Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Chi-town vs My-town

With my last days in Chicago rapidly approaching here are two lists I have been thinking of. Not things I will and won't miss, but rather things which are prevalent/ absurdly accessible/ in your face in Chicago, and things that are equally so in a non-urban environment, say for example Dayton.

In Chicago it is very easy to find
1) beer (for example 7-11 sells beer 24-7)
2) public transit (the CTA will take you basically everywhere)
3) ethnic food (both scattered around my neighborhood, and also there exist neighborhoods themed for basically every ethnicity)
4) crime (obviously)
5) poverty (Pan handlers outside most grocery stores, except whole foods)
6) adult toy stores (no less than four across the street from my bus stop)

In Dayton it is very easy to find
1) A parking space (everywhere)
2) An inexpensive apartment
3) A safe neighborhood
4) A green landscape

The lists don't match up, but since I have only lived in the first one this is to be expected.


2 comments:

Berselius said...

Where are you working in Dayton? AFIT?

Frank said...

Also, I think ambitious people congregate in cities. Something I noticed in SF is how many people there are that are super-ambitious about something or other. Whereas in Durham, NC people largely seemed to want to enjoy the weather and make a reasonably comfortable living.