Anyone here ever lived in Atlanta and Chicago? (comparison, bigger, population)

[Forhall]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

What is it like being so wrong, so often?



How many people actually search out high-end dining and tasting menus? Those "tasting menu" places appear to me to be places where you go and pay a very high price for miniature food. Simply not the scene most people are looking for.



I did enjoy the downtown there. Like the lake and the river. I wouldn't mind living in that type of area, even though it's a little busy for my tastes. But I can't live up there.

Quite a few people seek out tasting menus. Most of the top restaraunts in the world are tasting menus as it allows you to try a house ensemble of dishes curated by the chef, and makes it more of an experience than a meal. Atlanta is very much lacking on these. We have many casual, very good restaraunts (Gunshow, Bacchanalia, Atlas, Eugene) but almost no full 10-12 course tasting menu restaraunts. It's something that's really missing from our dining scene compared to other large metros.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by Forhall

Quite a few people seek out tasting menus. Most of the top restaraunts in the world are tasting menus as it allows you to try a house ensemble of dishes curated by the chef, and makes it more of an experience than a meal. Atlanta is very much lacking on these. We have many casual, very good restaraunts (Gunshow, Bacchanalia, Atlas, Eugene) but almost no full 10-12 course tasting menu restaraunts. It's something that's really missing from our dining scene compared to other large metros.

Zagat begs to differ.

https://www.zagat.com/b/hottest-tasting-menus-atlanta

[Forhall]

Originally Posted by Iconographer

Zagat begs to differ.

https://www.zagat.com/b/hottest-tasting-menus-atlanta

I appreciate this, I've been to about half of them, but there are a few I've missed. Glad to see we have more than I realized!

That said, I still maintain we don't have the best high end dining scene. I love our food, but it just doesn't compare to NYC, Chicago, or LA. A good number of our upscale spots are stuffy old steakhouses. Thankfully chefs like Kevin Gillespie with Gunshow are throwing in some interesting twists and elevating things, but we have a way to go before we can compete with Chicago in my opinion.

[DavePa]

Atlanta having a large tree canopy is a asset. Better if less sprawl and a better street-grid over cu-de-sacs en masse. But certainly the tree canopy is a asset and beauty. I certainly need no mountains to impress me either. I live in the mountains. They just get in the way in commutes to pass over or around them. I prefer flatlands if a choice in moving.

But Chicago's virtue still is a green more urban city and its street-grid that required standard set-backs for green-frontage and trees. Most tree-canopy links seem to ignore more urban tree-lined neighborhoods and frontage. More sprawling or with forested parks over more manicured man-made parks and a lakefront as Chicago's.

The city had to re-create a lakefront of parks, harbors and beaches that the early city and industry .... did not respect. But many decisions to remake a new city after much was destroyed in 1871. Shows today in plans carried out.

Atlanta certainly has its tree-canopy. But Chicago has Lake Michigan and its 26-miles of parks, harbors and 15-miles as beach-front and still green neighborhoods ... though smaller urban lot sizes. Sadly, its northern location cheats it out of more year-round use more. But it is a virtual ... INLAND SEA and COAST. That Atlanta doesn't have.

Location certainly was key to the city's evolving. But sadly, winters are no northern city's asset today.

[usamathman]

Chicago hands down.

It's one of the last if not the last true urban city that is still relatively affordable. Endless entertainment options. Excellent food. Very good public transportation. Decent paying jobs. The locals are pretty good people. Usually the college graduates from Michigan and Wisconsin that stink up the place with their entitled attitudes.

Overall, I don't think Atlanta can compete on any level with Chicago. Maybe in greenery, cheaper taxes, better public schools and diversity.

Other than that a person looking for a true urban experience cannot go wrong in Chicago.

[Atlanta_BD]

Originally Posted by usamathman

Chicago hands down.

It's one of the last if not the last true urban city that is still relatively affordable. Endless entertainment options. Excellent food. Very good public transportation. Decent paying jobs. The locals are pretty good people. Usually the college graduates from Michigan and Wisconsin that stink up the place with their entitled attitudes.

Overall, I don't think Atlanta can compete on any level with Chicago. Maybe in greenery, cheaper taxes, better public schools and diversity.

