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Given that this thread isn't only about Chicago versus NYC, let me throw into the mix that Minnesota sent the first Muslim representative to Congress. Not many years ago Minneapolis also had a black female mayor and a black female school superintendent. Minneapolis also has a long-established reputation for being tolerant of interracial marriages; that's not a big deal for most places now, but back when it was many families found Minneapolis to be very welcoming. In more recent decades the city has also developed a reputation for being tolerant of gay and lesbian couples with children.
And people who think of the Midwest as particularly conservative (and I know they're out there) must not be paying attention to the news. Some parts of the Midwest are more liberal than others, but overall most of the region has a long-established reputation for its liberal politics.
I'm happy if people underrate the Midwest, though, especially if helps keep housing costs down. I love NYC and SF (among other coastal cities) but don't love the high rent. As for buying, forget about it.
Given that this thread isn't only about Chicago versus NYC, let me throw into the mix that Minnesota sent the first Muslim representative to Congress. Not many years ago Minneapolis also had a black female mayor and a black female school superintendent. Minneapolis also has a long-established reputation for being tolerant of interracial marriages; that's not a big deal for most places now, but back when it was many families found Minneapolis to be very welcoming. In more recent decades the city has also developed a reputation for being tolerant of gay and lesbian couples with children..
I am not surprised. I found Minnesota and Michigan to be the most open, pleasant and friendly parts of Midwest. Not surprisingly the opinion about Chicago and Illinois in these states is not very positive. Many simply refer to Illinoians as FIBs....
I cant lie I havent really been to all the natural places because....I'm not an outdoorsy person but i know there are a bunch of outdoors people on C-D. Most people associate the mid west with flat landscape and just corn and sh1t like that and thats true but the mid west is way to big to just fall into one type of category, u know wat i'm saying.
Lol - if these "horrible pictures" are why the Midwest may be underrated - I would love to see the pictures to make it overrated! Speaking of rating ----- rate up for you!
I cant lie I havent really been to all the natural places because....I'm not an outdoorsy person but i know there are a bunch of outdoors people on C-D. Most people associate the mid west with flat landscape and just corn and sh1t like that and thats true but the mid west is way to big to just fall into one type of category, u know wat i'm saying.
Well, even that lists shows that out of top 12 most segregated cities 6 are located in Midwest. How is that for liberal region?
About Chicago... Your own Chicago Tribune claims Chicago is the most segregated city in America. I think that being Chicago's major newspaper they surely know what they are talking about...
The paths taken by Colin Lampark and Rosalyn Bates help illustrate why Chicago is the most racially segregated big city in America.
Both are young professionals with handsome earning potential. Both moved to the city a few years ago—Lampark, 28, to Lincoln Park; Bates, 31, to Bronzeville. And both chose neighborhoods reflecting their race, a practice common in Chicago.
Their personal stories, and many others, explain why blacks in Chicago are the most isolated racial group in the nation’s 20 largest cities, according to a Tribune analysis of 2008 population estimates. To truly integrate Chicago, 84 percent of the black or white population would need to change neighborhoods, the data show.
The calculations paint a starkly different picture from the ones broadcast across the nation during Barack Obama’s Election Night rally last month, when his hometown looked like one unified, harmonious city.
The fact is, racial patterns that took root in the 1800s are not easy to reverse. Racial steering, discriminatory business practices and prejudice spawned segregation in Chicago, and now personal preferences and economics fuel it.
“Once institutions exist, they tend to persist, and it requires some act of force to get them to change,” said Douglas Massey of Princeton University, an expert on segregation.
For Lampark, who is white, the move last year to Lincoln Park from Minneapolis came because he had friends there. It wasn’t a racially motivated decision, he said. Lampark, an engineer, just doesn’t know anyone on the South Side.
Bates, who is black, settled in Bronzeville for similar reasons.
“It put us closer to friends,” she said.
She, however, may pay more dearly for her decision. Segregated African-American neighborhoods have less access to health care, quality education and employment opportunities than white areas, the research shows. Black homeowners can expect to receive 18 percent less value for their homes, according to one study—a tax the researcher attributed primarily to segregation.
James Hamilton, 50, a deckhand from Woodlawn, can live with that. In his experience, which includes 30 years on the South Side, he doesn’t think that whites would welcome him to their neighborhood.
“It ain’t never been us,” he said. “It’s always been [whites]—just don’t want to be around us.”
The research shows he may not be entirely wrong. While whites are willing to vote for Obama, they aren’t nearly as interested in living in neighborhoods rich in color.
Blacks make up about 35 percent of Chicago’s population of nearly 3 million and are largely concentrated on the South and West Sides. Whites make up nearly 28 percent, largely located to the north and in slivers of the South Side, while Hispanics, about 30 percent of the population, are scattered to the Northwest and Southwest Sides of the city center.
Dating back to the late 19th Century, blacks were confined to certain neighborhoods in Chicago by pen and sword, with legal restrictions and real estate practices ensuring whatever bombs and batons did not.
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However, NYC is more segregated than Chicago and there are 4 cities on that list as well. Don't understand why you dislike the Midwest (especially Chicago) so much, but there is alot there that goes unappreciated by many on both coasts
Why do people on these forums (cough,cough, Dementor, cough, cough, constantlly rag on the Midwest as a boring, unclutured, conservative place with no culture of its own.
The Midwest has some amazing culture centers like the Twin Cities, Madison, Milwaukee, Ann Arbor, St. Louis, Columbus, Kansas City, Cincy, Cleveland, Indy, Bloomington, Larwence, heck even Detroit (and many more) that have just as much culture as the East Cosat.
And try as you might to deny it, the Midwest is home to one the world's great cities every bit as good as Paris, London, and New York in the form and Chicago.
And I still don't get why people think the Midwest is this baston of conservatism. Two of our history's most liberal movements-Populism and Progressivism-had their start in the Midwest. 6 out of the 11 Midwestern States were won by Obama. And what state just permitted Gay Marrage, New York? No. Iowa. Just listen to a John Mellencamp song if you need more evidence of the Midwest's liberalism.
Although I love San Francisco to death and wouldn't trade it for anything, I still miss the Midwest. There's few things finer in life than a Big 10 Saturday, family cookouts, and cornhole.
I agree. I'm from the Chicago north shore and spent about 9 years in Milwaukee. I still have friends from these areas that go back to teenage years. The most charismatic people I've ever met are in the Midwest. I can't speak for the entire Midwest, just the Chicago/Milwaukee/Madison area, but this region is a place of quiet quality. Wisconsin is the only state I believe that allows graduates from its law school to be admitted to the Bar without having to take the bar exam. It's also one of the only states in the country that lets students who graduate from state-accredited (not ABA) law schools to take its bar exam. Very progressive. People are very down-to-earth. Many of the neighborhoods have well-built homes and a very comforting feel. Most beautiful parks in the country. Winters can be very, very cold, but invigorating. White Christmas always guaranteed and many of the parks look like winter wonderlands during the fresh snow periods.
I love San Francisco too, but at least this portion of the Midwest can be a great place to be. I do know people who could live anywhere in the world, but choose to live in the Midwest.
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