The Official "I'm visiting/moving to Chicago, what should I do?" Thread

[uberalles]

Thanks for the tip on the signature room. Your probably right about the age. I'll check it out before trying. I was thinking of maybe Second City or the Blue Man Group, but unfortunatly it might hurt the budget were on. My wife says maybe on a trip later on without the kids.

[spyguy]

Here's a website for activities like helicopter rides, sky diving, etc.

http://www.chicagotraveler.com/chica...re_fitness.htm

[wickedestcity]

http://www.voanews.com/specialenglis...05-07-voa2.cfm

Chicago: Some Big Places to See in the 'City of the Big Shoulders'
Written by Jerilyn Watson
07 May 2006

This is America mp3:
http://www.voanews.com/mediaassets/s...%20chicago.mp3

This Is America - Download RealAudio:
http://www.voanews.com/mediaassets/s...-%20chicago.ra

Listen to This Is America :
http://www.voanews.com/specialenglis...20chicago%2Era


(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. This week: some places to see in Chicago.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Early last century, the poet Carl Sandburg described Chicago, Illinois, as the “City of the Big Shoulders.” That still seems right. Chicago does a lot of things in a big way.

For example, the city is a big transportation center in the Midwest for trains, trucks, ships and planes.

Manufacturing is one of the biggest industries in Chicago.


Chicago lakefront area


And Chicago has one of America’s busiest ports. The city stretches for about forty kilometers along the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. The Saint Lawrence Seaway opened in nineteen fifty-nine. It connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Chicago is big on music. Visitors can find all kinds, from classical to hip-hop. Some of the best places for jazz and blues are along Rush Street.

There are lots of things to see and hear in Chicago.

At the Art Institute of Chicago, people can see fine Asian art and much more.

At the Museum of Science and Industry, visitors crowd a working coal mine and a World War Two submarine.

At the Adler Planetarium, people see stars and learn about space. And at the Shedd Aquarium, they see colorful fish and learn about life under the sea.

VOICE ONE:

Not surprisingly Chicago has a lot of big buildings. The two tallest are the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Building.

Many people take architectural tours around Chicago. There are many interesting landmarks and building designs to see.

The Wrigley Building, near the Chicago River, opened in the early nineteen twenties. This office building is hard to miss. It is bright white.

Downtown Chicago, the business center, is known as the Loop. There are many offices and stores. The Loop includes the financial district around LaSalle Street. The financial district is home to the Chicago Board of Trade, the Chicago Stock Exchange and many banks.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Another big thing to see, and feel, is the weather. After all, another name for Chicago is the "Windy City." People turn their shoulders to the strong winds off Lake Michigan. In winter, Chicago gets a lot of snow; in summer, the weather is hot and sticky.

Almost three million people live in Chicago. Chicago is America's third largest city, after New York and Los Angeles. More than nine million people live in surrounding communities.

Over the years many immigrants have settled in Chicago. Many of its people have ethnic roots in Poland, Germany, Ireland and Italy. More recent immigrants have come from all over the world.

Today just under half the population of the city of Chicago is non-Hispanic white. The city has large black and Hispanic populations. Four percent of the people are Asian.

VOICE ONE:


Millennium Park


When people in Chicago want to be outdoors, one place to go is Millennium Park. In this City of Big Shoulders, almost everything about Millennium Park is big. It covers ten hectares. It took almost nine years to finish.

Millennium Park is on Michigan Avenue near Lake Michigan. It officially opened in two thousand four. It cost four hundred seventy-five million dollars.

Millennium Park has gardens and places for music, dance and ice skating. It also has one of the largest outdoor sculptures in the world. Anish Kapoor of Britain created this work of public art. It weighs one hundred ten tons.

A huge rounded form of shiny steel captures a looking-glass image of the Chicago skyline and the clouds above. The sculpture is called “Cloud Gate.”

VOICE TWO:

The Spanish artist Jaume Plensa designed the Crown Fountain in Millennium Park. The fountain is surely one of the most unusual in the world.

The artist set a pool of water between two tall glass towers. Video images appear on the towers. The images are a series of pictures of nature and people’s faces. The water appears to pour from their mouths. The faces represent the many different people of Chicago.

