How Chicago Built an Amazing Lake Shore 

I am from turkey, I have been to Chicago in 2019. I did not know that a city could be this beautiful. I definetely want to be there again.

For many years, no matter where in the country or world you went, people always commented on and asked questions about the gangsters, Al Capone and his ilk, not the street punks on the South and West sides we have now.

Chicago is an awesome city to visit.

Yup and the amazing food and festivals in the summer 😁👍🏼

I live in the Southeast as of now, but seriously considering moving to Chicago though I've yet to visit. While most people I talk to about Chicago haven't visited, I'm surprised that crime hasn't been brought up more often to me when people react to the move. People are literally talking about its history, it being a good alternative to NYC, it's architecture, and so on. I'm excited to visit and live there and I'm glad not everyone thinks of it as some warzone.

So true. The first time I went to Milwaukee I was so confused by the barren lakefront.

The whole gulf coast is a public beach in Texas. Good job, Texas.

@@foxesamu Barren? Litterally ALL of the Milwaukee lakefront is public land, save Jones island, an industrial area.

Los Angeles has tons of beaches and they aren't cheap to maintain. Just because it doesn't provide a view of a manicured garden with fancy museums for it's wealthy water front property owners doesn't mean LA isn't doing anything with it. I prefer they stay beaches.

It's our crown jewel.

*its

did you live past the age of 12

I was not surprised. Big cities tend to have a lot of “beaches”. But I am too much of a gentleman to say it in front of them.

@@newsaxonyproductions7871 actually, no. it's its without the apostrophe

@@newsaxonyproductions7871 for the word it, it's means it is, and its means owned by it

Where from in Europe, if i may ask? I'm from Chicago

Same im from south chicago its great to hear people enjoy my home one of the thkngs im truly proud of is the effort weve all put in to out archetecture

Moved to Chicagoland from Austin TX about 3 years ago. The Chicago and Chicagoland beaches are wonderful. What you mean Lake, to this ex-Texan - no ma'am, this here is what you call an Ocean!

But everything I hear about Chicago makes it seem like the worst place to live in the world. Fox news paints a picture like people are getting killed left and right all over the city.

@Dickgirl Nationalist yeah it is one of the richest cities in the world (3rd richest in the US). Wish to visit it as soon as possible.

They tried to hide all the violence and REAL problems with a bullshit park for all the white people

Road condition is far below the third world countries! Come and experience driving on Lakeshore Dr!

@@SunMoon-cg2ol you obvi have never been to a 3rd world country

Absolutely, it's beautiful.

not u.s most beautiful city but one of them.

@@donnerwetter1905 it doesn’t “ruin” anything. But, yes, would be better if it was a quiet tree lined parkway, 35 mph tops.

I guess you've never been to Alaska, It's the MOST beautiful city by FAR.

@@bruceli9094 Nah, Mississippi is the most beautiful city BY FAR.

Chicago is a long way from the sea

guess the republicans need a company that wants an el-paso to san diego elevated tramway

@@andrewevans5750 why exactly?

@@feartheghus dude get the original sarcasm. the wall.... is it clear yet

That is basically the same thing going on in the Bay Area right now with corporate campuses for Google and Facebook.

I hope your enjoying the city's history museums food and downtown

go to pequods and moody's in rogers park

i'm sorry, enjoy beetle juice

See how you like it in February. Chicago is great at first then it’s appeal wears out quickly

@@dans3294 if you can’t handle cold, don’t come here

Debris is very useful as landfill... FDR Drive in NYC is built on the ruins of Bristol UK after 1,700 ships used rubble as ballast while bringing supplies to England

There are parallels to San Francisco building massive flat areas using debris from the big earthquake.

Interesting related note on this. When construction is taking place East of Michigan Ave, you have to perform thorium and other hazardous ground testing due to the decomposing nature of the debris. We've found old boats, bottles/cans and rail lines. All kinds of stuff is buried there.

My home town.chicago.

Michigan Avenue was our old Lake Shore Drive more than a century ago. Everything east of that was water. Chicago is also the only US city that has multi street levels. The city was raised multiple times due to flooding because Chicago was built on a swamp. Lower Wacker Drive is our orginal street level. Chicago has the most miles of underground tunnels of any city. The world's largest tunnels system if you include all miles of abandoned/sealed tunnels left behind from old subway lines, rail lines, etc. There's more proof of this outside of Downtown. Pilsen, Chinatown and other neighborhoods have buildings that have their 1st floor stairs go up to the sidewalk, instead of down

It’s supposed to be a drive and that’s why pick up trucks and semi’s are banned from it. they never planned for it to be a major highway. It was just supposed to be a pleasure drive. But with cars become as important...altered that.

@@kelvinw.1384 and maybe relieve some traffic

A lot cleaner city too

We have alleys for trash.

