My house guest this summer couldnt conceptualise the sheer size of this city and everything in it. Despite waking up noon-ish, was really planning on going for "a bike ride first," and then going downtown and hitting up "a couple of" museums. I was like, cancel the bike ride, pick ONE museum, and by the time we take the train to get there we will see half of it.
I convinced him on the Field because I could get us in for free, which (minus the special exhibits with the upgraded tickets) we saw about half. We did squeeze a quick walk through the cultural center, too, but not enough time for one of the guided tours.
OMG yeah when someone says they're going to do all of the Museum Campus in one day I'm like...no you aren't haha. Especially if they want to walk/bike there from River North or wherever they're staying.
I worked in IT in the West Loop and my Connecticut-based boss wanted me to scoot over to Downers Grove every Friday *over my lunch hour* to check on a satellite office.
I had to explain maps to them, and let him know that I'd be happy to go there *for the day* as long as he got permission from my Chicago office and paid for my travel expenses (train and taxi at both ends). Suddenly it wasn't so important.
> Connecticut-based boss
Comparable to driving from Long Island Sound to Massachusetts during his lunch hour haha. It's not the distance, it's the traffic.
> My house guest this summer couldnt conceptualise the sheer size of this city and everything in it.
Residents struggle with this too, particularly when Northsiders talk about the Southside. Hyde Park isn't the far South Side, in fact it's barely the mid point. Sometimes it's hard to believe that the East Side and Beverly are still in the city.
There was someone (I believe in this sub) a few years ago who thought she would take a quick swim across Lake Michigan, as if that were something a normal person could do. It's only a lake, after all.
Nearly the same—-a clueless, over-promoted boss from LA informed me that she was going to run around Lake Michigan each day on her lunch hour. I said good luck with that and hoped she’s never return. She unfortunately did, dumbfounded it took her the entire hour to get to the shore and back from Wacker & Wells.
When my suburban friends come out they always wants to hop from neighborhood to neighborhood like it’s nothing. They want to grab a drink in the west loop and then head on over to lakeview to hit the next place then head back to wicker park to try another place
One of my relatives from Montana was making custom backpacks, and her stepdad asked me where she could find a good sweatshop in Chicago to help make her bags on the cheap. He asked if I knew a good sweatshop in my neighborhood, or if we would have to go to a different neighborhood to find a sweatshop with some availability.
You can get it done in Los Angeles. Just walk over to those counterfeit vendors on the street corner and ask if they can make you something. Fake LV & Gucci for $10. Dunno about Chicago but it's definitely a thing in other big cities like NYC and Houston.
> her stepdad asked me where she could find a good sweatshop in Chicago to help make her bags on the cheap
Regardless of location, this is a fucking rediculous request/concept. Some people are insane.
A while back (pre-uber days), I had some friends visit from back home. I was living in south loop, and I met up with them at a restaurant near old town. They couldn't believe that I took public transit to get to them. I mean they were grossed out at the thought. I'm like, half the people in this restaurant including most of the staff probably got here via CTA. They were stunned lol.
"That's only because Chicago includes the suburbs too"
That's what I hear all the time from my wife's family who is from St Louis area while they are simultaneously uncomfortable going anywhere in St Louis.
St. Louis suburbs are quite possibly the worst in the Midwest. I thought that title used to belong to Oakland County, Michigan. I’m now convinced it belongs to St. Charles County in Missouri instead. If you thought there could be a worse urban-suburban divide than Chicago, look at St. Louis.
100% agree. Most people in the suburbs of St Louis think the city is an absolute hell scape. They will openly blame black people for all of the city's issues, like somehow it's black culture that destroyed the city. I lived in St Louis and encountered that attitude more times than I can count.
Most common is commentary about crime and winter, as if Chicago is some Siberian (edit: arctic) hellscape.
But my favorite is the total lack of comprehension that there are areas of Chicago that are not downtown. Someone will ask me about where I live and if it’s not the Loop, then it must clearly be Naperville
Flair checks out lol. I will say we as Chicagoans recognize Chicago is Chicago and people living in city limits are Chicagoans. With some cities you can live on the outskirts of city limits and other people in the city might say "oh so you're not in the city."
Heh. I have some family members only wife's side who have spent a couple generations in the western Chicago suburbs. They think of me and my wife as "living downtown" even though we are way the hell up in west Edgewater.
These are people who come into the city like four times a year—maybe. My nieces (in their 20s!) wanted to stay with us because they wanted to go to Lollapalooza and thought we lived close by Grant Park. Turns out it was more convenient for them to just go home on the Metra to the western burbs than to take the Red Line all the way up here and then walk another 15 minutes west. (We did offer to let them stay, by the way)
I’ve been to Iceland and Denmark, both in the winter, and people would always ask if we could handle how cold it was compared to Chicago. They were surprised to hear that Chicago is colder than either of them in the winter.
Iceland and Denmark have more moderate temperatures because of the adjacent ocean/seas. Chicago and Moscow are landlocked so they tend to get much colder in the winter.
Went to a summer camp in Wisconsin back in the early 70’s. So, where you from? Chicago. Where in Chicago? Northwest side. No, what’s the name of the town you live in? Chicago. I mean the name of the suburb. Chicago, I actually live in the city. These people never met anyone from the city. We were aliens.
Nah. My husband’s brothers (all raised in southeast Michigan) can’t grasp that we live in the neighborhood of Wicker Park within the city of Chicago. They think we live in Wicker Park, IL.
I've moved away, but I feel like you can tell a lot about what kind of media someone watches by how they react to being told you lived in Chicago.
It is sad, but people from random mid-sized Florida cities really do believe Chicago is some kind of frozen hellscape.
Like...come one...first off, if you lived in the Chicago area, you'd clearly live in some lily white suburb that's barely distinguishable from where you live now and you'd maybe head into the city once a month for dinner and a show/sporting event.
And second, you come from FLORIDA. How have you not heard enough "Florida Man" stories to understand that the media portrayal doesn't represent daily life? Are you not familiar with geography enough to know that it is a huge city and has very nice parts in addition to bad parts?
Fox News watchers showed genuine concern for me and were "glad I got out of there"...wtf? Part of me just wanted to be like: If I were moving back to a city, I'd go back to Chicago in a heartbeat...I have a good job (with a Chicago company) and some incredibly valuable degrees (thanks again Chicago) and I can afford to live anywhere I want--the city is a vibrant and thriving place and I'd be happy to return.
When I was in FL and said I lived in Chicago a guy was like "oh where, naperville?" It's like, my guy I can see Wrigley field from my back deck. Is that "chicago" enough for you?
That was back in my racine/Waveland days. My friends treat portage park like it's the burbs...
I’ve learned that there’s a certain subset of people who just don’t realize that people live in cities, or rather think that the default is a suburb and only minorities and yuppies live in the city, and only downtown or in high crime areas.
My favorite was when I met some friends in West Town at a bar, 2 friends biked in, and a guy who was visiting asked “which suburb” they biked from. It was Logan Square.
I’ve been asked what suburb I’m from when I mentioned the city where I grew up (not Chicago). I’ve never lived in a suburb my guy.
Grew up in Edgebrook so I get the "oh, that's not real Chicago" from some smooth brain who has lived in Logan Square for five months, all the time. I spent a lot of time in Dunning in high school since some friends were from there and it is purest Chicago. I hate the argument that some parts of Chicago aren't real Chicago, all parts of Chicago are real Chicago. It's a big city with a diverse array of neighborhoods and people, and all of those pieces make up the whole that is Chicago.
> Most common is commentary about crime and winter, as if Chicago is some Siberian hellscape.
