What N.A. city best equates to Chicago (live, legal)

[Avengerfire]

I would say a mixture of Toronto and N.Y.C. would be the most accurate. One thing that is crazy about Toronto is its train lines. If you put the train map on its end it looks very similar to Chicago's. Oh yeah, they still use http://www.apartmentcorner.com/mapimages/ttc_map.gif (broken link)cash and tokens in Toronto to ride the bus and train!

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by NYrules

Many parts of Chicago are almost identical to NYC with looks and even feel in some cases. I have picture albums of both cities, and in some cases I cannot even tell which city is which until looking at the blurb I wrote on the backs of the pics as to where they are from.

The south and west side of Chicago looks almost identical to Brooklyn and the areas of the north and northwest sides of Chicago look very similar to the better parts of Queens or even some parts of Manhattan itself. LP and Lakeview for instance look and feel almost identical to Greenwich Village and SoHo as well as Tribeca with their mix of residential and business type buildings as well as the mix of cabs, busses, civilian cars, trucks, straight trucks, siren blaring ambulances and firetrucks every 10 minutes, and the people jammed onto all the sidewalks.

Chicago is growing rapidly not so much in regards to it's population, but instead with what is being built, so we are not too far off from being or becoming a mini NY. Think about this, there are how many skyscrapers planned to be built in Chicago in the next 10 years and look at how few are planned for NY? W

ith all the potential money that can be generated in tax revenues and such by building Chicago into a bigger city, we soon will be right up there with NY in regards to everything if King Richard can have his way.

We still need to double the population though. That is the key to generation of tax revenue. There needs to be more large rental units built and more train lines.When you look at the land size of Chicago 227.2 sq mi to land size N.Y.C. 303.3 alone there is no reason Chicago could not easily support 5-7 million people if more public transportation and housing was built. There is plenty of underused and vacant land on the south and west sides!

[july]

Please don't wish more people on us! It's crowded enough already as far as I'm concerned.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by july

Please don't wish more people on us! It's crowded enough already as far as I'm concerned.

How will this city be able to survive without more people? We cant pay all of these taxes alone!

[DC's Finest]

NY Rules,

The first DT pic with all the cabs looks a lot like Philly. The second pic is Time's Square, where three major streets intersect. The subway pics are too easy. I can tell the EL from NYC transit anyday with a blindfold on. By the way, that pic is the westside. The last two look like Michigan ave and 5th ave. You can't trick me I used to live in Brooklyn and I have been to the Chi many many times. BTW - Have you been in NYC (LATELY) right before they pick up the trash in the morning? It stinks.

Additionally, the street scene in NY is totally different. Chicago doesn't have any vendors or people hocking **** on the street like in NY. I was surprised to see that most people don't even J-walk.

[jcp123]

Well, the SF Bay Area is roughly equivalent in population, though the public transit is arguably less well-developed. Plus, life in most of the Bay Area doesn't centralize or revolve around San Francisco the way it revolves around Chicago in Chicagoland. Hard to say, really.

[WildWestDude]

Toronto is better than Chicago.
It has preserved its old ethnic neighborhoods, is more decentralized and has very few ghettos to speak of. However, I do see the similarities between the two.

[coldwine]

I'd have to say that there really isn't any other city in NA that equates to Chicago. Toronto is too decentralized and very, very different. Toronto is Chicago 20 years ago.

All in all I'd say that maybe Brooklyn or the Bronx best approximates Chicago, although we obviously have more open space. The city of Chicago never even closely approximates Manhattan.

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

We still need to double the population though. That is the key to generation of tax revenue. There needs to be more large rental units built and more train lines.When you look at the land size of Chicago 227.2 sq mi to land size N.Y.C. 303.3 alone there is no reason Chicago could not easily support 5-7 million people if more public transportation and housing was built. There is plenty of underused and vacant land on the south and west sides!

I do love Chicago dearly but... That just isn't going to happen. Yes, we could support more people, but we as a city just cannot draw people here. It's nearly impossible to get our youth to choose Chicago over the coasts (I deal with this issue on a daily basis) and we have to have special bonuses paid to employees from the coasts before they'll move here. It's called "exile pay".

At the moment we really don't have much to offer. Crumbling infrastructure and suburbs holding us hostage by refusing to fund our mass transit. And god knows the weather issue has been covered in so much detail it doesn't need to be glossed over again. Looking out my window I don't know if even I could convince someone to come live here instead of Dallas or San Antonio (Or Miami/Tampa, or Phoenix, or LA, or SF, etc).

[Don Vito]

You could not pay me 7 figures to move to Texas, Florida, or California. I prefer to live in a part of the United States where English is still the most common language.

[coldwine]

Originally Posted by Don Vito

You could not pay me 7 figures to move to Texas, Florida, or California. I prefer to live in a part of the United States where English is still the most common language.

This is a prime example of the close-minded people we have in Chicago. Internationally traveled, diverse citizenry of a cosmopolitan nature? I think not.