5 Pros and Cons about living in Chicago (Paris, Manhattan: sales, apartments)

[spikeboy25]

I'm graduating college some time next year from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro with a degree in sociology. Having lived in Tennessee for almost all of my life, I desperately want to leave Tennessee move to a big city.

A started a poll on the city vs. city forum and have fellow CDers to vote whether Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Charlotte or Raleigh/Durham are for me. While Atlanta got the most votes, I got a lot of people to recommend Chicago to me if I could get a job up here. I have three cousins who I'm fairly close with who live in the Chicagoland area, with one living in McKinley Park on the Southwest side. The other two live in Lake County, Illinois. I've always enjoyed the city and liked its cosmopolitan nature. My dream has always been to move to New York City, but after talking with relatives (most of my family lives in either New Jersey or New York), it is far too expensive for me to move there. I've looked up apartment prices on the internet and considering Chicago's size, they aren't too bad.

So what I'm asking is for people to give me 5 pros and 5 cons about living in the Windy City. And please, I am only referring to the city and not any of the suburbs.

[Avengerfire]

Cons:

Crime
High taxes and fees
Winter
Lack of jobs
High gas prices (and utility rates)

Pros:

April to October is awesome
There are lots of things to do at all times of the year
Good Food and a myriad of choices
Decent Public Transit
An abundance of dating options

[jlawrence01]

Cons:

Crime and aggressive panhandlers and other pests.
Political corruption and the general public acceptance of it
Winter
The one-party political system
High gas prices

Pros:

April to December is pretty reasonable
There are lots of things to do at all times of the year
Good Food, good shopping and a myriad of choices
Good Public Transit in many areas (if they would ever clean it up)
Lower taxes than in many states.

[hxcobd]

I'm too lazy to do a 5/5, but here's a summary:

Coming from Los Angeles, I'm pretty used to appallingly high apartment prices, horrific parking situations, and nasty traffic/commute. You're probably similarly educated, with a background in NYC.

Chicago is MUCH more affordable than LA or NYC. A REALLY NICE apartment in Chicago, in a good area, will run you roughly (very roughly) $300-500 less than a comparable place in LA.

Virtually every apartment provides free water/sewage, and many provide free gas/heat as well. You'll almost always have to pay electric.

Gas prices are pretty bad here, strangely. When I left LA a few weeks ago, you could still find stations with unleaded under $3.00; I haven't seen it for less than $3.20 or so here in Chicago.

On the flip side, public transportation here is quite well-done. Very all-encompassing and LOADS of taxis. I still personally find public transportation a huge money drain (unless you're huge on biking and drop the cash for monthly passes), so I keep my car.

Another thing people don't mention a lot: tons of internet access options, including a great 4G network and Clear coverage.

Oh, and Aldi!

[spikeboy25]

Actually hxcobd, I really don't have a background in NYC. I'm originally from Central New Jersey. I did have one cousin who lived in Manhattan for two years, but had to give up her apartment after the economic meltdown in late 2008 when she lost her job.

Like I said before the big reason I want to move to Chicago is that it's a world-class city like NYC, LA, San Fran, DC and Boston, yet it is much more affordable than anyone of those cities. Even renting DC seems expensive when I searched for apartments on various websites. Most studios were never less than $900 a month, and most of those that there that cheap were in a very rough neighborhoods.

[SJaye]

Obviously everyone's pros and cons are going to be different depending on their perspective on life, and preferences, but here are my personal top 5 pros and cons...

Pros:
1. A variety of interesting neighborhoods, and nearby suburbs. In addition, there are plenty of worthwhile places to visit within a reasonable drive, like Milwaukee/Indianapolis/etc. , that make good weekend trips, or day road trips.
2. Many areas of the city and nearby suburbs are walkable and well served by transit
3. Things to do; bars, festivals, museums, etc.
4. People are generally friendly here, at least compared to other big cities
5. The food

Cons:
1. Weather; Winter here sucks! and sometimes the summer weather leaves something to be desired- today marks the 7th day in June with measurable rainfall.. 7 of 14, and last summer was kind of a joke.
2. Politics, too much corruption, sales and "sin" taxes are abominable, and we still can't balance a budget!
3. Limited options for some outdoor activities, such as skiing, mountain biking, hiking
4. Traffic- I believe Chicago's is actually worse than New York's
5. Road construction is often slow and poorly planned (see 290)

I determined a long time ago that as much as LA has the weather and outdoor activities that I would want, the one thing that annoys me more than any of the above is when people's lives revolve around celebrities and celebrity gossip. Here in Chicago, it does appear a lot easier to get away from that, and that is one thing I am quite appreciate of here.

[Alacran]

Good
Neighborhoods
Food
Public trans
People
Events

Bad
Summer
Taxes

[NYrules]

Good:

1. Overall fairly clean for a city of this size
2. Easy street system to navigate
3. Fairly diverse ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation
4. Capable of finding a job that pays more than minimum wage
5. Fair amount of things to do in summer months

Bad:

1. Miserable changeable weather year round (long cloudy gloomy cold windy winters, almost identical weather for our supposed spring only slightly warmer like by 10-20 degrees, hot/humid buggy summers which lately have tended to be also very cloudy, cloudy rainy falls with temperate conditions)
2. Horrid traffic and yes I second it is worse than NY's thanks to outdated roads and traffic signals that are not synchronized to allow traffic to flow at all and instead are designed to stop everyone at every light then take pictures of them hoping the folks get tired of all the red lights and run them then that way the city can make $100 off you.
3. Parking is among the most expensive in the country actually worse than Midtown Manhattan now
4. Very dangerous in parts actually making Black Harlem look like a "cake walk"
5. Corruption beyond belief in all parts of the government

[rgb123]

Chicago is great if you have a job and make a decent enough wage to cover all your basic needs and have some left over to enjoy entertainment/restraunts/bars/shopping, etc.

Chicago is terrible if you can barely afford your rent and are counting your pennies to hang out on the weekend. It's a cold place if you can't afford it.

[grapico]

Originally Posted by rgb123

Chicago is great if you have a job and make a decent enough wage to cover all your basic needs and have some left over to enjoy entertainment/restraunts/bars/shopping, etc.

Chicago is terrible if you can barely afford your rent and are counting your pennies to hang out on the weekend. It's a cold place if you can't afford it.

I'll have to disagree with this, Chicago probably has the most free and cheap events of any big city in the U.S... I mean maybe if you are coming from Texas... But for me going back to Chicago from San Francisco Bay Area or struggling to live before in a Paris shoebox apartment its an absolute STEAL!
I know plenty of people making it on 30k and a roommate with money to spare.

really need to go on craigslist and so some apt shopping to see this.

just an example...

2br under 1000 in SF ... ZERO results. there are only 5 that come up and they are all scams.

2br under 1000 in Chicago, over 1000 results, probably a few more thousand.

I can even put 1br under 1000 in SF and come up with less than 50, probably only 10 of those are actually in San Francisco, and most of them are sketchy as hell.

I'd literally have to pay double the rent here for city life than I do in Chicago.

Even in the burbs, the prices are quite ridiculous. The average house in my zip code goes for a cool *average* listing of over 800,000 thousand dollars. and this is 45 miles outside the city.