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.
I have lived in NYC (Manhattan) and I have spent time all over the immediate Tri-state. I have also lived in Chicago (near North side) and I have spent time all over the metro area.
It’s simply personal preference and feel. I would spend time in both places. If you only know one of them, take a trip to the other.
Both are great places. (don’t listen to parochial/provincial types from either place)
If you have more specific questions feel free to reach out.
I spent the bulk of my twenties in New York (Park Slope, West Village, Hell's Kitchen, Morningside Heights) and the first half of my thirties in Chicago (Hyde Park, River North, Edgewater) They are both wonderful cities to live in, as long as you can handle a real winter.
For me the price premium to live in NYC is not quite worth it, but YMMV. New York obviously has more of most things and more and better of many things, but my line has always been: "There is not much you can do in New York that you can't do in Chicago for half the price, an eighth of the hassle and none of the attitude." I get that the hassle and attitude are part of the mystique.
Chicago, in my experience offers the best urban bang for your buck in the English-speaking world. Melbourne second, Philadelphia and Manchester UK can duke it out for third. Housing in Chicago is mostly cheaper and nicer than New York, except for the super high end. Most Chicago apartments come with a dining room. New York would try call that space an extra bedroom and charge accordingly. Many, many Chicago apartments have a large deck at the back, the equivalent of a New York fire escape, except that it is big enough to hold a dining table and chairs. In New York, they call that a terrace and it is rare rather than standard. You don't have to pay an arm and a leg to live in a shoebox in Chicago. . .
Chicago is also easier to get around. Public transport is entirely sufficient but you can also have a car if you want one. The beaches in the summer are much more generally accessible (and cleaner). There is more and better BBQ, Mexican and Polish food, more and better blues music in Chicago, but for nearly everything else there is simply more (and often better) in New York.
So its trade offs: Are you willing to have only 2 world-class art museums in Chicago as opposed to 5 in New York in order to have a more comfortable living situation and more disposable income? I find New York exciting but stressful and exhausting, so when I lived there I was often too tired and irritable to take advantage of all that was on offer. Chicago is hardly sleepy but it is a little more chill than New York, and paradoxically less provincial in the sense that for a sizable minority of New Yorkers if it does not happen in New York, it does not count.
You have been given a lot of info/perspectives in this thread so far, including a lot of rubbish. I agree with the poster who said check them both out, and it will be your priorities that decide which one is best for you, not something that is intrinsic to either place in a pecking order.
So just to confirm -- you are saying there are no unique offerings or attractions anywhere in Downtown Manhattan, that are distinct from Midtown or the UES or LIC, that would attract someone from Astoria? As opposed to the amazingly vibrant and unique Chicago Loop that is more likely to attract someone from Uptown Chicago. Did I get that right?
Are you saying Astoria (or Queens in general) lacks the Amenities necessary to life a full and happy life?
The fact is you pass a lot more things between Astoria and Downtown Manhattan than between the Loop and Uptown Chicago.
All I am saying is your radius of activity is smaller in New York than in Chicago, and is smaller in Chicago than it is in St Louis and smaller in St. Louis than in Rural Iowa. That fact will effectively “shrink” the city.
Other than things like Yankee Stadium, Broadway, the Met and other more or less “daytrip” destinations sprinkled throughout the city a larger fraction of the city is a mystery.
For example Chicago has *a* Chinatown. Queens has its own (actually larger Chinatown) so if you live in the Eastern 1/2 of Queens you have no reason to go all the way to Manhattan for Peking Duck.
This is the main reason people move to New York. Because everything is right outside your door. That’s the point. Nobody is New York is traveling 6 miles to the grocery store.
I spent the bulk of my twenties in New York (Park Slope, West Village, Hell's Kitchen, Morningside Heights) and the first half of my thirties in Chicago (Hyde Park, River North, Edgewater) They are both wonderful cities to live in, as long as you can handle a real winter.
For me the price premium to live in NYC is not quite worth it, but YMMV. New York obviously has more of most things and more and better of many things, but my line has always been: "There is not much you can do in New York that you can't do in Chicago for half the price, an eighth of the hassle and none of the attitude." I get that the hassle and attitude are part of the mystique.
Chicago, in my experience offers the best urban bang for your buck in the English-speaking world. Melbourne second, Philadelphia and Manchester UK can duke it out for third. Housing in Chicago is mostly cheaper and nicer than New York, except for the super high end. Most Chicago apartments come with a dining room. New York would try call that space an extra bedroom and charge accordingly. Many, many Chicago apartments have a large deck at the back, the equivalent of a New York fire escape, except that it is big enough to hold a dining table and chairs. In New York, they call that a terrace and it is rare rather than standard. You don't have to pay an arm and a leg to live in a shoebox in Chicago. . .
Chicago is also easier to get around. Public transport is entirely sufficient but you can also have a car if you want one. The beaches in the summer are much more generally accessible (and cleaner). There is more and better BBQ, Mexican and Polish food, more and better blues music in Chicago, but for nearly everything else there is simply more (and often better) in New York.
So its trade offs: Are you willing to have only 2 world-class art museums in Chicago as opposed to 5 in New York in order to have a more comfortable living situation and more disposable income? I find New York exciting but stressful and exhausting, so when I lived there I was often too tired and irritable to take advantage of all that was on offer. Chicago is hardly sleepy but it is a little more chill than New York, and paradoxically less provincial in the sense that for a sizable minority of New Yorkers if it does not happen in New York, it does not count.
You have been given a lot of info/perspectives in this thread so far, including a lot of rubbish. I agree with the poster who said check them both out, and it will be your priorities that decide which one is best for you, not something that is intrinsic to either place in a pecking order.
