I'm back b-----s! [Chicago+Detroit+Ann Arbor+Windsor+Madison]

[trailerkid]

After a somewhat long intermission, I'm back from a rail trip which took me through Chicago up to Detroit and then into Madison. I took a combo of Amtrak and buses to get to the destinations and it was a lot of fun...

Detroit
You will find some of the best greazy, homestyle cooking in Detroit that you will find anywhere. Every corner seems to have a local "Coney Island" which is the genre of restaurants which serves up items such as chilli, burgers, onion rings, cheese fries as well as quite a few Greek items. The places that I ate it in Detroit serving homestyle food put any similar place in our neck of the woods to shame. You will find a ton of monster eats in Detroit.

Going to Detroit I got the impression that there was nothing going on in the city. Being an ardent city booster I didn't believe it. But upon driving around a ton of inner city Detroit as we got lost through some detours, I realized that sadly my friend and her friends were right. Detroit seemed like a giant hole. Everyone seemed to live in the suburbs and stay in the suburbs. And you thought the JoCo/Lee's Summit/East Jack obsession was bad? I didn't see even one cool stretch of businesses or whatever. It made Midtown KC look like Portland.

Downtown Detroit looked even worse. If you've ever seen any file footage of places like Gary or Flint that's the only way I'd compare the heart of downtown. Boarded up buildings everywhere. They have 3 casinos in the heart of downtown and they act as completely self-contained "design abortions." People go park in their ramps, but there is absolutely no spin-off development. There is also the new Tigers stadium as well as the Tigers and they both act as islands in a sea of abyss. I think I saw one person walking around at night. That's it...

The Detroit and StL comparisons are laughable. StL has done 100X more redevelopment downtown than Detroit. I just get the picture that the racism and anti-city sentiment is a lot more strong than around here. I hope Detroit is able to rebound with some grassroots development downtown instead of pie in the sky projects like stadiums and casinos.

Windsor
Late teen party spot because of the 18 year old drinking age. They have a nice and trashy long strip of clubs and bars filled with horny teens. Tons of people riding bikes and such around town and there is definitely something different in the air in this city north of the border. Nothing much else to say about Windsor. Kinda funny.

Ann Arbor

Probably the best college campus I've ever seen. The layout is beautifully mixed in with rows and rows of surrounding storefronts. You can walk all over town easily. I'd probably crap my pants if I got to school there. I could go on and on about bus, walking, streetscape, yada, yada, yada...

I did get a kinda poseurific, suburban vibe from Ann Arbor. It's an expensive place to live and it's easy to tell. Lots of rich boys with short shorts and ironic tees. Just driving through I already saw a Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. And what amazes me about Ann Arbor is how completely different it is from Detroit or the rest of Michigan for that matter.

Chicago

Through my traveling I got quite a few nice layovers in Chi so I could do some exploring on foot. Downtown Chicago is definitely very alive. I walked and walked through the downtown area and noticed all the new condos and apartments under development. I never really went west of Union Station, but I walked down to State Street and Michigan Avenue. I also walked to the Near South Side.

State Street reminds me a lot of what all downtown used to look like. Nice big storefronts with huge signs for each retailer. I really enjoyed it more than Michigan Avenue as it has a more diverse group of retailers and shoppers. Lots of value conscious stores like H+M, Rainbow, Old Navy mixed in with Marshall Field's. Field's is a freaking awesome store down there. Great mix of products and designers with good ways of displaying the merch. Definitely worth the trip...

I didn't really find anything about Chicago overwhelming. I got turned around a few times and a little lost as I was just wandering around with no direction. But something about Downtown Chicago just seemed big and boring. I was looking for a deli to eat at after 5:00 and I walked blocks and blocks and didn't see much that was open. Tons and tons of chain restaurants and Starbucks, but I didn't see much local character in the stretch of downtown that I was walking in.