Rio has a beach, Chi-town has murder.

@@TheHopetown Only in the places tourists never go to.

@@GRANOLA77 sounds great but I’m skipping it

And some good paddleboarding.

Funny enough, many Chicago residents don't know either.

we will gladly welcome you to the city

Just have to be out of the parks at a certain time or you're almost guaranteed to be a victim of a robbery.

That's an over dramatization if I've ever heard one

That's one of the things Chicago is known for.

You should, it's even more impressive in person.

I have many recent videos of the city life and night life here. ✅ them out. Chicago is highly underated and this video doesn't do it justice

Skip the winter, unless you like freezing wind and blackened snow. But, summer is great along the lake.

Come during the summer and go of course of the main attractions sometime, you can find cool places to explore like lower wacker drive with the rest of its underground network.

I was just there visiting this week and thats exactly what I saw along the lake! EVERYONE uses them! Was beautiful to see.

Cleveland has made a lot of collective choices that are better than Chicago's. But Chicago made every aesthetic waterfront choice that Cleveland should have.

Check out Taste of Chicago. It's an amazing experience set all around the downtown area in the video. And it's even more beautiful on the ground.

Agreed. I live in Detroit too. Im glad were finally making changes. One of the worst mistakes this area made is making most of it's waterfront private. Even in the suburbs it's mostly mansion, condos, and private beaches blocking off access to Lake St. Clair and the Detroit river. Too much underutilized potential

It might look nice, but is it even safe to visit with all the crime and violence happening in Detroit? Maybe if Detroit can solve that, many more people would feel safe to visit.

@@UzumakiNaruto_ yeah I don’t actually live in downtown but visit once or twice weekly to go to university and also go have fun, very safe downtown and surrounding areas, the outer neighborhoods are where the danger lies in between the city proper and the rich suburbs

@@UzumakiNaruto_ What kind of bullshit comment is this? Of course it's safe. They're not randomly shooting people in Detroit. The riverfront has tons of people daily walking it. Don't be ignorant.

@@ezioaugustus2621 If Detroit is such an awesome city then why is its population still strinking? I don't know about you, but 300+ murders among a population of 640,000 doesn't scream 'safe' to me. In Toronto and surrounding suburbs here, people are losing their minds when we have even 100+ murders among a population of 6+ MILLION.

my GPS goes crazy there and constantly reroutes. Wacker drive was my enemy lol

@@NatashaEh driving downtown Chicago, you will be better without a GPS. you'll be able to get around much faster when you learn your way around the grid and the lower streets

I was a little disappointed that those two design elements on the evolution of LSD over time weren't in there. The history of the drive could be a video on it's own especially the old system of hydraulic barriers on the north part of the drive that created reversible lanes. Also, the curves on the old viaduct were technically greater than 90 degrees and created a Z shape instead.

(Tthough I was not the one driving) college mid 70s, I loved 'running south on Lake Shore Drive' at Gold Coast and Grant Park section of LSD. Aliota, Haynes and Jeremiah.

there is a cool old song about LSD

That is awesome!

Nice!

Inspiration is good. However reconsider doing civil engineering instead if this content interests you.

Agreed

Hell yes.

Idea, bike/pedestrian path with grassy tram tracks in the middle. I know this won't happen but god I would kill for it.

@@SpaceEndeavour That would be nice! Toronto has something like that

@@SpaceEndeavour If we fight for it we can get it done! Chicago wouldn't be the first to convert a freeway to something better.

Chicago is definitely underrated but it’s reputation got even more tarnished by mainstream media over the cities crime which immediately make people overlook chicago as a place to move too. The lakefront trail is by far amazing, sunrises over the skyline in the morning is one the best sights I seen

wut you go to uic? noice same here

Toronto needs more housing right now, not more parks which we already have a ton of including many lakefront parks from Mississauga to Pickering. Lets not forget about the Toronto Islands which by themselves are more than twice the size of Grant Park and to me is a superior park space.

@@TheTroyc1982 Yeah, those giant concrete and glass hulks that have cut off millions of residents from the lake that should be a communal birthright are really providing a lot of affordable housing. Your shilling for such an obviously bad idea that can only be good for the short-term gain of a few and your attempt to pretend that Pickering and Mississauga are Toronto can mean only one thing: you're a real estate agent. Go back to Oakville, shill.

Those Toronto condo buildings truly are exceptionally generic. The row of buildings at the South end of Grant Park always remind me of that aspect of Toronto

@@wclark3196 so where would you put the 20,000 people who live in these condo's then and how would removing 20,000 housing unit from Toronto supply help affordability? Toronto has tons of waterfront parkland and it really doesn't need anymore. I mention the Toronto Islands earlier and guess what, they are over twice the size of Grant park if you want a central big park for Toronto there it is. Grant Park: 129 ha Toronto Islands: 332 ha

Ironically, you can thank environmentalists for Toronto’s sprawling waterfront. Because they are dead set against building out into the suburbs, that really leaves no other choice to solve the housing shortage than to build condos wherever there’s space in the already sprawling downtown and lakeshore. As someone living in the gta, I would much rather we build outwards, which Chicago has done.

