What's the deal Chicago? (Skokie, Des Plaines: condo, closing, living)

[nanannie]

Theres an Oregon Illinois?? Didnt know that,I meant I was from the state,,one must really like Chi town to make THAT trip

[llama214]

I know. By the way. I don't know if you live near Portland, but that city is very nice. To close to a huge fault, but still very nice while it is still a float.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by frizbe

Theres an Oregon Illinois?? Didnt know that,I meant I was from the state,,one must really like Chi town to make THAT trip

Yes, its a quaint little town on the Rock River, nice place, but small. The Blackhawk statue is high up on the bluff and overlooks the town from the north. There is also a nice state park near there too, I cant remember its name right off the bat (Castle Rock?). Anyways, glad you enjoyed Chicago.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by llama214

I know. By the way. I don't know if you live near Portland, but that city is very nice. To close to a huge fault, but still very nice while it is still a float.

Its "too close"... And why make a comment about them falling off into the ocean?!?!?! Rude and obnoxious!!!!!! Frizbe, please ignore comments like this, were not like that out here, I swear.

By the way, I LOVED the Oregon coast, one of the prettiest drives on the face of this earth. I particularly liked watching the sharks and sea lions at that huge sea lion cave, off the highway (I forget its name). It stunk to high heavens, but it was a unique experience Ill never forget. Beautiful country you have! Oh, also there is that HUGE waterfall there, but I cant remember its name either. DOH! Gorgeous!

LLama,wow, you certainly like to offend all around you dont you?!?!? How about this, you walk into Dixon or Oregon and tell them that they "dont live the Illinois lifestyle" or whatever garbage youre spewing now. Please, by all means Captain Illinois, tell us exactly what the "Illinois lifestyle" is! Im all ears buddy.... Ive lived in small towns (out in the cornfields between Dixon and Oregon), big towns, in-between towns, out-of-state towns and cities and have travelled this country VERY extensively. Heck, one time I spent 5 weeks in the west, all in one shot! If you think I dont know what Im talking about, youve got another thing coming! And quit talking about your small town way of life in B-N with your 120K population!!!!! Your downstate city is as big as Naperville. Dont fool us by thinking that since you live below Rt. 80 that you live the "Illinois lifestyle" that all us northern Illinois folks are not. Pfft. Thats probably the most rediculous thing Ive yet to read on this site and I (and Im sure others up here) am offended by it to be honest!

And by the way, WE sit near one of the biggest faults in the world. There have been several tremors near St. Louis that Ive felt up here in the burbs. If that sucker pops, were ALL in for a ride.

[j33]

You know. I did try. I moved to a college town for 3 years in downstate Indiana (which is similar to downstate Illinois in many ways, and has lovely rolling hills), it was a beautiful quaint little town and I enjoyed my time there. BUT, I could not wait to get back home. The first warm summer day I was walking down Wabash, heard the 'el' going overhead, heard someone honk at someone else for no reason, saw those kids banging on the buckets, and saw crowds of people enjoying the summer day, I knew I was back home, it just felt like putting on a comfortable shoe . I'm not a small town person, I did give it a fair shot, am grateful for the experience, but it didn't work out for me, I just couldn't live like that.

Don't get me wrong, there are things that I like about smaller towns, but ultimately, as I've stated before, it is different strokes for different folks. I sincerely tried the small town thing; I did not like it one bit (although there were bits I did like, just as a whole it didn’t work). My sister though, who has lived in LA and Chicago, loves the small town thing, and is happy as a clam living in a little town right outside the Chicago metro area in Northwest Indiana, and my grandfather, who grew up in New York City, left as a young man and vowed to never live there again, so not even my whole family feels the same as I do. I am happy to visit her there, but I am NOT moving out there, it just isn't where I feel comfortable, but I do not begrudge her for what she prefers, nor does she begrudge me for my preferences.

[llama214]

Frzbe, the whole vault thing was a joke! I don't secretly pray for Portland to crash into the ocean. You will have to forgive, Steve-O. He is a zealot about Chicago and uses other people's phrases to attack them. Believe me, what he has shown on this site is not the IQ of Illinois.

Ok, Steve-O. I'm going to end this because I am used to debating things with college eduacted folks, and your ignorance and rudeness clearly show that you are not able to carry a decent debate for more then two replies. For all its worth, you must be paying the mods off because you should have been thrown off this site a long time ago. I have been to alomost every major city in this nation for weeks on end. Wow, your whole five weeks looks great compared to that!! I have friends in most of them that I talk to at least once or twice every six months. You are on this site all the time, give it a rest. And I think it is horrible that you would leave such a high info trail on this site, and then PUT PICS OF YOUR CHILD ON IT. ARE YOU NUTS!!!!???? It would take nothing for a predator to find your exact location. Have a nice life and stop harrassing all of us that are here to be informative and helpful. Have Drover and j33 come over for dinner sometime and have them tell you the secret to embrace the city.

[Steve-o]

Nice post J33, thanks for telling it like it is.

