coastal areas never build their cores directly on the roughed coasts....no downtown area can be exposed to such a locale. So of the world's great skylines, when it comes to open water, the only one that I can think of that has that type of meeting of land and water is Toronto.
East is the lake. The other three sides of city spread out from the core to the north, west, and south. Flat as a board. The skyline looms over the landscape. It towers above all. In this most centralized of all American cities, the core comes across as the Emerald City. Flat and gridded is so much about what the character of the city is. It is interconnected, it flows. And it flows towards the center.
Downtown Chicago, IMHO, is in a locale that is pure Chicago, everything about it is Chicago. No place like it. Let me explain: Our core is bordered only by other portions of Chicago and a lake that we cannot see across. Chicago is all about Chicago. I would concede that both Manhattan and San Francisco, an island and peninsula respectively, offer the most identity within their confines, being a place apart.
But in both Manhattan and San Francisco, the views bring areas outside of the city into the mix. Manhattan has no other another city but another state across the Hudson. Manhattan stares directly across the East River from Manhattan. And in todays's NY/NJ, Manhattan is not the only thing that sticks out...Brooklyn and Jersey City do as well.
Downtown SF may be removed from any neighboring cities, but the topography and geography place areas around the bay into the view from San Francisco...so the hills and mountains across the Golden Gate in Marin are part of the SF landscape, as are the Berkeley Hills that line the horizon in East Bay.
In Chicago, it is the city itself that takes full center stage, rising over its own flat neighborhoods with no view of anything past city limits.
Add to this the platform that is the flatness of the lake coming west from the lake: lake, beach, park, towers, a unique setting for a big city. And the platform works so well because it is aligned on one side by the lake and that the river gores through it.
To me, there is no place like this.
"We" don't bristle. Many of us love the city, and could care less what other people think or what people compare it to. "We" don't bristle because we don't feel the need to have to always validate Chicago. We know it's a great city!
"We" don't bristle. Many of us love the city, and could care less what other people think or what people compare it to. "We" don't bristle because we don't feel the need to have to always validate Chicago. We know it's a great city!
The government jobs stereotype of DC is a little overblown when looking at the greater DMV region, but inside the beltway the presence of government jobs and related culture is pretty big. There is a larger presence of government workers in that region than you will find anywhere else (i.e. if you live in the DC region, you will know someone working for the federal government).
It’s also a stereotype that you have to be wealthy to live in DC. There is a healthy middle class, but like everywhere else the percentage of truly wealthy people is small. That was evident during the last government shutdown when you saw furloughed crowds of DC federal employees lining up at food banks and trying to get substitute teacher jobs during the shutdown, which was a little over a month. The fear and panic about finances that you see throughout the year from federal workers in DC around potential shutdown times, show that few are truly wealthy.
Chicago offers a more traditional big-city feeling than DC, and rightfully feels a lot bigger in terms of scale. However, DC is a nice city that keeps evolving. It just depends on what you’re looking for.
I found this article interesting regarding the middle class in DC.
This is probably true, but I don’t understand the obsession with super-talls.
I think only a few people are truly obsessed with super talls. I was just saying that the Sears Tower probably became less globally iconic in the era of Burj Khalifa, Taipei 101, and the Petronas towers, not to mention the many new ones going up in China. It doesn't really stand out as much anymore.
I think only a few people are truly obsessed with super talls. I was just saying that the Sears Tower probably became less globally iconic in the era of Burj Khalifa, Taipei 101, and the Petronas towers, not to mention the many new ones going up in China. It doesn't really stand out as much anymore.
Ah, gotcha. Yes, I agree. With all of the new global super-talls, the Sears Tower definitely is not as iconic as it once was. It is not even very “tall” when compared to the list of super-talls. I believe it is now the 22nd tallest building in the world. Although, I do still like it’s look and proportions. It actually looks like a solid building. Some of the really skinny, odd looking super-talls just look really odd to me, lol.
Ah, gotcha. Yes, I agree. With all of the new global super-talls, the Sears Tower definitely is not as iconic as it once was. It is not even very “tall” when compared to the list of super-talls. I believe it is now the 22nd tallest building in the world. Although, I do still like it’s look and proportions. It actually looks like a solid building. Some of the really skinny, odd looking super-talls just look really odd to me, lol.
Sears Tower does have an honor it won’t ever lose: the last US building to be the world’s tallest
Sears Tower does have an honor it won’t ever lose: the last US building to be the world’s tallest
That much is almost certainly true!
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