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True...beach tourists need an easy walk from the hotel (no dank tunnels!), margarita service, and umbrellas in place. Or, alternatively, easy connectivity with the urban district like in many big cities.
Personally I'll take a park with trees along the water vs. plain sand behind a waterfront freeway...if it's hot enough to sit out or get in the water, it's too hot to be in the sun. While NYC has a lot of inaccessible waterfront, it also has a lot of far-superior waterfront vs. Chicago.
This is laughable lol a Beach is a Beach no matter where it’s located it’s still apart of the city of NY.. It doesn’t stop hundreds upon thousands of people from going to the beaches here in New York City and surrounding areas. . Depending on where you live at Coney Island is not far and depending on where you live in Chicago, downtown beaches can be far away commuting, especially dealing with traffic for those who have to drive from the suburbs. So yeah, you can dress that crap up about skylines and backdrops to back up your claims that chicago has better summers but that don’t fly. Your international and domestic visitation numbers are poor in comparison to New York City.
Speaking of Coney Island there’s almost 50,000 people living in that area compared to downtown chicago. Where is the amusement park in Chicago beaches? North Avenue beach is the most popular one yet Theres a massive highway running right behind it. We don’t have that problem in New York the train drops us right in front of it. So I could be nit-picky as well.
I’m not going to get into winter tourism because chicago falls in that category to compared to NYC in terms of things to do.
And in New York you have massive highways straddling Manhattan on both coastlines (the FDR and West Side Highway) with no beaches....lool
And Coney Island, while it can be a fun place in the summer, is largely run down and dumpy as soon as you leave the amusement area. Chicagos beaches line places like the Loop and Lincoln Park. Areas that are far nicer and offer more to do than Coney Island. Coney Island is a one trick pony. How many people live in rundown high-rises there has no bearing on the conversation. That was a funny tangent though..
But since you measure the quality of a city by number of international visitors, then by that logic Orlando > NYC, because Orlando sometimes beats out NYC for number of international tourists...loool
I'll take NYC though, you can have Orlando...
Hey, don't get me wrong, I love NYC, but in the summer, I'll definitely take Chicago.
Why are people surprised Chicago is not on this list lol? When non-Americans think of American cities NY, LA, DC, Miami, San Francisco and Vegas are the ones that immediately come to mind, not Chicago.
And TBH NYC is way, way above Chicago. It's literally #1 in USA for years running...
Data from 2019 (Which...well, after that COVID just mess up things up until 2022, and this year is the first year that everything is truly back...)
It's not even close between NYC and Chicago anyway...or NYC and everybody else for that matter. Which one is the "better" city does not matter - the numbers speak for itself.
And in New York you have massive highways straddling Manhattan on both coastlines (the FDR and West Side Highway) with no beaches....lool
And Coney Island, while it can be a fun place in the summer, is largely run down and dumpy as soon as you leave the amusement area. Chicagos beaches line places like the Loop and Lincoln Park. Areas that are far nicer and offer more to do than Coney Island. Coney Island is a one trick pony. How many people live in rundown high-rises there has no bearing on the conversation. That was a funny tangent though.. But since you measure the quality of a city by number of international visitors, then by that logic Orlando > NYC, because Orlando sometimes beats out NYC for number of international tourists...loool
I'll take NYC though, you can have Orlando...
Hey, don't get me wrong, I love NYC, but in the summer, I'll definitely take Chicago.
I will address a few points... (I'll let someone else take the Coney Island part)...
The West Side Highway is not "massive", and Lake Shore Drive is actually more imposing that the West Side Highway. Lake Shore Drive does have more more adjacent parkland North of Downtown Chicago, but both "coastlines" offer wonderful outdoor recreation opportunities. Though you seem stuck on the beach argument.
(I bike from Upper Manhattan to Battery Park a few times each year, and it's an awesome stretch of continuous waterfront and recreation.)
No one is measuring the quality of New York by tourism numbers, people are responding to your statement that Chicago "blows New York out of the water" in the summer. But according to the OP article, Chicago is not a most searched summer destination in North America... maybe let it go?
*Edit to add: I love Chicago, it's a beautiful city, and I understand preferences, but my issue is that your leading with strong subjective statements and meager supporting arguments.
Why are we comparing New York to Chicago? Both are great cities, but they're not comparable. NYC is like 3.5x the size of Chicago, let's move on folks.
And in New York you have massive highways straddling Manhattan on both coastlines (the FDR and West Side Highway) with no beaches....lool
And Coney Island, while it can be a fun place in the summer, is largely run down and dumpy as soon as you leave the amusement area. Chicagos beaches line places like the Loop and Lincoln Park. Areas that are far nicer and offer more to do than Coney Island. Coney Island is a one trick pony. How many people live in rundown high-rises there has no bearing on the conversation. That was a funny tangent though..