Someone needs the courage to shut down BKL. Most of Cleveland's most valuable lakefront land can't be developed because of airport-related restrictions.

I can’t speak for the other cities, but Milwaukee did a comparatively good job with preserving its lakefront by restricting private development from the harbor north to Lake Park.

@@davelb87 agreed. Burke Lakefront Airport is barely utilized and Hopkins International Airport is not far away. Having route 2 there doesn't help the situation either.

Tell me you haven’t been to Milwaukee without saying it, Milwaukee has a beautiful lakefront with parks and beaches.

Hahahahahahahaha, it can't be that bad Edit: Well, I can somewhat see what you mean. While not horrible, it could have been much better, especially as it seems most of the developments on the waterfront is quite new.

@@nobel978 The lakeshore is so bad there is no reason to see it. There are millions of people here who have no idea Toronto (like Chicago) is a maritime city, they have no idea it’s on a lake.

Agreed. Toronto’s lakefront is very unpleasant.

@@lyssasletters3232 It's soul-destroying. But fitting, as it's perfectly in tune with Toronto, a city that is always the bridemaid, and never the bride.

@@nobel978 You've got no idea. But then, apparently you looked. Yeah, it's horrible.

100% agree. Really wish it would get revived one day.

What happened to it funding?

@@whoishim2998 The Great Recession happened.

Spire was soo big for Chicago and they want replace it with twin tower hotel

Burnham didn't design Soldier Field, did he?

@@vinnieviddivicci5459 He did not design it for he had passed away but the architectural style and existence were in line with his plan/vision for Burnham Park where Soldier Field is located. Wikipedia says he conceived the stadium.

@@washingtonzoom2618 - I did not realize Burnham had envisioned a stadium anywhere along the lakefront. I am in the minority, I know, but I sort of like the new Soldier Field. And I'm an architecture fanatic. Anyway...peace, brother. ✌

@@vinnieviddivicci5459 Don't worry, its definitely a greater feat, the old field just had lots of history so people were sad to see it go for the futuristic stadium. Chicago has a deep deep history of architecture and there are dozens of pages and groups I've seen looking to protect it so it's kind of a culture thing. Also to think they might just get rid of that Stadium entirely and move to Arlington Heights!! Crazy lol. Maybe they could turn soldier field into something incredible along the lakefront.

@@spjr99 - I was born/raised in northern burbs. I saw the old Chicago Fire football team playing at Soldier Field. Saw tennis matches there, and of course the Bears. For me, no city in the country, or maybe in the world has a skyline better than Chicago. That view from the lake? Magnificent.

I agree, though I also think we need to both modernize and expand the CTA. (Building shiny new stations adorned with Lori Lightfoot's brand doesn't really help the core problems like vast areas that lack access to trains, having to always be routed through the loop if you want to go from the north side to the northwest, broken trains, safety issues, etc.)

Bruh u are so privileged to think the CTA is wack Lfmaoo, chicago has a top 5 public transit system in the US

@@angelm3670 That doesn't mean it can't strive to be better

@@angelm3670 if you think any public transit in the United States is any good, you haven’t been paying attention.

@@angelm3670 im a new yorker and it always breaks my heart to know that our subway system is considered the best when it really could be so much better and expansive, along with fixing the delays. This country just doesn't have public transit for shit

Almost disappointed there was no mention of how insane the closure was. The runways were bulldozed in the middle of the night with so little notice that a dozen planes were stranded until being permitted to takeoff from the taxiways.

@@ztl2505 My headcanon is that Dave got a call from the Daleys and decided to cut it out of the video

The story of Meigs still brings me to tears. Private amateur aviation is a true public good. The united states is the only country in the world with this much aviatior-friendly real estate. The NIMBYs that would crow at an airport being built so close to a downtown these days... you just can't BUILD more airports. To have one lost...not even lost, MURDERED, by a politician for no real reason other than just to say that they did, is heartbreaking. Everybody knows Meigs from flight sim, but it really was a beautiful piece of Chicago.

I LOVED watching the planes land. Best spot was right next to Adlers. I have to say though, the concert venue that replaced it is a fun place to go.

@@muthergoose4084 I remember attending CES at McCormick and taking a break, watching the planes land for a little bit. I think there were little puddle jumpers across the lake to some Michigan cities. That's a nice idea a direct flight right into downtown.