VOICE ONE:

Millennium Park has music in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion. The architect Frank Gehry designed this modern-looking structure. It can seat four thousand people under its open-top steel ribbons. There is also an area called the Great Lawn to listen to the music. The sound system makes the music seem like it is coming from inside a concert hall.

The pavilion is a home for the Grant Park Music Festival. Listen as the Grant Park Symphony plays “Julius Caesar: Symphonic Epilogue After Shakespeare," Opus Twenty-eight, composed by Robert Kurka.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:


McCormick Place


In warm weather, people eat outdoors in the McCormick Tribune Plaza and Ice Rink in Millennium Park. In winter, skaters come out to enjoy the ice.

Visitors can also walk and ride bicycles in several areas of the plaza.

An indoor space has room for three hundred bicycles. There are also places where people who ride their bikes to work can clean up and change clothes.

Another part of Millennium Park is the Lurie Garden. This one-hectare area is bordered by what is called the "Shoulder Hedge." Trees almost five meters tall form a living wall around the garden.

"Shoulder" in this case is meant to honor the poet Carl Sandburg. One hundred thirty-eight kinds of plants grow in the Lurie Garden.

VOICE ONE:

Many people enjoy the activities at Millennium Park. But critics wonder why the city needed a park so big and costly. They say the city should have spent the money instead on its more than six hundred public schools. They say it could have helped the poor.

Twenty-one percent of people in the city of Chicago were living below the poverty level in two thousand four. The official poverty rate nationally that year was about thirteen percent.

VOICE TWO:

Other people say Millennium Park has improved the appearance of the area where it was built. The mayor and many other city leaders believed a big park would bring more people, more homes and more businesses to the area.


Mayor Richard M. Daley


Mayor Richard M. Daley is the son of former Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley. The father is still remembered for his control over the local Democratic Party organization. The city has not elected a Republican mayor since nineteen fifteen.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Another big development, the Chicago Cultural Center, stands across Michigan Avenue from Millennium Park. It contains the city's official Visitor Information Center. It is also a showplace for the arts.

The building that now houses the cultural center was completed in eighteen ninety-seven. It held the first permanent collection of the Chicago Public Library. It served as library headquarters until nineteen ninety-one.

There are white walls made of marble from Carrara, Italy. And there are two Tiffany domes. The bigger dome is one of the largest Tiffany designs in the world. It rises almost twelve meters above the floor.

People say the restored Chicago Cultural Center looks like a home for kings and queens. Some call it “the People’s Palace.”

VOICE TWO:

Visitors can listen to all kinds of music at the Chicago Cultural Center. For example, Monday through Friday, there are free LunchBreak Concerts. Listen now to Middle Eastern music performed by Safwan Matni, a popular LunchBreak Concert guest artist.

(MUSIC)

Dancers from Hubbard Street Two in Chicago have also performed at the Cultural Center. Hubbard Street Two is a six-member dance group. It trains promising dancers between the ages of seventeen and twenty-five. They perform works by young choreographers.

VOICE ONE:

Carl Sandburg would probably not have been surprised by big projects like the Chicago Cultural Center and Millennium Park. The poet wrote: “Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive … ”

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Faith Lapidus. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. We leave you with Frank Sinatra singing about "My Kind of Town."

(MUSIC)

[neuhickman]

My husband and I are hoping to move to Chicago next year and we were pricing some condos/apartments the other day. We noticed about 6 condos for sale between $83,000 and $149,000 in a 28-story highrise on the lake at 5000 S East End Ave(I think). Can anyone tell me about this building and the neighborhood surrounding it? Is there a reason there are so many condos for sale there right now and why they are so inexpensive? Any insight would be much appreciated!

[UrbanSophist]

Originally Posted by neuhickman

My husband and I are hoping to move to Chicago next year and we were pricing some condos/apartments the other day. We noticed about 6 condos for sale between $83,000 and $149,000 in a 28-story highrise on the lake at 5000 S East End Ave(I think). Can anyone tell me about this building and the neighborhood surrounding it? Is there a reason there are so many condos for sale there right now and why they are so inexpensive? Any insight would be much appreciated!