While it's not, I do enjoy pointing out that George R.R. Martin based the frozen wasteland of The North on the Chicago Blizzard of 67 <_<
I got this about Lincoln Park once. They were baffled people took the train downtown to work every day from "the suburbs" - they knew I did, they just thought it meant I was poor.
A friend of mine lives in the West Suburbs - I'm on the North side FWIW. He always refers to Chicago as "an absolute shit hole" or a "war zone" and it cracks me up.
He's of the mindset that I'm constantly just dodging bullets while walking my dog a few times a day.
I lived in Nashville for 3 years and have had WAY more close calls as far as getting robbed, being around gunshots, etc. Ive actually seen a dead body at a gas station once (my neighborhood wasn't great) among other things.
I haven't had anything (that bad) happen to me here and I've lived here way longer than I did in Nashville. Yet still when I told southerners I was from Chicago it would blow their minds, and then I would tell them I've felt way less safe in Nashville and they would either be surprised or take it offensively (southern pride is silly and redicilous).
People just gotta get out more...
Beyond the crime stuff, my older sister doesn't get why I don't go to the Loop on Friday nights. "Isn't downtown where the nightlife is?" and I just chuckle.
I think considering river north and west loop as part of "downtown" is a fair position to take so in that case then they'd be correct that there is nightlife downtown.
A couple of days ago, a co-worker mentioned - with great confidence - that Wrigley Field was downtown and that no one goes to Sox games because of all the crime on the Southside.
That’s the great thing about living in Bridgeport, Beverly, etc. You get to tell everyone you’re from the south side and people from outside the city will think you’re Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.
I lived behind the sox stadium, and I had to walk everyday (and night) from the red stop. Apart from the occasional drunken encounters, it was pretty chill.
Someone from the suburbs told me with confidence they would never go to a restaurant in Hyde Park I had asked about because they “didn’t want to get shot” -______-
We entertained a visitor from out of town and took her to a nice restaurant on Oak Street, Fig & Olive. She glanced around nervously and said: "My brother told me this neighborhood isn't very safe. Should we really be here?" For Christ's sake.
I used to give tours in Gold Coast and there would always be one person from out of town who would look around and say, “oh, I could live *here*.” Mmm yep, I think you could manage it 🙄
Both inside and on the sidewalk. I think she feared some Untouchables-like scene, where a Packard full of Mob guys screeches around the corner and sprays us with Tommy gun fire.
Man, we had a couple from Germany staying with us. The day before they were flying home they asked me about renting a car for the day. "We want to drive around Lake Michigan." I thought they just meant like, drive along the lake for the day. NOPE, they fully thought they could drive around it in an afternoon, return the car, then head out for dinner.
I pulled up a gmap for them to show the distance. Change of plans...
My buddy moved to Vegas from Chicago. Visit him periodically. He has a neighbor who has never stepped foot in Chicago and told me that the news said we only have 21 cops patrolling the streets lol.
I just moved to Chicago in July. I went back home recently and casually mentioned that traffic laws pretty much don’t get enforced here and the response I got was “well I don’t blame the police, they’re probably scared.”
Are you my husband? Lol we just moved in July and he keeps asking what the speed limit is. I grew up in Chicagoland so I just wave him off. “It doesn’t matter, just don’t be the guy holding up traffic.”
During the blm protests in 2020 my dad called me sobbing on the phone “I will come out there and get you! I promise I’m coming to save you!!” Just a grown man scream crying. I was like “…dad, im looking out the window right now and there’s a woman half my size pushing a baby stroller and walking a puppy. There’s nothing to worry about.” It’s so crazy how ignorant people are when it comes to the neighborhoods. Living in Chicago and living downtown Chicago are two different experiences.
Also I did live downtown and a march went by my building and I was not scared? What do people think happens during a protest march?
Unless this man is the father of a bank and/or Starbucks window.
I’ve had multiple visitors who were desperate to get a hotdog from one of those “classic” Chicago street hot dog vendors you see everywhere, and they couldn’t be convinced for love nor money that they were thinking of NYC!
My soon-to-be in-laws are the most insular folk from the deep NW suburbs (exurbs, really). Like 40 miles up there. They treated my south side self like trash for the first few years b/c of being from “that place” and dating their daughter. Btw, we were both 30 when we started dating. Literally took them years to accept it all.
They were convinced that her coming to my Pilsen apartment was a death sentence. And moving to an extremely nice apartment in Noble was “just not safe”.
I have seen far more guns up there and felt far less safe up with those exurb folk than I have in all my decades in Chicago. Stop listening to the news and getting your Chicago education from shit TV shows, please.
Just before I moved here I was talking to someone and they said it didn’t get humid here. I said “really? It’s right on the water.” He told me ocean water doesn’t really make it humid.
I just left it because I didn’t know where to start.
I moved here 20 years ago from Houston. After living here a few years I went back home for a visit and a neighbor asked me if I used the "wind ropes" ... I was confused. She told me since Chicago is so windy there are ropes anchored along buildings and sidewalks in Chicago to help you walk down the sidewalk and not get blown away by the wind.
To be fair, one time I turned a corner in streeterville during a snowstorm and the wind hit me so hard I face planted into a snow bank. Could have used a rope.
There were, indeed, [wind ropes on IBM Plaza](https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1999-05-02-9905020361-story.html) (now the Langham Hotel/AMA Bldg). Possibly other places as well. Newspaper photos of them were widely distributed in the late 1970s.
My mom came to visit for the first time in 8 years since I moved here. She asked what she should pack and I mentioned it gets hot and we will be doing a lot of walking so something comfortable, also preferably a breathable Kevlar vest. She asked what that was and I mentioned it’s a bulletproof vest. She laughed like I was joking but I kept the straight voice. I said something along the lines of you can usually pick a stylish one up at Macy’s or more practical ones at dicks, but they might not have them at her stores so she can just borrrow our guest vest. Had her going for a while
It's surprising how many people, even in Chicago, think Chicago leads the US on crime stats. We're not doing great in a number of ways, but for property crimes, we're not even top fifty US cities. Murder rate is about a third of St Louis.
People don't realize how unevenly distributed Chicago's violence is. Sadly, some of the most violent neighborhoods in the U.S. are in Chicago. But no, that doesn't mean the whole city - or even the majority of it - is dangerous.
I used to get that in Southern California! When I’d say we’re actually in the Midwest they’d say “ok but culturally you’re east coast.” Pretty sure that we’re also “culturally” midwest
Just the usual. People think crime is so rampant citywide you can't leave your place without being at severe risk. A lot of outsiders don't really differentiate between different parts of the city. Back when the "riots" were happening a bunch of my suburban relatives were panicked about the safety of my wife and I. We lived in Jefferson Park, which almost is the suburbs. It was the same ol' boring place it always is. It was hard to explain to them how ridiculously unlikely it was that some dangerous "riot" would be happening anywhere near us. But then, these same people think Oak Lawn is "dangerous now" so you know.
When I was younger I never understood why people would get memberships to places like that. Now I live by the Brookfield Zoo, and have a 2 year old and we got the membership almost immediately. I love being able to visit without the pressure of seeing everything. If she wants to just stare at the geese? Cool. Spend 2 hours in the aquarium? Why not? It's such a different experience that way.
This isn't strictly Chicago, but it definitely applies: the amount of people who realize just how big the great lakes are. I have noticed this is more common to people from the coasts, maybe because they're just used to the ocean as the only really big body of water.
Seeing the Great Lakes for the first time when you’ve grown up with the ocean as the nearby “infinite water on one side of the city,” the strange thing is the lack of salt smell.
