4 ms·

Here's my Chicago review. Bottom line: Fantastic city with a terrible terrible climate. The good: * Great cultural institutions (the ballet, symphony and ope

Here's my Chicago review. Bottom line: Fantastic city with a terrible terrible climate. The good: * Great cultural institutions (the ballet, symphony and opera are world-class). * Fantastic restaurants. You could go to a different restaurant every night of the week for a year and not expend the supply of good eats in this town. * It's clean and safe and cheap for such a big city. * If you like music, every band that matters comes to town. Lots of good local music as well. The bad: * Horrible horrible winters. You get ridiculous bouts of cold where it'll stay below -10F for weeks on end. * The winter lasts over four months, and summer is like 2.5. If you need sun and like the outdoors, Chicago is probably not the place for you * It's flat. Which basically leaves you with... ice fishing for winter activities. * The local and state government are corrupt as hell and everyone just accepts it as a characteristic of Chicago and laugh it off. Don't follow the local politics, it's too infuriating. * Related to the previous point, we have one of the highest sales tax rates in the US. * Lousy public transportation as well. The average age of the buses is 16 years. Which is worse than every major city in america. * You'll pay a lot of taxes for lousy and outdated infrastructure. * The tech scene is so-so. There are a few startups but the vast majority of jobs are in Finance.

tptacek 17y ago
Chicago and San Francisco are corrupt in different ways, and I prefer Chicago's way. San Francisco towed my car, via a third-party contracted by the city. They lost my car for several months, and when they found it, they charged me for the time it spent hidden in the lot. A lesson learned: it is extremely hard to sue a municipality. Chicago towed my car. My registration was expired, and it was a Friday night, so I was screwed until Monday afternoon when I could get that straightened out. I asked, "is there anything I can pay to get my car tonight?" $50 later, I learned about the loophole that says your car can be towed out of the impound lot; you just can't drive it out. Total win. People talk about the "corruption" in Chicago as if it was a daily hassle. If you're in politics or commercial real estate, I'm sure it is. But for the rest of us, it's mostly a problem in principle and not in practice, and it's not a problem Chicago has a lock on. I don't know how old the busses are in Chicago, because I never ride them. Busses don't count. Something's gone wrong if you have to ride one. Where do you live in Chicago that you can't walk to an El stop?
- Shooter 17y ago
  (Not an argument. Just an anecdote. I've never lived in SF.) My Dad got three parking tickets from Chicago this year. For a truck that he hasn't owned in four years. My Dad hasn't been to Chicago in a few years. The truck had never even been to Illinois. Dad disputed the tickets instead of just paying them, because he could prove the truck was in Florida when the tickets were issued. [He owns a trucking company, so he keeps pretty meticulous records, including fuel receipts.] They graciously waived the fines after he spent a few hours arguing the matter and provided the documentation. At first he thought the tickets were due to a computer error or something...there have been a few cases of people getting multi-million dollar parking tickets in Chicago in the last few years due to 'computer error.' He thought maybe someone just mistyped a VIN. But NOOOOOOO...it turned out to be a scam - run by a few elected gentleman - that have previously gotten into trouble for doing the same thing. They send bogus tickets to out-of-towners, especially commercial vehicles. They know that a certain percentage of people will just think "Well, I was in Chicago...?" and then pay the damn tickets without protest. Easy cash. That, my friends, is "Chicago's way." ;-) This speaks to why my Dad refuses to come and visit me in Chicago. And why I get to hear him gripe anytime someone mentions Chicago, parking, traffic, cars, scams, etc. etc. I'm hoping a new grandkid will finally get him to visit again.
  - tptacek 17y ago
    The fees for "storing" my car in San Francisco's tow lot were over $850, but that doesn't matter much, because they insisted for weeks that it was stolen and gone, so I replaced it. Sorry. Your story sucks, and I'm sorry that happened to your dad, but I'll take Chicago over San Francisco any day.
    - tptacek 17y ago
      (in case it came out wrong, what "sucks" is what happened to his dad, not how he told the story).
      - Shooter 17y ago
thrdOriginal 17y ago
The weather comment cannot be stated enough: this is a large factor in what makes or breaks Chicago as a viable home. Expect to have varying degrees of "cold" weather from Oct/Nov to the beginning of May. Also, Chicago is an absolute mecca for everything Big 10. This tends to give a lot of the 20-something places to go out a very frat-ish feel (being a big city there are other choices, but it is something to be aware of, good or bad).
- tptacek 17y ago
  If you're not OK with weather that will keep you indoors for about 2 solid months, Chicago isn't viable. I actually like the harsh weather; for 2 months of the year, I have excuse for being a homebody, and I can cook more seasonally. I really missed the seasons when I was in California. I strongly disagree with your frat-boy/big-10 comment. Chicago is a massive city. Like every other big city, it has hipster enclaves (Uky Village, Bucktown, Logan Square), and it has yuppie/frat-boy enclaves (Lincoln Park); it has 2+(2*.5) viable college towns (Hyde Park, Evanston, and UIC and Loyola campuses), a large Chinatown, the sizeable Thai/Vietnamese area around Argyle, the Indian drag on Devon, huge Latino areas and innumerable family neighborhoods. I'm not giving the cop-out "you were just in the wrong bar" answer here: I'm saying, you must have been very unlucky to have only found sports bars. I'm pretty sure they never play Bears games at Publican or Violet Hour.

