Posted on 01/02/2014 7:03:48 AM PST by Borges
Using your example, there are no great cities? Name one?
I bet you many Texans would disagree. Furthermore, you know exactly what my point was.
I have visited Chicago many times on business and know that once you leave the business district, you are taking your life in your hands.
Your may-whore, Rahm Emmanuel, is celebrating because ONLY 413 people were murdered in Chicago last year. That is better than one person a weekday and two on Saturdays and three on Sundays. I have heard that the road to Hell is lined with tulips and is very beautiful. In fact, I have been on that road a few times in the Spring.
Sorry, but I keep out of dangerous places that are mobbed up. And Chicago has two mobs, one of the Mafioso type, the other of the Political bent.
What does Dallas have to do with a nighttime shot of Chicago, wherein Chicago is called “great”?
I wouldn’t know anything about Dallas from a similar shot, except that it looks pretty at night from the right perspective.
There are tons of safe neighborhoods in Chicago outside of the Loop.
Trust me.....the mob is the last thing to worry about. You’ll never find a safer restaurant than one ran by the mob.
Sure, there are neighborhoods you need to steer clear of but that's true of any large city. My rule of thumb is that when you start seeing check-cashing joints, pawn shops and metal bars on windows of homes, it's time to reverse direction.
We were last in Chicago during the summer and we spent a week checking out Second City, some museums, a Cubs game and the huge ferris wheel on Navy Pier as well as a cruise in Lake Michigan. In between, some of the best deep-dish pizza and steaks I've ever had.
Yes, Chicago deep dish pizza is the best. Love it. I live one suburb away from Naperville (in Downers Grove). In the past, I also lived in Naperville, a great place to be, with a wonderful downtown Riverwalk. Plus, when much younger, I lived in Chicago, and I worked in Chicago for many years at UIC (Univ. of IL at Chicago). I retired from working at that University after many years. Prior to that, I worked in private industry jobs (law firms mainly) in downtown Chicago. So I know Chicago intimately, a city that I explored extensively, as I loved its history and architecture, as well as its cultural offerings.
Chicago has one of the greatest art deco Opera Houses in the world, and its symphony orchestra is world renowned. When a child we lived in Oak Park before moving to Elmhurst where I grew up. Adolph Herseth, the great trumpet player in the CSO, lived two doors away from our house on Clarence Avenue. He continued to live there for his entire life, even when famous. Of course Oak Park, one of the first suburbs right outside of Chicago, is where Frank Lloyd Wright lived for many years, and built many of his pairie style homes. They are architectural masterpieces. Many of the rich money magnates from the turn of the century had summer homes in Oak Park. The architecture of so many of the homes in Oak Park, is a visual wonder. When you next get to Chicago, you should take one of the walking tours of the Frank Lloyd Wright homes that start out from his studio in Oak Park which you can tour the inside of. Ernest Hemingway came from Oak Park and his home is also open for tours.
Today I watched out my condo’s large sliding glass windows fronting on a balcony in my living room, and watched the snow piling up almost as high as my second floor condo (slight exaggeration). There must be a foot of snow out there. It actually was very beautiful to watch the snow silently falling from the great pillow in the sky. So glad I live in a condo so no need to shovel said snow. That would be no fun. The snow plow trucks are working overtime the last couple of days. Winter wonderland.
It would be pretty if it wasn’t for those big tall buildings blocking the scenery.
--after a few stages of treatment. What I remember was that after a flood the Chicago River would stink and with a really heavy flood the muni water would need boiling. My civil engineering past tells me Chicago area is one of the cleaner areas, and per person much cleaner than rural areas. They don't have outhouses in Chicago.
http://chicagoriverpaddle.com/
http://www.yelp.com/biz/chicago-river-canoe-and-kayak-chicago?nb=1
Kayaking the lake.
And you can fish too!!!!
http://www.windycityfishing.com/river.htm
I would not eat those fish, though.
Just realized that I was remembering something from 50 years ago!!! Funny how improvements since 'the good ol' dayz' are so easy to overlook.
I’m from Milwaukee and live in Indiana. Have relatives who live in Chicago.
Been there, and been through there many times. It’s over run by liberals gangbangers crime and filth. Admittedly it smells better than Gary used to (before the steel mills closed down) but not by much.
Chicago used to be a great city, but that was before the fire.
I can’t think of one good thing that chicago has given us. (change that. I think Styx is from there. So make that one more good thing...)
All of those things were true of detroit too. Then years of democrat rule destroyed the place. The only thing chicago has going for it is inertia. But democrat rule will one day overwhelm that too and then chicago will be detroit.
Actually cripplecreek that was not one of chicago's problems. Milwaukee did that. chicago polluted the air (big time). They drank our garbage while we breathed theirs.
One of the best days I ever had was I snuck out of a conference in Chicago, rented a bike and rode Lake Shore Drive as far as I could, from Navy Pier on up (I made it close to the Bahai temple before I had to turn back in time for dinner.
The world class architectural richness of Chicago dates from AFTER the fire. There are no ugly buildings which isn’t even true of places like London. The museums, the music, the food, the writers, the miles and miles of beautiful lake front. It’s a world class city that’s actually very clean for a city of that size.
Good deal.
There is a nice bike path along the train tracks we take on summer nights from Highland Park to Forest Lake. The vista at the park at Forth Sheridan is a great stopping point.
Maybe that's the problem here. Your definition of beauty is vastly different than mine.
There are TONS of ugly buildings in chicago. Most of them downtown in fact are eyesores. Because almost all skyscraper types of buildings are ugly to me. They have come to represent all the festering corruption and crime and filthiness of big cities. They have no 'life' to them.
Now if I remember correctly there is an old water tower somehwere near the waterfront (Big high class shopping area, Michigan Avenue maybe?) that has character. It is a good building. Of course it's dwarfed by all the mostrosities around it.
The museums etc would be far better if they weren't over run by gangbangers and liberals. I love the museum of scinece and industry (just as I love the Smithsonian museums) but it's just not worth running the gauntlet of crime, traffic and liberals to get there.
I've never cared for most of the food from chicago. I've had friends go on and on about it and my normal reaction is 'huh? I thought you said it was good?'
The lake front would be far more beautiful if they removed all the urban blight from it.
Don't feel slighted. Indianapolis is an ugly city. New York is hideous, In fact, I can't think of a single city of greater than 100,000 people or so that is not a hell hole. You put that many liberals together (because liberals naturally tend to congregate into cities) and everything turns to crap.
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