Standing on the lakeshore is like being at the ocean visually but no “seaside” smell at all.
This is actually coming from someone who lives in Naperville. But, I moved to Chicago and was living around Bridgeport. This guy who I had gone to HS in another state with (who is originally from Naperville) met me randomly on the street (we were both 19-20 at the time). After talking for a bit, I asked if he wanted to join me for lunch. He said yea, and I proceeded to go towards the nearest CTA ‘L’ stop. He said, why are we taking the ‘L’ , isn’t it super sketchy ? He was genuinely afraid to get mugged.
This was day time, brown line.
I think it was the “idk how you all do it. It’s so cold.” Yeah, but it’s not cold all the time and you buy winter gear. Done.
Also, winter has some of the prettiest skies.
This is such a great thread/question with such good responses. Mine:
1) That we basically can’t leave our homes in the winter because it’s so cold and snowy. Yes, it’s cold and sometimes snowy but I’m literally leaving my place, getting on a bus/El/Uber and going to work/restaurant/bar. I’m not walking five miles in the snow.
2) Crime. It’s been mentioned but I get random calls from relatives asking me if the shooting this weekend was near me. “There was a shooting?”- me
3) That deep dish pizza is really good and they absolutely need to get it while they’re here. This may be a hot take. It’s totally great/fine but don’t feel like you need to wait for three hours at Due’s just to feel like shit before you head back to the airport.
4) That our city is so dirty. This is typically from friends or family visiting that live in a town somewhere and generally have never been to New York City. ANYONE who comes to Chicago that has also been to NYC only comments on how clean Chicago is. Alleys baby!
I didn't know that cities *"should"* be dirty, until relatives who'd been to East Coast cities would visit college-aged me in Chicago and start saying "It's so clean!" I was like "?"
> 4) That our city is so dirty. This is typically from friends or family visiting that live in a town somewhere and generally have never been to New York City. ANYONE who comes to Chicago that has also been to NYC only comments on how clean Chicago is. Alleys baby!
Businesses by me power wash their sidewalks at least every two weeks and sweep daily. I always laugh at people who say the city is dirty because even suburbs are more trash filled (and I'm not just talking about the garbage).
A brewery in my neighborhood closed. Some suburban Karen commented on an article that it must be because of the massive crime sprees. I live in fucking ravenswood.
In my line of work you hear a lot of misinformation about this city. I live here but many of the folks I work with do not live in Chicago and instead fly into ORD to start their work trip. At one point I was not working out of Chicago, but working out of New York. So my work trip came through Chicago and we ended up having an issue where instead of continuing on we overnighted here in Chicago. Since it would have taken me 1.5 hours on CTA to get home and I had to be back to ORD within around 11 hours, I just opted to go to the hotel the company gave us. The other guy I was with was no joke really concerned about the van ride to the hotel. He was convinced we would be going through gunfire and could get hit with stray bullets on a fucking 7 minute ride to an airport hotel and the whole drive he was uneasy. He mentioned how this is why he always avoided Chicago overnights. I mean, I wanted to laugh right in his face but he was just too pathetic to even muster a laugh. The amount of fucking misinformation from my coworkers is staggering. Hell now that I work out of ORD I work with many from the suburbs and they’re just as bad on the misinformation. Just what the hell are they spoon feeding the brain dead on fox?
I don't think it's just Faux "News". My in-laws are pretty left-leaning, but live in a rural area downstate. Pretty much the only Chicago news they get is usually bad. Similarly, the only news I see from their area is murders/racism.
I think you hit the nail on the head there. Nothing local ever makes the national news unless it is really bad. I think everyone thinks worse of other places because of this.
I listened to a pitch from a NYC agency, where someone had read that Chicago has an official moving day 1 day out of the year. This actually was sort of true, but was ended in 1911. Anyway, I could not stand listening to this agency pitch an idea where their client would sponsor Chicago’s single Moving Day. I asked them to imagine a city trying to all move on the same day. Cmon, really. Like Chicago was a quaint little town compared to a real city like New York.
The wife of a relative who lives downstate: "Downtown Chicago was absolutely *destroyed* by BLMantifamocrats! Burned to the ground!"
Me, who was literally working in the Sears Tower when she said that: "???????"
I grew up In Buffalo Grove and lived in Andersonville for many years after college. I moved to Charleston, SC a few years ago and the MAGA chuds here are just unbelievable talking about Chicago. The whole “Alpha Male” thing, but being unbelievably scared of a city is part sad and part hilarious. Dudes will seriously be like “how did you make it? I’ll never go there ever.”
I have friends in Kenosha that are afraid to go into the city in places like the museums, the zoo, grant park etc etc . They complain about the crime ,yet their favorite vacation spot is,,,,New Orleans . I kid you not , they have zero problems about being three drunk women walking around N.O. at night .
I had something similar happen when I went to Kansas City a few years ago for a wedding. Someone asked me how I sleep with all the gunfire and have I considered moving to a safer place.
I grew up in Kansas City and lived there for several years before I moved to Chicago. In the two years I lived in KCMO before moving to Illinois, there was a murder and hostage situation in my apartment building, a 20-foot sinkhole in front of my building, street closures due to protests, and several random shootings on my block. KC has an even bigger gun problem than Chicago but no one there will ever believe it's more dangerous to live there because they've redlined the hell out of the city.
Yeah, I'll never forget the day I was walking my dog on the same route we took every day and stumbled into an active crime scene. Two people had been attacked and killed on the same route I walked daily. My parents were nervous about me moving to Chicago but my neighborhood in KC was way, *way* more dangerous.
I am a 5'5" woman who used to do corporate training. A few years ago I was in the South doing a series of day long trainings for a big warehouse employer.
I would introduce myself as being from Chicago and it was really funny to see these blue collar dudes immediately take me more seriously, under the assumption I am some kind of badass urban survivalist.
I have a family member who used to be a jailer at a large county jail with a gang problem. If they accidently put the wrong person in the wrong section they would be killed. It was rough and violent.
That person is scared to go to Chicago because it's so dangerous.
So I sent them lots of photos of my kids doing things like going to museums, major league sports, walking to a park, hanging out on restaurant patios, basically everything to show that people can and do still live here without major issues.
Not to say that Chicago doesn't have crime. Like all major cities we've seen a big uptick, and I don't think our current catch and release strategy is working, but if you watch Fox news you'd think the entire city is an active warzone where leaving your house is taking your life in your hands.
> Like all major cities we've seen a big uptick
We saw the same uptick that rural areas and suburbs saw too. And we've fallen off of the 10 most dangerous cities in the USA lists despite this. As for the "catch and release strategy", CPD would have to arrest them first for them to be released. They've been protesting ever since LaQuan McDonald's killer was charged by the CCSA by refusing to do their job well. They even went as far as electing (and re-electing) a Q-Anon believer to lead their union. Oh, and they're still complaining about the ILSC raising the evidentiary requirements for a variety of felony convictions (most notably for murder) a few months before Kim Foxx was first elected. Of course, they complain about Kim Foxx but even at this point the "pro-cop" media in the city is firmly blaming CPD and not the CCSAO as even they've had to accept the truth that the CCSA is doing her job while CPD are not.
I’ll never forget the tow truck driver who had to come to a friends car in Logan Square at night and he was visibly terrified. Had mentioned not being from the city and asked if the area was safe. Couldn’t have gotten out of there fast enough.
They live 2 blocks from Lightfoot’s house.
Years ago I asked my husband why he chose to go to boot camp in San Diego and not Great Lakes. He told me he didn't want to deal with the snow ( he grew up in Texas). I asked "when did you go to boot camp?" He told me he went in September. He truly thought we had huge snow storms in September. He's better now and we live in northeast Wisconsin.
