Opinion of the Cabrini-Green Housing Projects?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Would still rather live there than a suburb

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

If I lived there I could still easily go to cool places in Chicago. Not like I'd be stuck there all day constantly.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Having to sleep in such a place can be tolerable as long as you can still get to the cool parts of Chicago (and if it's that close to the Greyhound station, where I've been, it's VERY cool), you could just spend all day away from home. In a suburb you can't be in the cool parts of Chicago all the time.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Uh I already live in a fairly high crime area.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

You're not being cute, BRTD. Cut it out. This is akin to arguing that you'd cheerfully sign up for fighting in the trenches on the Western Front for the chance to see the beautiful French countryside.

My attitude on this needs to be understood in context. I grew up in North Dakota and wanted to get out and move to a big city...but many people around were talking about how horrifying that is because all big cities are universally terrible places and you'd never survive and if you want to move to a bigger metro at least go to a suburb. So I vowed to never live in a suburb.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

You're not being cute, BRTD. Cut it out. This is akin to arguing that you'd cheerfully sign up for fighting in the trenches on the Western Front for the chance to see the beautiful French countryside.

My attitude on this needs to be understood in context. I grew up in North Dakota and wanted to get out and move to a big city...but many people around were talking about how horrifying that is because all big cities are universally terrible places and you'd never survive and if you want to move to a bigger metro at least go to a suburb. So I vowed to never live in a suburb.

Because it's wise to go the rest of your life guided by an "F#ck you, Dad!" mentality developed during your adolescence. After all, if there's one thing we know, it's that you never need to mature beyond your freshman year of high school.

Uh, seeing as you actually live in the city most associated with "OMG URBAN AREAS ARE ALL TERRIBLE!" and don't seem to mind I thought you'd be more around my opinion here.

Having to sleep in such a place can be tolerable as long as you can still get to the cool parts of Chicago (and if it's that close to the Greyhound station, where I've been, it's VERY cool), you could just spend all day away from home. In a suburb you can't be in the cool parts of Chicago all the time.

Chicago has real cool L and subway and train lines. You might try them sometime.

Not likely. The Greyhound and Megabus stops are already right in the heart of the city, so the only reason I'd have to use them is if I was traveling TO the suburbs...so I'd have no reason to ever use them.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

My main thing has always been this, I hate driving to shows because: 1-parking is usually scarce and hard to find and 2-I can't drink as much as I want without worrying about a DUI. So let's pick some typical suburb of DuPage County like, oh say Elmhurst. So per Google Maps I could take a transit line there to Uptown but...it'd take 1 hour and 21 minutes. One way. So I have to plan an extra 2 1/2 hours out of my day every time I want to go to a show. And how much would that fare be anyway? Yeah not a viable option. And yes I do go to shows often enough for this to be a serious concern.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

See that would just make me really jealous. "OMG why does my friend get to live here and so close to the shows and all this cool stuff and I live in this boring as s[inks] suburb?" To be fair I did commute two hours one way to shows in Minneapolis all the time when I was in college but: 1-I had a reason and 2-I still got to see some shows in Mankato at least, it wasn't like I had to do that EVERY SINGLE TIME I wanted to go to one.

That's actually part of why I like places like Madison and Des Moines, because you still get things like shows, but they're always going to be easily accessible no matter where you live. The problem is you won't get AS MANY as Minneapolis or Chicago. If you posed a question like "Would you rather live in Des Moines or Cabrini-Green?" I'd actually have a tough time deciding.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

It's funny Snowguy brings up Riverside, because it'd be a GREAT place to live if you like going to shows.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Red I spent about 6 months living in Lake County and we could ride the Metra to Chicago in an hour.  The "suburbs" in Cook County where you could ride the Metra for $2 into downtown in 15 mins are no where close to what I think your idea of a suburb is.  I had a friend whose house was in Tinley Park and we would often spend the weekends there, and his area was absolutely indistinguishable from the outskirts of a city proper.  Are you saying you would rather live in a hellhole project where you have a decent chance of getting robbed and assaulted daily than this place? 

Could you briefly define for me what you consider to be a "suburb"?  Is it simply ANY area outside the official city lines?  I've always lived in the suburbs and while they largely suck they are not all created equal. 

EDIT: Hell man, I grew up visiting my dad in Conshohocken, PA every other weekend and it's barely any different than Northeast and South Philly, despite the moniker of "Philly burbs".  It even votes about 65-70% Democratic.  There are a couple of housing developments but it's not like you have to go there and they are quite out of the way. 

Here's an aerial view of downtown



What's so awful? 

Being "only" an hour away means you're two hours in a round trip, and you can't walk right into downtown, which I really like doing (and do frequently when it's warm out.)

The only time I'd ever live in a "suburb" is if it was right next to the city's downtown and completly indistinguishable from any surrounding area, which hardly ever happens. For this to occur it'd have to either be located right across the river from somewhere, which usually means places like Camden and East St. Louis, or have some strange municipal boundaries. One example of the latter is Carter Lake, Iowa, which I'd probably rather live in if I lived in metro Omaha because it means I could live in Iowa instead of Nebraska, aka a half decent state. Also I'd rather live in Moorhead, MN than Fargo so I could still live in Minnesota, but Moorhead isn't really a suburb, in fact it shares the exact same downtown as Fargo with just the river seperating them, if it wasn't for the signs you'd have no clue it's a different city and state.

BRTD would you not live in Cambridge/Somerville if you lived the Boston area?

No, from what I know about Boston I'd probably live in Jamaica Plain.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The problem is the type of shows I go to almost NEVER happen in suburbs. Remember that thread I made about how I was at a show in a suburb? That's the first time I EVER went to one in a Twin Cities suburb and even that was a fluke of sorts (municipal all ages venue that usually only shows dorky high school pop punk shows but ended up being the only affordable venue for a show of that size). So yes going to them from any suburb would still be a pain.

(I'll admit, Dude Fest was once held in a suburb one year and in fact more of an exurb of Brownsburg....I think it might've been 2006? But that was apparentely due to getting a very cheap deal on the venue that couldn't be turned down, and is the only time shows in the Indianapolis area EVER happen outside of Indianapolis proper. I heard locals joke about that and how weird it was. Also since Dude Fest is a giant fest that has a majority of its attendees from out of the area holding it a suburb/exurb it wasn't a huge inconvenience for most anyway, I'm sure the locals were a bit annoyed though.)

There's also a big advantage to centrality that is often overlooked: It means you can change jobs fairly easily and don't need to worry about an insane commute most likely. I could live in Eagan and have a fairly easy commute yes, but if I did and then I got a new job in say Brooklyn Park or even Roseville, I'd have a pretty annoying commute. But not a problem where I am. And of course a job in downtown Minneapolis which I'm sure will happen at some point would be super-convenient while being a suburban commuter would be full of all sorts of hassles aside from distance travelled as well.