Watch it, Chicago, we're starting to act like New York. (Bridgeport: transplants, 2015)

[downtownnola]

Interesting commentary. I have posted a couple times that I have found Chicagoans to be rude and inconsiderate, but people usually insist that Chicago is some kind of down to earth, midwestern city. It's fine if Chicago wants to be a rude place (insecurity perhaps), but why do people here insist that the city is polite and friendly when it's really not?

Watch it, Chicago, we're starting to act like New York - Chicago Tribune

[Freefall18]

**** that guy

[Dennis Schroeder]

Being down to earth does not preclude being loud or inconsiderate. Chicagoans have always been brash and sorta rude. I've never even heard claims to the contrary until now. In fact, Chicagoans are probably more polite now than ever before. Back in the 1980s the Chicago archetype was some sort of loud, obnoxious, Jim Belushi character.

[Slate Moonstone]

Native Chicagoan, live in NYC now. I have never understood the myth that so many Chicagoans have about how friendly they are. I find the people in Chicago, on the whole, to be much less friendly than the people in NYC.

You want nice? Go to Canada or maybe Minneapolis. Chicago is not that place.

[marothisu]

When I grew up in another part of the midwest, we actually thought of Chicagoans as complete jerks. When I went to college, I made friends with a guy from Bridgeport and he was one of the biggest jerks I ever met so it kind of solidified that.

I think there's kind of two groups of Chicagoans out there and you can tell the difference between their niceness. One group is definitely nice but there's a group of others which are definitely not. I have a feeling that the nice Chicagoans are the semi-new transplants from other, small parts of the Midwest who were taught to never be mean. The ones who are kind of rude aren't necessarily that different from the stereotypical mean New Yorker in my experience. They're brutally honest but that is many times taken as being rude.

[downtownnola]

Interesting thoughts. Chicagoans do seem to be under the false impression that they're "friendly midwesterners," but I haven't found that to be the case at all. Most of the people I have encountered here have been self-centered and unfriendly (there are exceptions, of course).

[Bluefox]

Originally Posted by Slate Moonstone

Native Chicagoan, live in NYC now. I have never understood the myth that so many Chicagoans have about how friendly they are. I find the people in Chicago, on the whole, to be much less friendly than the people in NYC.

You want nice? Go to Canada or maybe Minneapolis. Chicago is not that place.

Canada? Ever been to Montreal?

[Dennis Schroeder]

I actually find Chicagoans very friendly despite their obnoxiousness. It's very easy to make friends in Chicago. Contrast that to places like Seattle or Minneapolis where people are stereotypically 'nice' and polite but you can live there for decades and never make any friends.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Slate Moonstone

You want nice? Go to Canada or maybe Minneapolis. Chicago is not that place.

As someone who spent many years growing up in Minnesota - I don't agree. What most people who haven't spend considerable time in Minnesota don't realize is that people are just as mean there as anywhere else. The difference is that in places like Minnesota, most people are afraid to tell anybody to their faces (though I had run into numerous people who had no issues with it either - and it was more in a cocky way than anything).

Some of the meanest people I know are people I grew up with there. Spend tons of time there and you'll learn how much crap talking behind peoples' backs really goes on. That's pretty much everywhere in the Midwest that's not a small city. Someone who didn't grow up with that thinks that everyone is nice when in fact they're just afraid of saying anything to you. But you better believe they're talking crap about you behind your back constantly.

[sf_arkitect]

^ Yes Marothisu!! I heard that from a group of Minnesotans visiting Chicago back in March. They said in Minnesota they have something called "Minnesota Nice" where, as you said, they are not willing to say things to your face.

Anyways, since I have moved to Chicago in late June from Southern California I have met mostly really really nice people here. However, to generalize inhabitants of a city as acting a certain way is futile. At the end of the day, most of the people in the really large cities like NYC, LA, CHI, and SF all came from somewhere else. A lot of people I have met here in Chicago came from another state, another country, or from the suburbs.

So like the other biggest metros in the US, Chicago city proper seems to be a very transient city. And with so many people of varied backgrounds, I think everyone is bringing with them some of the attitude or behavior from the place they originally came from.

I think you will find super nice, super cocky/self absorbed, super humble, and what ever else you can think of in a big city with millions of people.

It's not worth it to fight over labeling population in a metro of nearly 10 million people.