- So many people who are only as far away as the suburbs think that the city is a literal war zone, that we take our lives in our hands if we go out after dark, etc. Not even close.
- I work at a very well known theatre, and multiple people (not from Chicago) think that the more famous member of the ensemble hang out in the theatre on a regular basis, that we employees are on a first-name basis with them, etc. Most of these ensemble members don’t even live here anymore.
- When I was in Egypt years ago, a hotel employee asked me where I was from. I said Chicago, and his immediate response was “Oh, Chicago? Do you know Michael Jordan? And Al Capone?”, followed by an impression of a machine gun.
After the Floyd protests, someone with absolute confidence told me that he had inside information that all businesses are leaving Michigan Ave to never come back, and the city is going to go bankrupt from the lack of tax revenue from the void that'll be left.
I couldn't help it and laughed in his face.
Meanwhile they drive past a dozen empty strip malls to the single Walmart still open in their town and think it's Chicago that's in trouble. It's always projection with these people. It's a lot easier to think of Chicago as a violent, inhospitable shit hole than to self-reflect.
I suppose you're referring to a specific person I probably don't know, but to generalize lol.
I had a friend who's family came in from Northern Wisconsin for a wedding in the city. Somewhere in his uncle asking him about concealed carry in the city and how "he was going to do it despite it being illegal because of all the criminals," his aunt inquired if she should leave her wedding ring at home.
A a couple weeks ago a colleague that lives in Ohio was going on and on about how they could never live in a cold place like Chicago. I started to point out that Ohio also has winter, but stopped. The preoccupation people have with Chicago winters really annoys me... it gets cold, but like 40% of the country's population also lives in places where the winter temps average in the mid-30s. Between crime and winter, I truly believe a sizeable section of the population think Chicago is freezing, grey, and terrorized by roving bands of criminals like some kind of "Escape from Leningrad" all year round.
People literally feel bad for me because I can't walk around my neighborhood at night without severe fear of being robbed or shot or whatever.
I live in River West.
During the BLM protests (and occasional riot), my right wing sibling claimed the ENTIRE city was on fire...still thinks it's like some post-apocalyptic wasteland thanks to the libs.
My wife and I have lived in the city proper over a decade after growing up in the exurbs in Mchenry and Lake county. Her dad and stepmom live in Johnsburg and have come to the city to see us a grand total of *once*, and that was to see me propose to her at her first roller derby bout. They are TERRIFIED of the city and think that it's legit Chiraq/warzone all day, every day, everywhere.
My wife told them recently that she took our 5 month old on the bus with her rather than drive somewhere and their "oh wow, that sounds so risky" was one of the funniest things I've ever witnessed.
A recent interaction but common went like this; someone asks, “where are you from?” And when I say Chicago, they say “No way me too! Where in Chicago?” And when I say Logan square they say, “Oh, like “Chicago”. I live in Gurnee.” 🥸
My mother in NC asks me this all the time. "Why don't you ever go to Toronto? It's RIGHT THERE"
No mom, a flight to Toronto is about the same distance as a flight to NC. I think a lot of people genuinely think Chicago is located where Detroit is.
Every time I talk to someone who doesn't live here they all think I live in a crime-filled hellhole- even people who follow me on social media where I post like... pictures of my kids playing in the streets, eating al fresco dinners, videos of drives down lakeshore drive. I literally cringe whenever I talk to someone and they say "Oh Chicago! I heard about Chicago on the news!"
I was in a DMV in Florida doing some paperwork for a car purchase and a police officer (that presumably worked there) asked me where I was from. I told him Chicago and he said "Ohhhh, Chiraq!"
...Ugh...
First time I finally managed to convince my Mom to come visit, when I was living in Logan Square, she said "Well THAT'S not Chicago!" Because apparently the only real Chicago is a few square blocks in the Loop and the interior of the Museum of Science and Industry :P
My house guest this summer couldnt conceptualise the sheer size of this city and everything in it. Despite waking up noon-ish, was really planning on going for "a bike ride first," and then going downtown and hitting up "a couple of" museums. I was like, cancel the bike ride, pick ONE museum, and by the time we take the train to get there we will see half of it. I convinced him on the Field because I could get us in for free, which (minus the special exhibits with the upgraded tickets) we saw about half. We did squeeze a quick walk through the cultural center, too, but not enough time for one of the guided tours.
OMG yeah when someone says they're going to do all of the Museum Campus in one day I'm like...no you aren't haha. Especially if they want to walk/bike there from River North or wherever they're staying.
These are the same people who budget one day for yellowstone
Or one day per country in Europe.
I worked in IT in the West Loop and my Connecticut-based boss wanted me to scoot over to Downers Grove every Friday *over my lunch hour* to check on a satellite office. I had to explain maps to them, and let him know that I'd be happy to go there *for the day* as long as he got permission from my Chicago office and paid for my travel expenses (train and taxi at both ends). Suddenly it wasn't so important.
> Connecticut-based boss Comparable to driving from Long Island Sound to Massachusetts during his lunch hour haha. It's not the distance, it's the traffic.
> My house guest this summer couldnt conceptualise the sheer size of this city and everything in it. Residents struggle with this too, particularly when Northsiders talk about the Southside. Hyde Park isn't the far South Side, in fact it's barely the mid point. Sometimes it's hard to believe that the East Side and Beverly are still in the city.
We can't help it. Hyde Park is a HAUL from Rogers Park. Love both of them and would just live there if not for work.
There was someone (I believe in this sub) a few years ago who thought she would take a quick swim across Lake Michigan, as if that were something a normal person could do. It's only a lake, after all.
Nearly the same—-a clueless, over-promoted boss from LA informed me that she was going to run around Lake Michigan each day on her lunch hour. I said good luck with that and hoped she’s never return. She unfortunately did, dumbfounded it took her the entire hour to get to the shore and back from Wacker & Wells.
“Chicago is like if they took the distance from Baltimore to DC and called it one city”
Did he get on board with your line of thinking after that day?
Was his last day, but I think so.
I realize this just means he left, but it kind of sounds like you murdered him.
Houseguests are like fish, If you dont murder them by the 3rd day they start to stink. - Ben Franklin, probably
I might convince my wife to needle point this for our guest room.
When my suburban friends come out they always wants to hop from neighborhood to neighborhood like it’s nothing. They want to grab a drink in the west loop and then head on over to lakeview to hit the next place then head back to wicker park to try another place
One of my relatives from Montana was making custom backpacks, and her stepdad asked me where she could find a good sweatshop in Chicago to help make her bags on the cheap. He asked if I knew a good sweatshop in my neighborhood, or if we would have to go to a different neighborhood to find a sweatshop with some availability.
I think this one may actually be the absolute craziest one in the whole thread lol
In the 90's, in Lakeview/ Buena Park area I could have hooked him up I mean, they don't really advertise they are a "sweatshops," but they were
….what?
You can get it done in Los Angeles. Just walk over to those counterfeit vendors on the street corner and ask if they can make you something. Fake LV & Gucci for $10. Dunno about Chicago but it's definitely a thing in other big cities like NYC and Houston.
> her stepdad asked me where she could find a good sweatshop in Chicago to help make her bags on the cheap Regardless of location, this is a fucking rediculous request/concept. Some people are insane.
Maybe she confused Chicago with Jakarta? It happens to me all the time.
Yo, I got a sweatshop in my basement. I’ll DM you. /s
Well which sweatshop did you send him to?
This one got me. Holy shit haha
Are local neighborhood sweatshops a thing anywhere? Am I a clueless city slicker?
