Chicago Memories, part VII: What I won't miss

To read all my Chicago Memories posts, you might wonder why I might ever want to leave somewhere so fantastic. Well, while there have been many great times and memories--and the good have most definitely outweighed the bad--there are a number of things that just drive me nuts about this place, and that I'll be more than happy to put in my rear view mirror.


Driving! - To be more specific...

- Traffic
- Accidents (two in as many weeks in January was a real hoot)
- Blind turns due to cars blocking your view of the cars barrelling down on where you hope to turn.
- Ridiculous rip-off repair shops
- Parking (Ah yes, I got a final going away present from the City of Chicago just last night, in fact. The meter was paid until 8:58. I returned to my car at 9:14. They'd nailed me at 9:12. Loves it.)
- Traffic Management Authority (those wonderful folks who are stationed out at some of the major intersections to "direct" traffic. Never have I seen so many get paid to do the exact *opposite* of what they actually achieve!)
- The Dan Ryan Not-so-express-way
- Buses (taking them and waiting for them is nearly as bad as trying to share the road with them)
- City Stickers (nothing like a little organized, legal extortion to make it even more expensive to own a car here)
- Taxis (don't even get me started)
- Gas prices (some of the highest in the nation, due to ethanol requirements and state and local taxes)
I swear, there was not a day that I drove into work over the past month that I didn't have at least one or two small outbursts of road-rage at the inconsideration, the stupidity, or just the general absurdness of the driving conditions here.

The smell - Chicago can take on a nasty smell of rotting garbage, particularly in the heat of summer. Add to that the fresh urine smell at certain El stops and parking structures and its enough make you want to scrape your nose off your face. And then there's the chocolate factory, which depending on the wind and what they're making that day, can cover just about any part of downtown with either a wonderful sweet chocolaty aroma, or a foul concoction that smells more like waterlogged dogfood, but still carries the faintest cousin of a chocolate smell, enough to nearly turn even the most devout chocoholic off the good stuff.

Crowds - Just having so many people around all the time.

Noise - There's just always some white noise or another going off in the background. True, peaceful silence is extremely rare in the city.

The Weather - again, a few sub-comments:
40-degree temperature swings in under 12 hours (It was in the 70's this morning. I left this evening and it was about 40. )
Windchills (They say that despite the nickname, Chicago isn't any windier than many other northern cities. I don't know about that. I've lived in the midwest my entire life and the bitter cold windchills in the winter here seem far worse than others.)
Black/grey/brown snow (As a general rule, I don't mind snow. In fact, give me a day that's 30 degrees and snowy over clear, dry with a -10 windchill ANY time. But the pleasantry of a white snowfall is a fleeting experience here. Anything that sticks for a day or more turns nasty shades of various pollution.)
Summer humidity (Ridiculously muggy in the summer time. Where do some of those nice winds go then?)

I know the weather here isn't that much worse than it is back in Michigan, but I've said for a while now that when I moved here, I managed to find the one place on earth that is both hotter in the summer AND colder in the winter than Michigan.

Crime - I've been pretty fortunate, in that the worst I've run up against personally is a crazy guy that ripped my side mirror of my car in the middle of an afternoon. But you have to be constantly mindful, depending on the situation.

Well, that's about it. Not too bad, really, and not any worse than any major northern city would be. But enough to grind on my nerves over five years. If those things are a manageable sacrifice in the light of all the great benefits of living here, you can live a very happy life here for a long time. You just have to be willing to accept those as a part of life.

As bluesman Eddie Boyd once sang, "Don't expect nothing different, Chicago is just that way".