Anyone from Chicago area ?, how's the city/lifestyle/tracks/etc. ? Options

[Crazy Canuck]

Just curious.

[Major_Lee_Slow]

I currently live in the way north burbs, but I did live in and around the city my entire life. The nightlife is great, there is always something going on and something to do from clubs, to local taverns to great dining. It"s said one could eat out every night for a year and still not hit all of Chicago's great restaurants. I suppose there are some more cultural things to do to like museums, art exhibits and ballet and stuff if your into that. There are also tons of concerts and live shows as well.

Solo racing wise, it's great. There are four major autocross clubs between Milwaukee and Chicago. BTW, from downtown Chicago it's possible to make it to Milwaukee in about 2 hours (Keep in mind 1hr 15 mins is spent just getting out of chicagoland). So we get to race at Miller Park Milwaukee and at Route 66 in Joliet (about 1 hr 15 mins outside of Chicago). If you are into drag racing or oval racing, Rt 66 has both of those covered. If you like road racing, then it's possible to day trip up to Road America. There is also racing at black hawk farms, which is near the il/wi boarder. So there's some things to be desired in the Road Race scene.

Housing cost on the other hand are crazy. One can easily spend $1.0M on a condo downtown. However I think the average home price is probably somewhere around $350.000. I'm sure there are internet sites with that info.

Seeing that you are from Canada, the winters will seem warm and the summers unbearably hot and humid. LOL (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Are you thinking of moving here?

[Crazy Canuck]

temperature wise, it's very similar.
Chicago: http://www.worldweather.org/093/c00274f.htm
Montreal: http://www.worldweather.org/056/c00634f.htm

(edit: added a "f" to the link so you guys see 'F instead of real degrees... (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) )

Not thinking on moving there... but maybe being there for the next several months for work.
Would be back home every weekend + some days of the week potentially (working offline).
Commuting Montreal-Chicago.

[Crazy Canuck]

activities and restaurants I also heard good things, but not sure it can match Montreal multi-cultural activities/restaurant + night-life.
I'm not much into night-life, but am more concern with safety, crime rates, burglaries, and stuff like that.
Can you get up @ 03h00 and just go for a walk and not even think twice ?
Is the city clean, nice ?
smog ?

I won't move there cause there probably are emissions... (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) gotta draw the line...

[nape]

activities and restaurants I also heard good things, but not sure it can match Montreal multi-cultural activities/restaurant + night-life.
I'm not much into night-life, but am more concern with safety, crime rates, burglaries, and stuff like that.
Can you get up @ 03h00 and just go for a walk and not even think twice ?
Is the city clean, nice ?
smog ?

I won't move there cause there probably are emissions... (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) gotta draw the line...

Chicago has it's share of cultural restaurants, but I've never been to Montreal so I can't compare. As far as safety, it depends on where you're staying. I was working around Halsted and Division last year and they have $250,000 condos a block down from what's left of the Cabrini Green housing projects. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

I would say the city where you would see is clean. Obviously, if you go into the ghetto it's not very clean, but I think that's understood.

I never notice any smog, so I'd say it's a non-issue.

[Major_Lee_Slow]

Smog is a non issue. All our pollution blows across the lake to Michigan and up into Canada (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) . Crime, well it depends are where you are, just like in every major city, there are good neighborhoods and then there are bad, and then there are stupid teenager in the suburbs who are board. But in general, it's not like you are gonna get insta-mugged if you walk down the street.

I think the city is pretty clean. It's doesn't stink like New York, and it's not all graffitied up like Philly, but I suppose we do have some litter issues, but not nearly as bad a Detroit. I'd say it's probably average. We've got some really nice parks on the lakefront, and some nice beaches. But if you are coming here in the winter, it might be a little chilly to go swimming (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Just beware of all the construction on the highways, not to mention the really crappy traffic congestion. I suppose you will be commuting in and out of O'Hare. About where will you be staying when you are here?

[loudes13]

Far NW suburbs (Dundee) for me.

[Casper]

Smog is a non issue. All our pollution blows across the lake to Michigan and up into Canada (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) . Crime, well it depends are where you are, just like in every major city, there are good neighborhoods and then there are bad, and then there are stupid teenager in the suburbs who are board. But in general, it's not like you are gonna get insta-mugged if you walk down the street.

I think the city is pretty clean. It's doesn't stink like New York, and it's not all graffitied up like Philly, but I suppose we do have some litter issues, but not nearly as bad a Detroit. I'd say it's probably average. We've got some really nice parks on the lakefront, and some nice beaches. But if you are coming here in the winter, it might be a little chilly to go swimming (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Just beware of all the construction on the highways, not to mention the really crappy traffic congestion. I suppose you will be commuting in and out of O'Hare. About where will you be staying when you are here?

Cook County was just rated the worst for dangerous air pollution in the nation...
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/c...0,4323308.story

[nape]

Articles like that make me laugh. These places have been around forever, now the neighborhoods have gentrified and all the sudden the factories are the worst things there. People seem to think that these factories are just sitting there pouring toxins down the drain or blowing them out of the stacks for fun. That is industry! Shut those places down and you're getting rid of people's jobs and your tax base. Also, want to know why those homes were so close to the factories? Because the people that used to live in the home used to work at the factory! That was before your brick bungalow on a city lot was worth $400,000 though.

I've worked in most of the coal burning power plants around the city (Fisk [the one in the picture], Crawford, Joliet). Yes, the places are crapholes full of coal dust, asbestos, and who knows what else but do you want to live in the 21st century with the lights on or go back to the 19th century without power? The eco-nazis are pushing stricker air emissions standards on coal burners all over the state and I can't wait to laugh when they get their bills and bitch about how the rates have gone up. If you want to get all NIMBY about it then you'll have to move because hell will freeze over before any of the suburbs let a coal burner be built there.

Nearly two dozen of the region's top polluters are within 8 miles of the Altgeld Gardens public housing project off 130th Street on the Far South Side, where nearly all residents are African-American. The two-story brick apartments are surrounded by steel mills, abandoned factories, landfills and a sewage treatment plant.

"We're like a big environmental lab for all of the mistakes industry has made over the years," said Cheryl Johnson, a lifelong Altgeld resident who is carrying on the environmental activism her mother, Hazel, started in the 1980s. "We see and smell and live with this pollution every day. I may not have a science degree, but it isn't good."

If you don't like it, move out of the PROJECTS! If you're living for free, I don't know how much of an argument you can make over the conditions...

[loudes13]

They've never been in the valley in LA for the summer. You start coughing half way through the day. Mexico City is the same way, but worse.