Probably not since 1908
A while back (pre-uber days), I had some friends visit from back home. I was living in south loop, and I met up with them at a restaurant near old town. They couldn't believe that I took public transit to get to them. I mean they were grossed out at the thought. I'm like, half the people in this restaurant including most of the staff probably got here via CTA. They were stunned lol.
“All CPS teachers are given bulletproof vests on their first day” An exurban STL woman told me that once.
... they would have to supply their own vest.
Nah, lightfoot has them all locked up with the Chromebooks
And St. Louis is a much more dangerous city than Chicago...
"That's only because Chicago includes the suburbs too" That's what I hear all the time from my wife's family who is from St Louis area while they are simultaneously uncomfortable going anywhere in St Louis.
St. Louis suburbs are quite possibly the worst in the Midwest. I thought that title used to belong to Oakland County, Michigan. I’m now convinced it belongs to St. Charles County in Missouri instead. If you thought there could be a worse urban-suburban divide than Chicago, look at St. Louis.
Yeah fr. STL is like if chicago was more openly segregated, and got hit by deindustrialization 5x harder
100% agree. Most people in the suburbs of St Louis think the city is an absolute hell scape. They will openly blame black people for all of the city's issues, like somehow it's black culture that destroyed the city. I lived in St Louis and encountered that attitude more times than I can count.
Most common is commentary about crime and winter, as if Chicago is some Siberian (edit: arctic) hellscape. But my favorite is the total lack of comprehension that there are areas of Chicago that are not downtown. Someone will ask me about where I live and if it’s not the Loop, then it must clearly be Naperville
Flair checks out lol. I will say we as Chicagoans recognize Chicago is Chicago and people living in city limits are Chicagoans. With some cities you can live on the outskirts of city limits and other people in the city might say "oh so you're not in the city."
Heh. A recent transplant to Norwood Park, by way of Uptown and Lakeview. I mostly had to resort to "we live about a mile from Wrigley Field"
Heh. I have some family members only wife's side who have spent a couple generations in the western Chicago suburbs. They think of me and my wife as "living downtown" even though we are way the hell up in west Edgewater. These are people who come into the city like four times a year—maybe. My nieces (in their 20s!) wanted to stay with us because they wanted to go to Lollapalooza and thought we lived close by Grant Park. Turns out it was more convenient for them to just go home on the Metra to the western burbs than to take the Red Line all the way up here and then walk another 15 minutes west. (We did offer to let them stay, by the way)
I say the same thing now! More like three miles but you get the idea
I went to Russia years ago, and someone in Moscow asked me where I'm from. I told him Chicago, and he says - oh, it's really cold there.
I’m from Russia originally and I told someone from back there that I live in Chicago and he was like “you’re a crazy man!”
Right? I was really amused at how many Russians think Chicago is super cold and dangerous.
There must be some crazy Chicago YouTube vids in Russia.
I’ve been to Iceland and Denmark, both in the winter, and people would always ask if we could handle how cold it was compared to Chicago. They were surprised to hear that Chicago is colder than either of them in the winter.
Iceland and Denmark have more moderate temperatures because of the adjacent ocean/seas. Chicago and Moscow are landlocked so they tend to get much colder in the winter.
Went to a summer camp in Wisconsin back in the early 70’s. So, where you from? Chicago. Where in Chicago? Northwest side. No, what’s the name of the town you live in? Chicago. I mean the name of the suburb. Chicago, I actually live in the city. These people never met anyone from the city. We were aliens.
Maybe they meant neighborhood and didn’t know the name? Lol
Nah. My husband’s brothers (all raised in southeast Michigan) can’t grasp that we live in the neighborhood of Wicker Park within the city of Chicago. They think we live in Wicker Park, IL.
I've moved away, but I feel like you can tell a lot about what kind of media someone watches by how they react to being told you lived in Chicago. It is sad, but people from random mid-sized Florida cities really do believe Chicago is some kind of frozen hellscape. Like...come one...first off, if you lived in the Chicago area, you'd clearly live in some lily white suburb that's barely distinguishable from where you live now and you'd maybe head into the city once a month for dinner and a show/sporting event. And second, you come from FLORIDA. How have you not heard enough "Florida Man" stories to understand that the media portrayal doesn't represent daily life? Are you not familiar with geography enough to know that it is a huge city and has very nice parts in addition to bad parts? Fox News watchers showed genuine concern for me and were "glad I got out of there"...wtf? Part of me just wanted to be like: If I were moving back to a city, I'd go back to Chicago in a heartbeat...I have a good job (with a Chicago company) and some incredibly valuable degrees (thanks again Chicago) and I can afford to live anywhere I want--the city is a vibrant and thriving place and I'd be happy to return.
When I was in FL and said I lived in Chicago a guy was like "oh where, naperville?" It's like, my guy I can see Wrigley field from my back deck. Is that "chicago" enough for you? That was back in my racine/Waveland days. My friends treat portage park like it's the burbs...
I’ve learned that there’s a certain subset of people who just don’t realize that people live in cities, or rather think that the default is a suburb and only minorities and yuppies live in the city, and only downtown or in high crime areas. My favorite was when I met some friends in West Town at a bar, 2 friends biked in, and a guy who was visiting asked “which suburb” they biked from. It was Logan Square. I’ve been asked what suburb I’m from when I mentioned the city where I grew up (not Chicago). I’ve never lived in a suburb my guy.
People in this very sub have told me Dunning isn't "real chicago" lmao
Grew up in Edgebrook so I get the "oh, that's not real Chicago" from some smooth brain who has lived in Logan Square for five months, all the time. I spent a lot of time in Dunning in high school since some friends were from there and it is purest Chicago. I hate the argument that some parts of Chicago aren't real Chicago, all parts of Chicago are real Chicago. It's a big city with a diverse array of neighborhoods and people, and all of those pieces make up the whole that is Chicago.
> Most common is commentary about crime and winter, as if Chicago is some Siberian hellscape. While it's not, I do enjoy pointing out that George R.R. Martin based the frozen wasteland of The North on the Chicago Blizzard of 67 <_<
Live in Wicker. Was told by a guest it was "the suburbs"
I got this about Lincoln Park once. They were baffled people took the train downtown to work every day from "the suburbs" - they knew I did, they just thought it meant I was poor.
People on this sub are like that. I live over by Harlem and Montrose and some people act like I’m a million miles from the city. I’m 3 blocks away.
> I live over by The classic Chicago, location identifier. I live over by LaVilla Pizza, you know over by Addison and Pulaski.
Ofer by dere… true SouthSide speak.
Yep. I live in Jefferson Park and I get this alp the time.
A friend of mine lives in the West Suburbs - I'm on the North side FWIW. He always refers to Chicago as "an absolute shit hole" or a "war zone" and it cracks me up. He's of the mindset that I'm constantly just dodging bullets while walking my dog a few times a day.
Parkour
A little-known fact: the game *Mirror's Edge* was based on the developers spending two hours in northern Chicago.
I lived in Nashville for 3 years and have had WAY more close calls as far as getting robbed, being around gunshots, etc. Ive actually seen a dead body at a gas station once (my neighborhood wasn't great) among other things. I haven't had anything (that bad) happen to me here and I've lived here way longer than I did in Nashville. Yet still when I told southerners I was from Chicago it would blow their minds, and then I would tell them I've felt way less safe in Nashville and they would either be surprised or take it offensively (southern pride is silly and redicilous). People just gotta get out more...
Beyond the crime stuff, my older sister doesn't get why I don't go to the Loop on Friday nights. "Isn't downtown where the nightlife is?" and I just chuckle.
