I give it a B-. It is miserable weather 5 months out of the year, which is reason enough to avoid living there.
I spent around a month and a half in the Chicago suburb of Naperville for job training around 10 yrs ago and really liked it.
I only actually spent one day in the city, it was a freezing cold, windy Sunday in Feburary, the place was desolate and COLD, seemed like we had the whole city to ourselves.
Place looked clean and all, this was the Downtown, We went to the Weber Grill Restaurant which was fun, saw the Married with Children Fountain (Buckingham) and ran back to the car it was so windy and COLD!
Nice place to visit but from what i read EVERYDAY not a very good place to live.
My best memories of the area was hanging at this particular Mexican joint every night (LOT”S of Mexican restaurants there) and getting up early to watch Pats games on Sunday at this cool dive bar that had a great free food halftime spread and the owner would tune one of the TV’s to the Patriots for me.
Compared to here in MA i found the people to be friendly and outgoing and i developed quite a respect for the Bears fans.
Great town. Great sports and museum town. Great restaurants. Great public transportaion. Friendly to tourists. Hotels are expensive. Commuting and parking sucks.
OMG....we lived on Pearson which is between Michigan Avenue and Lake Michigan....The Ritz was a block away....and the WATER TOWER was on the same block....fabulous area. I would have lived there forever if they hadn’t raised the income tax 66% overnight!!!!
The streets are tree lined and flowered lined all over the city....gorgeous.
The Triangle has great restaurants, horsedrawn carriages, and EXPENSIVE shopping on Oak Street.....ther is nothing NOT to like if you are visiting!!
In the summer there is the OAK STREET BEACH....AWESOME...they ship in real PALM TREES for the season....the Lincoln Park Zoo is a short walk away and it’s free to get in......and the walk to it is either along Lake Michigan or MILLIUON DOLLAR HOMES on quaint streets!!
EVERYONE should visit Chicago...especially in the summer with all the outside café seating for all the best restaurants!!
At one time, it was a wonderful city. With the proper leadership, it could be again.
Well if you like hotdogs Portillos restaurant is a good enough reason to visit...
Have mixed feelings. I grew up there and enjoyed it as a child (Rogers Park) and young adult (Lincoln Park). It was nice to get around without a car, but as crime grew, I moved out to the suburbs where you spend half your life commuting downtown for work or wonderful restaurants.
If I were wealthy a North Lake Shore Drive high rise condo facing the lake would be nice. Unfortunately, I am not connected and can’t afford the kind of places that Barack Obama, Rahm Emmanuel and Bill Ayers have.
The Chicago I knew when traveling there frequently in the 90’s was surprisingly clean for a large city, an architect’s dream, from beautiful old residential areas to the very impressive and varied waterfront skyline. It was a food lover’s place, too. Not just fine dining but diners with well-prepared, hearty dishes that were very fairly priced. Nice people by and large, drivers were almost polite, they’d wave you into a line of traffic. Very unlike other large US cities.
Even then, though, there were places you just didn’t go even in broad daylight. I understand it’s spreading. That’s truly a pity. I loved the place.
Hubby, who has been all around the country many times, has always maintained that Chicago is the best city to be really, really rich in.
As a native NYer, of course I say to heck with that.
I worked in Chicago for two years in the mid 70’s. It was a wonderful city then. I’ve been back two or three times since and the decline is obvious. Somehow, I think it’ll be great again.
I’ve been to Chicago.
Greatest mid-Western city.
And oh - did I mention the food?
Chicago is where deep dish pizza’s at.
Only Detroit is better!
I lived near Chicago during college. I loved to visit. Still, it was miserable for me beyond belief in the winter and I moved to Florida as soon as I got my degree to Chicago. A girlfriend from college asked me to come back and move to Chicago, but I had already met and started dating a SoFlo Latina and said “No and hell no.” NOTHING could get me to intentionally live in that cold again.
Most of IL outside Cook County would like to sink Chicago, the CORRUPTION center of the state, in Lake Michigan. Chicago is a political whore for sale to the highest bidders. Chicago is the center of evil in IL.
I spend my time on more important questions, like “Is toe jam really jam?”