Tuesday, December 02, 2008, 05:02

how I keep up...

I've lived in Chicago for about 5 years now and I feel pretty comfortable with the city. I just recently started being able to give directions by actual direction. Such as, "Go west on Ontario and then north on Clark." Before it was just, take a left here and right there. Also through the years I have amounted a pretty big list of Chicago sites. Some of them do just reviews and lists of drink specials and some of them talk about all of the happenings here.

This being the first post of my Chicago section and I just wanted to list a few of these sites to get people who may have just moved to Chicago or natives trying to keep up with everything Chicago, in the loop. So without any more delays...

Chicagoist
They have a great staff and really give a good look at what's going on in Chicago. It's written in a blog style so navigating previous information sometimes is a little annoying. Otherwise this is a great place to begin on a day to day basis. Even hour by hour. Yeah... I forgot to say it's updated very frequently.

Gapers Block
This site as well has a great staff. Some very good writers. This site has a somewhat blog format but the archive of everything is set up pretty nice. GB does a great job of covering day to day events, news, and all sorts of things Chicago. Definitely should stop by.

Pitchfork Media
While this is a worldwide site the company/site is based in Chicago. It's a music site basically covering all aspects of the biz. I have read some great interviews and reviews of albums here. They hold the Pitchfork Festival every year which always brings some of the best indie bands/artists to Chicago.

Centerstage
Any time I ever want to know what kind of restaurant or bar I might be visiting any given day I usually visit Centerstage first. Their reviews are dead on and the provided information on stuff like hours of business and phone numbers are usually accurate. They have a bunch of different sections covering almost everything outside of bars and restaurants. If you are ever looking for somewhere new and cool to do start here.

Metromix Chicago
This is actually a part of the Chicago Tribune. There's a lot of information on what's going on around town any given day. There's also a great search function. Being able to search by genre of establishment specific to a certain neighborhood is a nice tool.

You Are Beautiful
By now I think everyone has seen one of these stickers or an installation. If not, pop over to the site. The group is actually based in Chicago and you too can post up some stickers by sending them your address.

YoChicago
I've only been to this site a handful of times. After taking a quick skim it looks like it deals more with Chicago real estate and neighborhoods.

Yelp
This site is a monster. It's user driven and has a lot of them. I think ever Chicagoan should have an account. It's one of the best ways to give feedback directly to an establishment if they haven't provided an avenue for you to do so (trust me, managers and owners look at this stuff). It also helps other Chicagoans figure out where their next night out might be.

CTA Tattler
This is a blog written by a dedicated Chicagoan who has devoted a large amount of time to bring us everything CTA. Love it or hate it, you must take it at some point. I ride a bus and/or train every day; it's a love/hate relationship. Anywayz, the writer has insider information and some great info. Take a look.

And last I'm just gonna list a few other links that don't really need descriptions but are immensely useful. I hope these sites get you started on knowing Chicago better.

CTA
CTA Trip Planner (the best way to navigate the CTA)
bus tracker (real time bus tracking)
Craigslist Chicago

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