Do you sometimes think of moving out of Chicago? (fit in, salary)

[doublenickels]

Every day and every night! Tossing out old stuff, at this moment.

Originally Posted by Jesse69

Do you sometimes think of moving out of Chicago? .

[Chicagoist123]

I think I might leave Chicago for a couple of years just to experience something different. Come back after that and won't leave until I retire. God I love this city, but sometimes the weather tests that loyalty! The past two weeks of wet and gloomy weather are killing me right now and making me wonder what life might be like in sunny LA or SD.

[Lucky Clover]

I've only been here for a short while, and I honestly love the city. Always been a dream of mine to live in an urban mecca and there's only 3 cities in the U.S. that would do that for me. NYC, Chicago, and San Francisco. If I was to leave Chicago, it would only be for those two other cities. Sports is also very important to me because I'm a sports junkie, and there's really only a few cities that thrive sports 24/7 -- Chicago being one of them. If I did ever think about leaving it would only be because of my personal future being better elsewhere due to a job or some other reason.

[marothisu]

Not really, but if I did it would be either for NYC, San Francisco, DC, Istanbul, Paris, London....just so I could experience something different. I do love Chicago

[MassVt]

Originally Posted by andrew61

Whew! Now that I've gotten all that out of my system, I'm going to go back and answer the OP's question.

Yes, I do sometimes think about leaving Chicago. In the mid-90s I relocated here from Cleveland to accept a job promotion with the telecom where I was working. I'd visited Chicago on several occasions and loved it and had already decided that one day I'd move here, so when the opportunity came up, I accepted it eagerly.

Five years later, after a company merger, I accepted a very generous buyout offer and took early retirement. No longer haviing a job tying me down in Chicago, I was free to stay or go. I took a look at all the big-city cultural, recreational, and entertainment amenities Chicago had to offer (museums, theater, nightlife, restaurants, etc.) and decided to stay so that I could enjoy them now that I had time on my hands and freedom from 60-hour workweeks and long, tiring commutes.

Today, however, I'm rethinking that decision. I'm taking a look at how my lifestyle has panned out and asking myself just how much I do in Chicago that I couldn't do in a number of so-called "lesser" cities -- all while living more cheaply and in somewhat less crowded environs.

For example, I live in the Lakeview area and love everything that's here... but sometimes I think I could be just as happy in, say, Minneapolis' Uptown area, or Denver's Capitol Hill, or Portland's Belmont-Hawthorne district, or similar areas in other smaller big cities. Sure, Chicago has more of everything, but do I really need all that? Does it justify -- for me -- the higher cost of living here? Plus, as I get older, I find the pace of the city gets to me more and more, and the streets are too crowded and the people too reckless, and it's wearing me out. I'm thinking perhaps other cities might offer "enough" urban amenities to keep me stimulated while balancing that with somewhat lower population densities and less "craziness" so that I don't feel overstimulated quite so often.

(One criterion I do have, however, is that I don't want to have to resort to depending on a car to get around, which means I need a place with at least decent public transit and not too sprawling. Modern sunbelt cities are definitely out. Not my thing.)

Sometimes I even think about moving back to my native Cleveland... and I know what jesse means about cheaper housing in Houston, because in the Cleveland area you can buy a lakefront highrise condo in a great area for as little as $30K, or sometimes even less... but when I do go back home for a visit, I spend some time looking around and I say, "God, I could never live here again." So obviously when I look back at my hometown in my mind, I let my nostalgia cause me to romanticize the place too much, and when I take another look at the reality, it doesn't quite fit my romanticized notions.

Which leads me to another point: I try to avoid the "grass is always greener" mentality. After all, when I first moved to Chicago, I thought the place was "Mecca"... but somewhere along the way I misplaced my rose-colored glasses and started seeing all this city's faults and warts. So, too, will it eventually be with any other place I decide to move to. I'm well aware that there is no such place as Utopia... not on this planet, anyway.

So for now I'm staying put... and will do so for the next couple of years at least. Then I'll decide whether to stay or to move on. In the meantime, I'm not going to wish my life away, as my mom used to put it.

Another option I'm considering is to stay in the Chicago area, but move more to the fringes, or even to an inner-ring suburb... for example, I'm very drawn to Oak Park and am thinking that might be a nice place to settle as I get older. It's still walkable and has a decent amount of urban "stuff" (shops, restaurants) although not so much nightlife (which I've mostly lost interest in, anyway), and is somewhat quieter and slower-paced and friendlier than the north lakefront neighborhoods. And it's still a short train ride from downtown Chicago. So that's a possibility.

This post is 3.5 years old, but should be a "gold standard" of sorts; one of the best I've read on CD...

[CA-DC-CHI]

I have been here about 9-10 months and am ready to leave. I sucked it up for a job but knew I was never a Chicago nor Midwest person, and the terrible weather and seasons here have made it more clear. The fall lasted about two weeks, then the trees were bare by the end of October. The dark, cold, slushy winter was annoying, now it's been raining for damn near two weeks and wait, the trees are still dead. Traffic is unbearable on streets and highways. I do like the "core" areas of Chicago and the COL is better than the east and west coast cities I favor, but this place is not for me and hopefully I'll get back to one of the coasts by the end of the summer.

[chet everett]

...if things are not too hot or the rare cold/wet stretch the peak of summer tends to be quite enjoyable.

Originally Posted by CA-DC-CHI

I have been here about 9-10 months and am ready to leave. I sucked it up for a job but knew I was never a Chicago nor Midwest person, and the terrible weather and seasons here have made it more clear. The fall lasted about two weeks, then the trees were bare by the end of October. The dark, cold, slushy winter was annoying, now it's been raining for damn near two weeks and wait, the trees are still dead. Traffic is unbearable on streets and highways. I do like the "core" areas of Chicago and the COL is better than the east and west coast cities I favor, but this place is not for me and hopefully I'll get back to one of the coasts by the end of the summer.

[CA-DC-CHI]

Originally Posted by chet everett

...if things are not too hot or the rare cold/wet stretch the peak of summer tends to be quite enjoyable.

I was here last summer, July was unbearably humid, it made being outside a chore, but I deal with heat better anyway so it's whatever. But I'm not willing to settle for a city where being comfortable outside is about 8 weeks a year. Plus there are a ton of little things (that matter to me) that makes Chicago a city I don't want to live in for long. I oringally planned to be here two years, but that's quickly changing.

[Lookout Kid]

Chicago seems to make more sense for people who have family nearby. It is still by far the largest economy in the Midwest, and represents great opportunity for many. I've tried to leave, but my professional connections (and those of my wife) tend to keep us here. So we're making the best of it. And we do have great love for the city, even though it presents some challenges. If you can get past the weather and deal with the urban congestion, a really good quality of life is possible here.

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by chet everett

...if things are not too hot or the rare cold/wet stretch the peak of summer tends to be quite enjoyable.

I personally am hoping that this colder-than-normal Spring weather will lead to another mild summer like we had in 2009.