Typical Chicago Attitude?

**LeannaM** · April-03-09, 02:26 PM

Dreaming big has made Chicago the vibrant and cosmopolitan town we proudly call home. It's also what distinguishes it from other, decaying Midwestern cities, guaranteeing a future while other cities now can only look back at their greatest days.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/comment...edit02.article

All other Midwestern cities have NO future? Sure, no other Midwestern city is Chicago, but to say that all other Midwestern cities have no future is simply ignorant.

You can't watch National news and form a good opinion of the Midwest. Will the National news tell a good story about the Midwest [[especially Detroit). Probably not. The news just wants to tell what people will watch/read, which is "Most dangerous city" lists and "$100 homes in Detroit".

Most St. Louisans I've talked to don't like Chicago either. Now I see why. They're tired of being compared to Chicago, and they're tired of Chicago acting elitist because it costs $1100 for a decent apartment and there's parking meters on residential streets.

I realize Chicago is trying to build itself up for the Olympics, but this writer's attitude is simply ignorant. I guess Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis have no future? That's news to me.

**oladub** · April-03-09, 03:13 PM

I realize Chicago is trying to build itself up for the Olympics, but this writer's attitude is simply ignorant. I guess Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis have no future? That's news to me.

Not to knock Chicago, but from your short list of Mid-west cities, I would rank Minneapolis-St.Paul head and shoulders above the rest. I have kids that live there so I visit it often. Minneapolis is clean, vibrant, hi-tech, easy to get around, has a spiff new light rail connecting downtown, the Uof M, the Mall of America, and the airport. Downtown is congested with young people on weekend nights, is vital the rest of the time, and is surrounded by pricey new condos. Minneapolis has a low crime rate. You can send your kids to a public school there.

If smaller Mid-west cities were considered, Iowa has had an influx of new insurance jobs move into Des Moines. Rochester and Madison are jewels. LaCrosse offers off the chart recreational opportunities. Bismarck, with its low unemployment rate struck me as new and clean in a prarie sort of way.

There are some pretty good places in the Mid-west to raise families. The major land grant universities offer more opportunities than those in the east.

**otter** · April-03-09, 03:29 PM

Gotta agree with Oladub that MSP is a pretty nice place [[if only it weren't for the damn weather.) Very positive impression when I first visited it about 5 years ago.

O.

**wolverine** · April-03-09, 03:34 PM

Of course it's typical of Chicago. It's been bragging since the Columbian Expo in the 1890's.

**rb336** · April-03-09, 03:49 PM

Originally Posted by wolverine

Of course it's typical of Chicago. It's been bragging since the Columbian Expo in the 1890's.

They LOVE comparing themselves to other Midwestern cities simply because the alternatives -- comparing themselves to New York, San Francisco, etc -- leaves them WAY down the list.

They can do-no-wrong architecturally -- nevermind the incredibly lame Millenium Park and that tumor on the once-gorgeous Soldier Field and the miles of cookie-cutter apartment blocks and boring postmodern glass and steel office buildings

**wolverine** · April-03-09, 07:48 PM

Not denying new development is ugly. But hey, at least it's better than miles of burned out apartment blocks and boring empty lots. It takes people to build a neighborhood, and indeed they are still coming.

Still, I did find the article obnoxious, when there are still plenty of interesting midwest cities out there like Minneapolis and Cincinnati that are doing fine.

ccbatson · April-03-09, 09:31 PM

They [[Chicago) do have some things to brag about...so do many other midwestern cities.

ccbatson · April-04-09, 10:22 PM

Is hiding blight a good thing? Is it blight, if it is capable of being hidden?

ccbatson · April-05-09, 01:17 PM

Is it a ghetto if it has "not let to get to the point of no return" [[which is another argument altogether)?

**Pam** · April-05-09, 05:01 PM

In fact, the lowest income areas in many major cities are better than the better areas of the city of Detroit

How are you measuring that? Better in what way?

**wolverine** · April-05-09, 07:28 PM

Number of vacancies and number of foreclosures are great starting points. They can almost tell the whole story before you even get all the facts.

**Pam** · April-06-09, 06:41 AM

I'm talking about the actual city of Detroit, not burbs.

You can walk around the neighborhood without fear of getting robbed.
You can shop at an actual grocery store, without driving to the suburbs.
Convenience stores don't have 4 inches of bullet proof glass caging in the cashier.
The schools are better, etc...

I don't know about the convenience stores, but there are neighborhoods in Detroit where people walk without getting robbed, buy groceries and like their schools. Pay attention to some of the other threads on the Detroit side for info.

ccbatson · April-06-09, 03:42 PM

I don't think I am missing the point....these quasi blighted areas are not in the extreme dire financial straits that true ghettos are.

ccbatson · April-06-09, 03:43 PM

Want to know why? Socialist policies not in place as long...give it time.

**corvax** · April-06-09, 06:32 PM

Look, I love Detroit and wouldn't be on this board if i didn't. My family is still in the area and i visit often.

But....Chicago, in and around which i have lived for 28 years, has, in fact, evolved into a unique and magnificent city. There is nothing comparable.

