52 Comments - 47th Ward - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 2:46 pm: I will never get tired of looking at the greatest skyline on the planet. From all angles, at all times of day or night, in any season, it never fails to capture my imagination and take my breath away. I could do without January and February though. Someday I hope to be a snow bird. - poe - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 2:46 pm: Favorite thing: the food Despise: our inadequate out of date public transportation systems - Tom B. - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 2:48 pm: The Lakefront. It’s a natural wonder of the world to see a City as bustling and beautiful as this one from such a pristine place. The Chicago-bashing that happens as a routine part of Illinois and many folks on my side of the political aisle annoy me to no end. I get how and why people do what they do, but it’s harmful to the psyche of this state to keep hating so much on Chicago. - Dirty Red - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 2:48 pm: Always some place with excellent food open in the middle of the night…it just takes an obscene amount of time getting there and back again. - Amalia - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 2:51 pm: Lake Shore Drive. it’s truly amazing to ride that stretch and see the lake and so much beach. this is really a city by the beach and I don’t think that is featured enough about it. the out of date interpretation of what the South Side is like. I know tons of people from there and their accents are rarely Scouser sounding. - Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 2:51 pm: The city is beautiful, friendly and livable. The political system is corrupt and self serving - Ron Burgundy - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 2:54 pm: Favorite Thing: The Lakefront. Least Favorite Thing: The seemingly intractable problems of crime and poverty in parts of the city. - Ratzo - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 2:54 pm: =Based on the number of residential and commercial rodent treatments ordered= Yeah, in DC they gave up fighting them, where the rats have taken over and just run around in broad daylight. Not sure if dealing with rats makes you the “worst”. - Undiscovered country - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 2:54 pm: Love Michigan Avenue Hate traffic - Anonymous - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 2:54 pm: Love: Neighborhoods, people, diversity. No Love: Lack of infrastructure investment. Also, No Love: Mike Ditka. - A guy - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 2:55 pm: Millenium Park. It brings the entire world together. Despise: Speed cameras. - Loop Lady - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 2:56 pm: Love: ethnic neighborhoods and food… Hate: traffic and public trans system thugs… - My button is broke... - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 2:56 pm: Fav: Cubs. Despise: Sox. /s But truthfully, the music scene, whether its local artists or all the big names that come through. Despise winter the most. I’m selfishly rooting for global warming… - Arsenal - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 2:56 pm: I don’t think I could narrow my favorite thing about Chicago down to one thing, but I’ll give it a try and say the Blackhawks. My least favorite is the outdated transportation system that seems to presume the city is just one giant bedroom community. - cdog - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:00 pm: Love the skyline; it’s like no other. Today, I mostly despise that there is not a cash toll booth at Balmoral exit for Ohare. It’s just a typical Chicago-gotcha-moment waiting to catch folks not getting online, a week later, to pay the stupid toll. Who does that? Why? - G'Kar - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:03 pm: If it is just one of each: Love–the variety of craft breweries Hate–traffic - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:05 pm: I love the neighborhoods. We all know the “trendy” well-known places “everyone” goes to and knows about. I love the taverns the locals frequent, the restaurants that locals keep to themselves, the mom and pop places that exist and may be a bit higher in price but you’re paying for that neighborhood and rooting for those places to remain. Love the neighborhoods. Despise? I despise the “two cities” It’s as real as the reason I love the city and it takes away from the good that is Chicago and all that needs to be done to make all of Chicago better and be better as a whole. - Stones - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:05 pm: Love the food. Despise Chicago winters and politics in Chicago and Illinois. - Just Me - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:07 pm: I love Chicago’s civic pride in our ability to do things other think is impossible. I despise our corrupt government system where all the pols ask “How is this good for me and bad for my enemy” and what is good for the people is of no concern. - Rod Sez I'm Pork - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:10 pm: Love: Montrose Dog Beach, the happiest place on Earth for a pooch. Hate: CPS High School Selection Process. As the father of two teenage girls, thank you so very much for over-stressing my children just as they going into puberty, but on the other hand, it did lead to many trips to Montrose Dog Beach just to get out of the house. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. - perrier - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:13 pm: Enjoy: Food. Despise: soulless and relentless gentrification bulldozing neighborhood after neighborhood. - The Historian - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:17 pm: I’m repeating G’Kar & OW from just above but: Love: the quality of the craft beer scene Hate: the two cities & the scale of the gun violence, now even in Rogers Park… - MG85 - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:17 pm: Favorite thing: The people - no other city has more pride, a welcoming diversity, and shared sense of responsibility as the Chicagoans Despise the most: The people - No city harbors individuals who can be nastier, as ruthless, or devastatingly brutal as Chicagoans. - Gruntled University Employee - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:20 pm: Favorite: Absolutely nothing. Despise the most: The Cubs - Texas Red - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:21 pm: Love: The architectural richness and the views of city from lakefront Hate: Traffic/Crime - IllinoisBoi - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:22 pm: Love: The Art Institute. So much beauty there it almost makes me dizzy. Hate: all the fatal gun violence. It’s corroding the city little by little, but no one seems to know what to do about it. - Because I said so.... - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:23 pm: Favorite-weather on a day like this. Least fav-weather on a cold, windy, snowy day. - JS Mill - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:27 pm: Love- Sox Hate- cubbies I also love the culture and cultural