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Sorry for the confusion that I seemed to have caused. Yes, I have passed through Chicago many, many times in order to rest or catch the next flight out. In the summer of '04 my family and I took a week long vacation to Chicago. It was for buisness, but my employer was able to secure us a room at a very nice hotel across the street from the American Girl Store, and tickets to a few shows.
I'm sorry if that some how offendes the Chicago residents of this post.
No offense taken... just hoping you didn't make your judgement based only on the Michigan Ave. area around American Girl and the shows you saw (of course it won't compare to Broadway). I just prefer to live here instead of NYC. If you read the Chicago forum, you'll see that many other NYC transplants agree... So there must be something about Chicago they like.
I believe that a a few posts ago you mentioned how you were going to discredit it because the poster didn't have very broad view of Chicago. Mmmmmmm.........Have you been to LA? Just check'n because something doesn't to add up. But hey, we all come from different educational backgrounds right?
Um, actually ive been to LA about 10 times in my life, with a maximum stay of 3 weeks. When people like me say "giant suburb", its usually from urbanites from eastern cities that live an urban, dense lifestyle, aka, walking to everything and taking public transportation, compact city life. LA, and houston and phoenix, (not san fran) then are what urbanites call a suburban lifestyle, having to drive to everything, houses with yards, huge sprawl, and heavilly spread out. YOu could not survive comfortably without a car in LA. The stores, strip malls, giant retailers, highway system give LA the suburban feel, thus I would label it a giant suburb as would many people with my point of view.
This has nothing to do with education. Ive graduated with university degree and getting an MBA currently so would you like to have an "educational brawl" to see who's more educated? I think that would be childish and silly, so Im going to go ahead and guess no, given that you seem like a nice person. So we'll just end it with that . have a good one
You know, maybe I didn't have the best impression... but I'm going to have to say I was surprised I didn't like Myrtle Beach, SC. Went out there with some friends for one of my vacations this summer and stayed for about a week... Don't get me wrong I had fun, but I don't think I would ever go back, it wasn't worth the drive. (yes we were crazy and drove in July and it was much hot this summer mind you, especially in the SE)
Maybe I missed on the great places of myrtle beach, the 'downtown' near the beach was sort of run down and dirty feeling... broadway at the beach was OK but I won't give it 4 stars by any means... and the beach there was... somewhat unkept. At least near the Embassy Suites.
Anyone disagree or have any opinions on this? ... Maybe I was in the wrong places.
You know, maybe I didn't have the best impression... but I'm going to have to say I was surprised I didn't like Myrtle Beach, SC. Went out there with some friends for one of my vacations this summer and stayed for about a week... Don't get me wrong I had fun, but I don't think I would ever go back, it wasn't worth the drive. (yes we were crazy and drove in July and it was much hot this summer mind you, especially in the SE)
Maybe I missed on the great places of myrtle beach, the 'downtown' near the beach was sort of run down and dirty feeling... broadway at the beach was OK but I won't give it 4 stars by any means... and the beach there was... somewhat unkept. At least near the Embassy Suites.
Anyone disagree or have any opinions on this? ... Maybe I was in the wrong places.
I'm sorry you felt like that. Did you go to the south side or north side. I'll admit the south and west sides can be "trashy" looking to people who aren't used to that urban style of living, looks like detroit, stl. The north side is happening and beautiful, with a skyline that stretches all the way to evanston!!! HUUUGE!
You're the first person i've ever heard saying chicago was trashy. The cost of living here is high with great condos and row homes. 450,000 minimum for a small house or condo in uptown. Come and check the chicago beyond downtown/touristy things. Theres so much culture and diversity to find here. There's really NOTHING else like it in the US...except NYC.
Chicago is a great city. Like most major urban areas there are rough spots. St. Louis also is a great city. And though more medium in size, it certainly can't be labeled as "trashy looking" everywhere either. There are plenty of great urban neighborhoods in St. Louis, just as there are in Chicago. You should take your advice for the other poster and do the same for St. Louis.
You know, maybe I didn't have the best impression... but I'm going to have to say I was surprised I didn't like Myrtle Beach, SC. Went out there with some friends for one of my vacations this summer and stayed for about a week... Don't get me wrong I had fun, but I don't think I would ever go back, it wasn't worth the drive. (yes we were crazy and drove in July and it was much hot this summer mind you, especially in the SE)
Maybe I missed on the great places of myrtle beach, the 'downtown' near the beach was sort of run down and dirty feeling... broadway at the beach was OK but I won't give it 4 stars by any means... and the beach there was... somewhat unkept. At least near the Embassy Suites.
Anyone disagree or have any opinions on this? ... Maybe I was in the wrong places.
I love how Chicagoans seem to be some of the only people who will consistantly put up a fight for their city in any converstation! People have mentioned many other cities and no one really came to a defense or cared.
I tend to do the same thing, and I love Chicago (I'm not even from here), but I've noticed and heard a lot that Chicagoans are hands down some of the most fierce supporters of their community, and have a tremendous amount of civic pride. I think it's a good thing, just kinda funny and quirky.
I have to agree though, this city sees all spectrums of humanity and urbanity. I mean it's 237 square miles of almost entirely dense built areas. I think we're just overlooked by the rest of the country compared to other cities that are in actuality this huge. Also, we did gain 112,000 people in the 90's (when they said we'd lose like we had been for 50 years - hello?), and the census is doing it to us again this decade. As well, the crime thing, that really gets me. Crime in this city has been consistantly going down for 16 years now, yet people still mentioned it's on the rise just because that's what they assume based on their stereotypes of the city.
I found statistics comparing 1991 to 2005:
Violent Crime dropped by 59%
Property Crime dropped by 43%
Robbery dropped by 64%
Murder dropped by 53%
Sexual Crimes dropped by 55%
Auto theft dropped by 52%
Burglary dropped by 52%
Gun Crimes have dropped by 64%
Crime has risen in 1.7% of the police beats, and decreased in 98.3% of police beats
From 2005 to 2006 the crime rates dropped by 3%
From 2006 to 2007 the crime rates dropped by another 3.8%
In a city that use to see roughly 2.5 homicides per day, we had 13 murder free days in January. We still have a very high homicide rate, and a huge problem with crime - but it's getting MUCH better. This is why so many more people are moving to the city. Again, in the 90's the census told us Chicago would lose people, and it gained 112,000. The city is more healty now than it was in the 90's, so no city officials are actually taking their estimates as accurate. I'm not sure why they don't contest them like Washington DC, St. Louis and Detroit all did - and the census reversed their claims and revised all of those cities upwards. Chicago is doing much better than St. Louis or Detroit....
anyway, rant rant rant....what else am I going to do at work
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as would many people with my point of view. 
