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Chicagoland has 9.5 million people with a density of 1,318 people per square mile
LA Metro has 13 million people with a density of 2,665 people per square mile
What do you not understand?
Why are we talking about MSA??
You don't live in the suburbs to get an urban experience. You can get an urban experience in many parts of Chicago. There are very, very few areas where you can get an urban experience in LA.
A lot of Chicago's MSA is farmland. Grundy County only has a density of about 90 people per square mile because of farms and undeveloped land.
thats so tru and i dont even know why some places are even counted as part of the MSA. oce you get past merrilville or crown point or aurora its like all trees and farm.
-mas23-
Chicago and NY are the only cities I've been in (in the US) where I got that "wow" factor while I was in them. I'm not talking about the fun I had, the amenities, the food, or culture. I'm talking about the fact that it felt like you were in a massive city.
I just haven't gotten that feeling in other cities in the US. Not to put them down, but they just don't feel "massive." Which is not always a good thing by the way!
Chicago 2016!
Chicago is second to no one in this country IMHO. Someone name a spot in NYC, LA, Houston or the Twin Cities with as breathtaking views as along the winding Chicago River at Michigan Ave day or night.
Stumbled onto this debate, let me get in the mix ( Born and raised in Chicago, lived in NYC in the 90s and back in Chicago now.
I love NYC. Its a great energetic place and extremely diverse. Prob moreso now than at anytime in history. It has elevated into a global phenomenon of place for transients that world has never seen and on such an impressive scale. Really - I was at a bar in NY and pulled out my lic. and of the 6 people at the bar 3 were from IL 2 from OH and 1 from Conn. The city is populated by people from elsewhere ( at least Manhatten ) passing through and for every one that leaves it seems 2 more come. The architecture is amazing in a textural sort of way. The richness of the ornament, the cast iron fronts and narrowness make it a really cozy city ( again Manhatten ). On this front I have to say Manhatten gets my vote for better architecture although it's new buildings are pathetic attempts to buy glitzy starchitecture and already look dated the way 1960s jetson architecture looks dated.
The flipside - I think Chicago looks better as whole - just walking around the vistas are wider and more exspansive. Chicago also has a unique rarely talked about quality of light - the amazing skies go from super blue to pinks and oranges and browns and greys sometimes at the same time. Its a function of the clean air, Massive freshwater Lake and bizzare weather and clouds. Its my favorite part of living here but I could do without February. Walking or driving its a newer more modern city. ( NY is 300 years older than Chicago ). Yes the buildings in Chicago are more plain or sparse in their ornamentation but the composition as a whole becomes greater than the sum of it's parts. I also get a real sense of Chicago as having the greater future potential - it is afterall a baby among world cities and has tremendous amounts of land and low density areas to fit more people. Chicago def beats NYC in terms of modern convience living for the average citizen. Another observation - 75% of Chicago essentially is Queens. Ive been in both and I can tell them apart.
NYC occupies the nucleus space of the founding of our nation - it was even the capital. It was the port of entry for 2/3 of American bloodlines. It has been well positioned for it's place. In the future the economic and political strength will become more decentralised from the east coast and the real fight will begin. Will Chicago leverage it's trading markets and control of the world's food and currency supplies? Will NY based institutions eventually gobble up whats left in Chicago ( Seriously - has every company here been bought by NY based corps?) Will Houston become the link to S. America and Mexico to become the new capital ( dont laugh could happen )
Small quantity doesn't immediately mean quality. Chicago doesn't have anything with higher quality than NYC, just as Milwaukee doesn't have anything on par with Chicago. Sometimes people forget that size matters. It is not a fair comparison but no comparison is fair. People compare them because they are all cities and you can only live in one of them. If you seek fair comparison, GPA of kids at school should be divided into groups according to their IQ/EQ and only be compared within each individual pool. Their PE scores should be adjusted according to their height, weight, etc, etc. The world would be ridiculous that way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Milwaukee City
Okay so first off I'm not Bashing Chicago, I love Chicago and I think it's the only city worth comparing to New York, yes not even suburban LA, Okay cheap shot I admit. Let's run the the numbers....
