I’ve got to agree. I just got back from a week long trip to Chicago. I was somewhat intimidated by going to such a big city, but found the people to be wonderfully friendly. Even people you would expect to be brisk, like bus drivers and transit workers, were only too happy to give directions to an obvious out-of-towner.
Loved it there. What a great place.
Gold Coast Dogs are the greatest thing since Fish Tacos! 
I would move to Chicago in a minute, for all of the reasons listed above, plus one more: most of my family lives there. But alas, my wife likes the warmth of sunny San Diego.
Hate to intrude on the lovefest, but IMO - not much.
It’s a big city. So if you want to live/work in a big city, it fits the bill.
But I don’t know why anyone would consider it significantly better or worse than any number of other big cities - Philly, Boston, St. Louis, etc.
You hear so many folks talk about the wonderful cultural institutions, who haven’t been to them in years.
The lakefront IS pretty cool - in fact, I’m just about to head out for a lunchtime run.
But other towns have oceans, mountains, and such.
IMO, Chi is just a big city.
My personal taste would be towards a more mid-sized city or a university town that had many of the same offerings, but less of the hassles (expense, crowds, traffic…)
And my take on the weather - we get some lovely weather in all 4 seasons. The thing is, we don’t get prolonged stretches of seasonally appropriate weather. This year we had a very warm November, a frigid December, then a mild Jan-March. Then over the past week it popped up to 80, and now it seems to have settled into a stretch of rainy spring. Next week - who knows - it might be summer or winter…
Don’t even THINK about making major outdoor plans until June - and even then you might be disappointed.
(Born, raised, and schooled in the city for 18 years - lived in a burb but worked downtown the past 20.)
I’ll swap ya, Chicago for Dogpatch, if you can network me a gig in a library, museum, or city government.
I’m living in NY now, after six years in Chicago. I miss it so! For all the reasons here, plus the fact that it’s the home of my beloved University of Chicago.
My husband and I have discussed many of the differences…Chicago is much more welcoming than NY, for starters. New Yorkers are friendly, but Chicagoans are genuinely hospitable and downright pleasant. You get the sense that people are really living in the world, not just in their own little bubbles. Chicagoans walk down the street and there’s just a sense that they understand the city and how they fit into it. NYers seem to walk as if the street rises up to meet them personally. There’s something cool about that too, but I’m more the former type.
In Chicago, there’s room to breathe. It’s busy and bustling, but you can stretch your arms out. It’s easy to get to many different kinds of places: busy nightlife districts, ethnic neighborhoods, beautiful college campuses, secluded lakeside parks (yes, secluded!), quiet residential areas–and just outside the city you can easily reach farmland, suburbia, or quaint little towns. Pretty much everything you could ask for. (The only downside I see is the flatness of terrain.)
Also…better neighborhood grocery stores, and food, drink, and entertainment that doesn’t break your bank.
Hoping to go back someday soon and maybe meet Cecil…
I visited Chicago numerous times between 1983 and 1995 and always had a great time when I was there. Things seem to work very well, as they do in San Francisco, and it’s easy to get around by L, subway, and taxi.
Some things I like, in no particular order.
The Berghof, now sadly gone. A moment of silence, please, for the Berghof.
The Art Institute. One of the great art museums of the world. Seurat’s La Grande Jatte alone is worth the admission; the reproductions in countless art books don’t do it justice.
The Museum of Science And Industry
The Field Museum of Natural History
Buddy Guy’s blues club on South Wabash (forget the name, is it Legends?)
More cool places to drink at on the Near North Side than you can shake a stick at
Architectural history all around you
The lake beaches. If you’ve never seen a Great Lakes beach, it’s very different from a coastal one. Rich, verdant green comes down almost to the water line, just as you would expect with a smaller lake in the woods someplace. To appreciate that, though, you need to go a little north of the city into the suburbs.
What took me so long to get to this thread?
Hi troublmakr!!!
DISCLAIMER: Yes, I live 40 miles out in a suburb now, but I was born there, and have lived in, or within a 30 minute drive of the city for most of my life.
So, I’m going to sound like a repeat of what others have said, but here:
The weather. Yeah, I like it. There are SEASONS. The weather changes. Chicagoans appreciate spring and summer and don’t bitch about heat because we live through that winter.
The skyline. Ok, it’s man-made and steel, but it’s beautiful.
The lakefront.
The parks system. You can’t go a mile in the city without finding a park.
The people are NICE. Just…nice. When you meet a rude one, someone next to them apologizes for their friend being in a bad mood.