I spent the bulk of my twenties in New York (Park Slope, West Village, Hell's Kitchen, Morningside Heights) and the first half of my thirties in Chicago (Hyde Park, River North, Edgewater) They are both wonderful cities to live in, as long as you can handle a real winter.
For me the price premium to live in NYC is not quite worth it, but YMMV. New York obviously has more of most things and more and better of many things, but my line has always been: "There is not much you can do in New York that you can't do in Chicago for half the price, an eighth of the hassle and none of the attitude." I get that the hassle and attitude are part of the mystique.
Chicago, in my experience offers the best urban bang for your buck in the English-speaking world. Melbourne second, Philadelphia and Manchester UK can duke it out for third. Housing in Chicago is mostly cheaper and nicer than New York, except for the super high end. Most Chicago apartments come with a dining room. New York would try call that space an extra bedroom and charge accordingly. Many, many Chicago apartments have a large deck at the back, the equivalent of a New York fire escape, except that it is big enough to hold a dining table and chairs. In New York, they call that a terrace and it is rare rather than standard. You don't have to pay an arm and a leg to live in a shoebox in Chicago. . .
Chicago is also easier to get around. Public transport is entirely sufficient but you can also have a car if you want one. The beaches in the summer are much more generally accessible (and cleaner). There is more and better BBQ, Mexican and Polish food, more and better blues music in Chicago, but for nearly everything else there is simply more (and often better) in New York.
So its trade offs: Are you willing to have only 2 world-class art museums in Chicago as opposed to 5 in New York in order to have a more comfortable living situation and more disposable income? I find New York exciting but stressful and exhausting, so when I lived there I was often too tired and irritable to take advantage of all that was on offer. Chicago is hardly sleepy but it is a little more chill than New York, and paradoxically less provincial in the sense that for a sizable minority of New Yorkers if it does not happen in New York, it does not count.
You have been given a lot of info/perspectives in this thread so far, including a lot of rubbish. I agree with the poster who said check them both out, and it will be your priorities that decide which one is best for you, not something that is intrinsic to either place in a pecking order.
Most of your post is totally fair and reasonable, but I think the bolded part above kinda misses the point. The main difference is not that NY has more museums or restaurants or whatever (although over the course of many years in the same city that can play some role). I think the main point is that these are fundamentally different cities with a totally different vibe and energy. As someone said upthread, and I agree, New York IS the experience. It is big, dense, frenetic and crowded in a way that Chicago just isn't -- and probably doesn't want to be. It has an energy and scale that no other US city even remotely replicates. It's urbanity on steroids. Whether that "NYC experience" is worth the premium is totally subjective though -- it depends on your age, income, marital status, individual preferences etc etc. Indeed for many people it may be a turn-off, and for them Chicago would certainly be the better choice.
In New York I went up the Empire State Building to the top at like 1AM on a Thursday night one time and there were just people all over the place - even bought food from a street-food vendor right outside the building. In Chicago the Sears Tower shuts down at I don't even know what time.
I feel that NY is more uniformly 24 hour whereas in Chicago you've got to jump from place to place. That said, if a concert gets out at Reggie's in Chicago at 10:30PM and you want to just go home, you can be in Rogers Park by 11:00PM easily via uber.
So with the average cost of rent in NYC approaching $3500, and a comparable place in Chicago costing less than $2000, I, being a prospective NYC renter, wanted to know what things about NYC make it worth living there?
1) What is something you encounter on a daily basis that makes you glad you're paying a premium to live in NYC?
2) What is something you can experience in NYC that you can't get in Chicago?
I'm not counting proximity to nearby places as an experience, because one could easily travel from Chicago to those same places at a lower cost (as compared to living in NYC just to be closer).
As a former New Yorker, I can answer your questions with some circular reasoning. You pay more for NYC because it's fricking NYC. No other place like it, not even Chicago and i personally love Chicago. But it's not NYC, not even close.
I'm a born and raised New Yorker. In my opinion if you're the type to just live and play in downtowns or near downtowns then I guess you should save your money and move to Chicago. Love their downtown.
But as far as entire city experience? Ughh yea NYC experiences are definitely worth it. I love Chicago but once you leave the city core and the areas around the city core the city seems to get boring and less diverse to me. I like the fact that you can still somewhat explore the crime ridden areas of NYC and have confidence that nothing will happen to you. Meanwhile in Chicago a lot of the crime ridden areas are no go zones. Hearing my citizens app constantly ring because of shootings while I was enjoying Chicago was sort of disturbing.
Anyways Chicago is a great city and would definitely be a city I would move to if I had an opportunity to live someplace else.
In New York I went up the Empire State Building to the top at like 1AM on a Thursday night one time and there were just people all over the place - even bought food from a street-food vendor right outside the building. In Chicago the Sears Tower shuts down at I don't even know what time.
I feel that NY is more uniformly 24 hour whereas in Chicago you've got to jump from place to place. That said, if a concert gets out at Reggie's in Chicago at 10:30PM and you want to just go home, you can be in Rogers Park by 11:00PM easily via uber.
As a former New Yorker, I can answer your questions with some circular reasoning. You pay more for NYC because it's fricking NYC. No other place like it, not even Chicago and i personally love Chicago. But it's not NYC, not even close.
Agreed and it’s not all about population, density and how many things to go and see, it’s also a feeling one gets in NY that is hard to explain. Some get it some don’t. If you know you know. But the same thing can be said for other great cities and that’s cool. But to me there is no substitute for NY’s energetic and incredible pulse.
I do not view driving as a plus when you are in any downtown so I am not sure why people are giving that a plus. I go to downtowns to walk.
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.