Chicago still seemed to have a very strong 9-5 presence. It isn't New York...yet. You notice a ton of foot traffic and bustle at the busy times, but then it just kinda turns into big buildings with not a lot going on in most parts of downtown. I like Chicago, but I don't love it. Downtown just seems a little too touristy and a little too boring.

Madison

My favorite stop by far. Madison is a town that can turn a suburbanite to an urbanite. In the central part of the city the parking is so difficult that many people and students don't even have cars including my friend. She can walk 2 blocks to a true urban grocery store or another 1 block to a local coop. She is not an urban person, but Madison does that. Walking/biking seems a part of the lifestyle. Having a small(er) apartment or space also is. Tons and tons of bikers complete with nice biking lanes going through many streets. I don't even know how to describe it, but something about the lifestyle one has living in the central city is very urban. Many of the housing units are 3+ stories and very close together. Almost all of the housing held many people. There just was a middling level of density which I've never seen before. It wasn't super dense, but it wasn't like Lawrence. It seemed just the right amount for a conducive amount of truly urban activity.

The campus/downtown/capitol area act as one central unit that is interconnected. At night downtown probably had Westport+  style crowds...people everywhere. And most of them were walking through the campus area from their housing to get downtown. It was unreal...I also noticed on a Saturday afternoon, the crowds on State Street looked like what you'd see at Oak Park Mall. There were so many people on the sidewalks it was shoulder to shoulder.

Yeah...

[KC0KEK]

Madison was featured in an HGTV program yesterday about what you get for $____ in several cities. It looks like a great place, particularly the downtown. Got any photos?

[ComandanteCero]

wow, that's quite a tour tk!  Man i really need to get out to Madison, everyone who's been there keeps telling me it's awesome (one friend described it as Lawrence on steroids, in a good way).

I think walking around the Loop in Chicago is much like walking around lower Manhattan (i.e near Wallstreet) it's a primarily business/finance/government oriented area.  Too bad you didn't get a chance to explore Chicago more, i agree that the Loop and the Mag Mile tend to be the big, and somewhat anonymous areas if you're just looking for streetlevel activity and retail.  If you want to find a more eclectic vibe, you could try Rush street approaching where it merges with State (north of the river).  Any weekendish night it's packed with people bar hopping, eating outside in sidewalk cafes, or clubbing (kind of what Westport should be).  For me the coolest thing about walking around the Loop and Michigan Mile is that there is so much architecture and urbanscapes that are absolutely amazing!!  When i was in chicago this summer that's all i went to the Loop for, walking, looking up, and popping into open lobbies.  Next time, if you get a chance get one of those AIA guides to architecture in Chicago, it definitely opens your eyes to what's above and behind the streetlevel facades.  Most of the street activity consisted of business people, workers, and tourists when i went on my self guided architecture walking tours of the Loop, so that aspect wasn't terribly interesting.

i'd also recommend you try to take the L around the loop and into a northside neighborhood like Wicker Park (which has a pretty great collection of random stores along the main streets that go through it such as Milwaukee, Division, North, and Damen).  That might be the kind of place that would be up your alley (as an example i was looking for a deli while walking around on Division and decided to pop into this place called the Europa Deli.  As i walk in i realize 90 percent of the clientele consists of middle aged to elderly eastern european women, while the deli worker was talking to some younger lady in a foreign language (my first impression was that they were Polish, but thinking about it, Division is the northern bounday of Ukrainian Village, so it's possible they were Ukranian).  Crazy stuff.  I couldn't find a sandwich there, so i popped into a pizza place a couple of doors down which had a group of 4 young workers speaking in Italian on the front doorstep.  The girl who served me was Ukranian, this i knew because one of the workers said something to that effect). 