Dinsdale, not to pick on you, but you made a point I agree with, that people that rave over the museums and culture don’t actually go. Except I do. The museums, the sports teams, the music scene in Chicago all rate with the best in the world. Well, except the cubs. 
(Wrigley Field, for you apologists, shows itself really pretty on TV, but I challange you to call that dump a usable major league ballpark. 3 words for you: Bud. Light. Bleachers. So shush about Comiskey (aka The Cell), at least you can park your car there and don’t have to pee like a horse - in a trough… There, I feel better now)
It’s a nice size. You can walk from the business district (the Loop) to the foofy shopping district, and it’s a nice walk.
The food. Home Run Pizza, the chops at Miller’s Pub, Al’s Beef, Heaven on Seven, Maple Tree Inn…not enough time or space for them all is there? The thing about the “name” restaurants everyone knows, like those, is that, in the nieghborhhods, there’s a place as good or better than those, that the city keeps their own secret so as not to get overrun by tourists. For all the Home Runs and Geno’s and Malnatti’s there’s a Palermos or a delivery-only place that the Iowans never see.
And yes, Chicago Hot Dogs: steamed, ALL BEEF, on a sesame seed bun with the works. Put ketchup on a dog in this city and you’re labeled as an foreigner, or worse, someone from Iowa.
The neighborhoods. It’s been said that you can’t walk 2 blocks in the city without hitting a neighborhood tavern, or a church.
Chicago women are the most beautiful women in the world. What? You wanna argue? I ought to know, I married one. 
Navy Pier.
The Park West, the Riv, Metro, et al…
Walter Payton. (Bow your heads, grown men bawled like babies when he died)
The Museum of Science and Industry. The coolest place in the world under one roof.
Wilco, Steve Goodman, John Prine.
Second City
Architectural boat tours down the river, and on the lake.
Ok, I’m out of time, but not out of ideas.
Did someone say Dopefest? I’m in!
For those interested in the business side of Chicago The Economist ran a great special report entitled ‘A Success Story’ in their March 18-24 issue.
The articles covered a range of topics including Chicagos transition from being an industrial hub to more of a global city, the effects of having a large and growing Latino population, and the “benefits, and drawbacks of (Mayor Daley’s) benign dictatorship.”
If anyone is interested in these articles shoot me your email and I will forward them on to you.
I realize that other people have mentioned the whole Museum, but I think Chicago is cool because they’ve got the only surviving example of a U-boat.
(Gotta get to Chicago sometime.)
It’s poppyseed, but all us real Chicago enthusiasts (I’m a suburban person, too - 40 miles out, too) knew what you meant.
I’ve never been to a Dopefest, but if one ensues, I just may make it.
There’s actually a hot dog joint somewhere in the city that has NO KETCHUP signs all over the place. If you ask for some, they ask you to leave.
An undeniable fact of Daley the second’s benign dictatorship has been the relentless prettification of the town. And I mean that in a good way. Be hard pressed to find another city with more wrought iron and flowers per capita. Fuck the schools, we want more flower boxes!
I think someone has a case of the Mondays. Sure, it rained last night. But it’s been sunny all day today! How is this a portent of a “stretch of rainy spring”?
Everyone has mentioned many good qualities and some of the hassles that come with living in a large city. But for me the biggest reason I would pick Chicago over NYC is that we have alleys for garbage. NYC tends to stink because their garbage is out on the sidewalks. In August it’s down right nasty! Don’t get me wrong, I love NYC. It’s a fantastic and beautiful place that everyone should visit. But I can’t live with stink, lol.
All of the above.
Depending on who you ask, either “25 or 6 to 4” or “Hard to Say I’m Sorry”.
Damn straight. Love the Metro! I also have tickets to a show at Park West in May.
It’s not Toledo.
When you are moving there from a place with no TJs, it is a good thing.
:dubious: Those two are my only complaint about the Windy City.
The best four years of my life so far were spent in Chicago. St Louis is great for school, but the only place I want to work is Chicago.
I’ve been to New York, a great city, but, as mentioned, no alleys and too freakin’ expensive. And the only thing bigger than the egos on Wall Street are the rats. That is not a good thing.
L.A. will never produce good music because it has no soul. That is the coldest city I have ever visited. I have no desire to ever return.
Seattle wishes it was San Francisco.
San Francisco is okay except that it is proud to be in California.
St. Louis is cool. Forest Park is awesome. But they can’t decide if they are part of the Midwest or the South. If they were not on the Mississipi, I suspect they would become another Gary, Indiana.
Chicago is the best city in the United States of America. That’s all there is to it.
AP