But since you measure the quality of a city by number of international visitors, then by that logic Orlando > NYC, because Orlando sometimes beats out NYC for number of international tourists...loool
I'll take NYC though, you can have Orlando...
Hey, don't get me wrong, I love NYC, but in the summer, I'll definitely take Chicago.
The FDR is far from a massive highway lol just let it go Chicago isn’t the most searched places to do summer vacations. Live with it and move on. You can holla about a beach until jesus of Nazareth comes down to scope up all the heathens. The fact remains Chicago didn’t make the search list for tourist googling summer vacations. So no beach on a lake is changing that. With all is run dow condos and buildings Coney Island still is more relevant and visited than that beach on a lake.
Last edited by BKafrican1; 07-17-2023 at 06:18 PM..
I will address a few points... (I'll let someone else take the Coney Island part)...
The West Side Highway is not "massive", and Lake Shore Drive is actually more imposing that the West Side Highway. Lake Shore Drive does have more more adjacent parkland North of Downtown Chicago, but both "coastlines" offer wonderful outdoor recreation opportunities. Though you seem stuck on the beach argument.
(I bike from Upper Manhattan to Battery Park a few times each year, and it's an awesome stretch of continuous waterfront and recreation.)
No one is measuring the quality of New York by tourism numbers, people are responding to your statement that Chicago "blows New York out of the water" in the summer. But according to the OP article, Chicago is not a most searched summer destination in North America... maybe let it go?
*Edit to add: I love Chicago, it's a beautiful city, and I understand preferences, but my issue is that your leading with strong subjective statements and meager supporting arguments.
Thank you for addressing the highway part. The westside highway feels no different than driving down one of the avenues. The feel doesn’t change until you get to the upperwest and as you said it doesn’t really impose itself on piers.
The FDR is far from a massive highway lol just let it go Chicago isn’t the most searched places to do summer vacations. Live with it and move on. You can holla about a beach until jesus of Nazareth comes down to scope up all the heathens. The fact remains Chicago didn’t make the search list for tourist googling summer vacations. So no beach on a lake is changing that. With all is run dow condos and buildings Coney Island still is more relevant and visited than that beach on a lake.
LOOL... You're still at it. You just can't cope with the fact that many of us prefer Chicago over NY, especially in the summer.
It's OK, New York is still really cool.
And like you said, lots of tourist go to NY, even though more go to Orlando, which, according to your logic, would make Orlando better.
This is too funny...
I will address a few points... (I'll let someone else take the Coney Island part)...
The West Side Highway is not "massive", and Lake Shore Drive is actually more imposing that the West Side Highway. Lake Shore Drive does have more more adjacent parkland North of Downtown Chicago, but both "coastlines" offer wonderful outdoor recreation opportunities. Though you seem stuck on the beach argument.
(I bike from Upper Manhattan to Battery Park a few times each year, and it's an awesome stretch of continuous waterfront and recreation.)
No one is measuring the quality of New York by tourism numbers, people are responding to your statement that Chicago "blows New York out of the water" in the summer. But according to the OP article, Chicago is not a most searched summer destination in North America... maybe let it go?
*Edit to add: I love Chicago, it's a beautiful city, and I understand preferences, but my issue is that your leading with strong subjective statements and meager supporting arguments.
I'll address some of your misconceptions.
Firstly, I didn't say that you were measuring New Yorks value based off of tourism numbers, the other poster was, and that's who I was responding to. He/she seems to be obsessed with international tourism numbers, so I brought up the fact that using that logic, Orlando would be better than New York in this regard.
Secondly, Lake Shore drive does indeed have some obtrusive qualities near the loop, but as it meanders northbound, it fits well with the surrounding scenery. Nothing about it is as obtrusive as the monstrosity that is the FDR, which has largely destroyed Manhattans' East River coastline.
Yes, the West Side Highway is largely a boulevard south of where it becomes the Henry Hudson, then it elevates in horrible fashion and cuts through some nice parkland. To be fair though, it certain areas it does mesh well with the park, as does Lake Shore drive north of the Loop.
Lastly, subjective statements are largely what make up opinions when it comes to comparing things like cities. I just mentioned the coastline of Chicago, but there's many more things about the city that I prefer over New York in the summer. It's not that I've provided meager supporting arguments, it's just that I was only choosing to focus on the coastline/beaches. I also prefer Chicagos nightlife, its friendlier people, the fact that its cleaner...etc.. There's a whole host of things I prefer about Chicago, but I was only bringing up the coastline and beaches as it pertained to the other posters lackluster counterpoints...
It's ok, New York is still an amazing place....
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