Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Location: Cleveland, OH USA / formerly Chicago for 20 years
4,069 posts, read 7,323,169 times
Reputation: 3062
Advertisements
Quote:
Originally Posted by Drover
Yeah, no kidding. The neighborhood I live in isn't a hot spot but it's nice, clean, quiet, stable, and within easy striking distance of several nightlife areas. And I pay less than half that for a vintage 1200sqft 2-bedroom -- with off-street parking. And by "vintage" I don't mean run-down. It's well-kept with hardwood floors and crown molding and all that.
I really liked this post you made awhile back about your neighborhood on a thread in the City-vs-City forum... it actually made me wonder out loud why I'm still living in an East Lakeview highrise:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Drover
I live in a safe, quiet neighborhood. I'm within 10 minutes walking distance of 3 train stations that can put me in the central business district in 20 to 30 minutes, or to one of the city's major nightlife districts in less than 15. I can get to several other nightlife districts by public transportation in 20 to 30 minutes. I can walk to anything I need including two major grocery stores, a few decent watering holes, and ethnic restaurants of head-spinning variety, anything from greasy-spoon diners on up to the only 5-star Thai restaurant in the country, and about everything in between -- German, Italian, Korean, Afghan, Romanian, Moroccan, Peruvian, Ecuadorian, yadda yadda yadda.
I can do all this from my 1250sqft two-bedroom apartment for which I pay $925 a month. If this unit ever came on the market I could probably buy it for about $200K. This is what I call nice. And try that in L.A.
I really liked this post you made awhile back about your neighborhood on a thread in the City-vs-City forum... it actually made me wonder out loud why I'm still living in an East Lakeview highrise:
Well if you're looking for a change of pace, my landlord has a couple units coming up for rent within the next month or two: a 900sqft 1-bedroom for $800/mo and a 1250sqft 2-bedroom for $1100/mo. Both include heat. DM me if you're interested.
Well if you're looking for a change of pace, my landlord has a couple units coming up for rent within the next month or two: a 900sqft 1-bedroom for $800/mo and a 1250sqft 2-bedroom for $1100/mo. Both include heat. DM me if you're interested.
If I ever wind up moving to Chicago, I just might ask you for a referral; those prices are certainly better than Boston...and yes, the "nice" neighborhoods are the quiet, stable ones; I don't care much for "trendy" areas..
So, yes I am moving out of Chicago soon. We're getting ready to do a big rummage sale, but I noticed that CD says no advertising on these threads; use the CD Classifieds instead.
This audience right here, in the Chicago and suburban forums are the folks I want to target to do some shameless plugging of our sale. Do any of you read the classifieds here? Seems like a waste of time.
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
10,138 posts, read 16,055,953 times
Reputation: 4047
Well I spend a good amount of time in Chicago, I love the city. And half my heart goes out to this city and the other half to Houston.
I live in both cities. I have my schedule set up to where it's 8 months of school in Austin, Texas, with every weekend of going home to Houston. Then I have 3 months of Chicago. And one month of a years time I spend traveling to some other city/place most often San Jose, California where my cousins live. Or Los Angeles where another close cousin lives.
I guess I can't say definitely that I have considered moving out of Chicago before, I was born in Chicago, but I only spend 3 months of the year here and mostly during summer too, like right now.
I love Houston & I love Chicago too. I love the fact that Chicago is an established city, it's a very vibrant city and it's amazing. Trust me, the city itself has a lot of potential.
I have read some of the comments here, it disheartens me to see such negative comments about both of my cities Chicago/Houston in one thread... hmmm not cool.
Chicago is a lot larger city, and it's leagues ahead of Houston, as it should be. But remember that Houston is a city that's growing. Houston is to Chicago right now what Chicago was to Philadelphia in 1880. Where Chicago was right behind Philadelphia. Chicago outgrew it, and it took over and today's it's more important than Philadelphia. Just to be straight here, I'm not saying Houston is going to become more important than Chicago, but it's likely to have a good future with Chicago and Los Angeles in 40 years. It has to beat off Dallas first, and it's about to do so. The coastal settings there have put the city into the mood and this decade it will pull away from Dallas.
What I mean is that Houston has a lot of world class like projects going up right now that Chicago has already had before in the past. It's becoming a city the world will know someday. Chicago already is, and it's a great one at that. It holds it's ground against Los Angeles pretty well.
But Houston is not this- Chicago is and always will be famed for this:
The reason I feel a lot of people sleep on Houston is because they don't think it's a true city yet and a lot of people think it never will be. Which is fine. But take it from me, trust me, with the amount of projects that city proposes every month, they'll get there.
This one they just proposed a few weeks back actually:
^^ That will all be shopping/hotels/entertainment & restaurant area. The city is playing catch up and starting to act like America's 4th largest now. Finally. And it's among just a few projects, there's plenty more crazy stuff like that going up.
Anyways, I'm not here to brag about Houston, because that's not my point, I'm just trying to make sure people don't sleep on either of my cities.
Now the people here who are considering a move because of jobs, it's actually better to just keep your resume out on Dice/Monster than to move and then search for a job. That's generally a bad idea, most places despite having a better economy will still have rough competition for the job openings.
Leaving Chicago may/may not help you in the future. The best thing to do is go where the job takes you. Right now you can't be complaining.
If you want to stay in Chicago, then just remember, you're living in one of the best cities in the country (among the top 3) and quite possibly one of the best in the world. Think before you leave, why give it up so easily?