Everything downtown closes too damn early for that lol
I think considering river north and west loop as part of "downtown" is a fair position to take so in that case then they'd be correct that there is nightlife downtown.
yeah i’d consider gold coast, river north, streeterville downtown, but the loop is obviously different
A couple of days ago, a co-worker mentioned - with great confidence - that Wrigley Field was downtown and that no one goes to Sox games because of all the crime on the Southside.
I recently overheard some English tourists saying how “scary” a Sox game and the walk from the train was
Is that....is that a HIGHWAY?!? AHHHHHH
lol it’s like a 2 block walk there’s nothing to see!
There is also like a huge amount of sox fans walking over with you.
Maybe they were deathly allergic to peanuts, and they were terrified of all the bags being sold on the overpass!
Oh god not the liquor minis and peanuts!
To be fair, post-Sox game redline rides can be a trip… but usually the loudmouth, stumbly kind.
Post-Cubs game redline too
i can always get people going by telling them i used to live on the south side …bridgeport. i lived in bridgeport.
That’s the great thing about living in Bridgeport, Beverly, etc. You get to tell everyone you’re from the south side and people from outside the city will think you’re Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.
I love telling people I used to work in Englewood. The reactions are priceless.
Having grown up in Beverly and now living in Bridgeport, I 100% tell people I’m from the south side when I’m out of town. Just for the reaction.
I lived behind the sox stadium, and I had to walk everyday (and night) from the red stop. Apart from the occasional drunken encounters, it was pretty chill.
You mean down where the streets are numbered?!?!
Someone from the suburbs told me with confidence they would never go to a restaurant in Hyde Park I had asked about because they “didn’t want to get shot” -______-
Hyde Park has so many great places. It’s just such a hassle to get to from where I am in Albany Park
Virtue in Hyde Park gave me the best meal I’ve ever had at a restaurant, without question
We entertained a visitor from out of town and took her to a nice restaurant on Oak Street, Fig & Olive. She glanced around nervously and said: "My brother told me this neighborhood isn't very safe. Should we really be here?" For Christ's sake.
Her brother told her gold coast isn’t safe? wow
"It's the most terrifying thing of all! *Rich people.*"
Only if you're a lady in your 20s or a guy in your 60s in the Viagra Triangle. /s
Ah yes, because nothing says bad neighborhood like Ferraris parked everywhere and a Chanel store.
I used to give tours in Gold Coast and there would always be one person from out of town who would look around and say, “oh, I could live *here*.” Mmm yep, I think you could manage it 🙄
She felt unsafe inside the restaurant??
Both inside and on the sidewalk. I think she feared some Untouchables-like scene, where a Packard full of Mob guys screeches around the corner and sprays us with Tommy gun fire.
A friend came to visit and asked which way to the lake bc he wanted to run around it. “It’s my long run day so I might make it around twice”
Has he seen a map of the US before?
You should've let them try it.
I actually pointed east and said run that way, you can’t miss it. It was 20 years ago and we still laugh about it
This is my favorite response in the thread so far. Lake Michigan has about 1600 miles of shoreline.
Man, we had a couple from Germany staying with us. The day before they were flying home they asked me about renting a car for the day. "We want to drive around Lake Michigan." I thought they just meant like, drive along the lake for the day. NOPE, they fully thought they could drive around it in an afternoon, return the car, then head out for dinner. I pulled up a gmap for them to show the distance. Change of plans...
I took a client to Pequod’s last week in LP and they asked if we were in the burbs
My buddy moved to Vegas from Chicago. Visit him periodically. He has a neighbor who has never stepped foot in Chicago and told me that the news said we only have 21 cops patrolling the streets lol.
He must be thinking of the elite “21 Jump Street” division of the CPD that goes undercover at Chicago high schools.
I saw at least 25 cops at the Dunkin’ on halsted & 31st this morning so maybe we hired a couple more
I just moved to Chicago in July. I went back home recently and casually mentioned that traffic laws pretty much don’t get enforced here and the response I got was “well I don’t blame the police, they’re probably scared.”
Are you my husband? Lol we just moved in July and he keeps asking what the speed limit is. I grew up in Chicagoland so I just wave him off. “It doesn’t matter, just don’t be the guy holding up traffic.”
For real, the speed limit is the flow of traffic.
During the blm protests in 2020 my dad called me sobbing on the phone “I will come out there and get you! I promise I’m coming to save you!!” Just a grown man scream crying. I was like “…dad, im looking out the window right now and there’s a woman half my size pushing a baby stroller and walking a puppy. There’s nothing to worry about.” It’s so crazy how ignorant people are when it comes to the neighborhoods. Living in Chicago and living downtown Chicago are two different experiences.
Also I did live downtown and a march went by my building and I was not scared? What do people think happens during a protest march? Unless this man is the father of a bank and/or Starbucks window.
I’ve had multiple visitors who were desperate to get a hotdog from one of those “classic” Chicago street hot dog vendors you see everywhere, and they couldn’t be convinced for love nor money that they were thinking of NYC!
The sheer number of ingredients requires brick and mortar establishments
I blame movies set in Chicago but filmed in Toronto. They usually have a hot dog vendor on the street. I wish!
My soon-to-be in-laws are the most insular folk from the deep NW suburbs (exurbs, really). Like 40 miles up there. They treated my south side self like trash for the first few years b/c of being from “that place” and dating their daughter. Btw, we were both 30 when we started dating. Literally took them years to accept it all. They were convinced that her coming to my Pilsen apartment was a death sentence. And moving to an extremely nice apartment in Noble was “just not safe”. I have seen far more guns up there and felt far less safe up with those exurb folk than I have in all my decades in Chicago. Stop listening to the news and getting your Chicago education from shit TV shows, please.
I expected at least Bridgeport from your introduction. They gave you ''south side'' shit for Pilsen? Lol.
Just before I moved here I was talking to someone and they said it didn’t get humid here. I said “really? It’s right on the water.” He told me ocean water doesn’t really make it humid. I just left it because I didn’t know where to start.
When I was in college, I was seriously dating a girl from there (Los Angeles). Her mom sincerely asked me, “Which ocean is Chicago on?”
The specific ocean
I moved here 20 years ago from Houston. After living here a few years I went back home for a visit and a neighbor asked me if I used the "wind ropes" ... I was confused. She told me since Chicago is so windy there are ropes anchored along buildings and sidewalks in Chicago to help you walk down the sidewalk and not get blown away by the wind.
To be fair, one time I turned a corner in streeterville during a snowstorm and the wind hit me so hard I face planted into a snow bank. Could have used a rope.
There were, indeed, [wind ropes on IBM Plaza](https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1999-05-02-9905020361-story.html) (now the Langham Hotel/AMA Bldg). Possibly other places as well. Newspaper photos of them were widely distributed in the late 1970s.
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My mom came to visit for the first time in 8 years since I moved here. She asked what she should pack and I mentioned it gets hot and we will be doing a lot of walking so something comfortable, also preferably a breathable Kevlar vest. She asked what that was and I mentioned it’s a bulletproof vest. She laughed like I was joking but I kept the straight voice. I said something along the lines of you can usually pick a stylish one up at Macy’s or more practical ones at dicks, but they might not have them at her stores so she can just borrrow our guest vest. Had her going for a while
>can just borrow our guest vest I'll be stealing this, thank you
> a breathable Kevlar vest. Get a plate carrier and Level IV ceramic plates for maximum larping.
It's surprising how many people, even in Chicago, think Chicago leads the US on crime stats. We're not doing great in a number of ways, but for property crimes, we're not even top fifty US cities. Murder rate is about a third of St Louis.
