Big City Reality Check Part 2

We answer the questions people always ask about living in downtown Chicago, from cars and groceries to tourists and noise. We share why the daily trade-offs still feel worth it when walkability, culture, and Lake Michigan are right outside our door. 
• learning to drive in a dense grid city and getting comfortable over time 
• why traffic can swing from 20 minutes to 90 
• how grocery shopping shifts from bulk runs to smaller trips and deliveries 
• navigating tourists and choosing calmer side streets 
• having concerts, theater, and global food close to home 
• the surprising small-town feel of downtown Chicago 
• Chicago beaches near the skyline and what they add to city life 
• the real downsides, including noise, parking costs, crowds, and taxes 
Don’t forget to check out my other podcast, AGA for Sissies and Unbottled. 

Transcript

A Restart And July 4 Plans

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hello, my name is Marcy Backett and I am your host here at Inside Marcy's Mind. I'll tell you, I hate you know what I hate more than anything. I hate starting my podcast, which I did a few minutes ago and realized it's not recording. So now I feel ridiculous doing it again, but you never heard it the first time. So here we are. I really enjoyed last doing last week's episode, What It's Like Living in a Big City. So this is part two because there were a lot of things that I didn't talk about that we're going to talk about today. We are on um you're this is dropping on July 3rd, the eve of the 250th anniversary of our country. And uh we're a baby country. If you've done any traveling outside the United States, you know that we are young. We look good for our age. But it's kind of exciting. Have my sister-in-law and her husband coming in to watch fireworks. We can just walk down about three blocks to the lake and uh watch fireworks. So that's kind of exciting. In the city of Chicago, we have fireworks all summer long every Wednesday and every Saturday. So since 4th of July is falling on a Saturday, we are actually gonna have 4th of July fireworks. And it's falling on a 250th anniversary, so they're gonna be a big deal. So I hope whatever your plans you are, you have fun. I hope that Mother Nature doesn't have anything in store for us tomorrow. We've had a hotter than Bejesus week here in Chicago. And uh I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow. I know it's supposed to rain. I mean Saturday. It's supposed to rain tonight. Tonight's today's Thursday while I'm doing this. All right.

The Big City Questions People Ask

SPEAKER_00 1:41

So the things that nobody tells you about living in a big city. Last week we talked about it, what it was like to actually live in downtown Chicago high-rise. Today we're talking, and we're gonna talk about that some more. We're talking about the questions that everybody asks me. Do you own a car? Where do you grocery stop? Are there tourists everywhere? Do you ever get tired of the city? Is it too noisy? It's all of those things and more. And just as you know, I

Learning To Drive Downtown Chicago

SPEAKER_00 2:04

love it. So driving isn't what you think. Everybody assumes we drive constantly. We really don't. And I talked about that last week. We drive less than we ever did in the suburbs. Think about it. Our grocery store is 10 minutes away, restaurants five minute walk, doctor. Doctors I do drive to. Um, but I what I want to tell you is learning to drive in the big city was a big deal for me. So um I got here in the beginning of June, um, four years ago, and uh everything got delivered, half of it to storage, and then the rest of it came here. And Craig at the time was living in his mom's house out in the suburbs because she wasn't living there anymore. He got here a few months before me. So he stayed living there pretty funny and working downtown. And I stayed here just me and the cats, and I worked through the boxes saying this, and I know we're talking about driving because that's how I learned to drive in the city. So I was scared to death to drive in this city. It's a scary city to drive in, but once you know it, it's just like anything, it becomes comfortable. At four years, I'm comfortable now. But every day at one o'clock, I would stop unpacking. I would make myself get in the car. And as you know, if you have the radio on, you can't see where you're going when you don't know where you're going. So I drove around and I learned the city. And slowly every time, I'll tell you, last year when I went to radiation every day, I took a different way home from the hospital. My hospital's on the other side of the city. I learned a lot of different routes. There's a thing here called it's a it's an underground road called Lower Whacker. And lower whacker, your GPS doesn't work. So you need to know and understand lower whacker. Well, a couple years ago, I decided I'm gonna learn lower whacker, and I've done that. And I know which ones are one ways. I know my streets now. I can get around in my neighborhood, in my area, get to the grocery store if I need to go, whatever I need to do, I can do it. And I'm not, I am and then I bought a new car this year. And, you know, because I've had it for three months and only driven it a handful of times, um, it still feels new and I'm still getting used to my car. I better. I think yesterday when I drove to the um doctor's, it was the first time that I really felt like that car wasn't so new. I kind of felt comfortable in it. You know, that feeling when your new car becomes kind of comfortable. Well, I think I'm starting to get there. So instead of putting miles on our car, we put miles on ourselves. Traffic can be frustrating, but we don't drive every day, and that's a huge difference. So I it I'll tell you when you don't want to drive here, is at like 4:30 to 6 because everybody's trying to get home and they try to make the signal and they block intersections, and this is a grid system city. So you got a bunch of dumbasses blocking intersections. It's really hard and it's really frustrating. I will tell you, one night Craig and I were going to the airport. We had a like a seven or eight o'clock flight to see Alec in Denver. So we left home about 4:30. It took us an hour and a half to get to the airport. When we got home, we came home and we were able to get home in 20 minutes. So a 20-minute drive from the airport to the airport can take up to an hour and a half. So you just have to know I will never book a flight at that time again. We usually take super early morning flights and I will do that. I just wanted to be there to start the day there. You know what I mean? Like get in at night so we could sleep, wake up, and start the day, but I won't do that again.

