Apps like ParkHero make finding a cheap parking spot in places like Chicago trivially easy. I took the family in the weekend of the marathon (oops) and found an overnight spot near the Navy Pier for $40. I went a few weeks ago and got a spot downtown for $17 overnight.
My situation is similar to Chronos; I live in Chicago and work in a suburb, but the neighborhood I work in has a much more “urban” feel than the neighborhood I live in. Even though I can easily get there in half an hour on the train, I rarely go downtown; maybe a few times a year to see a play or for a medical appointment or something. For everything else, like restaurants and shopping, there are options just as good much closer to home. One exception would be that during the summer I often ride my bike along the lakefront, which takes me through an area which is “downtown” by any reasonable definition, but is still a bike path along the lake. But I don’t do anything there, I just ride through it.
2-3 times a month into Boston, sometimes more often if there are events going on. At our old place it was much easier to jump on the T (subway). Here we either drive to a large T stop and take the train in, or just Uber/Lyft both ways. Driving in isn’t a big problem either, since there’s a couple of inexpensive parking garages available.
I was hoping a fellow Clevelander would chime in. When my son was with me, we would go out a lot on the bus. Downtown I guess once a week.
I have no intention of going again. I worry What if the bus’s stop running, how would I get home?
I could walk home from Great Lakes mall. It would take me about 3.5 hours without stop, longer if I rested.
I went into the city in January for a show that was on. That was the first time I’d been in the vicinity in about three years. I used to go a lot when there were specific shopping reasons, but now that everything is online, and suburban shopping precincts are fully featured, it’s no longer necessary.
That must be some haircut!
I’d ask what “the City” means. I live in suburban Dallas, but still in the city limits. (NE Dallas near Richardson).
I’d say outside of work (a couple of days a week) I don’t make it south of about Lovers Lane but maybe every couple of months.
Most of the time my commercial time is spent within a box bounded by about Inwood to the west, Plano Rd to the east, Lovers to the south and Arapaho to the north. I go one of central Dallas m, Plano, Addison or Garland about monthly.
I’ve not used it, but I’ve heard good things about it. To be fair, regarding my earlier post, the large majority of my parking experiences in Chicago – both downtown, and in the neighborhoods – occurred before that app existed.
I grew up in San Jose. Once I got into high school, and well into my 20s, my friends and I went up to San Francisco all the time. The South Bay didn’t have a lot going on for young people at the time, while San Francisco did.
Now, my wife and I live in a suburb of Portland, OR. Downtown Portland is a straight shot down the freeway, about 20 minutes away, but we rarely go there these days. Only because there’s no reason for us to go there, not because of traffic or parking.
Trendy restaurants, not so much. But I like watching live music, viewing art and fine dining. Not a lot of any of that in the suburbs.
Absolutely - Chicago parking and traffic is still terrible, but technology has been a big help. I don’t know how much the app helps in the residential areas.
Down here in Indianapolis, going “downtown” is a breeze. Despite suburban complaints, there’s tons of parking, traffic isn’t bad, and everything is mostly centrally accessible. I go down fairly regularly for baseball games, and the occasional nice dinner.
Strand? That place is amazing. Chamblin’s Book Mine in Jacksonville, FL is comparable, but the location itself is nowhere near as cool.
I live about an hour from NYC and I avoid it at all costs. As a teenager, my friends and I went to hang out in Greenwich Village all the time. In my 20s I spent a lot of time playing gigs in the city. In my 30s I was on a PATH train heading to the WTC when the first plane hit. 2 years later I got sent to training in the CBS building when the blackout happened. The ferry was the only way out of the city unless you were going to Brooklyn, and I got stuck in a sea of thousands at the dock. That killed it for me and now I won’t go to a city of millions with no reliable escape route unless it’s for a special occasion. Over the past 23 years I think I have gone to the city 4 times: twice to take my daughter to Broadway shows, once to see Penn and Teller, and a few months back to have dinner with a buddy from the Navy that I haven’t seen in almost 40 years. If I never go back, I won’t miss it.
I can’t answer for others, but when I say the city I’m referring to any place within its boundaries.
I live right outside of DC, and work in DC. Other than work, we take the train in (or very occasionally drive, which I hate) maybe once or twice per month for dining, attractions like museums or the zoo, or to take a walk in Georgetown along the river.
I live between Washington DC and Baltimore MD. I’d guess I go to one of those two places about once a month or so, to visit a museum, park or nice restaurant, or to see a ball game.
For Washington I’ll almost always take Metro; for Baltimore, I’ll drive.
An hour train ride to Penn Station in NYC (34th street).
Just enough of a pain that I go once or twice a year, though I always want to go more often.
I live about twenty miles outside of Rochester, NY. I go into the city a couple of times a week on average.
Not for work. I’m retired and back when I was working, my job was fifteen miles in the opposite direction.
I used to live in the Hudson valley and it was about a two hour trip into New York City. I’d make the trip two or three times a year.
But my brother was like the people in the OP. He lived down there for a few years and he declared that the only thing he wanted to see in NYC was the Museum of Natural History. So we made a trip into the city to see it. After we left the museum, my brother got back on the train and went home. He never returned to NYC.
The OP describes the mindset accurately, and that’s why there are great restaurants and great shopping in the burbs. Driving downtown for crowded events like “Taste of Chicago”, “Lollapalooza”, summer concerts, etc. is a total nightmare. You can’t park anywhere near them and, if you do, it’s at least $50 dollars but probably more. You can take public transportation, but the CTA has a poor record in regards to crime and safety.
Reminds me of the time I went to NYC to audition for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire in c. 2002. I’d been to New York as a tween*, but that had been decades ago. My plane landed at Newark, I followed another Doper’s instructions to the letter regarding directions, saw the ruins of the World Trade Center (at the time a big hole in the ground), went to ABC and did the thing, got on the train to my hotel in Newark, flew home the next day.
*This was 1981ish, and oh my god was Times Square a dump! BUT, it was also a beautiful dump (kind of like the French Quarter was before Katrina). I hear that a lot of New Yorkers are kind of sad at what Times Square has become.