Love the brutality of your take on Chicago with the soy beans and weather.

I like Chicago, but it has numerous downsides like you mentioned. Also the 90s were cool.

That’s a pretty good selling point right there. And it is a very solid skyline. Punches well above its weight.

How’s the economy? I was laid off in December. Took a month off and then found two jobs within a couple weeks.

Nothing fancy. Just food service manager type jobs but fine for the reasonable CoL for Chicago as far as small condos go (houses in good urban neighborhoods and having kids That’s another affordability story for Chi though)

I lived in Sacramento for a bit as a university student and finding ANY job was a nightmare for me, to be fair I didn’t really hit it off with any of the interviewers there - not sure if I was worse at interviews then or if there was a regional bias or something else.

Point being is even very basic jobs were hard to get.

OP here and I’m not really sure what you’re trying to say ….

It seems some neighborhoods in different metros want to be independent municipalities so they can control their crime and public services more?

Man that train comes twice a day. And if I’m going to rent a car I’d rather just leave Chicago. The parks sorta cool but pales compared to the Dunes in Michigan.

Prairie preserved huh that’s different? St Louis has some nice hills in the metro. But I’m a fan of urban hills.

I’ve considered Cinci as well but it just seems sleepier and less dense than Pittsburgh. And i feel I’d rather be around an eastern USA derived culture than lower Midwest.

I like Milwaukee’s parks decently and there’s some hills there. Not enough but a lot more.

Yeah I figure I’d get a car but avoid using it for a fair chunk of the year.

Shame about the skies although I’d imagine the views would mostly make up for it?