Actually, just riding one of the elevated L lines through its entire run is an experience in itself and you get to see a quick if somewhat mind boggling crosssection of the city and it's neighborhoods (the Brown line makes for a scenic trip, taking you around the Loop, across the river into River North past the Cabrini Green demolition/renovation and into various north/northwest side neighborhoods).  If you take it from the loop and ride it all the way to the end and back to your starting point it won't take more than an hour and a half.  Next time i'm going to find which other lines are partly/entirely elevated and try to ride them for their entire length.

[trailerkid]

wow, that's quite a tour tk!  Man i really need to get out to Madison, everyone who's been there keeps telling me it's awesome (one friend described it as Lawrence on steroids, in a good way).

I think walking around the Loop in Chicago is much like walking around lower Manhattan (i.e near Wallstreet) it's a primarily business/finance/government oriented area.  Too bad you didn't get a chance to explore Chicago more, i agree that the Loop and the Mag Mile tend to be the big, and somewhat anonymous areas if you're just looking for streetlevel activity and retail.  If you want to find a more eclectic vibe, you could try Rush street approaching where it merges with State (north of the river).  Any weekendish night it's packed with people bar hopping, eating outside in sidewalk cafes, or clubbing (kind of what Westport should be).  For me the coolest thing about walking around the Loop and Michigan Mile is that there is so much architecture and urbanscapes that are absolutely amazing!!  When i was in chicago this summer that's all i went to the Loop for, walking, looking up, and popping into open lobbies.  Next time, if you get a chance get one of those AIA guides to architecture in Chicago, it definitely opens your eyes to what's above and behind the streetlevel facades.  Most of the street activity consisted of business people, workers, and tourists when i went on my self guided architecture walking tours of the Loop, so that aspect wasn't terribly interesting.

i'd also recommend you try to take the L around the loop and into a northside neighborhood like Wicker Park (which has a pretty great collection of random stores along the main streets that go through it such as Milwaukee, Division, North, and Damen).  That might be the kind of place that would be up your alley (as an example i was looking for a deli while walking around on Division and decided to pop into this place called the Europa Deli.  As i walk in i realize 90 percent of the clientele consists of middle aged to elderly eastern european women, while the deli worker was talking to some younger lady in a foreign language (my first impression was that they were Polish, but thinking about it, Division is the northern bounday of Ukrainian Village, so it's possible they were Ukranian).  Crazy stuff.  I couldn't find a sandwich there, so i popped into a pizza place a couple of doors down which had a group of 4 young workers speaking in Italian on the front doorstep.  The girl who served me was Ukranian, this i knew because one of the workers said something to that effect). 

Actually, just riding one of the elevated L lines through its entire run is an experience in itself and you get to see a quick if somewhat mind boggling crosssection of the city and it's neighborhoods (the Brown line makes for a scenic trip, taking you around the Loop, across the river into River North past the Cabrini Green demolition/renovation and into various north/northwest side neighborhoods).  If you take it from the loop and ride it all the way to the end and back to your starting point it won't take more than an hour and a half.  Next time i'm going to find which other lines are partly/entirely elevated and try to ride them for their entire length.

I've explored different 'hoods in Chicago on the north side before, but never really got a good feel for the loop area. I think I do now and it's nothing to write home about except for maybe some of the shopping on Michigan Ave and Field's and of course skyscraper architecture. I'm being unfair because I'm holding Chicago in the same boat as NYC. Chicago feels a lot more like a beautiful, urban, striking example of what would've happened if StL, Cleveland and Detroit had burgeoning and booming downtown areas after the turn of the 20th Century and on. It just doesn't feel like a world city-- not a bad thing. It feels like a grand, old Midwestern city rather than a "center of the universe" complex city like NYC, LA, London, Paris.

[nota]

I've explored different 'hoods in Chicago on the north side before, but never really got a good feel for the loop area. I think I do now and it's nothing to write home about except for maybe some of the shopping on Michigan Ave and Field's and of course skyscraper architecture. I'm being unfair because I'm holding Chicago in the same boat as NYC. Chicago feels a lot more like a beautiful, urban, striking example of what would've happened if StL, Cleveland and Detroit had burgeoning and booming downtown areas after the turn of the 20th Century and on. It just doesn't feel like a world city-- not a bad thing. It feels like a grand, old Midwestern city rather than a "center of the universe" complex city like NYC, LA, London, Paris.