Chicago City: 3 million
Chicagoland: 9 Million
New York City: 9 Million
New York Metro: 19 million
all figures including illegal aliens, b/c their people too. Now....
Milwaukee City 605,000
Milwaukee Metro 2.2 million
So does size really matter? is population like strength of schedule? vs the actual school?
You see Milwaukee's metro is near Chicago's city population actually off by 800,000 but if you look at NYC's city is equal to Chicago's metro almost like Milwaukee's metro to Chicago's city population.
So is it really fair to compare Chicago and NYC or is it NY and then everybody else? Say Chicago and LA should probably duke it out b/c that's more of a fair fight than NY -vs Chicago.
So I guess Chicago to NYC is like the San Diego to Chicago?
Here comes the age old question...quality or quantity? I think a lot of CD poster error more on the quantity side. Population being the most important factor. I disagree.
In the outside world (mostly out side of city forums and website) not much people give thought to chicago are care. Chicago lack of presense in pop culture contribute heavinly to this. Me personaly just don't see what the big whoop about Chicago is as well. Chicago even more faded into the background when it lost it's olympic bid, but yeah just my 2 sense.
i agree with the above poster. The people who want to compare Chicago to NYC are generally the people from Chicago and not from NYC.
Chicago may be the Manhattan of the Midwest, but I would never really compare to the two in reality, except to give context to people who have never visited.
Heck, I have heard some people call Pittsburgh "The San Francisco of the East" and Vanderbilt "the harvard of the south".
In the outside world (mostly out side of city forums and website) not much people give thought to chicago are care. Chicago lack of presense in pop culture contribute heavinly to this. Me personaly just don't see what the big whoop about Chicago is as well. Chicago even more faded into the background when it lost it's olympic bid, but yeah just my 2 sense.
But media and entertainment hype about places doesn't exactly translate into the real world and life in general.
I could totally care less about other people overlooking Chicago. I care much more about my quality of life and what's going on around me than what a girl working in Brooklyn or a guy walking down the street in Santa Ana's impressions of the place are. It's mostly all just stereotypes anyway.
I mean I love New York and San Fran above almost any other US city, but that means nothing for what I think about Chicago. Just because shows are filmed in LA, and New York is the media darling of the USA doesn't really give me a "big whoop" in itself. Most things are just for entertainment as far as pop culture and TV/Movies, etc.
i agree with the above poster. The people who want to compare Chicago to NYC are generally the people from Chicago and not from NYC.
Chicago may be the Manhattan of the Midwest, but I would never really compare to the two in reality, except to give context to people who have never visited.
Heck, I have heard some people call Pittsburgh "The San Francisco of the East" and Vanderbilt "the harvard of the south".
But if you notice this comment is always made by people not from New York OR Chicago, and Chicagoans/New Yorkers all point out the same thing - that they've never seen it in real life in these cities. People in Chicago compare themselves to New York about the same as they compare themselves to New Orleans, Denver or El Paso. New Yorkers from what I've seen never overly compare their city to Chicago.
It's one of those bizarre rivalries that "exist" because people from neither place just assume it must exist.
From traveling to all the lower 48, Chicago more than other places really is much more concerned about itself than how it stacks up to anyone else. Other cities are more in the media, TV, movies, etc. than Chicago size-wise - and I think maybe that's why other places think about how they stack up.
Chicago sits alone in the Midwest as far as the dominant city, and most of the other regions really overlook the Midwest altogether. Honestly most people are totally fine with that. Chicago takes account of itself and what's going on in our world - not really obsessing over the rest of it.
In the outside world (mostly out side of city forums and website) not much people give thought to chicago are care. Chicago lack of presense in pop culture contribute heavinly to this. Me personaly just don't see what the big whoop about Chicago is as well. Chicago even more faded into the background when it lost it's olympic bid, but yeah just my 2 sense.
if most people dont care, then how is there a "big whoop" about it
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