CHICAGO IS THE BIGGEST SCAM!! (but let's keep it a secret)

[TBideon]

A person can visit Chicago on a budget and still have a phenomenal time.

There are plenty of hotels downtown where it's under $100 a night. Somewhere like the Freehand.

There are plenty of restaurants downtown and in the neighborhoods where a quality hamburger is under $15. Maillard Tavern is one of my go to spots, with a Richards stop before or after.

And, especially with good weather, there is a ton of fun free **** to do. Hang out by the beaches, lake and river. Listen to the Grant Park orchestra at Millennium Park on weekends. Go to an art gallery reception in Bridgeport, Pilsen, Wicker Park, West Town, etc. Attend any number of free festivals or outdoor farmer's markets. See a movie at a park. Visit Garfield Park Conservatory, Lincoln Park Zoo, Lincoln Park Conservatory, Oriental Institute, Smart Art Museum, the 606, etc.

Point being, Chicago is a very cheap place to visit if one doesn't have much to spend.

[Master Jay]

TBideon, you are right! You named a lot of great places and things to do... Weather was not bad today. Saw a lot of people walking and riding bikes.

Today's trip was to check out Indian Boundary Park. Then we played with the animals at nearby Red Door Animal Shelter. And next door was a treat at the somewhat old school ice cream place, Lickity Split.

Then walk around the indoor mall in Lincolnwood, as well as the outdoor mall in Skokie (koi fish were alive and swimming).

Get a delicious dinner nearby at Lao Sze Chuan.

And then a coffee and some reading at Barnes and Noble, on Touhy Avenue in Skokie.

A great day was had with the kids, and now I'm back in Milwaukee!

[Gaylord_Focker]

House hunting. The city has some bargains, the suburbs, not so much.

[Redlionjr]

Speaking of budget, I'm highly considering visiting Chicago the third week of May with my Wife. I have some questions though.

1) We'll be staying in the Acme hotel in River North. Are there a lot of nice budget friendly restaurants in River North?

2) My Wife will be 5 months pregnant by the time of our trip. How strenuous is moving around in downtown Chicago with most of the attractions from a neighborhood like River North?

3) Is Skydeck worth the visit?

4) Jazz club recommendations downtown or near River North?

[Gaylord_Focker]

Originally Posted by Redlionjr

Speaking of budget, I'm highly considering visiting Chicago the third week of May with my Wife. I have some questions though.

1) We'll be staying in the Acme hotel in River North. Are there a lot of nice budget friendly restaurants in River North? I believe so. Lots of high and medium end restaurants.

2) My Wife will be 5 months pregnant by the time of our trip. How strenuous is moving around in downtown Chicago with most of the attractions from a neighborhood like River North? Super easy, though I sprained my ankle when I stepped into a pot hole

3) Is Skydeck worth the visit? Sure. Great view

4) Jazz club recommendations downtown or near River North? That I don't know. Had the 7 year old with me.

Answers in bold

[NoClueWho]

Originally Posted by edsg25

Chicago may well be the biggest scam going. A very successful scam indeed.

Everyone has their own list of the truly "global" US cities. Mine I've mentioned here before. Mine (from what I have concluded) is a group of six cities that when asked on C/D, pop up as the six with global status.

These are (east to west..to avoid any bias): Boston, New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

If you take those six, one is an outlier because it is nowhere near a coast. Obviously Chicago. The other five are either directly on the coast or, in the case of Washington, close by to it. The five are given the anointment of "coastal", a title pretty well owned by only the Northeast Corridor and coastal California (LA-SF). Coastal comes with a price tag. A big price tag.

The five are extremely expensive cities. Each and every one. And as the most expensive cities, they suffer the oxymoronic problems that come with success. New York and San Francisco may be the best example. I contend that both NY and SF have suffered greatly from being the playground of the rich. Both cities have become more generic, less diverse, more homogenized/more "any place". Wealth gave New York pencil thin Billionaires Row tower casting shadows over Central Park. It gave New York the soulless Hudson Yards. San Francisco is for wealthy techies, homeless is rampant in a city where housing is virtually unaffordable. The quirks that made SF so quirky are gone.

