📊 Poll Is Chicago a shithole?

[Pro Stock John]

Kinda what I thought you would go with and thats the farthest thing from being true. How do you know they are young if they have masks and hoodies on?
Drive around shitty neighborhoods and you dont see that shit especially the backpacks lol. Hoodies more so than masks but you do see a few wearing the masks, but thats due to the weather. Now when they go pull a hit, then yes they are masked up, you have to be an idiot not to be. But they arent pulling hits in Roscoe Village.

I'm just talking the Northside.

From what my CPD buddies tell me the car jack folks tend to be a bit older.

But you'd be surprised what happens here, we've have folks carjacked when they were parking in their garages, carjacked on the street, and some Uber folks have gotten 'jacked late at night. A few muggings too. Streets close to me, like Oakley and Claremont (Addison/Western area).

 

[Chester Copperpot]

 

[DanJ]

I changed my vote. Shithole? Probably not, but I just haven’t found an area I really like. Everyplace I’ve been there has been either overpriced tourist type areas, office bro douchebags or intolerable hipsters. If I work Metra and have a good chunk of time in union station I do like to walk down to dark matter and get a cold brew that puts me on the verge of a caffeine induced panic attack before I make it back to Aurora. Would never live there, people aren’t meant to live in high population density like that IMO.

 

[1quick]

I have absolutely zero desire to go to Chicago for anything, it more so I don’t like congested areas and traffic, but I’m also not interested in anything that the city has to offer or any big city for that matter

 

[cdh027]

I changed my vote.

 

[VenomInside]

nah, I wouldn't blanket the entire city a shithole, only certain parts. Go visit downtown LA if you want to see a shithole.

This!!!

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

Not a shithole, but I am just not a city guy. Worked there for years in all the areas. Driving, walking, metra, inner city trains, etc...never had a problem and most people were friendly.

Too congested for me, but plenty of good about it with some bad actors giving it a bad name IMO.

A lot of that could be helped if areas actually were taken care of that need it, but that's a whole different conversation.

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

Denver is a dirty dingy shithole. Garbage fucking everywhere.


Chicago is not though it’s been years since I’ve been there. Will be there this summer though.

 

[Pro Stock John]

Denver is a dirty dingy shithole. Garbage fucking everywhere.


Chicago is not though it’s been years since I’ve been there. Will be there this summer though.

Please stay on topic.

Anyway for it's size Chicago is actually pretty clean.

I was in Philly a while back and the neighbor by Pat's Cheesesteaks there was alot of trash on the street.

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

Please stay on topic.

Anyway for it's size Chicago is actually pretty clean.

I was in Philly a while back and the neighbor by Pat's Cheesesteaks there was alot of trash on the street.

I was comparing the two major cities I’ve lived by. There are plenty of other comparisons in this thread, soooo no.

 

[frank]

Chicago has so much to do and see compared to other big cities you can always find something to do, eat, enjoy the entertainment, just need to know where to go, where to stay out of and be able to get around, even if that is getting off the main path.

Many here I’m sure would find the “viagra triangle”area a place to hang out.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

The problem is that it declares a broad swath a shit hole or not. I'm of the opinion that yes there are shit hole parts to Chicago but there are nice parts too. That's any city though. A few thoughts on this:
-Atlanta's nice areas are cleaner than Chicago's.
-Orlando is a lot cleaner than Chicago on average nice part for nice part
-The parts of Atlanta that are sketchy are SKETCHY. As in the bums compete with each other to beg for change. I've been to some janky parts of Chicago, arguably comparable if not the win going to Atlanta.
-Orlando is really nice where I've been but never really strayed far from touristy areas.

I'll put Chicago as average. Milwaukee is smaller but overall I'd much rather go there to do shit than Chicago. Cleaner, smaller, easier to get around, less of a shake down for shit like parking and closer to get to besides. There's enough that I don't really know that you miss out on a lot with Chicago tbh. I would also say significantly cleaner in most areas too.

 

[DanJ]

I do prefer smaller cities like Milwaukee or even St. Louis.

 

[RedBeard]

Shithole, no, but there are plenty of shitty areas.

There’s also plenty of shitty things about living there like taxes, parking, traffic, speed/red light cameras and crazy people.

But then you have the lake front which is beautiful, there’s endless good eats, all sorts of entertainment, awesome architecture, culture/diversity, shopping, and festivals.

Growing up in Portage/Jeff Park until my late 20s I hated it as that was pretty much like living in the burbs but with the downfalls of being in Chicago. Moving to Lake View East totally changed my perspective and made me actually love Chicago. Just park your car on Friday after work and anything you could want to do was a walk or $10 Uber ride away. Commuting up LSD every morning was also sick.

