26 Facts That Make Chicago The Most Depressing Big City In America

[FarCenter]

Author Rachel Shteir recently caused an uproar in Chicago after ripping into her adopted city.

Writing in The New York Times Sunday Book Review, Shteir accused Chicago of being stiflingly conformist, regularly electing crooks and idiots and generally clinging to outmoded cliches about itself.

"[T]he city is trapped by its location, its past, and what philosophers would have called its facticity — its limitations, given the circumstances," she wrote. "Boosterism has been perfected here because the reality is too painful to look at. Poor Chicago, indeed."

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/chicago-is-the-worst-american-city-2013-6

[MichiganVote]

1. Oh please...like Detroit is uplifting?

[FarCenter]

3. Chicago must have won by the thinnest of margins.

[Bennyboy]

2. I found it to be the rudest city

i've ever been to. Cars running red lights by ten seconds. every car. Had a waiter chase me out of a pizza place for the guy i was with not tipping well (he didn't, but i did, and the waiter hassled me because the guy left out the bathroom). A guy muscling up tot he front counter at a Wallgreens, a busy as hell walgreens, saying "I Need this stuff now" (some cold medicine) and nobody did nothing. everyone was rude.

[Skeeter Barnes]

4. I used to drive a truck for a living.

I ran just about every state in the lower 48. Chicago was hands down the most hateful place I ever went.

[nobodyspecial]

6. It's interesting how it's all in how you look at things.

I'm sure you've read all of the threads about tipping on DU and how not tipping really screws working class people. The fact that your friend left out of the bathroom shows that he was being a deadbeat and I hardly think your tip covered even a fraction of what that waiter was due.

You know what a stand-up person does? They tip the waiter appropriately and adequately and then take it up with their friend later. But, not you. You call the city rude because someone called you and your friend out on your squirrelly actions.

Your post says more about you and the company you keep than Chicago.

[Bennyboy]

7. Well, let me correct you here.

Not a friend. A guy I met ten minutes before on the train. We went to the pizza place together, he ordered a huge meal and I some wings. My bill with beer was 15 dollars and I tipped three dollars and the change (I remember taking a one)and the bills were separate from the other guy's (see how did not call him a friend?). His bill was over 30 dollars and he left a buck. then booked it for the restroom where he left from. I was still at the bar eating while he left.

In fact seeing his tip, I decided to lose him and go off on my own and that is why i kept delaying my exit. I'm not responsible for other people's tips however. I wouldn't do that when My dad would put down three bucks on a hundred dollar tab and I sure as hell won't do it with a perfect stranger.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

9. Did you take enough time to find that the police are polite and friendly?

[backscatter712]

11. With Chicago cops, tips are accepted and appreciated. n/t

[AnotherMcIntosh]

14. Q - Do you know what they call an honest judge in Chicago?

A - A tourist.

[Egalitarian Thug]

17. LOL! Would that be the slob that's so fat he literally took two seats (one for each cheek) at our

local bar as he scarfed down dollar burgers and beer for two hours during his shift, or the one that openly extorts local business owners for his weekly payoff to prevent him and his partner from smashing customer's windshields and that $6,000 window in the front of their business? Or maybe you're referencing his boss that provides the muscle for the Alderman as he makes his weekly collection rounds?

Or maybe you were thinking of Chicago's finest welcoming Martin Luther King with such adoration that he said, "I have never in my life seen such hate, not in Mississippi or Alabama."?

I once thought of Chicago as a very nice place when I was going there to do a job for a few weeks every couple of years. Moving there revealed the real Chicago to me and my partners.

[mucifer]

5. Sad that you guys all feel that way about my city. I lived in San Francisco

for 6 years and missed Chicago and had to come back. I like it here.

BTW business insider is a right wing rag.

and Yes I did not vote for Rahm. I voted for Patricia Van Pelt Watkins. I'm glad I did.
Rham is doing a lot of damage here IMO.

But, I still love Chicago and yes we do have our faults.

[KharmaTrain]

8. It's The New "in" Thing...

...that those on the far right and left can join in on "Chicago bashing". I don't waste my time with those who know little about this city and have their own agendas. Internet carpetbagging...

Like others, I have my gripes with Rahm but not all that's happening here is his fault or making...he's picking up the mess of decades of neglect under Daley. The new meme is that since Obama/Rahm suck...so does Chicago. Yet another reason my time at DU is less and less these days...

Cheers...

[Cali_Democrat]

10. Chicago is a great city

Notice all the anti-Chicago screed comes out after Obama becomes prez?

So lame.

[downbythelake]

12. being from Chicago

this is going to make me sad to say but it is the truth

Chicago is a great place to live if you are 1) white and/or 2) have a great income

The most segregated city in the country Our city leadership has let it go on for too long (decades upon decades)

[madville]

13. The same is true for most places

Being well off and white makes most places better.

[downbythelake]

16. true...

Sad... very sad... but still true

I still think it rings especially true here in Chicago. We have Mexican Chicago, Black Chicago, and White Chicago. None of them work together and whites control the money.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

15. "Chicago is a great place to live if ..." Maybe not. After a while, even Hugh Heffner didn't want to