Chicago USA: Why It's a Must-Visit

[Music] hey guys and welcome to cool vision and this video will travel to Chicago the third largest city in America behind New York and Los Angeles that is home to 2.7 million people it's the epicenter of Midwest a region in the US known for its

farming and Manufacturing they call it America's Heartland Chicago is located in the state of Illinois at the southwestern tip of freshwater lake Michigan it has the third largest economy in the US with a gross

Metropolitan product of 7 $170 billion which is more than that of Switzerland the city is known for its bald architecture diverse economy universities and urban beaches along the shores of Lake Michigan but let's talk about his

history first Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 and grew rapidly throughout the 19th century becoming an important center of Commerce and a Transportation Hub between the eastern and western United States a flourishing

economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed much of the business district and left

more than 100,000 people homeless but despite that the city continued to grow rapidly and by 1900 Chicago was already the fifth largest city in the world today the Chicago metropolitan area also known as Chicago land is home

to 10 million people it's an international hub for finance culture industry and Technology it's home to the Chicago Stock Exchange now called nysse Chicago where the first standardized Futures contracts were created there are

four major sections of the city the loop the north side the west side and the South Side let's start with a loop if you come here for business or as a tourist this is where you'll be staying it's a beautiful Sunday night and we're

cruising down Michigan Avenue let's go let's go let's go this is the second largest Central business district in the United States and the most Manhattan likee Place in the US outside of manatt p in itself the good part is Chicago is much cleaner than New

York City because garbage goes out for pickup in the back alleys not on the side walks in front of stores and restaurants as is common in New York Chicago's Loop is home to the best entertainment in the city first rate

hotels and world class shopping my first impression was wow the Chicago River and its River Walk are just fantastic you can take an architecture boat cruise off Chicago

River and you can gaze up at a lot of cool buildings like Chicago's famous Marina City Towers AKA The Coin cops it was an urban experiment by architect ber Tren Goldberg designed to draw middle- class Chicagoans back to the city after

more than a decade of suburban migration because downtown living hasn't always been so trendy the loop architecture has been dominated by skyscrapers and highrises since early in its history the home insurance building built in 1885 was the world's first

skyscraper Wheelis Tower the Third toest building in the US currently formerly known as The Seer Tower was the world's toest building for nearly 25 years it has an observation deck but it was closed at the time of our visit Trump

International Hotel and Tower is the seventh toest building in the country and here's a tower of the most favorite politician in Chicago Donald Trump the loop is a First Rate shopping destination North Michigan Avenue

features a lot of boutiques restaurants and high-rise malls and the section of it called The Magnificent Mile is an upscale shopping street home to restaurants luxury retailers and hotels it's the fourth most expensive shopping

street in the US behind Fifth Avenue in New York Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and Union Square in San Francisco here you will find such historic landmarks as Chicago water tower the Terra Cota Wrigley building skyscraper and the 100 story John

Hancock Center which is now called 875 North Michigan Avenue it's got 360 Chicago observation deck where you can ride tilt Chicago's highest Thrill Ride it's an enclosed moving platform that literally tilts you over Michigan Avenue

from the 94th floor the Magnificent Mile serves as the main Thorofare between Chicago's Loop district and its Gold Coast which ranks as the seventh richest Urban neighborhood in the US and consists of luxury high-rise apartment towers and stone

Mansions but Chicago is not a concrete jungle there are plenty of parks like Grand Park it's a huge Urban Park which is sometimes called Chicago's front yard it's home to the Buckingham Fountain and the pritzer Pavilion where free concerts

and festivals can be a joy throughout the summer another recent addition to the city is Millennium Park built in 2004 and it features crowd Fountain an interactive work of public art and video sculpture lury garden a beautiful and