tptacek 17y ago

Chicago and San Francisco are corrupt in different ways, and I prefer Chicago's way. San Francisco towed my car, via a third-party contracted by the city. They lost my car for several months, and when they found it, they charged me for the time it spent hidden in the lot. A lesson learned: it is extremely hard to sue a municipality. Chicago towed my car. My registration was expired, and it was a Friday night, so I was screwed until Monday afternoon when I could get that straightened out. I asked, "is there anything I can pay to get my car tonight?" $50 later, I learned about the loophole that says your car can be towed out of the impound lot; you just can't drive it out. Total win. People talk about the "corruption" in Chicago as if it was a daily hassle. If you're in politics or commercial real estate, I'm sure it is. But for the rest of us, it's mostly a problem in principle and not in practice, and it's not a problem Chicago has a lock on. I don't know how old the busses are in Chicago, because I never ride them. Busses don't count. Something's gone wrong if you have to ride one. Where do you live in Chicago that you can't walk to an El stop?

Shooter 17y ago
(Not an argument. Just an anecdote. I've never lived in SF.) My Dad got three parking tickets from Chicago this year. For a truck that he hasn't owned in four years. My Dad hasn't been to Chicago in a few years. The truck had never even been to Illinois. Dad disputed the tickets instead of just paying them, because he could prove the truck was in Florida when the tickets were issued. [He owns a trucking company, so he keeps pretty meticulous records, including fuel receipts.] They graciously waived the fines after he spent a few hours arguing the matter and provided the documentation. At first he thought the tickets were due to a computer error or something...there have been a few cases of people getting multi-million dollar parking tickets in Chicago in the last few years due to 'computer error.' He thought maybe someone just mistyped a VIN. But NOOOOOOO...it turned out to be a scam - run by a few elected gentleman - that have previously gotten into trouble for doing the same thing. They send bogus tickets to out-of-towners, especially commercial vehicles. They know that a certain percentage of people will just think "Well, I was in Chicago...?" and then pay the damn tickets without protest. Easy cash. That, my friends, is "Chicago's way." ;-) This speaks to why my Dad refuses to come and visit me in Chicago. And why I get to hear him gripe anytime someone mentions Chicago, parking, traffic, cars, scams, etc. etc. I'm hoping a new grandkid will finally get him to visit again.
- tptacek 17y ago
  The fees for "storing" my car in San Francisco's tow lot were over $850, but that doesn't matter much, because they insisted for weeks that it was stolen and gone, so I replaced it. Sorry. Your story sucks, and I'm sorry that happened to your dad, but I'll take Chicago over San Francisco any day.
  - tptacek 17y ago
    (in case it came out wrong, what "sucks" is what happened to his dad, not how he told the story).
    - Shooter 17y ago

thrdOriginal 17y ago

The weather comment cannot be stated enough: this is a large factor in what makes or breaks Chicago as a viable home. Expect to have varying degrees of "cold" weather from Oct/Nov to the beginning of May. Also, Chicago is an absolute mecca for everything Big 10. This tends to give a lot of the 20-something places to go out a very frat-ish feel (being a big city there are other choices, but it is something to be aware of, good or bad).

tptacek 17y ago
If you're not OK with weather that will keep you indoors for about 2 solid months, Chicago isn't viable. I actually like the harsh weather; for 2 months of the year, I have excuse for being a homebody, and I can cook more seasonally. I really missed the seasons when I was in California. I strongly disagree with your frat-boy/big-10 comment. Chicago is a massive city. Like every other big city, it has hipster enclaves (Uky Village, Bucktown, Logan Square), and it has yuppie/frat-boy enclaves (Lincoln Park); it has 2+(2*.5) viable college towns (Hyde Park, Evanston, and UIC and Loyola campuses), a large Chinatown, the sizeable Thai/Vietnamese area around Argyle, the Indian drag on Devon, huge Latino areas and innumerable family neighborhoods. I'm not giving the cop-out "you were just in the wrong bar" answer here: I'm saying, you must have been very unlucky to have only found sports bars. I'm pretty sure they never play Bears games at Publican or Violet Hour.