But hey, don't let me catch you hating on Chicago/Houston! I'm a super homer to the max on both. You can hate on Austin though, I really don't care at all about that place... I just go to school there, and live there during school so it's nothing important to me.
Anyways- It's getting late and my post probably made no sense to anyone here. I just read it myself and it just didn't sound well put together like my posts normally are, I guess I'm just tired. Hopefully you understand what I meant, if not, I'll be back after I wake up later today to explain!
Whew! Now that I've gotten all that out of my system, I'm going to go back and answer the OP's question.
Yes, I do sometimes think about leaving Chicago. In the mid-90s I relocated here from Cleveland to accept a job promotion with the telecom where I was working. I'd visited Chicago on several occasions and loved it and had already decided that one day I'd move here, so when the opportunity came up, I accepted it eagerly.
Five years later, after a company merger, I accepted a very generous buyout offer and took early retirement. No longer haviing a job tying me down in Chicago, I was free to stay or go. I took a look at all the big-city cultural, recreational, and entertainment amenities Chicago had to offer (museums, theater, nightlife, restaurants, etc.) and decided to stay so that I could enjoy them now that I had time on my hands and freedom from 60-hour workweeks and long, tiring commutes.
Today, however, I'm rethinking that decision. I'm taking a look at how my lifestyle has panned out and asking myself just how much I do in Chicago that I couldn't do in a number of so-called "lesser" cities -- all while living more cheaply and in somewhat less crowded environs.
For example, I live in the Lakeview area and love everything that's here... but sometimes I think I could be just as happy in, say, Minneapolis' Uptown area, or Denver's Capitol Hill, or Portland's Belmont-Hawthorne district, or similar areas in other smaller big cities. Sure, Chicago has more of everything, but do I really need all that? Does it justify -- for me -- the higher cost of living here? Plus, as I get older, I find the pace of the city gets to me more and more, and the streets are too crowded and the people too reckless, and it's wearing me out. I'm thinking perhaps other cities might offer "enough" urban amenities to keep me stimulated while balancing that with somewhat lower population densities and less "craziness" so that I don't feel overstimulated quite so often.
(One criterion I do have, however, is that I don't want to have to resort to depending on a car to get around, which means I need a place with at least decent public transit and not too sprawling. Modern sunbelt cities are definitely out. Not my thing.)
Sometimes I even think about moving back to my native Cleveland... and I know what jesse means about cheaper housing in Houston, because in the Cleveland area you can buy a lakefront highrise condo in a great area for as little as $30K, or sometimes even less... but when I do go back home for a visit, I spend some time looking around and I say, "God, I could never live here again." So obviously when I look back at my hometown in my mind, I let my nostalgia cause me to romanticize the place too much, and when I take another look at the reality, it doesn't quite fit my romanticized notions.
Which leads me to another point: I try to avoid the "grass is always greener" mentality. After all, when I first moved to Chicago, I thought the place was "Mecca"... but somewhere along the way I misplaced my rose-colored glasses and started seeing all this city's faults and warts. So, too, will it eventually be with any other place I decide to move to. I'm well aware that there is no such place as Utopia... not on this planet, anyway.
So for now I'm staying put... and will do so for the next couple of years at least. Then I'll decide whether to stay or to move on. In the meantime, I'm not going to wish my life away, as my mom used to put it.
Another option I'm considering is to stay in the Chicago area, but move more to the fringes, or even to an inner-ring suburb... for example, I'm very drawn to Oak Park and am thinking that might be a nice place to settle as I get older. It's still walkable and has a decent amount of urban "stuff" (shops, restaurants) although not so much nightlife (which I've mostly lost interest in, anyway), and is somewhat quieter and slower-paced and friendlier than the north lakefront neighborhoods. And it's still a short train ride from downtown Chicago. So that's a possibility.
wow, that's one heck of a great post.
your thought about the "grass is not greener" is so true. eventually, the flaws of every city will come out if you stay there long enough.
as long as you have a safe and comfortable place to live, you really have it all (hopefully a decent job too).
I'm drawn to both ends of the spectrum. I'm torn...I can't figure out if I want to live in Chicago and frequently visit the countryside, or live in the countryside and frequently visit Chicago.
I agree with you Jesse69, I am ready to move away from Chicago too. I was born there and lived there my whole life. Things are getting worse- the corrupt politics, the crime on the South side (and elsewhere for that matter), the taxes and the parking. I hope things improve so that I want to move back someday.
Meanwhile I'm probably going to Seattle or the Bay Area. Too bad the fat cats are making my hometown unlivable for me.
I agree with you Jesse69, I am ready to move away from Chicago too. I was born there and lived there my whole life. Things are getting worse- the corrupt politics, the crime on the South side (and elsewhere for that matter), the taxes and the parking. I hope things improve so that I want to move back someday.
I am not saying that all those things are not a problem at all but I believe it's more a perception of reality than reality. In reality crime is down in this city compared to a year ago, surely as far as murders go, its just that they have been more high profile and newsworthy murders that scare people. Corruption is bad but I just don't see why its so bad that its literally making the city unlivable. Chicago is living through a recession like just about everywhere else and we feel the effects of it. People who say its so bad I just don't see it, I think its just a self full-filling prophecy, if you believe its getting worse you will start to see things that way.
That being said I will live in Chicago for the rest of my life even if I live to be 100. If things ever got really bad I would just become part of the resistance and try and makes things better and not run away. Give me Chicago or give me death.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
