The Devil made me ask... Is Chicago Ugly? (Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove: crime, to buy)

[coldwine]

I'll agree with the thought that Chicago has done nothing to retain those neighborhoods that thrived in the last yuppie boom. I really don't believe that Chicago has done much in the way of maintaining neighborhoods at all. I'm certainly no urban planner, but while living there I always felt that city services did a terrible job of providing for those things that help a neighborhood grow and thrive-- especially public transit. This has obviously improved, but there's still so very much work to be done. The alderman's chicken**** BS privileges have worked against drawing the city together, especially with respect to zoning. And especially for zoning around transit corridors.

Other than that... Eh. Chicago has ugliness and I loved it all the same. Chicago is truly ugliest on gray winter days in January, when there is nothing at all to hide the grit and concrete starkness of many areas of the city. And although I'm sure Steve-O will jump down my throat for bringing this up, but the geographical location completely deprives Chicago of any sort of reliance upon nature to make that same nature more useful. Three months of summer does not help make parkland useful. The sad fact is that for most of the year, Chicago is inaccessible; it isn't an outdoor city.

Why plant more trees? They don't bloom until late April and then they lose their leaves in October. Unless we're talking pine trees here, nature has Chicago at a severe disadvantage. This is a serious question of mine, however-- even if Chicago had as much tree cover as Atlanta, are the two even remotely comparable if one of the cities doesn't have a climate that allows for long-term foliage?

I'm not an outdoor person. I could afford to live in a fabulous neighborhood of amazing architecture. And that is really all Chicago can offer with regards to beauty, because its built environment is all the city has. I don't know what the city offers most people who couldn't pay to live in Lincoln Park, Gold Coast or the likes of their ilk. Not if one is looking for "beauty".

Even so, again I'll say it, I loved the ugliness alongside the beauty It isn't yet a "complete" city-- there is still much work to be done. Especially when viewed from afar, it becomes apparent just how ****ed up Chicago is because of its politics. The same unsolvable problems that prompted me to leave are only exacerbated now.

As an interesting tidbit of trivia, I gave Lookout Kid the vote needed to bring his rep up and out of 666.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by coldwine

Even so, again I'll say it, I loved the ugliness alongside the beauty It isn't yet a "complete" city-- there is still much work to be done.

I've had moments walking by a rusty chain link fence under the "L" that just felt like the aesthetic sublime.

The city's role in "neighborhood investment" is precarious. The city is responsible for roads, sidewalks, and alleys--and of course the CTA and sewers. Other efforts in "neighborhood investment" by the city and state have been disasterous. Private homeowners have turned neighborhoods around, not the city.

That said, we need to double the CTA's capital budget immediately. And we need to resurface most roads, replace our old combined sewers, and rebuild our bridges.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

Feel free to check out some more posts by this loser...

I think I'll pass...

[Chicagoland60426]

As a person who live in the immediate south suburbs of Chicago, I attend to agree for the most part that Chicago need to work on large swath of the city. Yeah we can say every city have bad(sucky) parts, but when a city have a bit too much..it becomes a problem. The Chicagoans(or suburbanites) that love to give the ''every city have bad parts'' speech is the ones that who either live on the Northside, downtown, near south, or the North/west suburbs. Before I even reach downtown or the Northside area, I have to go through the most ugliest neighborhoods of the southside(which is 60% of the city). Not only is Chicago segregated in race, it's also segregated among the three major sides: Northside, Westside, and Southside. It seem like it doesn't function as one city, and there are people in Chicago that rarely(if ever) visit the other sides of the city. The truth is, the Northside and the Southside almost seem like two seperate cities, have hardly anything in common..except both are still Chicago. The Northside is San Francisco/Boston tourist section, while a large percentage of the southside might as well be Baltimore and untouch from tourists.

To end this rant of mines, the mayor and developers need to concentrate more on the west and southside to build up density and retail, and I'm not talking about the near southside . I'm talking about the forgotten far southside(disconnected from downtown), and most of the westside. Yeah this might sound like BS to some of the Northsiders and North/west suburbanite posters, but you don't have to pass through these areas in order to see the finest of Chicago. I don't want the whole city to become a San Francisco, but the city need to clean up large sections, so Chicago can be balance.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by coldwine

I'll agree with the thought that Chicago has done nothing to retain those neighborhoods that thrived in the last yuppie boom. I really don't believe that Chicago has done much in the way of maintaining neighborhoods at all. I'm certainly no urban planner, but while living there I always felt that city services did a terrible job of providing for those things that help a neighborhood grow and thrive-- especially public transit. This has obviously improved, but there's still so very much work to be done. The alderman's chicken**** BS privileges have worked against drawing the city together, especially with respect to zoning. And especially for zoning around transit corridors.

Other than that... Eh. Chicago has ugliness and I loved it all the same. Chicago is truly ugliest on gray winter days in January, when there is nothing at all to hide the grit and concrete starkness of many areas of the city. And although I'm sure Steve-O will jump down my throat for bringing this up, but the geographical location completely deprives Chicago of any sort of reliance upon nature to make that same nature more useful. Three months of summer does not help make parkland useful. The sad fact is that for most of the year, Chicago is inaccessible; it isn't an outdoor city.