opportunities, there are no wants when it comes to entertainment in Chicago. - jim - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:27 pm: despise — relentless corruption tacitly accepted by voters, Rahm, city’s me-first approach, its many murders, race exploitation, lousy education for public school kids, traffic, I could go on enjoy — beautiful in many places, many amenities, economic powerhouse trapped in a failed state - Joe Bidenopolous - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:28 pm: cdog - your issue is with the Rauner-appointed Illinois Toll Highway Authority, not Chicago. To the question: Love: It’s a toss up between the food and the skyline. Both are incredible. Hate: Also a toss up (of unequal scale) between the horrible public trans infrastructure and the violence that creates two different cities. - Saluki - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:29 pm: My favorite thing is Kingston Mines. Least Favorite thing = The Cubs. - DE - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:30 pm: Favorite: Maggie Daley Park. Have your kids learn to play and have fun with kids of almost every ethnicity. Hate: January sub-zero wind-tunnels by buildings walking to work. - The Muse - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:34 pm: Love: I absolutely love the distinct seasons that exist in Chicago - winter is sometimes unbearable but it comes with new activities (ice skating, sledding, and hot wine at the Xmas market), fall is beautiful, and then spring and summer come around along with all the festivals. Hate: the government dysfunction. - Flynn's mom - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:35 pm: There are too many favorites to narrow it down to one. I love the small town feel of the neighborhoods, the food, the lakefront/parks. I hate the violence in certain neighborhoods and the lack of affordable housing. - northsider (the original) - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:39 pm: Love: lakefront path on a hot, humid summer night, watching the twice-weekly fireworks. Ice cream on the way home. Hate: Divvy and Uber getting tax-subsidized breaks. - Leslie K - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:43 pm: Love: The access to green space out in the neighborhoods. Hate: That too many of those green spaces frequently erupt in violence. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:45 pm: favorite=nothing despise=city itself (all cities actually, not just Chicago) - Southside Markie - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:48 pm: Love: Chicagoans. The people make this it a great City. Don’t Love: How Downstaters feel about Chicago. - JoanP - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:53 pm: Love: the architecture, the lakefront, the people! Hate: the way TIF money is used as a mayoral slush fund. Also February. - ChiefM - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:56 pm: The character of the neighborhoods Red Light Cameras and Speed Cameras - Dome Gnome - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 3:58 pm: Love: Architecture & Art Hate: Crime & Corruption - NothsideNoMore - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 4:01 pm: So as a former resident of the city Likes: the Restaurants, Lake front, culture. Dislikes: Political culture/corrution, Traffic, Parking and cost there of, Crime and unsolved shootings, oh and the Rats which have been a problem since the 80s. - Robert the Bruce - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 4:03 pm: Love: the variety of food available in different ethnic neighborhoods. Hate: How segregated our city is; how some folks grow up in very violent neighborhoods. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 4:06 pm: Love: Getting out to eat and drink in the neighborhoods. Hate: February. It’s hopeless, in every way. - Gooner - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 4:17 pm: I love living here and could list twenty thing. However, at the top of the list, we are here because of the museums. When my kids were young, we would go literally every week. Now it is more like once a month. For little kids, MSI has a lot of wonderful hands on stuff. The Alder has a great kids play area and some nice stuff about the moon landings. As they got older, it was the Shedd (they loved the sharks) and the Field (dinosaurs). Now that they are even older, it tends to be a mix of the above, along with the Art Institute and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Beyond that, we have the Nature Museum and the Lincoln Park Zoo. As a kid, I may have visited those places twice each. My kids grew up with them. Lincoln Park Zoo is where we went to see giraffes and then play soccer after school. It just cannot be beat. Hate: people are going to think crime, but honestly it is rarely a factor for me. I know that doesn’t apply to many who live here, but that’s been my experience. Instead, I think the worst involves issues with homeless people. They are a stark reminder that we fail to treat drugs (yes, most of them are on drugs) as a real health care issue. On top of that, there is a group of lawyers who enable them and in doing so, really serve to keep them on the streets and to prevent them from seeking help. The lawyers are part of the problem. We need to seriously address addiction and they serve to keep people where they are and in doing so, prevent them from getting help. - Six Degrees of Separation - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 4:42 pm: Love: The people…from co-workers to random pedestrians on the street, such a great place to party, meet people and people-watch. We are also a great sports town. Hate: The bureaucracy, at city and county levels, when I’ve had to deal with it. And the way the have-nots need to survive here, it’s not the greatest place when your pockets are empty. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 5:22 pm: Love: The Music Box, particularly the silent movies. Hate: pro sports - teddy salad - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 5:39 pm: Love - Bahai Temple Hate - The Thompson Center - @MisterJayEm - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 5:40 pm: “What is your favorite thing about Chicago and what do you despise the most?” For a couple weeks each year, Austin TX is the Live Music Capital of the World — for the rest of the year, Chicago holds the title. I hate the traffic, the winters and the winter traffic. Fortunately, Chicago’s winters are only five or six months long. – MrJM - Arthur Andersen - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 6:15 pm: Love the stunning skyline and the endless chow options. Hate the lousy transportation infrastructure - Anonymous - Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 7:36 pm: Old Wrigley. Food, Neighborhoods Dislikes the the progressive liberal politicians who can never get of your wages and keep the state masssively in debt while taking care or there pals - Tiny - Wednesday, Oct 18, 17 @ 9:26 am: Love: Cultural institutions (Art Institute, Filed Museum, etc.) Hate: the privatized parking meters Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.