Serene Park that many people don't even notice because it's tucked away behind the tall hedges and the bean of course cloudgate is the offal name it's one of the modern masterpieces in the heart of Chicago its design was inspired by the liquid

mercury and the sculpture surface distorts the reflection of the city skyline it's a great spot for taking pictures we are in the Millennium Park and it has a lot of cool installations and art objects the coolest of which I think is a cloud

gate right next door is the Art Institute of Chicago it's hands down one of the best art museums in the country and one of the largest collections of impressionist art outside the LOF you can spend days walking around the museum

they had the Obama portraits exhibition in the summer of 20121 I could tell there's a little bit of an obsession with Barack Obama in Chicago so there's a special gallery of Barack and Michelle Obama's portraits and in order to go

there we had to get a line I got 108 people in front of me that's how popular there are if you didn't know this Barack Obama was a professor at the University of Chicago Law School but I was just wondering wondering can you imagine

Donald Trump portrait exhibition in Chicago I didn't think so if you're into museums then come to Chicago's Museum campus It's a Wonderful 57 acre Park that sits alongside Lake Michigan and houses several of the city's leading

institutions all in one place like Soldier Field Stadium an American football and soccer stadium the Shed Aquarium where you can explore andwater worlds and watch rare and local aquatic creatures Field Museum where you can

spend a day exploring natural history and World cultures as you enter you'll be greeted by Maximo the titanosaur the largest dinosaur to ever walked the Earth amazing you're looking at the largest memal to ever walk the earth but

fortunately he lived 101 million years ago so he's not a threat anymore here I am and don't forget to say hi to Sue the most complete and best

preserved T-Rex ever discovered just the kind of stuff that I enjoyed and finally the Adler Planetarium where you can Marvel at the wonders of the universe the Chicago theater district is a hub for worldclass Productions with

many theaters like the Chicago Theater CIBC theater James Netherland theater and many others by the way this Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue which was once a movie theater was the location where notorious bank robber John Dinger was

shut down by FBI agents after he watched the gangster movie there in 1934 on a warm sunny day you can visit Navy Pier which was open to the public in

1916 we are the Navy Pier let's let's go have some fun there's Fair's wheel there's a carousel it extends 3,300 ft into the water and offers over 50 acres of parks

shops restaurants and a 150 food fairies wheel from here you can also catch a bow tour or just enjoy some tasty food and views of the downtown now let's take look at North Chicago the northern neighborhoods are

desirable for their Waterfront location and night life like Lincoln Park one of the most affluent neighborhoods in Chicago just 2 mies from downtown the community is named for the 1200 acre Park which includes beaches Gardens a zoo a museum and more this is

one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city my friend Chris lives here so let's talk to him people like they move here when they're just out of college right they get a good job in the city that pays decently well they want to live in this neighborhood cuz they're there's a lot to do here then they get married

then they have their first kid then when they have their first kid they buy a two-bedroom two B condo and you can get those for about half a million to $600,000 from once they have their second kid though is when they leave the

neighborhood three bedroom places are typically where things start getting north of a million dollars and it gets really hard to like juggle having a family and making enough money to support that kind of Lifestyle yeah I

would say that the people that you see living in this neighborhood are young professionals and they're living in multi-unit buil you know high-rises like me one bedroom apartment 17 18,00 a month studio is going to be in a range

of like 1,00 to 1300 a month two-bedroom is going to be about 2,000 to 2500 a month next to it is one of the oldest zoos in the US Lincoln Park Zoo and it's one of the last remaining free zoos in the country and I have to come all the

way from Russia to see a polar bear but he doesn't want to see me because I can't I can't I can't find it 35 Acres of animal fun another nice neighborhood in the north is Lake View popular neighborhood for young professionals and it has access to three train lines this is the

home of wriggley Field Stadium established in 1914 this area swells with activity during Chicago CBS home games it's danely packed with Lively sports bars and cool pubs if you drive even further up north you're going to end up on Northwestern

University campus this university is known as The Ivy of the Midwest we are walking on the campus of Northwestern University nice and peaceful I'm not a student but we're certainly enjoying it from what I've heard this University is really famous for its uh journalism Department its campus is sitting on a

really nice beachfront area along the shores of Lake Michigan Michael do you swim in the Michigan Lake not anymore it's a very cold lake and um I used to when I was young we used to dive off of rocks like these into Lake Michigan but

um no I think these days I wouldn't get into Lake Michigan anymore it's too cold for [Music] me the west side of Chicago is famous for cool arts in neighborhoods like wiip

