Lake Michigan runs along the edge of Chicago, and the lakefront shapes daily life more than anything else. About 2.7 million people live in the city, with more than nine million in the metro area, and it has the feel of a big city that stays practical about money. Visitors take an architecture cruise on the river, see the Bean in Millennium Park, spend an afternoon at the Art Institute or the Field Museum, and catch a Cubs game at Wrigley Field.
Costs are reasonable for a major city, with rent and home prices well below the coasts. Winters are brutally cold and windy, while summer is festival season, with Lollapalooza and the Pride Parade. Safety is uneven. The Loop and the lakefront are busy and well patrolled, but violence is concentrated in parts of the South and West Sides. Shootings have fallen recently, though rates remain above the national average.
