I visited your fair city (Chicago, Lincoln: live, restaurant, bars)

[Master Jay]

Gaylord_Focker, good morning,

Ohhhhhhh, you can sure take that Water Taxi ride THIS upcoming summer!!!!

P.S. Did you know that the term "Gaylord" in Chicago gang history, refers to one of the oldest, predominately white, greaser gangs that came out of some north side Chicago neighborhoods?

[Kmanshouse]

Originally Posted by Gaylord_Focker

Haha! Right! Look, I can only speak for downtown. It was nice compared to a lot of cities I've been. Don't see anything wrong with comparing it to LA or NYC though, those are your peer cities.

Very glad you enjoyed the city. It's impossible to see/do everything in one shot. When/if you come back, I'd recommend:

Restaurant Row in the West Loop - Randolph and/or Fulton Market Streets
Going to the Lincoln Park Zoo and strolling around the actual Lincoln Park, the conservatory, etc. (all free)
Checking out Old Town and seeing comedy at Second City or Zanies there.
Street art in Pilsen
And of course, Lincoln Square (my stomping grounds), where you can walk from Lawrence/Lincoln, along Lincoln Ave south for many blocks and pass nice stores, restaurants, bars, and Welles Park.

[Master Jay]

Kmanshouse, thank you for sharing your thoughts on Indian food. As I mentioned, I cannot speak on the Indian food on Devon.

On the one hand, I can appreciate why someone would want to take in the cuisine there, as a PART of taking in the whole ethnic experience.

On the other hand, as YOU say, sometimes you can be pleasantly surprised and find an ethnic restaurant that is NOT in its ethnic "neighborhood" and yet it can be absolutely dy-no-mite!

My most recent example: I had gone to Lao Sze Chuan a couple of times IN Chinatown, and yet I much prefer the Lao Sze Chuan in Skokie!! In this case, I have a feeling a part of the equation is that the food may be prepared differently in Chinatown because it is perhaps more authentic, given it serves more actual Chinese people (along with visitors)... And maybe in Skokie, where there are less Chinese?, it is more "Americanized"?

And maybe I have NO idea what I'm talking about! But I certainly can taste a difference, and I prefer Skokie's location. And if it IS more Americanized,,,,,,,,,, well, I LIKE what I LIKE!

[Master Jay]

Kmanshouse, you mentioned:

"And of course, Lincoln Square (my stomping grounds), where you can walk from Lawrence/Lincoln, along Lincoln Ave south for many blocks and pass nice stores, restaurants, bars, and Welles Park."

Sounds like a FASCINATING part of town.

Hopefully ONE day, I can check it out.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by ChiGuy2.5

Thanks for the positive review! I like to think of Chicago's aggressive driving as "purposeful". I can't stand going to other cities where drivers are recklessly aggressive. I feel like Chicagoans are aggressive with a purpose and typically are aware of their surroundings.

I did some autocross racing and had an SCCA license back in the day. I can assure you that the drivers around here are not purposeful or aware of their surroundings. They're just very aggressive, and actually poor drivers fundamentally. If you know the fundamentals about how to drive a car fast, you will laugh at how these people drive!

I am not certain about California nowadays but it seems like we generally don't enforce traffic laws much anymore. So that's leading to this culture.

[ChiGuy2.5]

Originally Posted by BRU67

I did some autocross racing and had an SCCA license back in the day. I can assure you that the drivers around here are not purposeful or aware of their surroundings. They're just very aggressive, and actually poor drivers fundamentally. If you know the fundamentals about how to drive a car fast, you will laugh at how these people drive!

I am not certain about California nowadays but it seems like we generally don't enforce traffic laws much anymore. So that's leading to this culture.

Agree to disagree. I road trip across the country quite frequently and Chicagoland drivers are by far some of the best drivers. They might be aggressive but generally they know what they are doing. Areas like Wisconsin and Tennessee which I frequent, the drivers are extra terrible.

I also don't know what racing has to do with driving on public roadways. That's not the same thing at all.

[BRU67]

In performance driving school, you will learn how to drive a car smoothly to keep it balanced and thus able to predictably respond, and keep enough distance around you so that you can react to hazards which might come up on the track in a split second. This is very translatable to driving on the street.

In my observation, few aggressive drivers around here follow these basic rules. I'm not picking on all the drivers, just the ones who drive very aggressively.

To tie this back to your post, you actually drive (much) faster when you drive smoothly. So if the point is to purposely get to a destination fast, these drivers ain't doing it!

[Gaylord_Focker]

Originally Posted by BRU67

I did some autocross racing and had an SCCA license back in the day. I can assure you that the drivers around here are not purposeful or aware of their surroundings. They're just very aggressive, and actually poor drivers fundamentally. If you know the fundamentals about how to drive a car fast, you will laugh at how these people drive!

I am not certain about California nowadays but it seems like we generally don't enforce traffic laws much anymore. So that's leading to this culture.

This is what I've noticed. We drive fast out here in California too but most of us are respectful. My exposure was limited of course, but from what I saw, there are some anger issues haha.

[RamenAddict]

Originally Posted by BRU67

In performance driving school, you will learn how to drive a car smoothly to keep it balanced and thus able to predictably respond, and keep enough distance around you so that you can react to hazards which might come up on the track in a split second. This is very translatable to driving on the street.

In my observation, few aggressive drivers around here follow these basic rules. I'm not picking on all the drivers, just the ones who drive very aggressively.

To tie this back to your post, you actually drive (much) faster when you drive smoothly. So if the point is to purposely get to a destination fast, these drivers ain't doing it!

Sure- the aggressive drivers here A) honk immediately when the light turns green, as if that is somehow going to make people put their feet on the gas any sooner, and B) tailgate and switch lanes wildly. When I see people driving like them, I do my best to be annoying and make it as hard as possible for those people to pass. If you want to pass, leave some nice distance between you and the person in front of you. Don’t even get me started on trying to merge into traffic while someone behinds you decides it’s a good idea to go around you on the shoulder in areas where it explicitly says the shoulder is only for Pace/emergency vehicles.

My sister is an aggressive CA driver and it’s definitely more respectful over there. She was annoyed in a car with me because I was not aggressive enough. We are from FL originally but she never really drove there. You have to drive there with the assumption that there will be some clueless driver in front of you going 20mph under the speed limit, so it is harder to get really aggressive.

[BRU67]

If you want to have a lot of fun, try slamming on your brakes at a high speed when your car is not straight and balanced. Weeeeee! You will do that exactly one time.