Grocery Shopping Without Big Hauls

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Okay, grocery shopping looks totally different living in the city. One of the biggest adjustments I had to make, we don't do gigantic Costco runs. We do do a Costco run, but it I have to remind Ding Dong here, you can't buy everything. You know, look, they got mac and cheese and a 12-pack. I'm like, we get one. I have the smallest ability to hold items. Now, in my bathroom, I have a huge shelving area. It's in a closet. And the top shelf, I used to have like comforters and things for when people visited. Well, since nobody visits, which is a fact, why do I need that crap up there? I don't. It would it made it better use for giant Costco things. So we can get some things a little bit more at Costco than we were. We do have a big freezer, so we're able to and refrigerator. I don't have an apartment size of that. I have full size. So, but um if we need small things, if we I do Hello Fresh for my food that fits the meats that I'm gonna use for the week. Just go, I don't have a lot of meat in the freezer for what ifs. I don't have food for what ifs. I have basic bear necessities and I love it. If I need to do a big grocery haul for whatever reason, I take my car. I have two grocery stores that I can drive to that so the ones I can walk to are Whole Foods, Aldi, Trader Joe's, and Jewel Oskar, which is for my West Coast people Vaughn's pavilions. So if I need to do like big items like soda or something like that, I either order it from Amazon Fresh or I drive to one of my two Osco jewels that have parking. So one of them has inside stacked parking, like you know, the parking structure. That one's great when the weather's bad. I can drive and never be in the weather. It's when it's freezing in the winter, I just go right in down the elevator. I told you we ride a lot of elevators here. And there is elevator etiquette. Um, or I can drive down on the same street to a big one, it looks like a suburban one, big parking lot, Jewel Osco, very big. The city grocery stores are also smaller inside, so that's a big one. If I need, then I can go there. And you have to carry your groceries home if you walk. I count that as an arm day. Less food gets wasted the way we live here. Um, I buy things that I actually like, I make meals I actually like.

Tourists Culture And Great Food

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Tourists are everywhere, and honestly, they're fun. Yes. I love people looking at their phone. I always ask if I can help them because now I can. Lived here long enough. Chicago gets millions of visitors every year. And I live, like you know, I live one block from the world's largest Starbucks, and on the corner of where I live is the Harry Potter store. So I'm in the thick of it, people. I am right near the river. I am all things Chicago. So um, sometimes you'll be walking down and suddenly everybody stops on the sidewalk to take a picture. You learn patience. I also walk on back streets. So Michigan Avenue is the big avenue, and I'll walk a straight back because it's easier. I do love my Michigan Avenue, but I tourists, oy, oi, oi, oi. They're always taking pictures because this is a stunning city. They take pictures of the river, everything. You name it, they take a picture of it. The architecture here is stunning. So, yeah, we deal with tourists, something I never had to deal with where I lived before. We talked a little bit about last week having world-class culture at your front door. This may be my favorite part of the city living. So, tomorrow, Pritzker Pavilion, you've probably seen pictures of it. It's down in Millennium Park near the bean. Um they have free concerts down there, they're fabulous. Well, tomorrow we're not gonna be able to go down to the concert on the 4th of July because I don't want to deal with the crowds, but they have a rehearsal tomorrow afternoon. So I'm gonna go down tomorrow afternoon and sit and listen to the rehearsal. That way I get to hear it. But we have amazing theaters this year. Um, next year I bought season tickets with my friend Joan. I'll be sitting next to her. Joan's had her tickets forever, so guess what? Pretty darn good seeds. And I bought uh a season of tickets. So we have jazz clubs, we have comfort comedy, we have symphonies, we have opera, live music every night of the year here. Food from virtually every culture on earth. One night you can eat authentic Thai. I'll tell you, right in on my same block with my building is the Thai consulate and a Thai restaurant. Well, you can imagine if there's a Thai restaurant next to the Thai consulate, it's pretty darn legit. The next night, Italian, Middle Eastern, Mexican, Indian, Greek. We even have a Greek town, an Italian area, Taylor Street. It's like traveling without leaving town. I can walk to every type of food right from my condo. I will tell you this.

