Chicago DU'ers: if your town had better weather it would be paradise!

Absolutely the best bars, the best baseball and the best PEOPLE.

For a city that big, try and think of another with that level of friendliness.

To make up for it, we are cursed with weather from hell (and hell froze over 2 hours later).

Not in my experience.

Indifferent service in stores and restaurants. El riders who want to knock you flat as you try to enter and exit the trains -- with a cane, mind you -- taxi drivers that ignore your hailing them; it goes on and on. The people who work at Union Station are awful and it's always pandemonium in there. I have never had a friendly experience in Chicago.

in any big city that I've experienced. I guess I don't really expect people in Union Station to be friendly, simply because it *is* pandemonium in there. LOL!

It is, however, truly awful that people wouldn't have more patience for someone with a cane. I will grant you that. That's just plain rude. And I can't speak for taxis because I either drive, walk or take the el.

I'm not directing this comment at you (your profile says you live in Michigan but maybe you were a lifelong Chicagoan before that) but I find that sometimes tourists (in any city, not just Chicago) don't realize that the train they're taking to go to a museum or some other fun activity is the same train that locals are taking to work or appointments. I can't tell you the number of times I've seen a group of tourists yakking away on a train, blocking the entrance with their shopping bags and nearly making people miss their stop. Then they get all flustered when people start to push through their group to get on or off the train. It's even worse in New York City. I guess I'm used to riding public transportation so it isn't a big mystery to me when I go to other cities, but some people seem genuinely clueless about basic common sense when it comes getting around on busy trains/buses/subways.

As far as restaurants go, I've had fabulous service and I've had terrible service. I will say that Chicago is an incredibly competitive restaurant town, so places with bad service tend not to survive very long. Two exceptions to this rule would be: places where the food is so incredible and unique that people will put up with anything (I know a few, but they're pretty rare) and chains/family restaurants in touristy, high traffic areas. Get out into the neighborhoods, there are THOUSANDS of great local places with friendly service and amazing food. The neighborhoods are where it's at. Not the Loop. Not Michigan Avenue.

But have visited Chicago many times. It's true that the neighborhood places are better than the restaurants in the tourist areas but I don't think any restaurant that isn't even half full should have the snail's pace service we had on my last visit. We allowed two hours before we had to be back at Union Station to catch the train (restaurant was two blocks away); our order was taken immediately and appeared 45 minutes later with no explanation or apology. We had to bolt our dinner to get to the station on time, allowing for my slow pace.

And, yes, tourists can be a pain when locals are merely trying to get through their day (and I try to be cognizant of that) but, for a city that aggressively promotes itself as a tourist destination INCLUDING the El as a 'must ride,' they should exercise a little more patience with those of us who can't move very fast but are visiting and spending money in their fair city.

But like someone else said, the places you're visiting are actually just as likely to be filled with non-natives than locals. The idiots you're meeting may be other visiters, you never know. And, as was my point before, a restaurant two blocks away from Union Station is not going to be the best place to go for local flavor and attentive service. Places there serve commuters and tourists.

And I've ridden the el at all hours of the day and night for years and years. There are plenty of assholes and at least as many really nice people willing to help. I've asked for, and received, plenty of help over the years. I've also offered assistance to plenty of confused-looking out of towners. I'm sorry your experiences have been unlucky, I certainly can't vouch for everyone in this city. But I've been to almost every major city in the U.S. and I think Chicago rates pretty high on the friendliness scale.

I always get great service in Chicago. I was at Union Station a week and a half ago to pick up my mother and the staff there couldn't have been more helpful to her. I've lived here for 15 years and can count on one hand the poor experiences I've had in that area.

On the other hand, I cannot name how many times people have helped me out, come to my rescue, total strangers just trying to help someone out. There's a lot of great people in this city. Much nicer than the Detroit area, where I was born and raised. Nicer than suburban Detroit anyway, I still dig Detroit city, after all, I lived there a huge portion of my life.

It's my job to treat people well and politely (even if I don't like them). I hold doors, I wait my turn, I say please and thank you, and I tip well. Believe me, I don't go out expecting to be treated poorly and I treat people the way I want to be treated. And, in my city, which is flooded with out of towners on football Saturdays and for our four day outdoor art fair in the summer, I concentrate on the benefits to the city and don't treat visitors who have no idea how to get around, etc. as if they had arrived deliberately to spoil my day.

But if your posts on DU are any indication, you are a very angry fundraiser and PR person who apparently does seem to expect to be treated poorly, as the only posts I've ever seen from you are about how horrible a city Chicago is. Or did somebody hire you to do that?

As for Ann Arbor, where I am I'm assuming you are from from your screenname, you are hardly in a position to talk about friendliness and courtesy. This is coming from someone who's been there far more often than it seems you've been to Chicago. In spite of the many negative experiences I've had there, I still wouldn't tar and feather the whole town over a couple rude residents. That would be unfair.

In that way, its friendlier than others I've been to. Compared to the small-mid sized towns I've lived in, it doesn't seem friendly at all, but that's the nature of any major city.

