CHICAGO | General Discussions

[Kenmore]

i'd consider the suburbs if I was u, seems more your speed

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by Kenmore

i'd consider the suburbs if I was u, seems more your speed

Yeah, that makes total sense. I should live in a place where the taxes are...higher in some cases?

Also, asking about crime from locals is now...a bad thing?

I live in Norfolk VA, look it up Kenmore. It's not exactly Disney. I am asking people from Chicago how the city is in real life. I can only view a place I don't live in through the lenses of an outsider. This view is impacted by everything I see about the city, on here and on tv etc.. Hence, I am asking people I trust when it comes to these types of questions.

Also, I live in the most urban zip in my area(on purpose) and I lived in Tokyo for 4 years, please go away.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by jtown,man

Yeah, that makes total sense. I should live in a place where the taxes are...higher in some cases?

Also, asking about crime from locals is now...a bad thing?

I live in Norfolk VA, look it up Kenmore. It's not exactly Disney. I am asking people from Chicago how the city is in real life. I can only view a place I don't live in through the lenses of an outsider. This view is impacted by everything I see about the city, on here and on tv etc.. Hence, I am asking people I trust when it comes to these types of questions.

Also, I live in the most urban zip in my area(on purpose) and I lived in Tokyo for 4 years, please go away.

Don't feed our little in house troll

[Steely Dan]

^^ jtown, kenmore is our resident forum malcontent. just ignore him, everyone else does.

coming from norfolk, VA, i think your biggest concern about moving to chicago should probably be winter. chicago winters are no joke, and many people simply can't hack 'em (hence why every other person you meet in phoenix is "from chicago").

more than violent crime in ghettos that you will never visit, or the specter of future property tax increases, our long cold winters will almost certainly have a bigger impact on your day to day life if you do indeed end up moving here.

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^^ jtown, kenmore is our resident forum malcontent. just ignore him, everyone else does.

coming from norfolk, VA, i think your biggest concern about moving to chicago should probably be winter. chicago winters are no joke, and many people simply can't hack 'em (hence why every other person you meet in phoenix is "from chicago").

more than violent crime in ghettos that you will never visit, or the specter of future property tax increases, our long cold winters will almost certainly have a bigger impact on your day to day life if you do indeed end up moving here.

Good advice everyone lol

Yeah, no kidding its taken almost 10 years to convince the gf that she can survive the winters. Don't laugh at this, but we had like a solid 5 days of temps around 8 here with windchills way below that a few years ago. We both found that if we *dressed accordingly* we could survive. I worry about winters for her more than me.

But yes, I am scared lol but I am tired of the summers here, in Arkansas, and in Texas. So we'll see.

[Handro]

Originally Posted by jtown,man

Don't laugh at this, but we had like a solid 5 days of temps around 8 here with windchills way below that a few years ago. We both found that if we *dressed accordingly* we could survive. I worry about winters for her more than me.

That's pretty damn cold. Average highs in Chicago in January (coldest month) are about 30 degrees. Every year you can expect some single digit days but it doesn't stay that way consistently (this years record setting winter not withstanding).

[Baronvonellis]

Originally Posted by Natoma

Now here's an idea. Imagine rebuilding the Washington Park Racetrack at it's original location in Washington Park. Like so many other tracks, it could be a combined racetrack and casino.

Then we could move the Obama Library back to the Washington Park location and make one big combined facility: The Washington Park Club Racetrack, Casino and Obama Library!



Although some further digging shows that the historic racetrack was actually south of the existing park, in what's now Washington Park Subdivision (between 6oth and 63rd).

I love the debonair fashions they had back then to go to sporting events. The photo looks just like the racing scene from My Fair Lady. Imagine, if you saw people at bears games with 3 piece suits and top hats!!! My how society has crumbled since then.

[the urban politician]

^ Couldn't agree more. Today people look terrible.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ Couldn't agree more. Today people look terrible.

we may look terrible, but at least were billions of times more comfortable.

the idea of standing in the sun on a summer afternoon in a 3 piece suit and top hat makes me think about sucking on the business end of a shotgun.

t-shirt, cargo shorts, and flips FTW!

[Skyguy_7]

^But people used to do it. They used to put forth the effort out of courtesy for others (like masking bad breath) and self respect.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Skyguy_7

^But people used to do it.

people used to do all kinds of stupid shit.

time (and fashion) marches on.

[Baronvonellis]

If you've ever seen Miami Vice, they used to wear 3 piece suits in Miami in the heat. A Chicago summer day is nothing compared to Miami. People used to put in an effort to look good not even that long ago, and maintain a classy sophisticated appearance in public.

I actually bought a white Miami Vice style suit recently, you wont believe how many compliments I get from it. It only cost $30 on amazon, but just putting some effort in your appearance goes a long way.

[west-town-brad]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

people used to do all kinds of stupid shit.

time (and fashion) marches on.