Park and Bucktown there's always something interesting going on these areas draw Shoppers hunting for Unique finds Foodies looking for the trendiest eats and bar hopers searching for late night Buzz Westtown is another neighborhood on

Chicago's West Side and it's home to large polish and Ukrainian communities like the Ukrainian Village I've always wanted to visit it and luckily I found some guys to talk to are you Ukrainian I'm Ukrainian I was born and raised in

Ukraine until I was 15 and then my whole family moved here my sister's getting married in 2 weeks and this was like a wedding shower so me and my brother we dressed you know in Ukrainian clothing as far as Ukrainian diaspora I would say

the biggest one is here than phelia California it's a comfortable place to live right this area it's a nice area and plus you know losing like your national identity if I'm not mistaken in some journal or some magazine Ukrainian

Village was Ved number one either safest or like one of those py stuff yeah most comfortable to live yeah which restaurant would you recommend restaurant try you guys want to try Ukrainian Cuisine go to tr restant you guys have Instagram yeah I

do it's called keep it Russian keep R keep it now the south side of Chicago it's got some nice neighborhoods like hiy Park and Kenwood the home of former US President Barack Obama do you want to see the actual home Mr Obama used to

live in we are in Barack Obama's neighborhood and this is the house he'll lived in when he became senator of the state of Illinois he also lived here when he was president and every once in a while he would come into town and at

this time in my life I was working in the John Hancock building and my uh off off would uh was looking out towards Lake Michigan and every once in a while I would see these crazy things kind of happen out the window like a shinook

helicopter flying across the water or I think one time too I even saw Marine Force One which is the you know Air Force One is the president's airplane Marine Force One is the president's helicopter and so you would know he was

coming to town um when uh when you started seeing kind of you know abnormal aircraft flying along M Lake Michigan and now somebody his house I believe so I don't think they've turned it into a museum yet you can see on the sign it

says this area is protected by the United States Secret Service when Barack Obama was President you couldn't even walk up or down these streets there were police on both sides of the street in addition to all these barricades I guess do you live here now

no no the University of Chicago ranked one of the world's top 10 universities is also located in Hyde Park neighborhood Barack Obama was teaching constitutional law by the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to

2004 its campus is nice and oneof a kind it has its own University Police and emergency buttons throughout the campus heard if you're on the campus and

something bad happens what you want to do smash that button bam and the police car is going to be there in a second there it is yeah while the campus is safe the university is located in South Chicago and as you may know the

Southside has a lot of crime so students and staff members alike can get robbed and sometimes even killed if they walk in the wrong direction like this poor Chinese international student he got shot to death in November Riverdale and

West Englewood are some of the most dangerous neighborhoods for most Chicagoans they're like noo zones Chicago's Chinatown is also on the south side but a lot closer to the loop if you enjoy a Chinese cuisine you're going to find a lot of cafes deom pots

and tea houses also on the South Side you can catch a baseball game at Guaranteed Rate field going to a baseball game is part of the Chicago experience this is the home ballpark for Chicago wide socks and you got to try

some amazing game food I'm going to try a Chicago hot dog and it's a foot long I don't really know much about baseball and it's a long game but it was fun nonetheless we had a blast go white socks and don't forget to visit the Museum of

Science and Industry you'll get to see German submarine u505 models of cities and trains and even the Marvel exhibit Chicago is a popular tourist destination 58 million people visited the city in 2018 in 2020 Chicago was

ranked the sixth most walkable city in the United States after New York San Francisco Boston Philadelphia and Miami it has the second largest public transportation system in the US the