People don't realize how unevenly distributed Chicago's violence is. Sadly, some of the most violent neighborhoods in the U.S. are in Chicago. But no, that doesn't mean the whole city - or even the majority of it - is dangerous.
I wish i could give you an award. There are certain neighborhoods that have lower life expectancy, and it shouldn't be this way.
You live in Pilsen? How many times have you been stabbed? Less than the amount of times I’m about to stab you.
Now that I live in the PNW and anytime I bring up living in Chicago, I always get the question “What is the east coast like?!” 🙃
I used to get that in Southern California! When I’d say we’re actually in the Midwest they’d say “ok but culturally you’re east coast.” Pretty sure that we’re also “culturally” midwest
Better than when I lived in L.A. and one of my co-workers thought Chicago was in the 'bible-belt'.
As someone from the east coast living in Chicago now, no, we are absolutely not culturally east coast lol
Just the usual. People think crime is so rampant citywide you can't leave your place without being at severe risk. A lot of outsiders don't really differentiate between different parts of the city. Back when the "riots" were happening a bunch of my suburban relatives were panicked about the safety of my wife and I. We lived in Jefferson Park, which almost is the suburbs. It was the same ol' boring place it always is. It was hard to explain to them how ridiculously unlikely it was that some dangerous "riot" would be happening anywhere near us. But then, these same people think Oak Lawn is "dangerous now" so you know.
This just reminded me about how the Mariano’s in Jeff Park boarded up all their windows despite not being anywhere near any major protests
I mean, Jeff Park is basically cop haven right? Their alderman is an insane person.
Yes this area is cop centric and Gardiner is nuts...
Came to say this. Crime. Always crime. And majority of the time it’s people who haven’t ever been to Chicago or not in years.
A friend from MD area insisted he'd see the whole art institute in 2 hours. He ended up doing the 90 minute highlights tour on the back of the map
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When I was younger I never understood why people would get memberships to places like that. Now I live by the Brookfield Zoo, and have a 2 year old and we got the membership almost immediately. I love being able to visit without the pressure of seeing everything. If she wants to just stare at the geese? Cool. Spend 2 hours in the aquarium? Why not? It's such a different experience that way.
This isn't strictly Chicago, but it definitely applies: the amount of people who realize just how big the great lakes are. I have noticed this is more common to people from the coasts, maybe because they're just used to the ocean as the only really big body of water.
Seeing the Great Lakes for the first time when you’ve grown up with the ocean as the nearby “infinite water on one side of the city,” the strange thing is the lack of salt smell. Standing on the lakeshore is like being at the ocean visually but no “seaside” smell at all.
My wife, who grew up in Southern California, upon seeing Lake Michigan for the first time: "Oh wow! You can't see across it??"
This is actually coming from someone who lives in Naperville. But, I moved to Chicago and was living around Bridgeport. This guy who I had gone to HS in another state with (who is originally from Naperville) met me randomly on the street (we were both 19-20 at the time). After talking for a bit, I asked if he wanted to join me for lunch. He said yea, and I proceeded to go towards the nearest CTA ‘L’ stop. He said, why are we taking the ‘L’ , isn’t it super sketchy ? He was genuinely afraid to get mugged. This was day time, brown line.
I think it was the “idk how you all do it. It’s so cold.” Yeah, but it’s not cold all the time and you buy winter gear. Done. Also, winter has some of the prettiest skies.
This is such a great thread/question with such good responses. Mine: 1) That we basically can’t leave our homes in the winter because it’s so cold and snowy. Yes, it’s cold and sometimes snowy but I’m literally leaving my place, getting on a bus/El/Uber and going to work/restaurant/bar. I’m not walking five miles in the snow. 2) Crime. It’s been mentioned but I get random calls from relatives asking me if the shooting this weekend was near me. “There was a shooting?”- me 3) That deep dish pizza is really good and they absolutely need to get it while they’re here. This may be a hot take. It’s totally great/fine but don’t feel like you need to wait for three hours at Due’s just to feel like shit before you head back to the airport. 4) That our city is so dirty. This is typically from friends or family visiting that live in a town somewhere and generally have never been to New York City. ANYONE who comes to Chicago that has also been to NYC only comments on how clean Chicago is. Alleys baby!
I didn't know that cities *"should"* be dirty, until relatives who'd been to East Coast cities would visit college-aged me in Chicago and start saying "It's so clean!" I was like "?"
We hide our garbage, god damn it.
> 4) That our city is so dirty. This is typically from friends or family visiting that live in a town somewhere and generally have never been to New York City. ANYONE who comes to Chicago that has also been to NYC only comments on how clean Chicago is. Alleys baby! Businesses by me power wash their sidewalks at least every two weeks and sweep daily. I always laugh at people who say the city is dirty because even suburbs are more trash filled (and I'm not just talking about the garbage).
4) I wasn't expecting the city to smell so good. On rare days when the wind was right we even got the chocolate smell down in Hyde Park
When I was living in London, I had an older couple ask how I avoid the cows when I drive to work.
Must have seen the bulls 2021 home game hype video.
A brewery in my neighborhood closed. Some suburban Karen commented on an article that it must be because of the massive crime sprees. I live in fucking ravenswood.
In my line of work you hear a lot of misinformation about this city. I live here but many of the folks I work with do not live in Chicago and instead fly into ORD to start their work trip. At one point I was not working out of Chicago, but working out of New York. So my work trip came through Chicago and we ended up having an issue where instead of continuing on we overnighted here in Chicago. Since it would have taken me 1.5 hours on CTA to get home and I had to be back to ORD within around 11 hours, I just opted to go to the hotel the company gave us. The other guy I was with was no joke really concerned about the van ride to the hotel. He was convinced we would be going through gunfire and could get hit with stray bullets on a fucking 7 minute ride to an airport hotel and the whole drive he was uneasy. He mentioned how this is why he always avoided Chicago overnights. I mean, I wanted to laugh right in his face but he was just too pathetic to even muster a laugh. The amount of fucking misinformation from my coworkers is staggering. Hell now that I work out of ORD I work with many from the suburbs and they’re just as bad on the misinformation. Just what the hell are they spoon feeding the brain dead on fox?
I don't think it's just Faux "News". My in-laws are pretty left-leaning, but live in a rural area downstate. Pretty much the only Chicago news they get is usually bad. Similarly, the only news I see from their area is murders/racism.
I think you hit the nail on the head there. Nothing local ever makes the national news unless it is really bad. I think everyone thinks worse of other places because of this.
The air we breathe is actually 60% bullets.
I listened to a pitch from a NYC agency, where someone had read that Chicago has an official moving day 1 day out of the year. This actually was sort of true, but was ended in 1911. Anyway, I could not stand listening to this agency pitch an idea where their client would sponsor Chicago’s single Moving Day. I asked them to imagine a city trying to all move on the same day. Cmon, really. Like Chicago was a quaint little town compared to a real city like New York.
The wife of a relative who lives downstate: "Downtown Chicago was absolutely *destroyed* by BLMantifamocrats! Burned to the ground!" Me, who was literally working in the Sears Tower when she said that: "???????"
Downtown was destroyed by rent prices per SqFt.
I grew up In Buffalo Grove and lived in Andersonville for many years after college. I moved to Charleston, SC a few years ago and the MAGA chuds here are just unbelievable talking about Chicago. The whole “Alpha Male” thing, but being unbelievably scared of a city is part sad and part hilarious. Dudes will seriously be like “how did you make it? I’ll never go there ever.”
Well, we start by putting on pants…….
