Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Saturn64
Hello. Last week I visited Chicago for the first time, and it very easily became one of my favorite cities. Of course, the collection of skyscrapers was excellent. Actually seeing buildings like the Willis Tower and the John Hancock Center, which I've seen thousands of pictures of, was a great experience. Although personally, my favorites were the three on Michigan directly north of the river - Wrigley, Tribune, and the Hotel Intercontinental. And, of course, I went to the Art Institute, MoSI, and all that good stuff. I'd also like to mention I was surprised at how relatively clean Chicago is. I was expecting it to be as dirty as New York and Philly, but wasn't in any way.
But I think what I liked about Chicago's cityscape was how it differed from New York, in that it's not as dense, but yet is large and tall on a similar, albeit smaller, scale. There are no stick-thin skyscrapers dominating the skyline like in NY. Plus, in Chicago, everything fits in so well with each other, especially along the river, where the old and new meet in such a visually satisfying way. That, and the sheer abundance of skyscrapers is always a treat, no matter where it is.
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I lived in Chicago for 8 years before moving to NYC 8 or so months ago. Before that, I was actually traveling every week between Chicago and NYC for over 2 years. Coming back to Chicago most every weekend was like a breath of fresh air in terms of niceness. There are definitely nice areas of NYC, but Chicago is much cleaner and nicer in that regard. I live in a very nice neighborhood in Manhattan which is considered clean, but even some of the main avenues if they were in Chicago would be considered dirty. The lake and river are one of Chicago's greatest assets. It's easy to take them for granted, but they can be so nice and pretty much unparalleled in the US except for maybe Honolulu, parts of Southern California, and parts of South Florida. The river scene is fairlyunique to the US in my opinion.
I have had friends here visit Chicago or see pictures/street view when I show them and their reaction is always like yours. Their picture of what Chicago might be like is nowhere near the reality. One of my coworkers just came back and now wants to move from NYC to Chicago. Of course, Chicago is big but a lot of areas outside of downtown are pretty clean and nice (even some of the high crime areas have many blocks which are pretty normal looking and clean - but not all).
I miss Chicago a lot and will be back living there at some point in the near future. NYC is great, but I think people who actually have a pre-conceived notion about the city usually come away pretty surprised once they visit areas like downtown. I've met a number of foreign travelers who were shocked and Chicago has become their favorite US city. My girlfriend's parents from Shanghai weren't planning on visiting Chicago when they were in the US last, but I convinced them. It's now their favorite US city - they weren't impressed with cities like SF, LA, and NYC for one reason or another (i.e. they think most of NYC is dirty and a s*it hole, LA isn't walkable enough, SF is too small, etc).
And on that note, I see you are from Philadelphia. Great city - easily one of the most underrated in the US along with Chicago. Great pictures too - glad you enjoyed the city.
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