tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post655114786719966536..comments2024-03-18T22:21:33.261-07:00Comments on The Debate Link: The New City SlickerDavid Schraubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946653376744012423noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-13068315558453691662008-11-07T15:50:00.000-08:002008-11-07T15:50:00.000-08:00Not that you suggested otherwise, but Chicago goes...Not that you suggested otherwise, but Chicago goes all the way south to 135th.<BR/><BR/>As pg said, you are in a neighborhood that doesn't do a lot for the reputation of urban living. Lots of North and Northwest neighborhoods are a lot more comfortable and feel like lots of small towns squeezed together.<BR/><BR/>Since you've got so much time here, you might consider spending one of your years in Chicago living up here. The commute would be annoying, but you don't have to look over your shoulder quite so much.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-49909380188730814862008-11-06T20:37:00.000-08:002008-11-06T20:37:00.000-08:00Well, this summer I lived right on top of Shady Gr...Well, this summer I lived right on top of Shady Grove metro station (as in "Red Line to...."), so totally suburban but metro accessible (albeit a 45 minute commute into where I worked). But at Carleton I had the experience of being able to walk to the grocery store because I lived in a town of 20,000 people. So I could also walk to the pizza place, and the coffee shop, and where I "worked", and pretty much everything else. And then I could drive to the city if I needed to see a museum. The trade off, of course, is vastly inferior delivery.David Schraubhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04946653376744012423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-86173238020167212302008-11-06T19:15:00.000-08:002008-11-06T19:15:00.000-08:00Reading over my comment, it sounds so cynical. I f...Reading over my comment, it sounds so cynical. I feel like a New Yorker -- I am hard-bitten about real estate!PGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09381347581328622706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-17972911532461213032008-11-06T19:14:00.000-08:002008-11-06T19:14:00.000-08:00Northwestern undergrad and med is Evanston; law sc...Northwestern undergrad and med is Evanston; law school is off Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. Very beautiful views. <BR/><BR/>I don't know much about Columbia Heights in DC, but when I lived at the GW dorms in DC (in 2000), I thought the neighborhood was good. My little sister lived in Adams Morgan for a year and loved it. Dupont Circle also is nice. In NYC, there are lots of good places to live both in Manhattan and in Queens and Brooklyn. (I don't think anyone's gentrified the Bronx yet.)<BR/><BR/>Every city has bad neighborhoods and those are the cheap ones in which to live, which is why I am grateful that in law school I could afford to live in Morningside rather than, say, Washington Heights where the med center is. Sorry, but gentrification makes a neighborhood less stressful when you're the relatively-wealthy person moving in, despite how much it sucks for the less-wealthy person squeezed out by rent increases. You should try one summer working for a firm or public interest org in DC or NYC, take over a G'town/GW or Columbia student's apartment and discover the pleasures of city life. Frankly, it's spoiled me; I hated summer 2006, which I spent in an Arlington neighborhood that was a 20 minute bus ride to the nearest Metro station. (Admittedly, I spent that summer without a car, which probably was dumb.) It was an experience to resign me to living in a shoebox for astronomical rent, so long as I could walk to a grocery store.PGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09381347581328622706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-71374780176627816152008-11-06T18:25:00.000-08:002008-11-06T18:25:00.000-08:00Well, technically Northwestern is in Evanston, not...Well, technically Northwestern is in Evanston, not Chicago, so that's more akin to Bethesda. But I see your point.<BR/><BR/>What would your opinion be of, say, Columbia Heights in DC be though? Because I have friends who live there and I didn't feel much better there, either.David Schraubhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04946653376744012423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-34932755339364768612008-11-06T17:22:00.000-08:002008-11-06T17:22:00.000-08:00Not to say "I told you so," but you're not reactin...Not to say "I told you so," but you're not reacting to "an urban setting," you're reacting to U of C's neighborhood, which sucks. When I visited for a law school interview and couldn't get a cab until I had walked almost out of that neighborhood, I started to doubt whether I'd want to go there even if I got off the waiting list. <BR/><BR/>There is crime and poverty in, say, Morningside Heights, but there's not the oppressive sense that the school is a little isle of dynamism in a sea of given-up that I get around UChicago. I'm not even blaming Chicago as a whole, because Northwestern Law is in a perfectly lovely (and expensive) neighborhood. I think this is a significant factor in UChicago kids' geekdom -- there's so little to interact with in their neighborhood, and you can't get out easily to the rest of the city. In contrast, Columbia U has its own stop on the 1 train, so you can be at Times Square in 15 minutes without a cab or bus.<BR/><BR/>In short, don't give up on urban living, just recognize that you're in a particularly bad neighborhood.PGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09381347581328622706noreply@blogger.com