Here are some shots from my patio, I hardly live the "urban" lifestyle that Llama thinks I do. I can post pics like this, yet still be an hour from Chicago. Where Im at is perfect in my eyes, thats all that matters.





http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j292/Illinoisboy/cb58f004.jpg (broken link)

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by llama214

Frzbe, the whole vault thing was a joke! I don't secretly pray for Portland to crash into the ocean. You will have to forgive, Steve-O. He is a zealot about Chicago and uses other people's phrases to attack them. Believe me, what he has shown on this site is not the IQ of Illinois.

Ok, Steve-O. I'm going to end this because I am used to debating things with college eduacted folks, and your ignorance and rudeness clearly show that you are not able to carry a decent debate for more then two replies. For all its worth, you must be paying the mods off because you should have been thrown off this site a long time ago. I have been to alomost every major city in this nation for weeks on end. Wow, your whole five weeks looks great compared to that!! I have friends in most of them that I talk to at least once or twice every six months. You are on this site all the time, give it a rest. And I think it is horrible that you would leave such a high info trail on this site, and then PUT PICS OF YOUR CHILD ON IT. ARE YOU NUTS!!!!???? It would take nothing for a predator to find your exact location. Have a nice life and stop harrassing all of us that are here to be informative and helpful. Have Drover and j33 come over for dinner sometime and have them tell you the secret to embrace the city.

I am college educated, thank you very much! I hold a good job and am married with a son and am 100% happy with how my life has gone. The 5 week vacation was one of 100s that I have taken, I was just stating that when I vacation, I VACATION! Plus, there is nothing wrong with posting pics of my son, Im proud of him and love him with all my heart. I dont harrass anyone on this site who is looking for info, I just defend my area from naysayers, big frickin deal. Its the same thing youre doing. Last I checked it was YOU who started this thread (and others) asking why Chicago is so "bad" and "dirty", etc, etc, etc...

[j33]

Originally Posted by llama214

Are you blind, or just looking for an argument?! Chicago creates more crime than our towns just because of the sheer volume of people. Does that shock you? How can you even ask a question like that!?

Sheer volume of people does not create crime any more than lack of people do not. Now I'm certainly not arguing the there is more crime in Chicago than in some of the smaller towns in Illinois, and many dissertations have been written exploring the issue of urban crime. However large city does not necessarily equal crime just as small town does not necessarily equal safe. Population is not the situation here; otherwise there wouldn't be loads of smaller towns with much higher per capita crime than Chicago, nor would cities with larger populations that have less crime.

My comment was wondering how exactly Chicago 'creates' crime? If your answer is 'Chicago creates crime simply because a hell of a lot of people have chosen to live there for a myriad of social, historical, and political reasons", then I'm not sure I buy it (as you seem to indicate above). Now if you came here and said something like "the existence of large swathes of substandard housing, history of segregation and corruption, etc, etc, creates an atmosphere that crime thrives in" then yes, I'd agree with you, but the vitriol in your post about how I could ask an academic question of how a city in an of itself could 'create crime' befuddles me.

I'm not shocked that there is crime in Chicago, anyone who isn’t an idiot knows there is. I've lived with it most of my life in rather unpleasant ways (I knew more than one kid jumped by gangs, etc as a kid in the 1980's, had friends who had their living room window shot out, know what it is like to listen to gunfire outside my window when I first moved up to the city, etc), thankfully, I no longer live in those areas of town, yet I know full well they exist, and will continue. Yet we are not alone, if you think Chicago is alone in its problems in that regard, I could take you on a nice little tour of parts of Detroit, Gary that will make you beg me t take you back to a nasty section of Chicago (oh, and not to mention when I stayed in Brooklyn with friends just two years ago, I recognized the hollow sound of gunfire at night even though I hadn't heard it in Chicago for several years) this city is not the only city with problems, nor are ours particularly unique or special in the urban fabric. That being said, there are a lot of cities where crime is MUCH worse, I’ve visited them, I’ve had friends who have lived in them. Addtionally, since travel has been discussed, I’ve traveled too, all over the world from Sao Paulo (you want crime on a massive scale, visit Brazil), to London, to Moscow, to New York City (where I stayed in rough area of town by the projects), and I’m always happy to come home, I wouldn’t if it were a God forsaken hellhole (my only complaint about the place is that it has a tendancy for a 'midwestern conservatism' that rubs me the wrong way sometimes).

To live in urban America is to live with these dichotomies on a daily basis, and those are the facts sir.

I guess I’m still trying to figure out where you are coming from and what motivates your posts. My guess is that you don't like large cities (which is fine, I don't like most small towns or suburbs, so fair is fair) and have decided to single out the city closest to you as a target for your ire (which is not).

[ontheroad]

Well, a good read for sure. Thought I'd get a view of Steve and Drover's POV of their city--Chicago.

I for one love Chicago and I'm originally from that other big city-NYC.

And I don't recall dirt, but it was winter, and perhaps I was having so much fun I didn't see anything except what I wanted to enjoy and the dirt was under the snow