7 posts tagged “chicago”
Jessi and I have officially decided to move to Chicago. Forgive the off-site link plug, but check out my other personal blog at DavidChartier.com for more details.
It's a great thing Jessi and I just officially decided to move to Chicago this weekend (more on that later), because Threadless just opened a brick and mortar store there.
Before you ask, however: no, the irony that purely web company went real world while so many real world companies are doing the exact opposite is *not* lost on me.
While running errands this morning, our 1997 Chevy Astro's engine temp began fluctuating. The oil pressure got a bit schizophrenic too, so I ultimately had the van towed to a local dealership for diagnosis. I was developing some car skillz, but the combination of living in a townhome community that doesn't allow that kind of work and a sudden, severe drop in interest drove my mechanic tendencies into remission. The verdict? Van needs a new water pump, thermostat, oil coolant lines a bunch of other random work. Given that it's over a decade old, we live in a decent area with good public transit and I work pretty much full time at home, my wife and I are seriously considering just lettin'er go; maybe selling to the dealership for whatever we can get (since they can do the work themselves for a fraction of the cost and turn it for a profit) or doing some of the mandatory work and selling on our own, fully informing the customer of the situation, of course.
Either way, I could once again become car-less. When I moved into downtown Denver the summer of 2004, I got rid of my car since I planned to work on campus and finish school that way. Once Jessi and I got engaged, moved in together in 2005 outside the city and then got married in 2006, things needed to change and her parents graciously handed down the Astro as a wedding present. All that said, I've lived both in and outside Denver with and without a car, and I could do it again. Plus, we would still have Jessi's Matrix so I could drive her into school on the days I know that I would need one. Still, this situation opens up a few bags of works for us. Getting whatever cash we could for the van would help to pay off some lingering debt we're chipping away at. Then there's still the Chicago thing - there's no denying that hearing about the lifestyles of our friends there who don't own cars makes the town all the more appealing, especially since I'm hoping to keep on truckin' with this online writing thing (Ars Technica is working out very well so far, by the way).
So what to do? Altogether, the work the van would need would cost nearly $1700 (there's more that I didn't list), and the thing is barely worth $5K/6K in tip-top shape. Considering the situation, I'm thinking that paying off a good chunk of debt and rollin' with the bus for another year or so is worth more than having a van lying around for some ambiguous reason. I'll have to sleep on it though, especially since my wife is already hard at work tonight doing exactly that.
Walk Score is going to be such a useful tool for scoping out potential neighborhoods in Chicago. I love being walkably or bikeably close to essentials like grocery stores, as well as entertainment and retail. The less I have to use a car, the better; too bad our score isn't so hot at the moment. Right now we're within a 5 minute car ride to literally everything we need. If we really do this move to Chicago next summer, I'd love to find one of those neighborhoods where our Walk Score rocks a bit more and we have most of what we need within a few blocks.
Man, this is one of the big reasons why Jessi and I are still considering a move to Chicago. The town just gets a much higher ratio of cool conferences like this, while Denver is barely at the sloppy seconds level. I don't think we even got one of the Adobe + Apple CS3 seminars that came to Apple Stores around the country for the product launch. This isn't just about geeking out either; these would be great events also from a networking perspective; meeting, greeting and tossing around business cards...
Decisions, decisions.
After spending a couple days in Chicago 'getting away from it all' and combing the city to see if it's a good match for us, we're more or less sold. We love the town, love it - it's closer to family and friends in WI and the midwest here, it's much more of a 'big city' than Denver (obviously) and there's just so much to see and do here.
We're definitely going to have to come back for a solid week or two (or four?), stay with friends and just drive up and down and all around. We have to check out a few neighborhoods to see if we can find a good rental for our first year or so (we'd like some sort of a yard for the dog, etc.), and we really want to find something close to one of the trains. Suburbs aren't out of the question, but we both like to have one foot in the city, and one foot just far enough away from it - knowwhatImean?
This probably won't happen until summer 2008, but if I get the right job offer up here in Chicago or if a few other opportunities work out for me, it *might* happen as soon as this coming summer. We'll see.
My wife and I are seriously contemplating moving to Chicago (we live just outside Denver, CO now) within the next year after I gradumate in Spring. It's a lot closer to a large portion of our family, the school system is nicer, the town is larger and it just seems like there's 'more' there. We always hear about conferences and events traveling the country that typically pass through Chicago but scoff at Denver. We've also heard the cost of living, especially within the city, is much higher (we're fine with living outside the limits), so we're all over the place thinking about this. We definitely have some roots growing in Denver and our friends here, but Chicago is so much closer to home (we were both born and raised in WI), it's a better city for both of our careers and interests, I can get out to my immediate family in WA easier and... well, Illinois even has this thing called 'water' which we kinda miss too (in Colorado, what they call a 'lake' is what the rest of the world calls a 'pond').
Anyway, our reasoning aside, I figured I'd take a crack at soliciting the Vox community for feedback on Denver vs. Chicago. Anyone have any experience? Thoughts? Yays or nays? Fire away!