There’s also awesome or shitty things depending on where you’re at in life. Two dogs and a kid would have been rough in our 750 sq ft condo with no yard and street parking.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

I'd probably ask what I'm missing out on in a lot of cases not being in Chicago. Then again, I'm not single either and I think that makes a big difference. I probably drive a bit more on average to a place, but I think I have most of them honestly.

 

[WhiteKnuckle]

I think it is pretty clean compared to most major cities i've been to. In the south you see major homeless encampments out in the open all over the place. Downtown is pretty damn clean in terms of trash.
When i only have an appt or two in my day i'll do Uber and i'm always ending up East of Cicero between 47th st to the north and 95th st to the South in what most here would consider shitty neighborhoods. There are some areas that are pretty bad with a lot of boarded up storefronts but i'd say for the most part its not nearly as fucked up as most think. That being said, there are a few neighborhoods i won't go into after dark because i don't want to get jacked or shot dropping off someone's jerk chicken.

 

[FESTER665]

I was comparing the two major cities I’ve lived by. There are plenty of other comparisons in this thread, soooo no.

"Please stay on topic...."

"I was in Philly......."

 

[FESTER665]

Shithole? No.

I really have zero use for it though so basically never go anyway.

 

[1quick]

"Please stay on topic...."

"I was in Philly......."

I was going to say the same thing last night lol, tell him to stay on topic and then do the exact same thing in the same post

 

[willizm]

It’s a shithole Chicago is. So is any other major city. Houston is just as bad but in my opinion it’s not the crime or filth that makes Chicago a shit hole. It’s the perpetuation of making the more law abiding citizens the problem and not the criminal elements first and foremost. Houston has some terrible crime but it’s usually confined to social disturbances and not so much random crime. Car jackings are a thing in Houston as they are in Chicago but the difference is that if you shoot a car jacker in Chicago, you are considered the aggressor or taking to too far. In Houston, you are thanked and sent on your way.

 

[FirstWorldProblems]

I'll say no, but it does seem to have gotten a lot worse over the last few years. We used to really enjoy going there and just getting dinner and walking around the mag mile and rush st. I seriously considered living there for a year while we built this house, just for the experience, but having a kid (who stays at the inlaws in NWI while we work Mon-Fri) plus the city going downhill since covid/lightfoot/whatever led to me nixing that.

I'll be there this weekend for the autocho and lunch so we'll see how it goes. When I was there in the fall it seemed so different than it was before. Midday on a sunny weekday used to be bustling and like 70% of the chicks you'd see walking around were gorgeous, but all I saw last fall were fucking weirdos and everything was strangely empty (mind you this was near depaul in the loop)

 

[FirstWorldProblems]

I do prefer smaller cities like Milwaukee or even St. Louis.

I also like small cities, louisville especially

 

[Lead Pipe]

I voted yes just because I have more reservations than I used to going down to the loop. I blame it mostly on the Chicago government not letting the CPD do their job and enforce the laws. As far as it being a beautiful city and cleaner than most, that is spot on. I was recently in San Francisco and that city is much worse than Chicago as far as uncontrolled petty crime and over all cleanliness. I think the city of Chicago has taken a major step back in terms of safety in the last 5-7 years. I used to love going downtown to party in the early 2010's and lived on the South Side in the last 90's. I understand petty crime is always higher in the city than burbs but I used to park my car on the street late night in the south loop with out a second thought. Today I worry parking on the street anywhere in broad day light.

 

[HeavyG]

I love it here when it's not

I voted no. We have amazing architecture, great neighborhoods, great food and things to do. Sadly it's given a bad rap because of certain sections/areas of the city that ARE in fact bad. But generally the common areas are fine. One of the things I miss about not working down in the Loop anymore is nice spring/summer days at lunch.

Yessss. Working downtown in the summer months are epic....

Going out for lunch with work friends then going out to the local bars afterwork...then going somewhere else after that while it's only Wednesday!
Everyone should atleast experience one summer working downtown.

I have HOPE that the city will go thru drastic upgrades after lori lighthead gets booted.

 

[importcrew]

My wife and I used to go downtown almost every other weekend before kids and just walk around. We'd take the train to Union, grab a water taxi to Michigan Ave and then walk up and down Michigan Ave towards Navy Pier then grab another water taxi back to Michigan Ave and walk to our hotel (if we rented a room that weekend). If we didn't rent a room then we'd hop on one of the last trains to go back home.

For downtown itself it's beautiful and have always enjoyed it. Other parts of the city I never liked it. I used to always go to the Southside every weekend to visit my family. Then used to always go down with friends.