Subscribe: 
Or Denver, San Diego, Seattle, Tampa, San Francisco, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, Boston, Miami, Atlanta, DC – over Chicago. But hey, we’re tied with New York, Philadelphia and Dallas.
A higher percentage of Americans ranked 14 cities ahead of Chicago as a place they’d like to live, according to a recent report (pdf file) from the Pew Research Center. Only 23% of those surveyed wanted to live in any city.
And then there’s this: “A 57% majority of urbanites under the age of 30 say the city is the perfect place for them, while majorities of every other age group that lives in the city would ideally prefer to live somewhere else.”
Majorities. The much-touted “back to the city” movement better heat up right soon now, or we’ll all be singing:
How ya gonna keep ‘em down in Paree
After they’ve seen the farm?
Related posts:
{ 13 comments }
Tampa? Phoenix? Atlanta? Orlando? These are barely even cities — more like all of the downsides of the suburbs with none of the upsides of the city. Who are these people? I’d never trade Chicago for a suburban wasteland with no seasons.
These days I’d rather be living in Key West or Grand Cayman..
Obviously, weather ranked high. They should take this poll in Chicago the summer.
Orlando…geez. I guess there is a lot of strip-mall fans out there.
And Tampa?!?!?!
I don’ think this poll necessarily calls the “back to the city” movement into question. Although only 23% of respondents would want to live in ANY city, that number is probably a lot higher than in the 1970’s and 80’s. It is impossible to say what it means about the attractiveness of cities without historical data to compare it to.
Attrill,
I didn’t suggest that the poll raised any questions about “back to the city” – only suggested we need it to heat up given all the folks who want out.
I can see us being tied with or even trailing NYC (there are more people on the eastern seaboard so they might prefer it).
However the fact that we’re tied with Philadelphia is laughable. Philadelphia is a pit. It doesn’t have nice neighborhoods within its boundaries like Chicago does. Also the nightlife is terrible.
I suspect Pew’s reports are about as accurate as whomever is paying for the survey wants them to be. In consulting and research your first step is to find out the answer the client wants to hear and work backwards from there.
Did you have a bad experience in Philly, Bob? It doesn’t have nice neighborhoods within its boundaries? I think any city you visit will have nice and not-so-nice areas. Full disclosure: I went to school in Chicago in the late ’80s/early ’90s. I love Chicago. I have a great time when I visit once a year (and that’s in December so I’m certainly not visiting for the weather). In subsequent years employment opportunities took me to the east coast and I finally bought a house in Philly two years ago. In terms of new development during the residential boom of the last 10 years, Chicago has definitely exceeded Philly in terms of units and types of projects (townhomes, highrise & lowrise condos, etc.) built. It has been amazing seeing the number of cranes in the sky – particularly in the South Loop – during my visits. The speed at which these old railyards
and other tracts of land have been built on is impressive. The good news is this brings many new residents to these neighborhoods. The bad news is the contemporary architecture that is constructed leaves, more so than not, something to be desired.
Daveydoo,
You need to get to know Bob better. When you do you’ll learn that he says things that he thinks make him sound knowledgeable, and that he has very little knowledge.
If you were to ask him to tell you about Society Hill, Rittenhouse Square and the other Philly neighborhoods where people pay millions of dollars to live he’d go silent on you or make up something else.
You can get a fix on how he approaches things by looking at his know-nothing comment about Pew and this report. It wasn’t bought and paid-for reseearch, and Pew is one of the most respected organizations in the country.
Yeah I’ve been to Rittenhouse Square and the place was nothing special. If anyone paid millions of dollars to live there it just shows there are a lot of people out there with more money than they know what to do with. Philly might as well be West Cherry Hill, NJ.
I have some extended family in the Philly burbs and you couldn’t pay me enough to live there. Its a dump all around.
I’d put Rittenhouse Square as one of my top ten American urban experiences. I’d give Chicago two: sitting in Millenium Park facing the Michigan Ave. streetwall (preferably at night and not in December like I did – Brrr!) and a nightime stroll along the Chicago River / West Wacker. These three experiences allow people to see the buildings of the city from different distances, with Rittenhouse being in the most intimate proximity and the others at slightly greater distances. Some other experiences would be the Brooklyn Promenade (yet a farther distance to the Manhattan Skyline) and the Hudson River walk (a greater distance still).
daveydoo,
Funny you mention it … the river view at night of the lit-up Wrigley building and the gorgeous old buildings along Wacker Dr, seen from the small park that then stood beween the old Sun-Times and Wrigley buildings, is one of the things that tipped my decision for Chicago over New York.
I spent an hour there, after midnight, recalling Nick’s line from Gatsby “The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.”
Bob,
Rittenhouse Square is special to me because my kid brother was once arrested there for shooting squirrels with a .38, at 6 in the morning, dead drunk. I don’t think he hit any, but it was the effort that mattered.
Unfortunately Joe, the police in Philly are still kept pretty busy even without having to worry about your brother.
One more thing about Chicago: hands down the most amazing nightime view from an airplane. The flatness of the city and the grid of lights that seem to extend to infinity is spectacular.
LA’s got some pretty great night-time views from up on Mulholland Drive or at the Getty or Dodger Stadium.
San Francisco from the circular bar atop the Hyatt Embarcadero.
And then there’s the view from the tram from Roosevelt Island in NY! Or better yet the old NY Airways helicopter service from Newark to LaGuardia or JFK.
I like the bar at the Hancock for night-time views of Chicago.
Best urban vista in the US? Go up to Telegraph Hill / Coit Tower in the very early AM and hope you catch the sun burning away the fog and revealing the Golden Gate bridge and the city.
Comments on this entry are closed.