Quote:
Originally Posted by garyjohnyang
This thread has been open for about half of my lifetime. Anyway, for Chicago: - Regional rail like Paris or NY which runs frequently during off-peak hours
- Better and wider availability of Chinese, Japanese, Korean food like LA
- More culinary diversity in general, especially in the Loop
- An urban square like SF Union Square or Toronto's Yonge-Dundas Square. Millennium Park and Michigan Avenue sort of satisfy this function, but not entirely
- More vibrant residential and commercial areas in our "depressed" neighborhoods, like NY or Toronto
- A trademark type of bread, like sourdough for SF
- More destination suburbs, as in LA or even DC
- A more impressive Union Station, like DC
- An Italian neighborhood like Boston's North End
- Disneyland or Cedar Point, but right outside the city
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You mentioned some points, where IMO for at least some of the ones you said, I'm not sure if a few of the ones you said are as bad of an issue as you think. For your first point, we already have Metra(which runs various lines to different Chicago suburbs, including even one line up to Kenosha, WI) and South Shore Line(to Northwest Indiana and South Bend). Metra and South Shore have done some adjustments to make their train schedules a little better in the last few years too, such as on Metra Electric they revised their schedule so that on the main line of ME to University Park, that trains now run a little more often during daytime hours. South Shore Line added a new express train on weekday mornings and afternoons, that only stops at the few high platform stations between East Chicago, IN and South Bend. I imagine such a train would probably also stop in Michigan City, IN too, whenever NICTD(the agency that runs South Shore Line) one day gets around to building a high platform station there. Ditto with whenever Portage/Ogden Dunes gets upgraded to a high platform station, as NICTD has floated the idea of doing a few years back. And NICTD has more ideas in the works too, such as to double track their line between Gary and Michigan City, and to build a new north to south train line between Hammond and Dyer.
Chicago technically has a few Italian business districts like Taylor Street(not far from the UIC campus), Heart of Chicago(this one isn't very known unlike the other Italian areas, but is centered around Oakley and 24th Street), and north Harlem Street(north of Grand Ave) in the Mont Clare neighborhood. I do get your point that our Italian business districts in Chicago may not feel as dynamic, like you may have in a few other cities(i.e. Arthur Ave between 184th and 189th, in the Bronx in NYC, or Boston's North End) though. As for urban squares/pedestrianized areas, you forgot the Lincoln Ave business district just south of Lawrence Ave, where it does feel a little more pedestrianized than other parts of Chicago. And the area right by Giddings Plaza(and part of this same area), is extremely nice too, near Cafe Selmarie and a lot of other nice restaurants, bars, and stores(btw, RIP Chicago Brauhaus):
https://goo.gl/maps/8dzZ7sy86FeKW4x66 Yes I won't deny that as far as that goes, Europe is probably better for finding such areas. That said, I do like Chicago Mayor Lightfoot's program of closing off certain blocks in business districts for restaurants and bars wanting to set up outdoor patios that was done last summer, and looks like will also occur again this summer myself. Yes as for bread there isn't exactly any style of locally baked bread that a lot of local places will bake on their own, but I'd check out Lost Larson(both in Andersonville, and as of late opened another location in Wicker Park) if you're looking for a place baking bread locally on their own which does a decent job for the bread they bake on their own.
You mentioned Union Station, where IMO when I've looked at older pics, sadly the upper floors of Union Station got blandized in their classic look years ago. At least the waiting room part in the west half of Union Station still looks VERY classic, and yes was where the scene in the movie The Untouchables once was filmed in. Also Ogilvie Transportation Center(formerly Chicago and North Western station) once had a more classic look, but the main waiting room and ticket building got demolished years ago for a blah high rise where you enter Ogilvie Station through now.
If you look it up online, you can find some older pics of what the former building looked like, before it was demolished for that current building in the 1980s. I'm pretty sure one of the Arcadia Publishing history books, has a few pics inside that book(was it Lost Chicago? I forget what that book by Arcadia was called) that shows a few pics of what the predecessor station for Ogilvie/C&NW looked like, before the current blah high rise was built. The platform area right by where you board the trains at Ogilvie still has a classic look, though. And I know in the South Loop somewhere(not far from where Printer's Row Literary Fest occurs at each year), there is an ex-downtown commuter train station turned office building that's worth a walk inside of, in case you've never seen it before.
You were mentioning Japanese, Chinese, and Korean food, which honestly I have that weird feeling LA probably has Chicago beat in that regard. Especially LA for its Korean food(hadn't been to LA yet, but hope to someday), and SF for Chinese food(I REALLY love its Chinatown district! best such one in the whole US and honestly all of North America, for sure. as that one is ahead of the one I walked through in Manhattan, and the one I saw in Montreal). Also you mentioned good business districts in depressed neighborhoods, and I'd say we have at least a few that would fit this bill. I.e. 26th Street in Little Village on the west side is a pretty decent and vibrant business district(still successful, despite gang crime being an occasional issue in this area), Devon Ave in West Ridge/West Rogers Park(another area that once in a while, has gang crime issues), and Bronzeville and Kenwood I'd actually say are both pretty decent middle class black areas. Ex-President Obama had his Chicago house in Kenwood btw, and same with the pastor(I always forget his name) who leads the Nation of Islam church out of Mosque Maryam on the southeast side living in Kenwood. Yes NYC probably has us beat in this regard, but I wouldn't expect Chicago to have as many such business districts as NYC. There is a small one on 75th Street east of the Dan Ryan expressway(and the Red Line L), that has a couple businesses that get a lot of talk already such as Soul Vegetarian. The 75th St. district/area doesn't get as much talk as the other neighborhoods I said, though.