Chicago, again: my contention, is the only true metropolis, global city, alpha city, whatever you could to call it located more than 200 miles from any (Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf) coast. Chicago alone acts like, seems like the type of city the other five are. It walks and talks like a duck; so it must be one.

Yet Chicago is cheaper (without remotely being "cheap) than the other five. Chicago, while greatly affected by wealth, is less so than the other five.

Chicago offers the type of global city/major metro that is so desirable well enough away from the coasts to make it more affordable, more of a bargain. The best of bargains. AND THUS THE SCAM. We get this incredible city and metro area to live in at not only the best price imaginable, but without the excesses that are the result of extreme wealth (although, here again, we suffer in this regard, too....but less than the other five). Chicago may well retain that "sense of place" that could be lost in a New York or a San Francisco where a city can be just taken out of hand by outsiders. Chicago has sense of place because Chicago still is a place.

When the story of Goldilocks and the three Chicago bears is told, Chicago ends up being "Baby Bear" (Cub?) because it is "not too little or too soft, not too big or too hard. just right".

So we have cheated our way to greatness, a greatness of which we benefit the most. No coast? Yes, that's what they might think in NY or LA. But we are coastal. We have Lake Michigan which feels like a coast. And don't kid yourself: without that "coast", Chicago never would have been the great city that it is. If St. Louis had continued on its trajectory and had stayed the metropolis of mid-America, it would never have been as formidable as Chicago is because of the lack of open waters.

Chicago dominates its landscape and no truly major metropolis is close by (only Milwaukee could possibly qualify for it alone is near Chicago, but it may be a big city; not a metropolis). In the northeast Corridor, the five cities are all close enough by that each is strongly influenced by its neighbors (less so for NYC). Chicago thus keeps a sense of being "its own place" more than the others.

The negatives "outsiders" see in Chicago serve us as well. We're perceived as the Arctic in winter; we are not and a real Chicagoan knows that in most winters, there are plenty of days without freeze or snow. They see murder and race as a major part of what Chicago is. But in essence, we really are a city of everyone, a city with large groups of whites, blacks, hispanics, and Asians. We are diverse, much of who we are is tolerant. Violence and murder is more of a meme in the sense of "Chicago is the worst".....it isn't. In murder, in crime, etc. Our divides are more economic than racial and those divides are great in each of the five other cities. Yes, we squeeze out blacks, mostly poor, but for much of black Chicago, the middle class black Chicago, the city still works for them. And I would never pick out Chicago as being the poster child of racism. It's bad. It can be very bad. And the reason it is can be explained with three words: the United States. Racism is a disease of the American culture. Chicago, like all, is adversely affected by this serious disease.

In summary: Chicago like no place else offers this incredible city/metro at the most affordable of prices and with the least disadvantages that the coastal cities experience. In Chicago, you can hope a jet and have easier access to all of the other five because we're smack in the middle.

We've got a good thing going. And frankly I think we're pretty happy to keep what we have a secret and not let the others know about it.

I wouldn't want too much success, nor too little success, but just the right amount of success sounds great. Take a bow, Baby Chicago Bear.

I was with you, until you reached the bolded part. You CAN'T be a BLACK Chicagoan if this is your watered down take on segregation and racism in Chicago towards Black Chicagoans, be they poor or middle class Black Chicagoans. Some of the most diverse cities in America are some of the most segreageted and most racist towards Blacks, so bringing up how diverse Chicago is does nothing to combat that reality.

[DannFrankenstein]

Originally Posted by Redlionjr

Speaking of budget, I'm highly considering visiting Chicago the third week of May with my Wife. I have some questions though.

1) We'll be staying in the Acme hotel in River North. Are there a lot of nice budget friendly restaurants in River North?

2) My Wife will be 5 months pregnant by the time of our trip. How strenuous is moving around in downtown Chicago with most of the attractions from a neighborhood like River North?

3) Is Skydeck worth the visit?

4) Jazz club recommendations downtown or near River North?

I’m pretty sure Andy’s is still open for your jazz club. It’s somewhere between Grand and the River by State St



And I do prefer the views from the John Hancock observatory over the Sears Tower. You get a little better view of the North Side and more of the lake