Chicago Transit Authority operates the L trains L stands for elevated buses and the Metro train for transportation between Chicago and the rest of the

suburbs the L provides 24-hour service on the red and blue lines in 2016 27.5% of Chicago households did not have a car while the national average was 8.7 you can do without a car but if you

prefer to drive like me just remember that traffic gets really bad during rush hour it's one of those things you'll have to get used to Chicago has the third worst traffic in America behind New York and Philadelphia however when it's not rush

hour driving in Chicago is a breeze and it's a lot of fun take leg Shore Drive which is a multi-level Expressway that runs alongside the shoreline of Lake Michigan and enjoy the view you may however have have a hard time finding a

place to park residents of Chicago spend 56 hours per year looking for a parking spot that's triple American average Chicago has also one of the most expansive on street parking in the country with some spots costing $65 per

hour the city also offers bicycle and scooter sharing systems and cycling is really popular here Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America

this region is often referred to as the Third Coast [Applause] let's try the water woo it's so chilly after Florida no comparison the water is

so clear it's impressive love it if there's ever situation when you get extremely unlucky with the weather that's going to be me in Chicago and you see it's the fourth day and it's been raining constantly and I mean look at the skyline oh

boy the water is so surprisingly blue that you might think you were in the Caribbean the Chicago Lakefront Trail is an 18.5 M Lawn path for walking jogging skateboard and cycling city is a popular choice for students as well as graduates looking to

start a career Chicago has a very Diversified economy Chase Bank has its US and Canada commercial and Retail banking headquarters here McDonald's moved its Global headquarters to Chicago in 2018 United Airlines and Bowen are

both headquarters in Chicago also the Chicago Board of Trade opened in 1848 as one of the world's oldest Futures and options exchanges the minimum wage in the city is one of the highest in the nation $15 an hour and the average monthly net salary is

$66,000 according to numo living in Chicago is cheaper than in New York or Los Angeles consumer price at 23% lower than in New York they are compared to the east coast and the West Coast Chicago's housing market is probably the best bargain for example

the median house value in Chicago is $330,000 according to Zillow but in New York it's $775,000 and in La it's $883,000 the average monthly rent here is $1,600

in New York it's 28 and in La it's $2,600 if you're looking for a big city life Chicago might give you more City for your dollar and what's your name Sam and you come from northern Island y oh cool how long have you lived in uh Chicago 12

months well that's good what makes Chicago say better than other places uh I'd say Chicago is very welcoming for me like it's somewhere that it's always felt like I've been part of it my whole life since I arrived here everyone just

kind of extended their gratitude thanks and anything they could do to kind of help me and get me set up here so to me I've uh I don't been welcomed as though I was part of the city from my arrived so I always thought that was pretty special for such a big place very nice are you studying are you working uh I

work as a software engineer any downsides to the city uh the cold weather maybe in the winter colder than Northern Island uh definitely similar type of Seasons but much colder thanks man I love your dog too this is Russell

how you doing buddy Chicago is a fun city for those who love the visual arts literature Theater comedy and music particular ularly jazz blues Soul hip hop and electronic dance music Chicago has the third largest lgbtq population

in the United States the Chicago Department of Health estimated that 7.5% of the adult population were lgbtq the Chicago Pride Parade held the last Sunday in June is one of the world's largest with over a million people in attendance and I happened to be in the city right at the time of the

parade Chicago is a cultural Melting Pot with huge ethnic communities whatever Cuisine you can think of you can find it here the wind city has three signature food groups Italian beef sandwich dip dish pizza and the Chicago style hot

dog dip dish pizza uses a thick layer of toppings and resembles a pie more than a flat bread how often do you eat dip dish pizza versus thin crust Chicago tends to be known for it's deep dish pizza but to be honest with you I think it's more of

a tourist thing than a than an actual resident thing the Chicago style hot dog is an all beef Frankfurter on a poppy seed with an array of toppings and the Italian beef sandwich has thin slices of seasoned roast beef tried an Italian

beef sandwich here at Portillos down in o on Ontario street here in downtown Chicago and you could have a spicy or unspicy we got pippers um yes I chose hot and sweet at the same time so but if you're looking for fine dining Chicago

has 24 michan Stars rest in Chicago you can find Cuisines from all over the world we stopped at a Portuguese restaurant and got half a chicken and it looks delicious well we sitting at a Georgian restaurant and I got kacha lamb which is like a

