I moved to Chicago in 2006 and consider it home. My wife Kate and dog Murray) were born in the area.
It's not perfect -- no big city is. But I like it very much, and I'm surrounded by the people I want to be surrounded by. The winters, of which I am not a fan, are the price I pay for having politicians that don't want to ban my gay friends or restrict my wife's rights.
I live in a neighborhood called Rogers Park, which people have periodically complained on-and-off, going back years, as being crime ridden, but that's mostly bullshit. That's not to say that the world is free of crime (or poverty). We've got lots do to make it better. I try to help where I can and I hope that you do, too.