Anyone move from Chicago to DMV and regret it?
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Anonymous
| If you don’t want things fast paced, don’t move to DC. I moved from DC to Chicago area and people are painfully slow. School drop off, buying coffee, dealing with people… everything is really slow and dopey and inefficient. And when I lived in DC (moved from the northeast, I thought THAT was slow. But compared to Chicagoland, people and service in DC are quick. |
Anonymous
That's Midwestern culture. School dropoff, Starbucks, and local restaurants were always social events. When I was growing up in Chicago, my parents would go to this family-friendly restaurant to talk to the neighbors while I would play video games in the attached arcade with the other kids. "Time to pack up and say goodbye" meant that was a 30-minute warning while my parents "said their goodbyes." My stepmother in Caribou Coffee would be a multi-hour event, despite "I'll be gone for 20 minutes to get a latte." I personally liked it. And I got my first job in high school because of people just talking to me. Look up Charlie Berens's "Midwestern Goodbye" on Youtube and then extrapolate that to every time you leave the house, and that's social life in the Chicago suburbs. (Charlie Berens is from Wisconsin, so just insert "da Bears" whenever he says "de Packers" and you won't be too far off from my parents' life in the 1990s) |
Anonymous
| DC is way too expensive for what it is; I’m planning on moving back to Chicago or somewhere in the triangle within the next 2~3 years or so. |
Anonymous
+1. Chicagoland really is a whole other level of normalcy. You don't realize just how toxic and unnecessarily rude people are out east until you spend some time in the Midwest. And Chicago really does offer the best of both worlds in that it's Midwestern and friendly, but also a huge, cultured, historic city. |
Anonymous
I moved from DC/NOVA to Chicagoland and am shocked at how uneducated and vacant people are. I'm not a snob and I thought it would be nice to get away from some of the NOVA snottiness, but man sometimes I miss people not being dimwitted and clueless. |
Anonymous
I don't find this to be true in the slightest. |
Anonymous
Same. I went to Northwestern (years ago); the biggest difference was that people were much less concerned with international (and even national) politics, but that’s about it. The DC area is absurdly highly-educated, so Chicagoland doesn’t have the same concentration of PhD/intellectual types, but there are just so many different people there. If you can handle the cold, you can find your people there. I miss it so much and would move back in a heartbeat, but we’re pretty settled here. |
Anonymous
Maybe I'm in the wrong area. I'm in the Western suburbs near Hinsdale. Perhaps Evanston is better. |
Anonymous
Chicago is the third largest metro area in the country. Making sweeping generalizations about a region of 10 million people doesn't come off as terribly educated. One might even say vacant. |
Anonymous
Dimwitted and clueless, perhaps? Lol. |
Anonymous
| I grew up in Chicago and have lived here 20 years. There are certainly things I miss, but I wouldn't move back. Weather is part of it, sure, but I feel like people greatly overlook the other negatives. First and foremost-- racism. The segregated history of the city runs deep and it's just not the environment I want to be in. |
Anonymous
Yes, it’s the area you’re in. I grew up in the Western suburbs and agree with you. Go to Oak Park or Evanston or the northern neighborhoods of the city (Lakeview, Lincoln Square, Lincoln Park). |
Anonymous
I met my spouse here. Driving down into southern Virginia to meet the in-laws, I saw more confederate flags than I could count. I was visibly shaken and a bit frightened. |
Anonymous
|
I'm from Chicago. I have to live in DC because I love DH.
But I h a t e DMV area every single second of every day. I am resigned to being here and travel when we can - we have kids so it's based on school calendar. I take us on exquisite holidays because I hate DC so much. We live in Arlington. Think I hate it more than DC. But not as much as Fairfax. Lol I think MD has nicer folks but I could never live there - such a conservative state but VA is soul less. But the money, convenience and jobs are in VA. Chicago is special though. I think if I were from anywhere other than the CA/NY and Chicago, Arlington would be fine. NOVA as a whole is just very bubble esque - Arlington has a lot of money, it's very suburban and tries to be cool but DMV lacks true taste. It's a political city and intellectual so they can't do art, business and finance the way they do in NY, LA, Chicago. They try and culturally their talent is law and foreign policy globalism which is very different than people who live real life. It's like a blanket of heaviness here. I would say Arlingtin is the best you're gonna get compromising on culture, location, opportunity and convenience however. People here are not as nice as MW for sure. Everything is either hella $$ or dirt cheap it's hard to find the food in Chicago where there's true diversity. This is not a city like Chicago is there's no landscape nor culture supporting that feel. There are parts of DC that are somewhat cooler - small pockets of neighborhoods but the key word is pockets. But if you have kids like us, Arlington prob more conducive overall. I'd still take Chicago over anything here but there are worst places to be. You just need to be prepared and manage your expectations. |
Anonymous
| Chicago is extremely segregated, so the DMV definitely has the diversity edge. I hated the weather growing up there and I find the DMV’s weather an improvement. I hated the hyper focus on sports and drinking in Chicago, though alcoholism and drug use abound in DC too. I don’t miss the madigan, Blago, vyrdolyak corruption of days current and past but at least northern Virginia is pretty together, DC and MC not so much. |