The land was already there, they just put playground equipment, and the ribbon walkway thing

@@Sammywhammy773 it very much a major addition tho and it’s not just playground equipment they put an ice rink and a bouldering wall

I just got back from Austin. Expect a video on TxDOT and I-35 sometime this fall!

@@CityBeautiful Confused for a second...TDOT is Toronto to us Canucks

@@CityBeautiful As a Chicago native that's lived in Austin now for 6 years, I can't wait to see that video!

@@CityBeautiful Can't wait!

@@CityBeautiful TxDOT's plans are absolutely killing us. We are fighting hard to keep them from adding lanes to their inner city highways all across the state.

I can tell you it is a traffic nightmare

The freeways in Chicago are definitely not ideal but they're far less intrusive than most other American cities.

The only way they could realistically reduce the lanes of LSD is if they expanded the Dan Ryan and there isn't enough land to do that. Rush hour both the Dan Ryan and LSD are parking lots.

Welcome to America, where cars are more important than people

You are probably not American lol, every single big city in America is scarred by huge Interstates. It is very convenient and efficient for car drivers, but they do look and sound terrible.

In this case, we may have the Mega-Nimbys to thank that we don’t have a railway station, airport, or something like that like so many cities do on their waterfronts. It’s insane how many coastal cities will make an airport out on the shore. But Chicago, which easily could have an airport minutes from the business district, doesn’t have one.

Next video is on Gary!

Why is minneapolis better?

Not a universal truth; it just works better for me personally. Chicago traffic stresses me out, and I like the accessibility of the park system here.

@@scottanderson8470 are you answering me or?

@@leob4403 Yeah, sorry, that's me… I replied from the wrong account.

@@room34 oh okey, is the public transport better in Minneapolis too?

It is

I live in Cleveland but am from Chicago. Edgewater park is lovely, Cleveland doesnt deserve the rep it gets. But there's nothing quite like Chi-town

@@kailehtinen5972 hey, welcome welcome! Yeah, I live a 6 min walk from Edgewater park. And it's nice. But yeah, no where near Chicago. They do have some interesting plans for changing the area around first energy stadium. And the Edgewater pier is a joke compared to Navy Pier (or even piers in small town Massachusetts)

@@IanZainea1990 Thanks! Been here a few years now. Theres so much potential by First Energy and the Rock Hall. Even as it stands though I love it, very picturesque. Hard to compare a city of about 400k to one of 2.6 million lol, but it reminds me a solid bit of home, albeit smaller

@@kailehtinen5972 yeah. I live on the westside, so the view of downtown is quite boring haha. The best is from out on the water, or south or east... All of them but west 🤣. I recently started sailing, so I've been getting a new perspective on the city! Wendy Park also provide great lakeside parks, but not really for swimming. The cliffs on the westside are beautiful and should be "The Dover Cliffs of Lake Erie" even if that's an exaggeration. But they're like. 100ft sheer cliffs, and just completely hidden and not utilized. Which is a problem imo! And while I'm not 100% sold on getting rid of Burke Lakefront, I do see the arguments, and to have a park like that grant park would be amazing. Oh and the "Malls" downtown, they are completely wasted. They could be as beautiful as Central park, but nope, just giant grass lawns. Complete waste of space imo. The new public square puts it to shame. Cleveland may be 400k now. And that's part of it's problem. It used to be almost 1million, and so a lot of it's infrastructure is built for that max population, and it looks half empty (because it kinda is). One of my favorite nick names for Cleveland is "the 6th city," for being the 6th biggest back in the day. Apparently it even got up to 5th for a minute. But the nickname was already settled I guess! Haha. Sorry for the book

I drove from Boston back home to Chicago and I passed downtown Cleveland at 3 am in the morning, while Cleveland may not have the towering buildings like Chicago what they do have really looks beautiful and nicely designed.

Great comment. I will never call Sears tower---" Willis tower" lol. It also hurt me when Marshall fields closed. That franco chocolate & evergreen bag was everything

No one will ever call it anything other than Lake Shore Drive.

As a Chicagoan, it’s always be lake shore drive. I respect Du Sable but we have so many places named after him and this wasn’t the right road to be named after him.

Agreed. I live in ravenswood and travel south past downtown to visit family often. Removing lake shore drive would make commuting much harder for anyone who likes a mile or less from it.

I live in Rogers Park too. I'd love there to be a bus-only lane along Sheridan that gets buses quickly to and from LSD. LSD needs a bus-only lane. It makes sense. You can move 50-60+ people on a bus that takes up the same amount of space as 3 cars. Fewer cars on the road is a win and the people taking the bus don't deserve to be slowed down by mostly empty cars. My commute on the 147 was so unreliable due to all the congestion caused by mostly empty cars. More people would ride the bus if we gave the buses priority.

yeah. Lake shore drive as it exists now is very useful. Changing it will be a big fight.