🏙️ Big city resident problems

Spoiler alert: it isn't parking [READER]( The Daily Reader The city of big shoulders is also quite big. Shortly after moving to Chicago from Minneapolis 20 years ago, I discovered a big-city resident’s problem: if you live in a metropolis of any significant size and infamy people want to visit you–and frequently. This is both a blessing and a curse. Chicago is sprawling, maddening in its recreational options, and generally prone to uncomfortable weather patterns for Minneapolis natives. I had a lot of people wanting to visit in August (too hot), in April (too wet), and around the calendar holidays (too unpredictable). And every last one of them thought Chicago would be smaller than it is. It’s absolutely not. Minneapolis is just over 55 square miles; Chicago is just over 225. So no, we can’t breakfast at Sweet Maple Cafe, see the Chicago Cultural Center, visit the MCA, check out Reckless Records, eat at Uru Swati, tour the Pilsen murals, and just romp down Northalsted in one day. You will die. Or I will kill you. (I love you, you sweet, sweet excited visitor, but I will kill you deader than a Graceland resident if I have to “city” that many times in one day.) That’s the real conundrum about living here. You can find and do so much at any given hour that a treat is often not going out! It’s an embarrassment of riches that should be met with the unabashed joy that visitors often bring. The Chicago Reader’s [Best of Chicago issue]( is a social lifesaver in these circumstances. Keep a few copies in your sweltering, or conversely radiator-clanging, apartment for those times when out-of-towners inevitably hit you with their big eyes, inappropriate walking shoes, and unrealistic ambitions to see and do it all. Sometimes you need a way to share what’s best about the city and a reminder of why you live here. Sheba White, Managing Editor [Best of Chicago 2022: Buy Local]( by [Chicago Reader]( | [Read more]( → [Best bookstore tote bag]( Pilsen Community Books by [Annette LePique]( | [Read more]( → [DisFest comes to the Chicago Cultural Center]( “Disabled people can do whatever they want to and make beautiful art.” by [Keidra Chaney]( | [Read more]( → [Devon Street Dining]( Arya Bhavan, Hyderabad House, Mysore Woodlands, and more by [Chicago Reader]( | [Read more]( → [Best joke in a cemetery]( Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s tombstone by [Chicago Reader]( | [Read more]( → [BEST OF CHICAGO ISSUE]( [View this e-mail as a web page]( [@chicago_reader]( [/chicagoreader]( [@chicago_reader]( [Chicago Reader on LinkedIn]( [/chicagoreader]( [chicagoreader.com]( [Forward this e-mail to a friend](. Want to change how you receive these e-mails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](. Copyright © 2023 Chicago Reader, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Chicago Reader, 2930 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 102, Chicago, IL 60616