You need to go back then, because you missed a whole lot in the Loop.

Did you go to the Art Museum? Didja see the Chagall Windows? How about the Cultural Center? How 'bout the galleries along Michigan? The DT Nordstroms? Virgin Atlantic? Street musicians? The snazzy URBAN Walgreens? The bridge and the river? Did you eat at "Heaven on Seven?"

Did you go down any side streets or did you just walk Michigan?

Did you go to BB King's or Kingston Mines?

Did you walk down to the lake and look back at the city? AWESOME at night.

The hustle and bustle all hours of the day and night. The city sounds, the people, the places?

How on earth can you say that Chicago is nothing to write home about? I've never been to either Paris or London, but I've been to the others. NYC is great. I hate LA.

I once dropped my wallet containing all my credit cards and about $300 cash on the Chicago River Bridge. Immediately went back looking, but it wasn't there. I stopped at the American Express office to cancel my card, cancelled the rest of them, actually flew home without a picture ID (before 9/11) and found a message on my answering machine from the lady who found it. She was in Chicago for a doctor appointment for her husband and had found it. She mailed it to me intact. The lady was from Prague. Very heavily accented. Staying in the DT Marriott just like us. She sent me back my wallet. I sent her money for postage and one of the KC picture books from the Star because she said she had never been to KC. That kind of thing doesn't happen everywhere. I wrote a letter to the Sun Times about it and it actually got printed.

[ComandanteCero]

^ well i can see where tk is coming from.  When i went to Chicago for the first time I was very much disappointed....  For some reason i was expecting a NY (or a much larger Boston of sorts), which Chicago is far from being.  My overwhelming impression was that it was a very large mid-western city, nothing, as you say, to write home about.  Only reason i went back the next couple of times was to visit my sister, and most of those times i've gone back i pretty much kept the same impression.  However, last year, I went to visit during the summer and stayed for a week and a half or so in my sister's apt.  Not sure what changed, but i think it was the fact that i got a taste of what it was like to "live" there, as opposed to dropping in on 3 day weekends as i'd previously done.  Specifically, the thing that made me change my mind was walking along the beach from Streeterville up to Lincoln Park and looking at the wall of highrises that stretches from downtown into the north, this made something click, and i have to say i've appreciated Chicago so much more ever since.  I agree, if I try to compare it to a NY or a Tokyo or a Paris it very much pales (regardless of awesome architecture and world class institutions) but appreciating it on its own, for its own charms and strengths is pretty rewarding.  I think if Chicago wants to approach one of those cities (i.e the ever present bustle and density of life and activity that these cities exhibit over large areas) it would have to have atleast twice the population it presently has in the core city.  For an idea of how much it really needs, the Bronx has about 2.5 million people in about 60 sq miles, Chicago has about 2.9 million in over 200 sq. miles.

Then again, some people really like Chicago precisely because it's not a NY or a Paris.  Personally, I think Chicago is definitely one of the greats, but it isn't necessarily living up to its potential. 

[nota]

We go to Chicago every March for a week for a convention. We always stay at the DT Marriott. It is as close as living there as a hick from KC can get I suppose. While hubby is in the conference, I explore. Even day to day there is something different. The city doesn't sleep.

Maybe I would think NYC was better, I have no idea, but there is nothing wrong with Chicago that isn't in the eye of the beholder.

One of the most beautiful views is from the water back into the city at night.

Have a meal at the Columbia Yacht Club-sit on the boat and have a drink and just look at how it changes.

Same thing with the view of DT STL from I-44-it's the best view.

I love the view of DT KC from KCK too.