People also used to die at 55 years old. Maybe it was all the clothes?

[Via Chicago]

Originally Posted by Skyguy_7

^But people used to do it. They used to put forth the effort out of courtesy for others (like masking bad breath) and self respect.

it had nothing to do with courtesy or self respect. it had to do with rigid and repressive cultural/gender norms which thankfully long ago passed by the wayside

[OrdoSeclorum]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

we may look terrible, but at least were billions of times more comfortable.

the idea of standing in the sun on a summer afternoon in a 3 piece suit and top hat makes me think about sucking on the business end of a shotgun.

t-shirt, cargo shorts, and flips FTW!

I've heard this a lot. But there's a lot of space between three-piece-suit and someone wearing a low-quality tee, cargo shorts and plastic footwear.

There are tons of ways to look better that don't require a waistcoat. Wear pants or shorts that fit and are made of high-quality material rather than something baggy enough to be draped over any pair of legs that walks through the door at Target. Wear a shirt with a collar, not a bell-shaped tee shirt that may have been a free promotional item. Wear footwear that look better and better with age instead of immediately worse, and worse after that.

When people wear clothes suited for the beach or the gym or for doing yardwork, it sends the message that where you are going is more important to you than where you are. And just like when someone is free to go to a steak place and order the cut extra well-done, with a side of ketchup, I am free to believe that it says something fundamental about them.

[marothisu]

One of my great grandfathers was born in the early 1880s - grew up upper class NYC and that part of my family at the time was more or less in the fashion industry until the 1920s or early 1930s. They were all used to wearing nice clothing and suits.

We have a ton of pictures of him and literally only two pictures of him not in at least a tie let alone a suit. One is at the beach in NYC and the other is in Death Valley where he's still wearing long black pants and a long sleeve button up shirt (mid 1950s). We have pictures of him in the Bahamas and Jamaica in 1903 in literal jungle - and he's wearing a suit jacket (interestingly some of the natives were too but they also grew up there). On a ship near the Panama Canal? In a suit. Mountains of Idaho? In a suit. Hanging out in my grandparents' driveway while everyone else is dressed casually? In a suit. Hanging outside in Palm Springs? In a suit. At Niagara Falls next to the falls? In a suit.

He made some bad investments in the late 1920s or early 1930s and he went to at most normal middle class (maybe even lower middle class) - moved to LA. Took a normal job. Still wore the suit everywhere and apparently would walk 3+ miles to work everyday in a suit because he loved walking - in the valley of LA which gets to over 100 in the summer. I love dressing well and do often, but people were on another crazy level back then all together. There's a point sometimes where you say "yeah maybe i should wear a tshirt right now.."


On another note, there's some eerie pictures of him, especially at mid age, where he looks like Rahm Emanuel LOL.

[the urban politician]

^ Agree.

Just because we are allowed to technically look like a slob in public doesn't mean that we should. There is a certain respect for the people around you that our society has lost.

And it's really not even hard to not look bad in public. You just have to care ever so slightly.

[Baronvonellis]

Yea, you don't have to wear a 3 piece suit and top hat in public, but you can easily look stylish with some slacks, nice shoes, and a collared shit. It doesn't have to be expensive if you know what to look for, and get something that fits your body shape.

If you walk around any city in Europe you would never see an adult in flip flops and cargo shorts today. In Europe, people still like to dress well in public just for their own pride, it's not 3 piece suits today, but usually people dress well. When you see people on a weekend evening going out they will dress to the nines, and I felt like a hill-billy American visiting cities in Europe haha.

Yea, dressing all day in gym clothes annoys me. First of all unless you are a professional athlete or professional trainer, you don't need special gym clothes, I can work out just fine in any old t-shirt. Second, no one wants to see you walking around in your sweaty gym clothes, once your done working out take a shower on put on some regular clean clothes.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Baronvonellis

you can easily look stylish with some slacks, nice shoes, and a collared shit.

you sure can. and if you want to dress like that, absolutely no one is stopping you.

if it's 70+ degress and sunny and i'm running errands around the neighborhood on a saturday afternoon, i sure as fuck will NOT be joining you on the dress slacks and collared shirt train.

my own personal comfort desires FAR exceed my ability to give a shit about other people's judgments of my wardrobe choices.

america, fuck yeah!

[Baronvonellis]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

you sure can. and if you want to dress like that, absolutely no one is stopping you.

if it's 70+ degress and sunny and i'm running errands around the neighborhood on a saturday afternoon, i sure as fuck will NOT be joining you on the dress slacks and collared shirt train.

my own personal comfort desires FAR exceed my ability to give a shit about other people's judgments of my wardrobe choices.

america, fuck yeah!

Yea, your free to wear a blue sundress on a saturday afternoon if that's your things too. Why not just wear a loin cloth when it's hot out