Check this link out: http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=117194

It's in Kenwood, which is on the South Side, right next to Hyde Park, which is where the University of Chicago is. It is a nice area, and from what I understand pretty safe. However, it's still an area where you have to practice some big city common sense. It's an area that used to be where some of the most affluent people in Chicago lived, and like the rest of urban America, fell into urban decay. Now, however, this whole portion of the South Side is experiencing an upswing and in the early to middle stages of gentrification.

Some more info on Kenwood:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenwood,_Chicago

http://www.ci.chi.il.us/Landmarks/K/...dDistrict.html


A website with lots of neighborhood pics:
http://neighborhoods.chicago.il.us/a/Kenwood/

[neuhickman]

Thanks

[TheJim]

Alright it finally looks like i will be moving to the City in about 6 weeks. I am most likely moving to the Bucktown Wicker Park area. I am getting rid of the car. My main questions are as follows.

1) What are my choices in cable/sat?
2) High Speed Internet?
3) Besides the CTA system how available are rental cars and cabs in this area?
4) What is the average electric bills for a one bedroom?
5) Is heat included in most rents in this area? If not how much is it to run the damn heat in the winter (i have lived in florida all of my adult life so this is foreign to me)

[qwerty1324]

I got rid of my car when I moved here too.

1) Comcast I believe
2) I use AT&T/Yahoo DLS
3) Cabs easy. Not sure abour rental cars.
4) $30 a month maybe. I have a large studio and ran the air all last summer almost non stop for a month or two, it was a hot one, $32 was my max bill.
5) All the apartments I have rented and friends of mine that rent have heat included.

[marooned]

Since this is a photo forum, I have some questions about night photography in Chicago.

Are tripods allowed at the Sears sky deck? or at the JHC (not allowed according to JHC homepage, but one never knows)? The JHC has an open air observatory, are tripods allowed there? I've seen several really sharp pics taken with shutter speeds above 1 sec.

What areas are 100% safe for night photography with tripod (21pm to midnight): museum/Grant park? downtown area? lincoln park? any more suggestions?

[jtown,man]

I've been wanting to move to chicago for the last year. That being said my target date has been around august. Now, I have also been looking into Milwaukee and Madison. Ok, but say I did move to Chicago, How much money would I need to initially bring?(im cheap and i need little). Plus I loooooove the northside from downtown to a little more north then Belmont. looove the area!!!! I'm not lookin to get an amazing job. Just something to support me untill I get instate tuition . But, could someone also tell me what the average min wage type job pays in chicago? Like in Jonesboro the average hourly min wage type job pays around 6.50. Thanks for any help!!!


what's a reasonable rent to you? 1-700

how much space do you desire? studio? 2 bedroom? single family home? Studio-1 bedroom

how important is diversity of races/ethnicities? the more, the better

do you prefer hot, trendy areas? low-key family oriented areas? Doesnt matter. Family would be nice though.

how important is diversity of incomes? no preference

how important is diversity of architecutre/housing options? somewhat important

how important is urbanism? important

how important is access to recreation/parks? somewhat important

how important is personal/property saftey? Important

how important is access to rapid transit? important

how important is access to an expressway? not important

are you into nightlife? if so what kind? Not into clubbing

how important is car ownership? Semi important. Havent decided on this yet.

where do you see yourself being employed? downtown? elsewhere in the city? the burbs? I want to be imployed in downtown, but north city seems to be my best bet.

[UrbanSophist]

Have you considered waiting tables? If you're a newbie to the restaurant scene, you can probably get a job where you're making around $30k in a year. It is, of course, hard work. The other option would be the food industry(as in making it, in a Starbucks or Potbelly's, etc.) or retail. You can generally making between $7 and $9 for those. I think you'd really like living in Lakeview, south of Belmont. It's very diverse, and I'm confident that you could get a studio for around $700. You can find something around there in Lincoln Park, too. The DePaul neighborhood in Lincoln Park is also worth looking into. These neighborhoods are nicely urban, and they have access to great parks. Also, lots of employment and trans opportunities.