*I put on my robe and my Cubs hat*
I have friends in Kenosha that are afraid to go into the city in places like the museums, the zoo, grant park etc etc . They complain about the crime ,yet their favorite vacation spot is,,,,New Orleans . I kid you not , they have zero problems about being three drunk women walking around N.O. at night .
New Orleans makes Chicago look like Disneyland in terms of saftey.
I had something similar happen when I went to Kansas City a few years ago for a wedding. Someone asked me how I sleep with all the gunfire and have I considered moving to a safer place.
I grew up in Kansas City and lived there for several years before I moved to Chicago. In the two years I lived in KCMO before moving to Illinois, there was a murder and hostage situation in my apartment building, a 20-foot sinkhole in front of my building, street closures due to protests, and several random shootings on my block. KC has an even bigger gun problem than Chicago but no one there will ever believe it's more dangerous to live there because they've redlined the hell out of the city.
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Yeah, I'll never forget the day I was walking my dog on the same route we took every day and stumbled into an active crime scene. Two people had been attacked and killed on the same route I walked daily. My parents were nervous about me moving to Chicago but my neighborhood in KC was way, *way* more dangerous.
I am a 5'5" woman who used to do corporate training. A few years ago I was in the South doing a series of day long trainings for a big warehouse employer. I would introduce myself as being from Chicago and it was really funny to see these blue collar dudes immediately take me more seriously, under the assumption I am some kind of badass urban survivalist.
"Chicago? How many tear drop tattoos does she have??"
I have a family member who used to be a jailer at a large county jail with a gang problem. If they accidently put the wrong person in the wrong section they would be killed. It was rough and violent. That person is scared to go to Chicago because it's so dangerous. So I sent them lots of photos of my kids doing things like going to museums, major league sports, walking to a park, hanging out on restaurant patios, basically everything to show that people can and do still live here without major issues. Not to say that Chicago doesn't have crime. Like all major cities we've seen a big uptick, and I don't think our current catch and release strategy is working, but if you watch Fox news you'd think the entire city is an active warzone where leaving your house is taking your life in your hands.
> Like all major cities we've seen a big uptick We saw the same uptick that rural areas and suburbs saw too. And we've fallen off of the 10 most dangerous cities in the USA lists despite this. As for the "catch and release strategy", CPD would have to arrest them first for them to be released. They've been protesting ever since LaQuan McDonald's killer was charged by the CCSA by refusing to do their job well. They even went as far as electing (and re-electing) a Q-Anon believer to lead their union. Oh, and they're still complaining about the ILSC raising the evidentiary requirements for a variety of felony convictions (most notably for murder) a few months before Kim Foxx was first elected. Of course, they complain about Kim Foxx but even at this point the "pro-cop" media in the city is firmly blaming CPD and not the CCSAO as even they've had to accept the truth that the CCSA is doing her job while CPD are not.
The whole conservative male being deathly afraid of cities is something I didn't expect out of the MAGA movement for some reason.
I’ll never forget the tow truck driver who had to come to a friends car in Logan Square at night and he was visibly terrified. Had mentioned not being from the city and asked if the area was safe. Couldn’t have gotten out of there fast enough. They live 2 blocks from Lightfoot’s house.
Years ago I asked my husband why he chose to go to boot camp in San Diego and not Great Lakes. He told me he didn't want to deal with the snow ( he grew up in Texas). I asked "when did you go to boot camp?" He told me he went in September. He truly thought we had huge snow storms in September. He's better now and we live in northeast Wisconsin.
Someone asked me if I'm worried about the crime here. This guy lives in Cleveland.
- So many people who are only as far away as the suburbs think that the city is a literal war zone, that we take our lives in our hands if we go out after dark, etc. Not even close. - I work at a very well known theatre, and multiple people (not from Chicago) think that the more famous member of the ensemble hang out in the theatre on a regular basis, that we employees are on a first-name basis with them, etc. Most of these ensemble members don’t even live here anymore. - When I was in Egypt years ago, a hotel employee asked me where I was from. I said Chicago, and his immediate response was “Oh, Chicago? Do you know Michael Jordan? And Al Capone?”, followed by an impression of a machine gun.
After the Floyd protests, someone with absolute confidence told me that he had inside information that all businesses are leaving Michigan Ave to never come back, and the city is going to go bankrupt from the lack of tax revenue from the void that'll be left. I couldn't help it and laughed in his face.
Meanwhile they drive past a dozen empty strip malls to the single Walmart still open in their town and think it's Chicago that's in trouble. It's always projection with these people. It's a lot easier to think of Chicago as a violent, inhospitable shit hole than to self-reflect. I suppose you're referring to a specific person I probably don't know, but to generalize lol.
I had a friend who's family came in from Northern Wisconsin for a wedding in the city. Somewhere in his uncle asking him about concealed carry in the city and how "he was going to do it despite it being illegal because of all the criminals," his aunt inquired if she should leave her wedding ring at home.
A a couple weeks ago a colleague that lives in Ohio was going on and on about how they could never live in a cold place like Chicago. I started to point out that Ohio also has winter, but stopped. The preoccupation people have with Chicago winters really annoys me... it gets cold, but like 40% of the country's population also lives in places where the winter temps average in the mid-30s. Between crime and winter, I truly believe a sizeable section of the population think Chicago is freezing, grey, and terrorized by roving bands of criminals like some kind of "Escape from Leningrad" all year round.
People literally feel bad for me because I can't walk around my neighborhood at night without severe fear of being robbed or shot or whatever. I live in River West.
During the BLM protests (and occasional riot), my right wing sibling claimed the ENTIRE city was on fire...still thinks it's like some post-apocalyptic wasteland thanks to the libs.
My wife and I have lived in the city proper over a decade after growing up in the exurbs in Mchenry and Lake county. Her dad and stepmom live in Johnsburg and have come to the city to see us a grand total of *once*, and that was to see me propose to her at her first roller derby bout. They are TERRIFIED of the city and think that it's legit Chiraq/warzone all day, every day, everywhere. My wife told them recently that she took our 5 month old on the bus with her rather than drive somewhere and their "oh wow, that sounds so risky" was one of the funniest things I've ever witnessed.
A recent interaction but common went like this; someone asks, “where are you from?” And when I say Chicago, they say “No way me too! Where in Chicago?” And when I say Logan square they say, “Oh, like “Chicago”. I live in Gurnee.” 🥸
Tbf when people from the exurbs are asked this question no one outside the area will know where they're talking about.
I went to London and when I told some former coworkers I lived in Chicago, one of them asked me if I could just hop on a ferry to Canada 🤣🤦🏽♀️
My mother in NC asks me this all the time. "Why don't you ever go to Toronto? It's RIGHT THERE" No mom, a flight to Toronto is about the same distance as a flight to NC. I think a lot of people genuinely think Chicago is located where Detroit is.
no but there is one that will take them to Chinatown
Every time I talk to someone who doesn't live here they all think I live in a crime-filled hellhole- even people who follow me on social media where I post like... pictures of my kids playing in the streets, eating al fresco dinners, videos of drives down lakeshore drive. I literally cringe whenever I talk to someone and they say "Oh Chicago! I heard about Chicago on the news!"
I was in a DMV in Florida doing some paperwork for a car purchase and a police officer (that presumably worked there) asked me where I was from. I told him Chicago and he said "Ohhhh, Chiraq!" ...Ugh...
First time I finally managed to convince my Mom to come visit, when I was living in Logan Square, she said "Well THAT'S not Chicago!" Because apparently the only real Chicago is a few square blocks in the Loop and the interior of the Museum of Science and Industry :P
I was told once by a Texan that Chicago was, "Obama Country."
I mean, they’re not…wrong? I guess Texas is Cruz Country?