Why Downtown Feels Like A Neighborhood

SPEAKER_00 10:41

This is probably the most shocking thing for people. It feels like a small town. Here's the part that surprises everyone. Downtown Chicago feels like a neighborhood. I run into people I know all the time at the grocery store, on the bus, outside walking, at church, the farmer's market, getting coffee in the lobby, on the river walk. You start recognizing I know doormen, I know the doormen of the four seasons, I know the doorman at the Park Hyatt. Um, you get to know your barista, you know the dog walkers, you have neighbors. For being one of America's biggest cities, I have never felt so happy and run into more people than I have living here. I lived in Coda de Casa for 20 some odd years. I never ran into anybody ever that I knew. Grocery store, you're all in your cars. I was in my car all the time. Farmers markets are fabulous here. We have them all season long. And now we've been having them indoor during the inclement weather. Beaches, uh, people forget this one. I live two blocks away from one of the most beautiful beaches in the country. Oak Street Beach, look it up. North Beach, look it up. Chicago has beaches and they're beautiful. Sometimes I'll be walking along Lake Michigan and I think, I cannot believe this is a city. The water stretches forever. The breeze is incredible. People are paddleboarding, playing volleyball, reading books, running, swimming, doing yoga, doing Pilates. You name it. Our beaches are fabulous. And if you don't believe me, look them up. Look up North Beach, look up Oak Street Beach. They are phenomenal. Ohio, look them all up. They're gorgeous. I love living here. I I can get go to the beach, sit on the sand in 15 minutes or less. It's gonna take me a while to get down the elevator and that, but I mean, come on. Amazing. Again, you walk all the time.

Noise Costs Trade Offs And Closing

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Here's some of the trade-offs, though. I know for two days, two weeks now I've been telling you everything that's fabulous, and it is. Is city living perfect? Absolutely not. It's very noisy. If I open my windows right now, and I happen to live near the hospital, Northwestern, so you can imagine. You do get used to it. When my windows are closed or double paned, I don't hear a lot. Parking can be extremely expensive. Traffic exists. My sales tax is third tax is 13%. There's construction all the time. There are crowds. But for us, the trade-off is worth it. We traded a big yard for a bigger life. We tried it, we traded driving everywhere for walking almost everywhere. We traded quiet streets for endless things to discover, warm summer nights, fireworks twice a week. And honestly, I wouldn't change it. If you ever wondered what it's like to live in downtown Chicago, I hope this gave you a little peek behind the curtain, answered some of your questions. Every place has its pros and cons. But this season of my life, this is the best place for me to be. And if you're coming to Chicago someday, don't just visit the tourist spots. Wander a neighborhood. My friend Annette was here. We took her for dinner at Restoration Hardware up north of a little north of the city, and we walked through some neighborhoods that had her jaw dropped on the floor. She loved it so much. She video called Larry, her husband, and was sharing the beautiful, beautiful city and streets that she was seeing. Visit a farmer's market, sit by the lake, grab a coffee. That's where you'll find the real heart of this amazing city. I want to thank you as always for stopping in, for listening, for enjoying my episodes and sharing them with friends. I think right now I'm gonna take a walk down to the river, watch the boats, enjoy some sunshine. Life isn't a race from one appointment to the next. Sometimes the best part of the day is the five minutes you didn't plan. Again, I want to thank you for spending part of your day with me. If you are thinking about visiting Chicago, I hope this episode encourages you to do it. It's beautiful, it's green. Our flower displays are off the hook all year long. All year long. Summer, they change with the seasons. Don't forget to check out my other podcast, AGA for Sissies and Unbottled. I am Marcy and this has been Inside Marcy's Mind. A reminder next week's episode will be a repeat. The next two weeks will be repeats. I'll pick some great ones and I'm gonna be on vacation. I'm gonna be in California at the beach. Lucky, lucky me. Thanks again for listening. Talk to you soon.