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It is a hard sell to tell American families to give up their 2500+ square foot houses and move into a small apartment or condo.
Americans want a big living space, luxury and urban vibrancy all at the same time.
The desire for very large living spaces are also partly why US cities are somewhat anemic when it comes to urban amenities/infrastructure, so there is relatively little urban vibrancy, but it's a lot more the focus on building based on needing cars for most errands in the vast majority of places that really puts a damper on urban vibrancy. It's a massive cost to maintain the sprawl that we have and it's also mostly not very luxurious nor at 2500+ square foot. There's a lot of hoarding which I guess is some kind of flex of wealth. Osaka isn't all that expensive. Yes, the average flat is smaller than one in its US major city counterparts, but cost per square feet isn't insane there so if size is something that you highly prize, you can devote more of your budget to getting a larger space.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 06-26-2019 at 04:44 PM..
^^^ Nice video, but I don't get the obsession so many vloggers have about showcasing their meals. I love good food as much as the next guy -- but I prefer to eat it, not watch other people stuffing their faces.
As for the city itself, what I like about this video is that it also showed some street scenes outside of downtown, albeit you can tell how mellow neighborhood Chicago is on a typical day, even in some of its most popular areas. See 9:50 to about 11:00.
For comparison, here is a video of Juso, which is about the same distance from central Osaka as Bucktown/Wicker Park are from the Loop: https://youtu.be/J25hsvl92go
I wasn’t talking about Chicago specifically, but commenting on BigCityDreamer’s general observation that “it is a hard sell to tell American families to give up their 2500+ square foot houses and move into a small apartment or condo.â€
Most people in Chicago city proper do not live in 2500+ square foot houses. At the same time, if you look at Chicagoland — the roughly 10 million metro area — at least 90% of it (by area) is medium to low density suburban sprawl. So it is more relevant if you look at the wider picture.
Maybe not 2500sf....but you can do the math.
Standard lot is 25 x 125 feet. Many of the areas are wall to wall, some go in a bit. You're probably not going to get 100 foot in of building, but those flats are pretty big when you have 1/floor. Plus, the bonus of all Chicago is that each must have two entrance/exit points.....so many in Chicago have very large back decks that are perfect for party overflow.
Now, the highest count I ever had was 300 people in one until the door guys were too wasted to take money any longer, but people kept coming and we eventually had to let the beer run out. Another party failed to excite the 4th floor neighbors when the overflow took a hindsight very scary leap of faith to overtake their deck as well. I'd severely miscalculated in thinking the honor of breaking the pinata for the group would be the charm necessary for party enlargement. But, ridiculous times in college aside, it generally makes for a nice time. You can go out, have your fun, stumble to the el and make your way home very cheaply. It has the finer things intermixed with the grit. What makes the city awesome is that both are celebrated.
Suburbia in Chicagoland....arguably stretching from Wisconsin to Indiana and similar to including CT and NJ with Manhattan...doesn't do that. It was always fun to go catch a concert at Ravinia, for example....and for a time enjoy the perfectly manicured area....but to be able to enjoy the struggle of a groundscrew trying to make Humboldt Park look beautiful is an art of its own I have yet to see matched.
More simply, I see Osaka as an aspiration to the world. An amazing frontage that functions as well. City engineering at full potential. In her own right, a testimony of the dedication of the Japanese to make a wonderful place to live.
Chicago is more a celebration of people as they are now, not of a unified cause. Realistic in its accessibility and an underscored homage that we all exist in the shadow of big shoulders, and the good and the bad come together to form an unmistakable soaring skyline....yet even it being thwarted by universal lake access granted to all along the water, generally the most prized of any city's land.
Aren't something like 98% of the people around the Osaka area Japanese? I love Japan but that factor alone pretty much outweighs all of these other factors put together. Chicago easily.
Osaka for me. I think that having lived away from my hometown of Chicago, I can finally start to appreciate the good things vs the negative that I grew up with. However, and despite Chicago being 2 hours flight from NYC, I've visited Osaka more than my family on the holidays. I'm even going back next month.
I wouldn't put it on the level of Tokyo, but Osaka is really fun, it's safe, and it's a hell of a lot healthier and tastier food wise vs my hometown Chicago. The nightlife is better and crazier and Dotonbouri is absolutely pleasant even in the winter. On another level, I can also move to Osaka permanently if I wanted to which is exciting to me. However, I'd rather be in Tokyo.
I think the only skylines that matter to me is NYC's, and Boston's for a time before the recent building craze. The fact that you could live somewhere and have unobstructed views of many parts of the city is what did it for me. Chicago I have to be on a boat or a helicopter to get what I get out of some apartments I've had here, and it's much better as a daily sunset/sunrise if you can afford it!
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It looks like not too many.