Take the relatively small part of the metropolitan area from Wrigley Field to Comiskey Park [[yeah, we don't call it US Cellular Field) N to S and from the lake to about Ashland Avenue E to W. In that urban strip you have the best theatre in America [[Steppenwolf [run by an ex-Detroiter], Goodman, Chicago Shakespeare, et al.), some of the best restaurants [[Charlie Trotter's, Alinea, Tru, Obama favorite Spiaggia, Topolobampo, etc.), all major league sports [[including AL and NL), a free zoo, a public golf course, storied rock + jazz + blues + ethnic music clubs, Chinatown, Bronzeville, Greektown and other vibrant ethnic enclaves, numerous museums [[not just the Art Institute and the Field Musuem of Nat'l History, but also museums dedicated to Judaica, modern art, photgraphy, Greek history, Mexican art, etc), the recreational possibilities of Lincoln and Grant Parks [[swimming, boating, fishing, running, baseball and softball, rowing, soccer, cycling), campuses of several universities including many of Northwestern's and U Chicago's graduate schools, great shopping [[including 6 department stores from Sears to Neiman Marcus and tons of smaller boutiques), public and private libraries.......and 2 train lines and countless bus routes running through it, making it all accessible to anyone w/o a car.

For comparison's sake [[and I do so only because someone above mentioned NYC and San Francisco, 2other cities I love), New York may have more to do, but it's not nearly as accessible and affordable as in Chicago and similar attractions are far more spread out. San Fran and Boston are wonderful, but far smaller and less diverse [[and more expensive).

The acknowledgement of what Chicago has to offer doesn't have to be a knock on any place else, especially a city like Detroit with such an outsized cultural legacy recognized worldwide. But it's equally true there's no place else like Chicago in the midwest because there's never been any place else where so many choices are so available to so many people.

**Detroitej72** · April-06-09, 08:45 PM

I always hear people talk up how they loved living in Chicago, usually while living here. Which begs the question, why'd they leave in the first place?

Comparing Chicago to Detroit is comparing apples to oranges. A better comparision is Chicago to New York or LA.

At least in Detroit, we have better sports teams!

**LeannaM** · April-06-09, 10:26 PM

The article just bothered me because the author of the article said that Chicago is the only Midwestern city with a future, and the rest are decaying.

A statement like that is just ignorant. Have Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis been through a lot? Sure. But to say they have no future is just plain stupid. It's also narrow minded. Chicago can promote itself all it wants, but it shouldn't refer to other cities that way. I realize it didn't mention any by name, but that blanket statement is just unfair.

ccbatson · April-08-09, 12:08 AM

Right now, they are more stable, and seem to have a brighter future.

We can join them in that fate....but need to swing conservative as a state and city to do so.

**jjaba** · April-19-09, 12:32 PM

Chicago has many square miles of urban blight, urban disinvestment that makes Detroit look like a vibrant active healthy city. Don't let the sliver by the lakefront that you see on television delude you.
jjaba, Proudly Westside.

**Ray1936** · April-19-09, 04:44 PM

Originally Posted by jjaba

Chicago has many square miles of urban blight, urban disinvestment that makes Detroit look like a vibrant active healthy city. Don't let the sliver by the lakefront that you see on television delude you.
jjaba, Proudly Westside.

Ah, where ya, I say, where ya been, son?

detmich · April-19-09, 09:51 PM

Originally Posted by jjaba

Chicago has many square miles of urban blight, urban disinvestment that makes Detroit look like a vibrant active healthy city. Don't let the sliver by the lakefront that you see on television delude you.
jjaba, Proudly Westside.

Bullshit. Even the most blighted areas of Chicago, brutal as they are, are still inhabited. The same is not true for vast swaths of Detroit, both on its outskirts and in the actual city center itself.

**6nois** · April-19-09, 10:20 PM

This article points to some of my biggest pet peeves.

1. Overall orgy love fest for Chicago, yes I like Chicago, I enjoy visiting, and it is a wonderful city, but the people just drive me nuts sometimes. All they can do is talk about how amazing Chicago is and who unfortunate and sad it is that I have to live in Detroit, which I personally love, enjoy, and chose to do. It just makes me want to hurt someone.

2. The idea that cities are static. There is a constant shifting going on in the life of a city. We don't see it as well here in the U.S. because our cities are so young, even Detroit at 300 is just a baby. But as an example Rome in its history has been a large city and nearly totally abandoned. There are cycles. Because Detroit has been on a decline for the last fifty years or so does not mean the city will be totally abandoned and never inhabited again. It just means we are currently shrinking and thats not a bad thing. Detroit has problems and is losing people but worldwide we don't even make the top 25 cities that are shrinking, most of them are in China of all places, a country that recently has been going through lots of rapid development. It's just so over simplified and stupid to say Chicago is the only midwestern city with a future.

ccbatson · April-19-09, 11:09 PM

At least they aren't as arrogant as New Yorkers....yet.

**6nois** · April-20-09, 07:31 AM

Yeah just give em some time, they will get there. The olympics would be a great start for them. Although then they would be lumped in with world class cities like Atlanta. LOL

detmich · April-20-09, 09:31 AM

Originally Posted by ccbatson

At least they aren't as arrogant as New Yorkers....yet.

NYers don't seem arrogant to me. Cities like Detroit don't even register to them because their competing in a different league all together. But you will also be glad to hear that NYers don't think, or care, about Chicago either. They just don't care about regional cities, they compete on an international level. Atlanta and Pittsburgh are flyovers like the rest.