Ten minutes to write. Less time to read.

Originally published November 9, 2005

There is no place in our country like New York City. I haven’t been to all the major metropolises of the world, so I hesitate to say New York is the top of the tops; but I wager it’s a contender.

As someone who’s spent part of her childhood in New York and much of her adult life in and around Chicago, I feel qualified to make comparisons. Sorry, Chicago, if it doesn’t always work in your favor.

When you arrive by plane, New York City’s skyline dwarfs Chicago’s. When you find a taxi to go to your hotel, the traffic makes Chicago’s look like a drive in the country. When you seek diversity, New York is a little United Nations, while Chicago is a littler one. New York is faster, smarter, cleverer, trendier than her Midwest counterpart will ever be.

At the same time, here are some things Chicago offers that New York doesn’t.

Through some divine planning, the Windy City has alleys, while the Big Apple doesn’t. This may not sound like much, but when it’s garbage collection day in your neighborhood where would you rather have your leftover food, your disposable diapers, and your beer cans waiting to be picked up? In the alley or on the street in front of your house or apartment?

I thought so.

Chicago is driveable, while New York City really isn’t. The Dutch founded the original island in the seventeenth century with fewer than one thousand residents — you do remember the story about the Indians selling Manhattan for a handful of trinkets? — so who’s to argue that the layout of the streets precluded the automobile?

For the record, Chicago wasn’t founded until the early nineteenth century; and, granted, the automobile was still years away from invention. However, Chicago never was an island with limited space; rather it subscribed to the endless prairie theory.

Fortunately, I don’t have to choose between either city. Rather, I live in bucolic southwestern Michigan, which makes both cities seem world-class. And, for the record, I’m really happy to have experienced life firsthand in each.