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Friday, March 7th, 2008
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7:06p - Chicago: not New York, dammit
The LJ community ![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif) uchicago is, well, a community populated by students and alumni of the University of Chicago, a fine institution on the South Side of the city. Normal discussion includes questions about professors, where to get an apartment, and the general whining all students always engage in about their school.
Enter gracchi, who has some misconceptions about the city itself to correct:
First: It makes the city boring to walk around. Walk from, say, East Harlem straight down into UES, down into midtown, down into the East Village there's always something to see, people to talk to. Same for a walk in Tokyo, in London, in Naples. Walk from the Loop out to Wicker Park, up to Logan Square: you get swathes of residential, highway underpasses, some (usually closed!) businesses. There's a good video rental store, sure, and an very nice Costa Rican restaurant (Irazu) on the way: but the walk itself is a horrible bore.
Second: It makes the city feel dangerous. People, lots of people, are the best imaginable security system. When you walk down a long, dark, empty Chicago street, it feels dangerous. Doesn't mean it IS dangerous. I've never been mugged. But there's this residual fear there, at least for me. There's a lot of cops here, but not a lot of people. But that might be for the better, because-
2. The white people are horrible.
Midwestern-Masters of fake nice, white Chicagoans will smile at you and say have a nice day. But they won't chat you up like in NY, and they won't ever surprise you with anything. Sure, there are some crazy oldtimers around - but most every white person younger than 60 is a dreadful bores. You don't hear interesting things on the street (like in NY.) and you want to strangle most of the people you see -- especially around Lakeview.
In short:
I don't 'not like' Chicago: I believe it to be a miserable place, and I take its defenders to be defenders of mediocrity and misery.
The responses are, naturally, a little annoyed:
( Cut for length... )
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