10 Most Miserables Cities

Kansas City, Denver, Minneapolis, and Coast to Coast

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10thstgoober
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10 Most Miserables Cities

Post by 10thstgoober »

http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/06/most-m ... peed=29000

Chicago #3  They blame the lousy weather, which I'd like to call interesting weather, as well as there long commutes.  Doesn't Chicago have one of the best transit systems in the country for a city that started "sprawl?"  Even to the suburbs (Metra).  

St Louis #10  I'd rather live in St. Louis than KC and I think most on this board would agree.
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SabrinaFaire
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Post by SabrinaFaire »

First off just so we're clear, Metra is the suburban train line in Chicago, Pace is the suburban bus system, and the CTA is the city train and bus system. And they are all run/owned by RTA (Regional Transportation Authority)

Here's the problem with Metra. It doesn't always go where and when you need it to. If you need to go downtown, great. Super. No problem there. But if you need to go to another suburb? That might be difficult.

For instance I'm from the far north suburbs right along the Illinois/Wisconsin border, a small (but growing) town called Antioch. There's a Metra line that starts there. It goes through some suburbs in Lake County, down to O'Hare (the only Metra line that goes to O'Hare - though the CTA also goes there, I think the Blue Line) and then into the city. Well say you want to work in Naperville. Ha! Good luck. Two hour drive (and that's not during rush hour) and the train does not go there. You'd have to go all the way downtown, get on another Metra line and then go all the way back out. And hope both lines go to Union Station (I have no idea what station the western suburb lines end at). And just to screw it to you a bit more, the line that goes to Antioch is a "Limited Service" line because the tracks are not owned by the RTA, they lease them from either Soo or Union Pacific, which means no weekend service, limited trains during rush hour and frequent problems called "freight interference."

Further, even if Metra does go where/when you need it to, how then do you get to work? Walking is not always an option, you could be 2 to 10 miles away from work to the train station and you may or may not have sidewalks. The Pace bus may or may not run by your work. Or they might not mesh up with your schedule or with the train schedule. A lot of employers have their own shuttle busses or team up with other companies to offer shuttle busses but they're a big expense to the company and not all can afford it.

Another problem is parking. There are many suburban Metra stations that have a parking shortage. In some cases there is a waitlist that is years long. And again, driving might be the only option due to lack of busses and sidewalks in the suburbs.

The CTA is better as far as schedules if you live in the city, but the El tracks are literally a hundred years old, many are falling apart and are in dire need of repair. Plus the RTA is underfunded by the state (as compared to other states funding major cities' mass transit such as California) which means they cut service constantly. Further, I've never had the pleasure of riding the El during rush hour but I've been told it's a sea of interesting humanity.

The roads in the Chicago area are horrible. State income tax is one of the lowest among states that have income tax which means everything is underfunded and the roads are either at the top of that list or very near to it. Seriously if you guys have never driven out there this time of year, you have NO IDEA what a pot hole truly is. Again, the roads don't always go where you need them to go. And they are built for what they thought the volume would be 50 years ago and didn't build until 20 years ago. Everything is constantly under construction and nothing ever gets improved. (Though they are improving I 94 through Lake County to 4 lanes which will handle the traffic volume the road was handling 10 years ago, there is no planning ahead for these things.) Then there's the tollway. You pay extra for more pot holes basically. As for surface streets, imagine if Dodge was only one lane in each direction. How long ago did it need to be expanded? Well in Illinois they'd just be talking about it now. Work wouldn't start for another 15 years. I complain that I can't turn left anywhere in this town but really, roads are in A LOT better condition and are better planned out than in Illinois.

As for the weather, I don't think it's all that bad. Yeah, they've had a TON of snow this winter (and last winter too) and summer can be really HOT, but that's life in Chicago. It's the city of big shoulders and people take pride in being able to handle the weather.

All that said, Chicago is home to me and I love it. Yeah I like Omaha, the roads are better, the job market is better, but for the love of God you people don't know what pizza is. Seriously. All of us need to sit down and have a talk about that. And canceling school with only three inches of snow on the ground? What's up with that?
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Post by DTO Luv »

I was just talking with friends today trying to convince them to fly with my to Chicago instead of driving. I. HATE. DRIVING. IN. CHICAGO. I would abort myself if I had to deal with that everyday.
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Big E
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Post by Big E »

DTO Luv wrote:I would abort myself if I had to deal with that everyday.
You're not prepared to watch the ultrasound.
Stable genius.
10thstgoober
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Post by 10thstgoober »

Yeah there is no point in driving to Chicago, it'll cost just more in the end with parking cost and gas alone.    

