Live in in the Lakeview area of Chicago and feeling stressed?
Chicago city living has its perks – a plethora of things to do, a vast amount of cultural and identity diversity, an award-winning food scene, and (in my humble opinion) the most beautiful skyline in the country nestled up against the prettiest of the Great Lakes.
All of that being said, city dwelling also has its downsides. The traffic, the noise, and the constant hustle and bustle can have quite an impact on our mental health. Generally speaking, mental illness tends to be more prevalent in urban areas, and many studies have shown that city dwellers experience higher rates of anxiety and depression.
(In fact, this article highlights a study that examined the areas of the brain used in assessing threats and generating fear – and found that these areas were highest in the brains of city dwellers and lowest in rural dwellers! No wonder we city folks – whether we’re in Chicago or New York or LA – tend to be slightly on edge sometimes!)
And yet, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities. And more than 2.7 million of us live in The Windy City. (Still, we all can attest to the back-up on LSD at rush hour, right?)
However, depending on which Chicago neighborhood you call home, the day-to-day stressors can look very different. As someone with a doorstep in the Lakeview neighborhood, I can attest to these *challenges* that are right outside:
We’re popular!
Lakeview is consistently ranked as one of the top ten neighborhoods to live in Chicago. (And with up to 200 neighborhoods unofficially recognized, that’s an accomplishment!) Due to this, we seem to be constantly building and reshaping ourselves to remain modern and attractive to current and prospective residents alike. While not necessarily unique to Lakeview, we seem to have more than our fair share of construction on roads and buildings whose loud noise and detour roadblocks can certainly cause a few headaches.
Which way to Belmont?
Chicago is lucky to have a fantastic public transit system. And Lakeview is lucky (for the most part) to have the Belmont Station as one of the major hubs where three of our L trains stop located right on Belmont Ave which is the local, direct artery to Lake Shore Drive. Because of this, there is a lot of traffic (bus, foot, and train) everywhere you look. And (I don’t think you need me to tell you), all that traffic can really threaten an early morning good mood.
Open late!
Lakeview also touts a large and diverse amount of nightlife, creating some evening noise that might not be the best support of a reasonable bedtime for beauty sleep. Wrigleyville, Boystown, and the Belmont Theatre District provide chances for night owls to keep active every night of the week. While city ordinances may keep the noise level to a minimum on a school night, there’s no ignoring the joyful noises coming from a group of friends leaving the bar at midnight.
Go, Cubs, Go!
Speaking of Wrigleyville, you cannot mention Lakeview without mentioning the Cubs. One of the coolest elements of Lakeview (whether you’re a sports fan or not) is that fact that a major league baseball stadium is nestled among the residential streets of the neighborhood. But while it might be cool to look at, the chaos of game days starting in April and not ending until at least September can make for some crowded and annoying strolls down the street if you’re anywhere close to the ballpark.
All in all, Lakeview is a great place to live – but it certainly can add some additional stress to your life. So, what do you do about it? Your best bet is to, first, do some reflection and try to figure out exactly what your stress points are? Chances are they are circumstantial (i.e. large crowds, late-night noise, etc). Then, you can identify ways to lessen (or even avoid) the stress associated with them:
- Take a different route home from work to avoid going near Wrigley Field on game days
- Ask your boss to shift your workday by half an hour to avoid those rush periods
- If avoiding the crowds is impossible, try giving yourself something to focus your positive energy on when things get stressful (e.g. your favorite hot/cold beverage, a podcast in your earbuds, etc)
- Celebrate Lakeview when you can/feel like it by attending smaller activities sponsored by Chamber of Commerce or taking a nightly stroll down a new road to admire the tree-lined streets
- Get to the lake more often because studies show that being near water has a calming effect on us (perhaps the residents in Fremont, CA take this to heart since they are living in the least-stressed US city)
- Say hello more often to the people who live next door so that Lakeview feels much more like a community of friends and neighbors as opposed to the rat race of strangers
Taken into consideration, most of us will agree that living in Lakeview is worth all the hassles it can bring. But, of course, perhaps the best thing about Chicago being so big is that we have plenty of other neighborhoods to go explore when we need to escape Lakeview for an hour or so (or more)!