stew kapti and of course you got to try some Georgian soda green when it comes tonight live the city has a great party scene which you would expect in the big city lots of

options from classic rooftop patios over l in the skyline to pack nightclubs blast and dance music there are tons of late night restaurants live music venues and comedy [Music]

clubs right let me tell you nightclubs and bars are expansive we went to this one nightclub and the entrance was $6 a person and the cheapest beer they had was $12 a bottle

there are a lot of hidden jams like the Green Mill cocktail lounge this is the Green Mill lounge and the Green Mill Lounge is famous in Chicago because it was a hangout for the infamous Al Capone this place offers great live music

especially if you're a jazz fan and fascinating stories about El Capone and his legendary booze runs this was a popular hangout for the Italian Mobsters back in the day there just people here so this is a table

Chicago has some fun but weird Traditions like every year on St Patrick's Day they died the Chicago River green and thousands of Spectators crowd the banks to take pictures of this emerald green water Chicago is also known for different festivals and

Chicago marathon one of the six World Marathon Majors the city is very liberal for much of the 20th century Chicago has been among the most reliable Democratic strongholds in the US they have not elected a Republican mayor since

1927 what are the downsides of the city the weather Chicago Winters can be notoriously brutal the city's coldest month is January when temperatures can dip to 0° average to me as a Russian it's like what are they complaining

about but I understand the US has a lot of war in places to choose from not everyone's ready to make such a sacrifice the city has some of the highest taxes in the US the combined sales tax of 10.25% is the highest in the nation also the state of Illinois has the second highest property tax in America you know

here in the city we have got like 10 to 12% sales tax plus you know you want to live in one of these nice condos over here two- bedroom you know that might be $6 to $9,000 a year in property tax that's not $6 to $9,000 a year including

your mortgage your mortgage is separate from that so that's going to be another couple thousand a month and then on top of that you might have homeowners association fees of 5 to 800 a month on top to of that so it's all paid for but

the biggest downside of course is crime that city has a reputation of being the nation's murder capital shck they call it Chicago's homicide rate Rose to 28

per 100,000 people in 2021 that makes it six times more dangerous than New York City or Austin Texas and 100 times more dangerous than Tokyo Japan and it's not just numbers look at this map these are all the murders that happened over the

past 12 months these are real people whose lives were cut short by some criminals as you can see most homicides happen on the west and the South sides you'll see things in the news like 20 murders over the weekend and things like

that and yes those are happening in this in the city of Chicago they're happening here um what they don't typically say or they sometimes say is they're confined to a few areas on the south side and on the west side of the city the Far West

Side so pretty far out of downtown that's been a really serious serious problem in the city but it's one that people like myself feel like we don't even experience it feels very far away from us I'm actually on the I'm an

officer on a nonprofit board here where we try to take those kids a lot of them have a really difficult School situation the the public the government schools that they have access to are really terrible and we we basically pay to send

them to really good private schools where they can get a really good education and so that's one of the things I do but then other things I've done too are actually to go out and mentor and and uh and help the kids as well Chicago is also the city with the highest number of carjackings at least

1,400 car jackets took place in 2020 it's like Grand Theft Auto game in real life that's why a lot of people here are hesitant to buy nice cars no wonder residents are growing unhappy with mayor Lori lights food performance and

office well let's sum it up as the third largest city in the US Chicago is ideal for those who want to live in a worldclass metropolitan area from Tower and skyscrapers to the rich cultural landscape it's easy to fall in love with the windy city it's cleaner

and cheaper than New York and it has a lot to offer as far as entertainment job opportunities variety of restaurants and the worldclass central business district at the same time you got to keep in mind that traffic is bad crime

levels are outrageous and the tough wins make it a tough choice for anyone who can tolerate Winter's hardships and the high Texas is another tough pill to swallow let me know what you think about Chicago in the comments thanks for

watching guys if you enjoyed this video please subscribe and hit the Bell button thank you the city looks enormous it's a beautiful Sunday night and we're cruising down Michigan

Avenue it's not a horse carriage this way okay fantastic having a good time in Chicago

[Music]