Happy Birthday, Chicago

[filkertom]

Incorporated as a city on this date in 1837.

What do you like best about Chicago? In my case, it's friends, fandom, and pizza.

(On the other hand, I'm likely never going to get over the fact that [a] all the directions tell people to take the Skyway, which is [b] nearly always a parking lot, and [c] everybody in town always says, "The Skyway? Everybody knows you don't take the Skyway." If that's the case, then tell all of your city's businesses and all the map services to change their damn brochures and web sites and Triptychs and what-not to reflect that, mmkay? And maybe make it easier to get to restrooms along the way, just in case you find yourself trapped in Typical Chicago Traffic. Because I'm just a stupid tourist. And I'm not the only one. And I think it reflects very badly on your city that everybody gives the same bad directions and blames the people who take them for not knowing enough.)

Comments

[ladystarblade.livejournal.com]

The Museums. The Field Museum (go Sue!), the Museum of Science and Industry, the Art Institute, the Shedd Aquarium...

And the Lake. Ah, on a lovely early summer day, lunching by the lake...heaven.

ETA: Oh, and please broadcast your traffic reports in English...I was just riding through Chicago yesterday on my way back from Milwaukee and I couldn't understand a word of it..."16 from the Stevenson to the Circle and Lake Shore Drive to the toll is 25 with a strangle slowdown"...not to mention it's all given at the speed of light. Thank havens my mother was driving...she's a Rockford, Ill native and has driven through more times than she can count!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

See, a huge problem I have with a lot of cities. I really hate when they do it in Detroit, and I was born and raised there. I really can't remember most of the time which is the Ford and which is the Fisher. The signs all say fuckin' I-94, I-96, I-696, I-75, I-275....

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

Should I be frightened that I, who have been to/through Chicago all of five times in my entire life, actually *understood* that traffic report?

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Tom, Tom, Tom.....you've misssed the point by a mile.

The brochures and maps and the like all tell the tourists to take the Skyway to *ensure* that they all sit up on the freeway and leave the surface streets clear for local traffic. Civic planning, I call that. Usin' your municipal noodle.

Crafty folk these Illinoisan....er....Illinoid.....um, Illineese? These people from Illinois, they're smart.

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

It depends on what time of day you're traveling. I personally have never had a problem with the Skyway; but then I've only ever driven on it at about 12:30 am after returning from the Michigan RenFaire on a Sunday night.

Illinoisans (the s after the i, as always, is silent). And yes, we are.

[adamselzer.livejournal.com]

Right - like the very concept of Navy Pier - an out of the way place to keep all the tourists in warm weather!

[adamselzer.livejournal.com]

Nothing I DON'T like about it!

Here's my new blog: Weird Chicago (http://weirdchicagoblog.com), a supplement to the Weird Chicago tours and upcoming Weird Chicago book.

I've only been on the skyway once in my life.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Actually, the very, very first time was way cool. Got into town for my very first SF con, WindyCon '79. Running tech (i.e., sound effects and props wrangling) for mstrhypno, who was doing a magic show at the con. Left Ann Arbor at about noon Friday. Hit the Skyway at about five.

Empty.

No, really, empty. Fewer than twenty cars, both ways.

Lee, the Native Guide, is gaping like a fish. We turn on the car radio to see if there's some hideous natural disaster or nuke attack or whatever.

Turns out the Pope is at Wrigley field.

By the time he was done, we were in Arlington Heights.

[sazettel.livejournal.com]

I love the attitude, the history, yes, the museums, the pizza, the place itself. And it is Marshall Fields downtown. It is and ALWAYS WILL BE Marshall Fields.

My parents met in Chicago and I still have family there. I remember when it was the only place in the world you could get Frangos, and they only had one flavor.

A few years back, I was able to take my mother to her first Cubs game in fifty years for Mother's Day. Cubs won too, although it took 15 innings. That was quite the day.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

I haven't visited the city itself in the last 25 years--I've just driven through. And as I go by downtown on I-94, the buildings, especially Sears Tower, but just one thought into my mind.

Lego.

[bentleywg.livejournal.com]

Chicago Traffic Reports: How to Understand Them (http://www.thelocaltourist.com/articles/chicagotraffic.htm).

[ladystarblade.livejournal.com]

Ooh, very cool...will print that and put it with my Illinois map. :-) Thanks!

[ifics.livejournal.com]

Everything I know about Chicago I learned from Leslie Fish. 8-)

[jss]

What does it say about me that my first thought was "The Cell Block Tango," despite having lived in suburban Chicagoland for 8 years?

I miss the variety of foods including Chicago-style pizza, a couple of my favorite restaurants (though neither is what they once were, alas), and the build-to-suit condo I sold in late 2002.

[awfulhorrid.livejournal.com]

I like the fact that I'm close enough to visit when I want to, but I don't actually have to live there anymore!

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

But the Skyway is meant to be used only by tourists. That way, if the city is attacked by Godzilla and he eats everyone on the skyway, the city's population is safe and operation can continue as normal (once they lure Godzilla away with discount airfare to Tokyo.)

[ladystarblade.livejournal.com]

Okay, Diet Mountain Dew all over my computer monitor.

Total Godzilla fangirl here. :-)

[jmthane.livejournal.com]

What do I like about Chicago? I'd agree with you on the fandom and pizza. And music - there's plenty of that about.

What do I *not* like about Chicago? Friends who won't drive/travel an hour to visit you in the 'burbs, but expect you to come in to Chicago on a regular basis. The cost of living. The job market (at least right now). Yes, the traffic, although again I've never taken the Skyway at peak travel times and it hasn't been that bad. The pollution.

