Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[THE_WIZARD_]

Used to love going to Chicago...and NYC as well...would never live in either...and I would probably still visit the NYC area but not setting foot in Chicago even if I had free tix to see my Bears...that is a fucked up mess right now and probably going to get worse. NYC is ok to visit...and I have family there to see anyway.

[lineygoblue]

I've been to Chicago several times, and I've found it to be a much better experience than NYC. Of course my visits to Chicago were before LightBrain became mayor. Since then and the pandemic, its been ruined for me.

Now, I feel the same about Chicago as I do about NYC. Nothing to be seen there. I'm glad Michigan isn't playing at Evanston for a while so I won't be tempted to go.

[AlabamAlum]

I was in Chicago near Christmas. I didn’t have any issues. There are some places I won’t go, but for where I was, it was fine.

[froot loops]

Maybe you fellas are easily triggered snowflakes.

People move to Florida for the weather, certainly not Tiny D's politics.

[froot loops]

Downtown Chicago is great, but most of the times I have been in Chicago it's been in one of the suburbs. Thanksgiving in Schaumburg or near O'Hare isn't amazing.

[THE_WIZARD_]

It's not hard to understand what happened to Chicago...but oddly enough...the new mayor is arguably images (7).jpgworse

[Whitley]

RFK Jr. is challenging Biden for the nomination. Hey, someone who could actually make me vote for Trump.

Yeah. Not sure what traction he is going to have in a Dem primary. Being anti vaccine (not just Covid 19) is not going to play well. But I bet he gets more media attention than Marianne Williamson (who broke the 10 percent mark in a couple polls).

[iam416]

The north side of Chicago is still fine. It's a city with issues, but the Progs running shit manage to keep the third world crime isolated in half the city. In that regard, it's better than San Francisco, which is honestly the only city in the US where I'd have questions about visiting.

Then again, maybe I'm just not appreciating city life. As the Prog former Police Commissioner noted -- you gotta nut the fuck up -- car robberies are "basic city life experiences".

[iam416]

Meanwhile, we have a Prog DA who will refuse to bring charges in countless real cases filing a hot garbage indictment against DJT that is so hot garbage that even people on MSNBC are calling it "thin."

This is, of course, the same state that weaponized state courts to bring frivolous suits against oil companies for "lying" to their shareholders about global warming.

This is standard Prog weaponization of the judiciary to silence the opposition. It's what the Left does. And anyone who opposes is, ironically and laughably, decried as a fascist.

[Jeff Buchanan]

In NYC now. Manhattan, I'm minutes from Times Square in the Broadway district. This is a totally different typical NYC life. A tourist mecca and a community of musicians and performers. Safe, lots of police presence - being a travel destination the city puts money and effort into keeping this district clean and crime free. Everything is expensive ...... I mean really expensive.

I grew up in the northern suburbs of Chicago. Willmette. New Trier HS. My dad commuted on the Northwestern rail system every day to Chicago. He was a jazz fan and I was exposed to a lot of that life downtown. That would have been in the late 50s. These days, I wouldn't walk down Michigan Avenue at night. Last visit to that area was centered around Evanston for M's last trip to play NfW. Great college town. Not anything like most parts of Chicago.

[Mike]

This is standard Prog weaponization of the judiciary to silence the opposition. It's what the Left does. And anyone who opposes is, ironically and laughably, decried as a fascist.

They are defenders of democracy. A beaming ray of sunlight in a fallen world.

Elsewhere in Manhattan, Alvin Bragg has charged a parking garage attendant with attempted murder. The charge is a result of an altercation between a suspected burglar and the parking garage security guard.

https://nypost.com/2023/04/01/nyc-ga...ing-thief/amp/

A Manhattan parking garage attendant who was shot twice while confronting an alleged thief — then wrestled the gun away and opened fire on the suspect — has been charged with attempted murder, police said.

An individual who works nearby the garage, which is across from Moynihan Train Station, was also incredulous.

“You are kidding. That’s an April Fool Day joke, right?” the worker asked of the charges against Diarra, adding, “How can a hardworking man get arrested for defending himself?”

One cop who heard of the attempted-murder charge against the parking garage worker snarled, “People like Alvin Bragg have made this city unsafe, and this worker is a victim defending himself.”

[iam416]

In NYC now. Manhattan, I'm minutes from Times Square in the Broadway district. This is a totally different typical NYC life. A tourist mecca and a community of musicians and performers. Safe, lots of police presence - being a travel destination the city puts money and effort into keeping this district clean and crime free. Everything is expensive ...... I mean really expensive.

I grew up in the northern suburbs of Chicago. Willmette. New Trier HS. My dad commuted on the Northwestern rail system every day to Chicago. He was a jazz fan and I was exposed to a lot of that life downtown. That would have been in the late 50s. These days, I wouldn't walk down Michigan Avenue at night. Last visit to that area was centered around Evanston for M's last trip to play NfW. Great college town. Not anything like most parts of Chicago.

You would be perfectly fine on the North Side or downtown at night in Chicago. And in most places in Manhattan.

The issues "old" cities have aren't going away. They're complex. They're typically made worse by Prog policies, but there's never a "blame one thing" issue.

The thing these cities have to offer is an unique, cool "big city" feel that most newer cities can't offer. They need to have "city centers" or "city areas" that remain remarkably attractive to both tourists and residents alike -- that makes them really expensive. San Francisco fails, to some extent, in that they don't adequately cordon off their shit areas.

What NYC/Chicago/SF, etc have in tourist attractiveness, they lack in liveability. And what, say, Tampa or Houston or Indianapolis lack in tourist attractiveness they have in liveability. That's the dynamic at play (IMO). And, in no small part, it's driven by size and pre-modern vs modern city development -- the small compact 19th C city vs the late 20th C sun belt sprawl.

[iam416]

They are defenders of democracy. A beaming ray of sunlight in a fallen world.

Elsewhere in Manhattan, Alvin Bragg has charged a parking garage attendant with attempted murder. The charge is a result of an altercation between a suspected burglar and the parking garage security guard.

https://nypost.com/2023/04/01/nyc-ga...ing-thief/amp/

A Manhattan parking garage attendant who was shot twice while confronting an alleged thief — then wrestled the gun away and opened fire on the suspect — has been charged with attempted murder, police said.

An individual who works nearby the garage, which is across from Moynihan Train Station, was also incredulous.

“You are kidding. That’s an April Fool Day joke, right?” the worker asked of the charges against Diarra, adding, “How can a hardworking man get arrested for defending himself?”

One cop who heard of the attempted-murder charge against the parking garage worker snarled, “People like Alvin Bragg have made this city unsafe, and this worker is a victim defending himself.”

This is about as perfect example of what Progs stand for as I can think of -- at least in terms of crime. The victim is always the criminal; the oppressor is always the assaulted.

[Mike]

Oh, he was also charged with "illegal possession of a firearm" for those brief seconds he was able to redirect the gun toward his attacker and a get a shot off.

[AlabamAlum]

Yeah, cases like that amaze me, Mike. How is the DA not brought up on prosecutorial misconduct?

Speaking of cities that I like areas of but have a seedy criminal area that you avoid at all costs, I leave for Atlanta in a couple of hours for the PSA Memorial Home Opener event. New Orleans and Bham also both have stark lines between “great place” and “GET ME THE FUCK OUTTA HERE!” All cities have these areas and the battle is to keep them separate because if the bad starts to fully take over, the whole city can be lost. I think SanFran is in real danger of becoming a cultured Gary Indiana.