Chicago once did have Riverview Amusement Park, immediately north and west of Belmont and Western and a little south of Lane Tech which operated until about 1967. And until 2009, Kiddieland operated in Melrose Park, so technically Chicago and nearby inner ring suburbs did have such a local amusement park that was popular with many. There still is one left in Great America in Gurnee, and yep do know what you mean that it's a little ways north of Chicago! Amusement parks barely are being built anymore sadly to say, so if anything we should be grateful Great America still exists! Also last year Indiana Beach in Monticello, IN(between Chicago and Lafayette, not far from Purdue University) was saved from closing, with a new owner pledging to take over and invest in that amusement park.
I don't know what the heck you're saying that there aren't decent destination suburbs off of Metra and South Shore train lines, since plenty already do exist! I.e. La Grange, Downers Grove, and Naperville to name a few on the BNSF Metra line, Oak Park, Elmhurst, Glen Ellyn, and Geneva on the Union Pacific West line, Itasca and Elgin on the Milwaukee District West line(and IMO, people HEAVILY underrate downtown Elgin, and to me it's much better than people give it credit for), Park Ridge(especially the Pickwick movie theater), Des Plaines(check out their library, if you do go here), Arlington Heights, Barrington(rooting for The Catlow to get a successful restoration, since a la the Pickwick, this was another GREAT mom and pop movie theater in the northwest suburbs. new owner wants this place to also start to host plays and musicals, besides show movies), and Crystal Lake on the Union Pacific Northwest Line, Evanston, Wilmette, Glencoe, Highland Park, Lake Bluff, and Kenosha, WI to name a few on the Union Pacific North Line, Lemont and Lockport on the Heritage Corridor line, any stop in Beverly and Morgan Park on the far south side in Chicago, or Blue Island, Tinley Park, and Joliet on Rock Island line(like Elgin, I think people underrate Joliet), Hyde Park neighborhood(particularly near 55-56-57th St station), Flossmoor, and Homewood on Metra Electric, and Beverly Shores and Michigan City on the South Shore in NW Indiana. Who the heck said the Chicago area doesn't have decent places, off of our commuter rail lines?!? Since they do exist.
I'll honestly say for garyjohnyang that there are different issues that bug me much more about the city of Chicago and the Chicago area, vs. the ones you said. Yes I won't disagree with a few of the ones you said(i.e. the Italian areas here probably couldn't quite equal say like Arthur Ave in the Bronx, or the North End of Boston, and also of course that more than likely Korean food is probably better in LA), so here are my beefs(lol) where I wish we were better at:
-the fact that there are no hills or nearby mountains you easily can drive to, from the Chicago area. Sure one could drive to Galena, IL or drive to any of the hilly areas in say like northeast Iowa, southeast Minnesota, or southwest Wisconsin, but that is a MUCH further drive away than I prefer IMO!
-I REALLY hate how cold Chicago gets in the winter, and ditto with the snow. Yes I realize those 2 are factors Chicago can't do much to fix, and are just the way mother nature created the land Chicago was built on. And yes, also know climate isn't much Chicago can do much about, short of(a la the ending of the season 9 Trash of the Titans episode of The Simpsons, lol) relocating all the buildings, tracks, etc. constructed to a new, warmer location.
-There aren't as many barbecue restaurants here vs. how many more I wish existed.
-The lack of a single place serving kolaches(which OTOH one can find a good bit of in Texas, and one of those recent city vs. city(I think it was in the street view neighborhood vs. street view neighborhood thread, and coincidentally noticed Four Czechs Bakery in the small town of Fate, northeast of Dallas) threads really reminded me of this)
-the lack of a really good store selling a wide variety of sodas. For the last one there used to be a good place called Joey's Soda and Snacks(near Montrose and Damen, the snacks part in their name was more like candy btw they stocked, lol), but sadly it closed down in the early or mid 2010s.
Lickity Split Custard does carry some candies and even sodas too, but I wish their soda selection was a little better. that said it is still a GREAT place for finding both candy(including their own chocolates they make), and custard.
Almost forgot to say before I end this post, that I'd say Chicago ALREADY has a lot of culinary diversity. If you look at the culinary diversity of Chicago in say back like in the 1980s or 90s vs. today, you can see Chicago has GREATLY improved since those decades! That also is why the James Beard restaurant association noticed Chicago, and even decided for at least a few years to host that awards festival in Chicago instead of New York! That said you have to be open to traveling into city neighborhoods away from downtown to find the decent restaurants, since IMO the Loop has LOOOONG been blah as far as finding more interesting places to eat. To me that area was always too dominated by chains, and ditto with River North as well.
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