Why plant more trees? They don't bloom until late April and then they lose their leaves in October. Unless we're talking pine trees here, nature has Chicago at a severe disadvantage. This is a serious question of mine, however-- even if Chicago had as much tree cover as Atlanta, are the two even remotely comparable if one of the cities doesn't have a climate that allows for long-term foliage?

I'm not an outdoor person. I could afford to live in a fabulous neighborhood of amazing architecture. And that is really all Chicago can offer with regards to beauty, because its built environment is all the city has. I don't know what the city offers most people who couldn't pay to live in Lincoln Park, Gold Coast or the likes of their ilk. Not if one is looking for "beauty".

Even so, again I'll say it, I loved the ugliness alongside the beauty It isn't yet a "complete" city-- there is still much work to be done. Especially when viewed from afar, it becomes apparent just how ****ed up Chicago is because of its politics. The same unsolvable problems that prompted me to leave are only exacerbated now.

As an interesting tidbit of trivia, I gave Lookout Kid the vote needed to bring his rep up and out of 666.

Chicago does have a lot of trees, and most do remarkably well for as little care as they get. Other much smaller towns spend A WHOLE LOT MORE on making sure that the urban trees thrive. Regardless of how you feel about "man made climate change" trees are a very good thing. Even the most skeptical person could not disagree that before Chicago or any other urban area was built the land was covered with stuff that GREW and those plants recycled a whole bunch more of the atmosphere than pavement does...

There is a second point that you make about Chicago not being an "outdoor" city and I tend to agree with. I completely disagree that this is due to our winters. If you've ever spent time in Madison WI or the Twin Cities in MN or even places like Calgary there are plenty of ways to have harsh winters and "outdoor" stuff thrive. Inflatable field houses are HUGE in most of the upper midwest but our corrupt and politically stacked Forest Preserves and Park Districts have ZERO desire to actually deliver services to tax payers that would require competent professionals that don't sleep in trucks all day...

Finally, in terms of transit, I have to say that even THE BEST looking of the regions transit facilities are so ugly in comparison to ANY of the good looking ones in other Cities that I actually the sightless people who only experience these horrid sewers-with-trains with only a white cane.

While one can argue that the modern style of DC's subway is too sci-fi, at least they TRIED to make something that had "design". Ours look like they were designed by the same people that make sure poop moves out of the bowl and into a big darker pipe...

The same can even be said of the Metra stations, the crappy platforms of Union Stations belie the FACT this about the best commuter rail in the country. The placement of piers, lack of ventilation, constant cave like dripping water and horrendous crowd control are something that any other country would not tolerate in the 2009! The Oligvie lay out is slightly less bleak, but the bizarre layout of catwalks and escalators is ridiculously disorienting to anyone without explicit knowledge of EXACTLY where they need to go. The other stations that Metra has downtown have even more of an "afterthought" feel to them, and speak volumes to the attitude the City & State have towards serious transit matters...

[Costa Rica Chica]

I think the downtown area is beautiful, the lakefront is beautiful, our many parks are beautiful. Yes, there are areas that are not so lovely.

And that's it. (I know, really esoteric.)

[Lookout Kid]

Well, to those complaining about the state of CTA and Metra stations and trains, how have you been supporting increased capital budget expenditures on these systems? The state is the primary funding mechanism for the RTA, and they have done a terrible job providing the required funds. Note that the capital improvements budget is separate from the operating budget, so it is possible to fund capital improvements without funding whatever labor practices you find unsavory at the CTA (though the construction contracts are another story).

[chitown85]

Chicago has much cleaner streets and better maintained roads and sidewalks than most other cities I have been to in America. Particularly downtown, the north side, and even parts of the west and south sides. I've been to Europe and most of it is old and unable to support modern amenities (such as major grocery stores, wide roads, etc). I have not been to Kiev, but I can't imagine it being so spectacular. Chicago has a housing oversupply because of all the buildings that have been built since 2002 and then the economy tanked.

[grapico]

Eh the thing is the North Side is a big area comparable to the same size nice city cores of other pretty big CSA's like Boston/SF 5/6 and better than LA's @ 2 at least in the inner core, LA isn't that pretty, it shines on the west side though. With the size however... there is definitely a lot of "wasteland" that I personally avoid.

[grapico]

Originally Posted by wizardofcats

What your are smelling is the trash that coming from your streets.
For you information, the wealthiest people in the USA leave USA and resettle in Europe,. Johhny Depp currently lives in France. Bradd Pitt and his wife in UK.
Now, tell me what I said about Chicago is not truth?
All 100% truth. Yo are embarrassed to us that it is truth. Your miserable attmept to defend it, would do not good.

There are just as many or more foreign penthouses in NYC, Mansions in the hills of California, Mansions in South Florida owned by foreign investors as there are property in Europe...