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

Try two hours. It takes an hour to get downtown to get on the train that goes out that way. And then I usually have to wait for it.

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

I've never been! But I like that it's where Due South happens.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

The best thing about Chicago?

.
.
.
.
.

Clark & Belmont.

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

You really like Dunkin' Donuts THAT much?

[ravenclaw-eric.livejournal.com]

Things I like: The big-city atmosphere, the museums. Never been to a con in Chicago, to my sorrow---when Worldcon was in town, my pockets were all to-let.

Things I don't like---mainly those damn stupid short toll sections on the four-lanes. Last time I went through (on my way to and from Pennsic in 2003) my car started badly overheating in the huge jam-up waiting to get to the damn tollbooth, so on the way back, I swung south and took State Highway 30, bypassing the tollbooths entirely and rejoining I-80 at about Joliet. Even though we'd agreed that this was a Good Idea, my passenger was fussing at me so much in the actual event that I was more than tempted to stop the car somewhere along Highway 30 and kick him out and leave him stranded.

[youngcurmudgeon.livejournal.com]

Things I like most about Chicago:

The food. Cheap-ish and delicious. Hot dogs (WHY are there no hot dog joints in DC besides the Chili Bowl?), deep-dish, Moonstruck Cafe, cheesecake, Jelly Belly mistakes.

The el. Even with the price hikes, you can still get most places, even if you have to wait for three brown line trains to pass you first. (On that note -- streets at 90-degree angles!)

Lake Shore Drive on the Fourth of July. If you time it right, you get stuck there when the cops close the roads for the fireworks and you can watch from your car with the radio on. (On that note -- free movies in Grant Park in the summer.)

The accent. I admit it.

And on that note, I think I need to go get some Potbelly's. :-)

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

Italian Beef!

[mstrhypno.livejournal.com]

But Tom! When we took the Skyway with YOU back when we took you to your very first con, WE took the Skyway (and I am a native Chicagoan) and there was NO traffic.

On a Friday.

At 5PM.

So much for THAT rant... lol

Lee Darrow, C.H. (Certified Heckler in this case)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I made precisely that point above, Lee. :) First and only time I've ever seen the Skyway nekkid. If you recall, the way out of town on Sunday was much more typical }-P

[laurel-potter.livejournal.com]

I used to use the Skyway when I drove for a delivery company. Do you still have to pay tolls?

Anyway, I can't remember any traffic jams, no matter what time of the day I went. I liked taking the Skyway, in spite of the tolls, 'cause it was faster.

I haven't been to Chicago in awhile, but I'll be going to a Harry Potter conference there in August. Right downtown, too. I may end up taking Amtrack.

When I think of driving in Chicago, I always thing about Camreron Diaz in "My Best Friend's Wedding". That was funny!

[birder2.livejournal.com]

What do I like best about Chicago? Me--I was born there. Granted that was a long time ago (longer than those of you reading this, if anyone is, have been alive) and I havn't lived in the area since 1948. But I do like visiting occasionally. Love the museums, especially the Field and the Shedd Aquarium and the Art Institute. And the lakefront. Do not like the traffic and the pollution.

[sciffy-circo.livejournal.com]

I grew up in Oak Park, and took driver's ed there. Immediately after that summer, we moved to Phoenix. I was scared to death of going down side streets where the speed limit was 20, coming to a dead stop at the bottom of a hill, then expected to make a left turn into traffic moving at about 65, coming around the mountain.

My dad sent me out once to get some cheese from the grocery store. I was so scared of making that left turn that I took a right instead, and literally went AROUND the whole danged mountain. About an hour and a half later, my dad asked what had taken so long. I said there was no way in hell I was going to make a left turn onto that road. He said something about the weather being as hot as Hell, and Phoenix being a dry heat, so we weren't actually in Hell. I still said I wasn't going to make that turn next time either.

A couple years later, I came back to Chicago to go to school in Indiana. It suddenly occurred to me that I had NEVER driven on an expressway in Chicago, despite growing up here, and taking driver's ed here. My first thought was, "These people are crazy! The only ones crazier are the ones who visit Phoenix with California plates!" My next was, "What the hell do you mean I-90/94 west? It's freaking going north!" That was followed by "What the hell did they do to Lake Shore Drive while I was gone? How do I get to Congress or the Eisenhower NOW? Shit, what number is Eisenhower? I only knew it by name, and 'away from the lake'. Um, that must be west, right? But I'm going north now! Er, I think... And if I want to go to Naperville? Is that 55 or 355, or Eisenhower to one of those or... Jeez, how can I be so lost in a city I grew up in?!?"

I still get lost, because that gas station I was supposed to turn at ain't there anymore! I never did bother to learn the actual street names, and numbers always give me a hard time!

I'll never find my way around Phoenix anymore either. When I left, they were still building the Squaw Peak extension, and the 2 lane road I took to the community college with no lights and a very nasty ditch on the side became the 101... or so the map says. At least the downtown was easy enough to figure out. West is streets, east is avenues, they all have numbers. North and south are the dead presidents.

[billroper]

The Skyway gets picked by the automatic routing services like Mapquest because it's almost always the shortest route. Not because it's the fastest. :)

On the other hand, if you want to get to the Loop from points east, your best bet is to take the Skyway to Stony Island, get off going north, then navigate across to Lake Shore Drive at the Museum of Science and Industry. This keeps you off the Dan Ryan, which is all to your benefit.

And the view is better.