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Rahm seems like he'd be fun. Don't know how effectual he'd be as a mayor, but seems like it'd be a good shakeup. How do the Chicago natives feel about him?
He's extremely polarizing. You essentially love him or you hate him. I'd recommend googling his fight with the Chicago Teachers Union for an example of what I'm talking about.
Rahm's view is very polarized in the city, but not surprising as it its probably the most polarized city to begin with.
More changes downtown
- Millennium Park: This is a huge success, creating a domino effect to the areas around it. Its still amazing to see families with young children crowding up the pool at 10PM on a summer night. The bean, the amphitheatre and fountains have become instant landmarks also.
- The eastern portion of the loop has taken great steps to creating a more 24 hour neighborhood with more bars, stores and restaurants, State Street is becoming a more "everyday" shopping street.
- Colleges: The expansion of a number of colleges along with thousands of dorm rooms has created an interesting arts scene South of Congress, and brought a vibrant young culture along with it. The center of it is the superdorm on State St, composed of a number of colleges.
- River North: Although the architecture is bland, the nightlife in River North has exploded, centered on Hubbard Street.
- Streeterville: This has also seen a much needed injection of life, mostly thanks to the new 21 Screen AMC theatre, creating a buffer between the Mag Mile and Navy Pier.
- South Loop: This area literally went from nothing to part of the greater downtown area. Its slowly becoming a more "mature" nightlife destination, with a lot of professional upper middle class blacks moving in.
- West Loop: Its pretty much the same scenario as the South Loop, just immediately west of downtown, though the NIMBY imposed height limit has it looking like DC built on a grid.
- Infrastructure improvements: Daley was the master of building "pretty" median planters, streetlights, architectual features on bridges, walkways, etc. Rahm is following in his footsteps. Chicago's designers have a knack for that kind of construction.
I have relatives in SF who believe Ed Lee is as corrupt as they come
This is not an issue to me if he is getting things done, which he really appears to be doing as far as growing jobs and building downtown.
San Francisco has it's own universal health care.
San Francisco has one of the best big city school districts and compares favorably on the whole to many suburban districts. Not perfect, but actually SFUSD is doing well all things considered.
San Francisco is fast attracting even more wealthy individuals who move in and increase the tax base by spending.
None of these accomplishments can be laid necessarily at Ed Lee's feet, but he doesn't have to deal with terrible schools, or uninsured people and he doesn't really have to deal with attracting high income people downtown-they are flocking there.
Of course crime and homelessness are issues and other things related to running a big city, but Ed Lee was handed a premier city on the upswing and he has continued that.
This is not an issue to me if he is getting things done, which he really appears to be doing as far as growing jobs and building downtown.
San Francisco has it's own universal health care.
San Francisco has one of the best big city school districts and compares favorably on the whole to many suburban districts. Not perfect, but actually SFUSD is doing well all things considered.
San Francisco is fast attracting even more wealthy individuals who move in and increase the tax base by spending.
None of these accomplishments can be laid necessarily at Ed Lee's feet, but he doesn't have to deal with terrible schools, or uninsured people and he doesn't really have to deal with attracting high income people downtown-they are flocking there.
Of course crime and homelessness are issues and other things related to running a big city, but Ed Lee was handed a premier city on the upswing and he has continued that.
Universal health care is a great thing. Is Ed Lee really known to be favorable towards policies like that or is this more a holdover from previous administrations?
I don't really think the school district is the result of Ed or previous mayor's, at least not directly, so much as creating policies favorable to people of higher incomes and pushing people with lower incomes out. I don't think there are too many cities today/in recent years that have shown an ability to actually substantially move its denizens to higher socioeconomic brackets rather than simply pushing them out to wherever is less desirable. NYC had/has sort of been trying it, but it was looking more and more like it was going to head the same route as SF--DeBlasio and his administration is unlikely to do that because it's unlikely any mayoralty has the power to really to do that. Tant pis, right?
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 01-03-2014 at 04:23 PM..
I think a Chicago vs SF/Bay Area vs DC/Baltimore vs Greater Boston vs DFW Metroplex vs Greater Houston probably makes more sense (or just the first three or four) for a comparison. Putting NYC in there skews things a lot and putting LA in there runs the risk of running into sidelining the topic into whether or not LA is urban and what urbanity is.
Let's talk about soup and sandwiches
NYC has the Manhattan Clam Chowder and SF has Cioppino. I don't know what Chicago has as its city soup. What is it? My vote for the two I know is the Cioppino.
NYC has the Pastrami Sandwich and Chicago has the Italian Beef. I don't know what SF has as its city sandwich. What is it? My vote is for the Italian Beef (that and the LA French dip are on the top of the list for me, if we don't include Canadian works like the smoked meat sandwich of Montreal which I put in the same tier as the Italian Beef and French Dip).
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 01-04-2014 at 03:30 AM..
I think a Chicago vs SF/Bay Area vs DC/Baltimore vs Greater Boston vs DFW Metroplex vs Greater Houston probably makes more sense (or just the first three or four) for a comparison. Putting NYC in there skews things a lot and putting LA in there runs the risk of running into sidelining the topic into whether or not LA is urban and what urbanity is.
Let's talk about soup and sandwiches
NYC has the Manhattan Clam Chowder and SF has Cioppino. I don't know what Chicago has as its city soup. What is it? My vote for the two I know is the Cioppino.
NYC has the Pastrami Sandwich and Chicago has the Italian Beef. I don't know what SF has as its city sandwich. What is it? My vote is for the Italian Beef (that and the LA French dip are on the top of the list for me, if we don't include Canadian works like the smoked meat sandwich of Montreal which I put in the same tier as the Italian Beef and French Dip).
Chicago isn't known for any seafood dishes/seafood soup and it's probably the cities worst category IMO... but I know some will disagree.
I agree. Growing up in Chicago, I can't even stand the taste of most seafood.
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