Other than that a person looking for a true urban experience cannot go wrong in Chicago.

I agree with everything you wrote except education. While both cities have had challenges with their school systems, Chicago's issues have had more to do with lack of funding in lower-income areas. There are some great schools in Atlanta in the wealthier areas. My child went to some of those schools when we lived in Atlanta and she did well. But overall, Illinois ranks higher than Georgia in terms of education and the quality of education is better than Chicago than in Atlanta.

APS had that test cheating scandal for which many teachers and administrators were imprisoned. County school systems in metro Atlanta have been threatened with loss of accreditation for K-12 education. I don't think anything like that has ever happened in Chicagoland that I can recall.

[usamathman]

Originally Posted by Atlanta_BD

I agree with everything you wrote except education. While both cities have had challenges with their school systems, Chicago's issues have had more to do with lack of funding in lower-income areas. There are some great schools in Atlanta in the wealthier areas. My child went to some of those schools when we lived in Atlanta and she did well. But overall, Illinois ranks higher than Georgia in terms of education and the quality of education is better than Chicago than in Atlanta.

APS had that test cheating scandal for which many teachers and administrators were imprisoned. County school systems in metro Atlanta have been threatened with loss of accreditation for K-12 education. I don't think anything like that has ever happened in Chicagoland that I can recall.

The rankings that you see are for schools in the suburbs. City of Chicago school system is an absolute mess.
The teachers at CPS are some of the best and most dedicated you will ever meet.

But the board of education is a s**t show. There are been several major scandals over the past 5 years that you probably haven't heard about. Mostly dirty politics and deals ($$$) being made under the table at the expense of teachers and students. Just google CPS teacher strikes and CPS administrator arrests and you will see all that you need to see. I honestly couldn't recommend anybody sending their kids to 95% of the CPS schools. And wouldn't recommend anybody working for the board of education either.

[oldschoolChevy]

Originally Posted by flamadiddle

Word on the street? lol

Nah, I am considering hopping the border to NWI to reduce my tax burden, but that's still considered the Chicago suburbs.

NW Indiana is about the same as living in Clayton County though, to be real I'd actually put it a level or 2 below. Yeah NWI is 30-45 minutes from Chicago, but it's about as bland and void of stuff to do as it gets. Chicago is cool, I love it up there, but most of yall don't live in Chicago. You live in sleepy burbs that are just as vanilla and boring as stuff anywhere else.

NWI??? Are you serious?? What are you gonna do in your free time?? Go hang out with the winos and killers on Broadway in GI or go hit up the movies in Portage and look at folks in camo coveralls and Duck Dynasty shirts all day? NWI is depressing, and this coming from someone who has a lot of love and family ties to the area, but still loves the rustbelt Midwest as a whole.


And don't downplay it either, I have rental property in Gary and Hammond, I lurk the NWI page probably more than I do here, and you're a lot closer than "considering a move to NWI", I see you in there on the regular, stop flexing.

[atler8]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

So? Atlanta has two oceans, multiple large lakes, countless whitewater rivers, the Appalachian Mountains, Charlotte, Chattanooga, Charleston, Savannah, and numerous others within 300 miles (and Memphis just slightly further). I'll take all that over any of the cities listed above.

The elephant-in-the-room flaw in your first sentence is the fact that Chicago sits directly on Lake Michigan & has a waterfront that is lined with huge parks & beaches. Seriously, it's like 30-some miles of almost solid parks! And this is all at the fingertips of Chicagoans.
As I pointed out here earlier, it's such a HUGE LAKE that for all practical purposes it's like living on an inland ocean!
If you've never been there to see &/or experience the size or pleasures of the lake, I suppose you can justifiably be excused for your first sentence that included "...Atlanta has two oceans, multiple large lakes..".
As I have written here, a major drawback of Atlanta is it's absolute lack of a water source or point of interest in the central city, the dozen miles distant beautiful shores of the Chattahoochee notwithstanding. At such a distance away they do nothing to enhance the cbd, intown living or beauty.

[-thomass]

Unfortunately for Chicago it probably has the worst weather of the major cities. I was there in the winter once and I had tears literally frozen to my face. Otherwise it’s a real fun city.