Sabrina: Antioch to Naperville is 70 miles on the otherside of the city.....very few people work that far.  I get your point though if you need to travel suburb to suburb, I dunno who would want to put themselves in that situation tho :)
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Post by DTO Luv »

When was school cancelled with that little of snow? They must have thought it was going to be much more or it was beyond cold then. The weather here isn't much different from Chicago I imagine.
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hockeyfan
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Post by hockeyfan »

The vast majority of the people that live in the suburbs of Chicago have cars.  They use mass transit to get from the suburbs to DT for work or entertainment.  The majority of the people that live in DT don't have cars.  They use the mass transit systems for everyday travel.  The Metra was not designed for suburb to suburb travel.  It was intended to assist with the commute from DT to the suburbs.  I lived in the heart of downtown for many years.  I never once owned a vehicle.  I never had a problem with the commute.  When you live there knowing that you don't have a car you learn the schedules of the mass transit system and allow yourself plenty of time.  Even though it may take me 2 El rides and 2 bus transfers to get where I need to go you can always get there.  I have been in many major cities all over the world and on many mass transit systems and I can tell you that Chicago's system is the most "on time" that I have experienced.
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Ingersoll1978
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Post by Ingersoll1978 »

hockeyfan wrote:I have been in many major cities all over the world and on many mass transit systems and I can tell you that Chicago's system is the most "on time" that I have experienced.
Are you kidding?  Have you ever waited in a -25 wind chill for 40 minutes on a raised platform in Chicago?  Or sat at an underground station in the sweltering heat in the summer...waiting forever?  I lived in Chicago for four years without a car (2 years in Lincoln Square and 2 years on Michigan Avenue)...and that transit system (rail) is the WORST system I have ever seen.  It smells (yes...you can watch the urine run on the floor on the Red Line)...has an unpredictable schedule...and in need of major repairs.  It is remotely on time is during rush hour periods.  

I've ridden mass transit systems in Tokyo, Osaka, Paris, London, Manchester, Berlin, Cologne, New York, Minneapolis, and Washington, DC (and probably a few more than I can't remember) and ALL of them had better transit than Chicago.  It's amazing how dependable transit in other cities is, especially in Europe and Asia.  If we modeled our systems after them, I'd bet usage would go up dramatically.
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Ingersoll1978
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Post by Ingersoll1978 »

hockeyfan wrote:I have been in many major cities all over the world and on many mass transit systems and I can tell you that Chicago's system is the most "on time" that I have experienced.
Are you kidding?  :mrgreen:   Have you ever waited in a -25 wind chill for 40 minutes on a raised platform in Chicago?  Or sat at an underground station in the sweltering heat in the summer...waiting forever?  I lived in Chicago for four years without a car (2 years in Lincoln Square and 2 years on Michigan Avenue)...and that transit system (rail) is the WORST system I have ever seen.  It smells (yes...you can watch the urine run on the floor on the Red Line)...has an unpredictable schedule...and in need of major repairs.  It is remotely on time during rush hour periods.  

I've ridden mass transit systems in Tokyo, Osaka, Paris, London, Manchester, Berlin, Cologne, New York, Minneapolis, and Washington, DC (and probably a few more than I can't remember) and ALL of them had better transit than Chicago.  It's amazing how dependable transit in other cities is, especially in Europe and Asia.  If we modeled our systems after them, I'd bet usage would go up dramatically.  Americans simply haven't experienced GREAT mass transit.
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SabrinaFaire
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Post by SabrinaFaire »

DTO Luv wrote:When was school cancelled with that little of snow? They must have thought it was going to be much more or it was beyond cold then. The weather here isn't much different from Chicago I imagine.
It was sometime in December I believe. I don't remember the exact total amount of snow but it was not much. They may have predicted more. Though I remember thinking that even what they were predicting wouldn't shut the schools down in Chicago. You'd need a minimum of 7" of snow and all of that falling after 4AM for them to even consider closing the schools.

Of course maybe Omaha closes schools because the operate exactly one more snow plow than the city of Miami?
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Stargazer
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Post by Stargazer »

This closing of Omaha schools in anticipation of the next days predicted snow storm is a new trend.  They never used to do that.
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Post by almighty_tuna »

Ingersoll1978 wrote:
hockeyfan wrote:Paris, London, Berlin, Cologne, and Washington, DC
\wistful sigh
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