Good luck in your search.

http://chicago.craigslist.org/apa/

[jtown,man]

^

Thanks so much man. I looked at http://www.illinoisatlas.com/illinoi...nity_areas.pdf AND...Lakeview is deffinitly THE area i want to live in.

As again, thanks.

[spyguy]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel...chi-travel-hed

Great American cities: CHICAGO

Alan Solomon, travel writer
Chicago Tribune
Published May 21, 2006

A few weeks ago when we ran insider profiles on the best of eight great American cities, we intentionally left out Chicago because it wasn't "travel" for those of us who live here. OK, OK. ... we've reconsidered--and turned to one of our own as the "local expert."

From Alan Solomon, travel writer, Chicago Tribune:

The essential experience: A baseball game in Wrigley Field. The place has been poked, prodded and illuminated over the years--the bleachers were expanded last winter in the latest bit of surgery--but Wrigley is still Wrigley, the vines are still that fluffy green, and there's nothing quite as uniquely Chicago. Too bad about the home team.

But don't miss: The Art Institute. Even the most casual art fans among us delight in being eye-to-eye with Grant Wood's "American Gothic" or close enough to see all the little dabs of light in Georges Seurat's "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte." And as long as you're right there: Ease over to Millennium Park and marvel at "The Bean." (You'll know it when you see it.)

Local delicacy: Forget the pizza. That's marketing. The true favorite is the Chicago hot dog--kosher-style, boiled, the skin popping to the bite--topped with yellow mustard, bright pickle relish, chopped onions, little sport peppers and a slice of tomato on a steamed poppyseed bun. No ketchup, no chili, and char-dogs are an abomination.

Best big-bucks restaurant: The Big Two: Charlie Trotter's and Tru, with longtime favorites Everest and Spiaggia battling relative newcomer Alinea for a spot in the show-pool. Trotter's and Alinea are strictly for serious foodies who adore esoterica; the others (Tru is high-concept comfort food, Everest nods to French, Spiaggia is Italian) are merely wonderful.

Iconic neighborhood favorite: Twin Anchors. Chicago has no definitive barbecue style, but the cut of choice is baby back ribs, and this place--essentially a bar with food in the city's Old Town neighborhood--serves 'em up with energy and Sinatra, who is said to have been a fan.

The perfect Chicago walk: Start at Oak Street Beach, at the north end of Michigan Avenue's shopping strip, and enjoy the scenery along Lake Michigan north a couple of miles to Fullerton Beach. Inland, right there, is Lincoln Park Zoo. Stroll the grounds (don't miss the Great Apes), exit anywhere, then walk back through the park to the ballfields, where, hopefully, you can watch Chicago-style softball (16-inch, no gloves). Cross Lake Shore Drive on the pedestrian bridge and return along the lake. You can't get lost: The lake is always east.

Info: The Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau, 877-244-2246; www.choosechicago.com.

[partybits]

Hey guys,

I'm planning on going to Chicago for a couple days and was hoping for hotel suggestions. Looking for either one downtown that is reasonably priced or one located by a subway line that will quickly get downtown.

Any good recommendations?

Partybits from Toronto

[Mr Man]

Swissotel Chicago, a star hotel at $99 a night


http://hotels.travelzoo.com/lodging-hotels/240600

I'm currently staying at the Hyatt Regency. Superb location and it's reasonably priced.

[lopt]

Since I couldn't find any cheap tickets to Hong Kong, I'll be visiting Chicago this summer. Your city better be a good replacement since I am a big fan of skyscraper watching.

1. Should I go to Hancock or Sears?
2. How much is taxi from O'Hare to the loop?
3. What attractions other than skyscrapers would you recommend?

[UrbanSophist]

Um... is that a threat??

[spyguy]

Originally Posted by lopt

Your city better be a good replacement since I am a big fan of skyscraper watching.

[Jules]

What's up with the attitudes on these tourists lately?

[lopt]

Okay, I'm just asking on whether Chicago has a skyline that could impress me(dense, high, etc.) as much as or at least close to the skyline of Hong Kong.