Chi-Town
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7/20/2007
I lived in Chicago for three years, a while ago. I would make the following comments, beginning with the negative and ending with the positive:
Negative: hot, sticky summers. Slushy winters with wind that sometimes seems to rip you off your feet. Large areas of the city are ghetto (south side, west side) and underdeveloped. Although I consider myself tolerant toward gays, the fact that the mayor in effect "dedicated" an entire section of north Chicago as "gay" (used to be diverse, not just homosexual) just irks and annoys me. The Chicago city council is now very politically correct (banning foie gras, etc.). Crime is high, and yet, you cannot own a gun (Chicago is one of the last big cities to deny us our 2nd Amendment rights under the Constitution). If you are a nurse working the late shift and want a small handgun to protect yourself, sorry, you are out of luck. (Meanwhile, Mayor Daley states that guns are not a legit deterrent, and travels himself with an armed security detail; if you are a well-placed Democrat, my bet is, you can somehow get an exception and get a gun license. The rest of you are out of luck). Party politics and Old Machine politics I think are still too strong. The "racial block" mentality is probably stronger than in the deep south.
Positives: downtown is one of the best in the U.S., if not THE best. Culturally, Chicago is off the charts. LOTS to do here. You want to go see a film in German and then have a discussion in German about it ? You can find that. Falls and Springs are pleasant. LOTS of beachfront and this is VERY underestimated. You can walk almost anywhere (try doing that in Phoenix or Houston). There is a reason that Boeing decided to move the company HQ to Chicago, rather than Dallas. People are big city, and yet, midwestern (i.e. nice, but not "sugary nice"). Lots of sports. Biking, boating, etc. The lake. Good food and restaurants. Great hospitals and universities. Diversity. International airport. I could go on and on...
John | Addison, TX