Why do I live here? - 5/3/2009
Have you ever asked yourself that question? Everybody has to live somewhere, and people settle down in a particular place for a variety of reasons. Perhaps it's the area where you grew up, or a place you've had to re-locate to for work. Maybe you've hit the lotto or have retired to a place you've always dreamed of living.
I live in the northern suburbs of Chicago, which is probably among the last places you'd want to live if you were a serious water skier. Land around here is very expensive and tight village and county ordinances would make it tough to build a private lake anywhere close to my neighborhood. We also have a long, cold, dark winter as well. If we're lucky, our ski season goes from April to November. Drysuits get used heavily in the spring and fall. We are lucky enough to have a ski club and lake right in town, and some great public water within a 20 minute drive of our house. This area is certainly not chock full of water skiers— we're probably one of only a small handful of houses within a 15 mile radius with an inboard tucked away in the garage.
Well how did I get here? I was born and raised here. In fact, my parent's house is only 2 miles away. I guess I just never really considered leaving, even in my early 20's when it would have been easy to re-locate.
Every time I travel somewhere else— particularly somewhere warm— I think about whether or not I'd like to move there and what I'd have to do to get there. I'd have to pull up some major roots: jobs, nearby family and friends, and everything else. Then, I start to think about what I like about the greater tri-state area, and here's what I generally come up with:
- 1. Natural Disasters: We don't really have to deal with many natural disasters. Tornadoes and severe thunderstorms are about as bad as it gets. No (major) earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, wildfires, floods.
- 2. Air Travel: We have O'Hare, Midway, and Mitchell airport all within an hour's drive. Midway might be a little over an hour depending on traffic. With no traffic, I can be at ORD in 25 minutes. Chicago's central location makes most destinations in the US reachable in under 3 hours, up to 4 or 5 hours out to the west coast. This also helps with shipping- most ground shipping gets here within a couple days due to our central location.
- 3. Deadly creatures: The cold winters here generally keep down the amount of deadly, nasty insects and creatures around here. The biggest bug you'll encounter here would be a Cicada or Junebug, both of which are harmless. It seems like the milder the climate is, the deadlier the wildlife gets. No thanks.
- 4. Beautiful Cities: I can hop on a train from multiple stations that are all within 10 minutes of my house and be whisked away in about an hour to one of the most amazing cities in the world: Chicago. I can also drive there in under an hour with no traffic, or in 4 hours with traffic! I can also drive north an hour and be in Milwaukee. Walking to dinner across the Michigan Avenue bridge or watching the a game at Wrigley, the Cell, or Miller park are all awesome experiences and are a major bonus of living here.
- 5. Family and Friends: Having family and friends close by is awesome. We generally have babysitters ready and willing at the drop of a hat if we ever want to go out to dinner or anything else.
- 6. Jobs: There are lots of places to work around here, both in the suburbs and in the city proper. So we've got that going for us, which is nice.
- 7. Seasons: I love the changing seasons. I love the crisp fall air, mixed in with the smell of burning leaves. I also love the arrival of spring and those first few snows of winter. Yes, winter could stand to be a little shorter around here, but it makes you appreciate the warmer months that much more.
So why do you live where you live? Do you have plans for re-locating? If so, why?
Comments:
CedarLakeSkier, 5/4/2009: I live in the western suburbs of Chicago. On summer weekends you'll usually find me in Michigan, we have a house on a lake. It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive. I guess you could add that to your benefits of Chicago list. Lots of lakes in Southern Michigan and Southern Wisconsin which is a short drive. I'm not thinking of relocating now, mainly for your list of reasons in addition to the kids being well established in their school. I do find it gets tougher for me to handle the harsh winters as I get older. Now I know why people retire to warmer climates.miracledriver, 5/4/2009: Joel, great post! I can relate all too well!!!
I live in Toronto, basically the same size population wise as Chicago, with roughly 1/2 of the suburban development.
I live in the city proper though so skiing is very difficult. There are also only 2 man made lakes in a 200mi radius - 1 of which is not open to the public. I drive 3hrs each way every weekend just to get 2 or 3 sets in, 4 or 5 if I'm lucky(often 1, sometimes none...)
I live in Toronto for the same reasons you live in the area you live; family,friends,jobs,etc
our season is about 2 months shorter than yours though and I am fine with that.
my sister has acutally lived in the Greater Miami area for 20 years and I wouldn't want to live there full time.. I love the winter too...
If I could make a bunch more money so I could fly down to FLA a few times during the off season that would be ideal for me.
my next step in life is to purchase a home, hopefully a lot closer to the cottage and to a ski club or at least access to a boat/course.
h2oski1326, 5/5/2009: I live where I do because I do not have a choice, school is here. I can relate with some of your comments but I think the folks from down south view things differently, probably because some have lived there so long. The season changes are nice, but I would love it if the seasons went straight from fall to spring again. I think there are likely plenty of places that you could find that have close proximity to air travel, low probability of natural disasters, and even small numbers of deadly creatures. To me the limiting factors are jobs and family. When we graduate we want to move a bit further south but we do not want to be so far away from family that it is impractical to see everyone in the same calendar year.
UWSkier, 5/20/2009: I live in the Milwaukee suburbs for pretty much the same reasons. I like both winter and spring. I have a huge family that all lives about an hour and a half north. An hour and a half past that is our lake house, on a beautiful, pristine lake on which my family has had property since the 1940s. I definitely want to live somewhere else for a while, but I think the upper Midwest will always be "home."
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