There was only on person selling tickets and there was a line of about 10 people. Everyone was waiting patiently. My friend from NYC said that if this was in NY, there would be a near riot scene because it was taking too long and there was only 1 ticket agent.

I guess its all frame of reference.

Have you ever been to LA, NYC, MIA, BOS??

Because, I don't generalize like you do. There are rude people here...no question about that. There are rude people in every town, village, city in the world.

But my experiences living here are just the opposite of yours. Friendly people in stores, restaurants, taxi drivers who do stop when you hail them. I consider Chicago (besides Toronto) to be one of the friendliest cities in the world, actually.

I guess it's a matter of perspective.

True, compared to other places in the midwest (Des Moines comes to mind) it's not as friendly.

But compared to my home town (San Francisco) its friendly as hell!

than Cincinnati. My best friend moved there a few years ago. She'd lived, like me, in many different neighborhoods in Chicago, including some that were pretty rough (when we were younger and really broke). But NEVER was she as mistreated, harassed, attacked, and robbed in Chicago as she was in Cincinnati. Even in the few short visits I took, I couldn't believe how many people tried to mess with us while we were just walking down the street. She'd moved there for a great paying job, but moved again a couple years later because it wasn't worth it. Now she lives in LA.

I think it's as friendly as any other big city, more than many.

One of my favorite big cities. And some of the best DUers are there, too :)

I love so much about Chicago, most especially my neighborhood (Lincoln Square RAWKS!). But I hate the weather, and I hate the surrounding area. If Chicago had better weather *and* I could drive to the mountains and/or the ocean within a couple of hours, I would absolutely think I lived in paradise.

I'm telling you Tav, if you lived in Chicago and just wanted to get away for the weekend, the choices available would depress the shit out of you.

But I can totally see why locals like Michael Jordan and Oprah, despite their options, want to stay there.

seem but then again, I probably hold those same illusions about San Francisco. Wanna trade houses? :)

I love the rolling hills, the wine, the liberal oasis that is SF or Oakland, the marijuana clubs, the...everything!

It's just that I like Chicago too!

IN a perfect world, I'd work in SF, and spend summers in Chicago...

I was trying to buy a map in Union Station and the worker at the shop was downright rude to me; had very mixed experience in the restaurants as far as waitstaff, there is no one to help you at the El, and when I had come into O'Hare to downtown on the El on a very rainy Friday morning and needed to find Union Station, THREE people gave me wrong directions and sent me all over merry hell trying to find it. I also got knocked down in the train station with all my luggage walking to an Amtrak train - I'm serious, KNOCKED flat, and no one apologized or even stopped. I cannot rate it as a friendly place in the least, no one smiles or says hi. I found NYC far friendlier, ditto with Washington DC, triple with San Francisco, and it's not even as friendly as Seattle, where I live, and which I think is relatively unfriendly.

It once took me twelve hours to get home from Denver -- to Detroit via O'Hare where I spent nine of those hours. It seems the air traffic controllers were miffed over not being allowed to stack planes anymore by the FAA so they slowed everything down; we were in a holding pattern over NE Missouri for so long that we had to be diverted to Indianapolis to refuel. When we finally landed at O'Hare I had missed two connecting flights and they kept sending me to different concourses with about ten minutes in between flights which was impossible. I had a carryon, my purse, and my cane and empty golf carts kept zooming past me. I finally could not take another step and demanded a wheelchair which took almost an hour to arrive. For all of this, I was offered one $5 meal voucher.

A friend of ours flew to meet us in Chicago last summer and the ground transportation refused to take her to our hotel because it was "too close" to the airport and not worth their time.

I vowed to never set foot in O'Hare again and I haven't.

Chicago. No thanks.

places where people are trying to get somewhere. My experience in Chicago is that you need to move or get the fuck out of the way. True, people there aren't very tolerant of those who clog up traffic, pedestrian or otherwise. And half the people you see downtown aren't from Chicago anyway. It sounds like you haven't experienced much of the city yet.

And how else can you get to Chicago unless you drive, fly, or take the train? If that's your first impression of a place; the bad treatment in an overcrowded, understaffed terminal, that can influence the rest of your experience.

but I got mowed over walking to the train. Not okay. And as far as looking for Union Station in the rain - well, if I saw someone in Seattle with suitcases, early in the morning, trying to find a very famous landmark, I would spend five seconds helping them.

PM me next time you head to the midwest, I'll show you the COOL places.

I fucking hate it.

God do I fucking hate it!

I can take as many feet of snow as you can throw at me, but I cannot stand this heat.

I know people love it, hell, my friends love it, but when it's in the 90's in the city, and humidity is near 100%, I just want to die.

Not to mention, once the temp hits the 70's all the idiots thaw out and take to the streets.

I miss the quiet and stillness of winter and the cooler months, it is so nice.

...

This city has such great culture and architecture though. And for that, it's sort of worth it...I guess.

since Thursday. I like to count down the days until this miserable season is over :puke:

I'm hibernating in my A/C apartment today! :toast: