Ep. 13: Living in River West feat. Drew Tilton!
Drew Tilton is an author, ghostwriter, and writing coach residing in the River West neighborhood of Chicago. In this episode, Drew shares his journey from Southern California to Chicago, discussing the cultural and lifestyle contrasts. The episode delves into the River West neighborhood's unique aspects, such as its hidden, quiet atmosphere amidst a bustling city, and its family-friendly environment. Drew also talks about the inspiration he draws from Chicago for his creative endeavors and how the city's diversity and history enhance his work.
The Living in Chicago Podcast is where I, Jake Lyons, get to interview all kinds of people about the Chicago neighborhoods they live in, work in, and play in. This way, you can learn about the lifestyle pros and cons of various neighborhoods directly from the people who live there (or maybe even learn something new about your own neighborhood!)
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Jake Lyons: Hello and welcome to living in Chicago, the podcast where I get to interview real Chicagoans about the neighborhoods that they live, work and play in. My name is Jake Lyons.
I'm your host. And in this episode I interview Drew Tilton, who is an author, a ghost writer, a writing and publishing coach and is a very new father. So congratulations to Drew.
Whenever you get a chance to listen or watch this. Drew is a resident of the River West neighborhood, which is a just hilariously small little sliver of a neighborhood in its technically under the umbrella of West town, which is a huge area, which also includes areas like, you know, Ukrainian village, Bucktown, Wicker Park, places like that, which we get into in this episode, but the River West specific neighborhood is like I said, just a little, just a little sliver of a neighborhood between Ohio street and Chicago Avenue from the North and South. And then between the river, just West of the river, hence the name that out to the highway basically. So just a little bit West of Milwaukee Avenue. So not a big area at all, but some high rises.
It's very dense and they're still, they pack a lot into that little area. So that's what we get into in this episode is what it's like to live in the River West area and the broader area around it. You have River North right across the river from you. Just to the South, you have the West Loop and all the things that there are to do there and all the rest of West town to the West.
So it's a very well, well positioned area for a lot of different reasons. But you know, those are things that you'll just have to listen to Drew Tilton because he's the expert. So without further ado, let's hear from Drew about what it's like to live in the River West neighborhood of Chicago. All right, well, hey, I am joined here today by Drew Tilton.
He is a resident of the River West neighborhood of Chicago and is a writer, a ghost writer, a writer of his own material, a writing coach, all things having to do with writing and making content that people read. Is that that's that's true?
Drew Tilton: That's the content that people read. Yeah.
Jake Lyons: Well, hopefully read it. Hopefully. That's the idea.
Drew Tilton: Content that people could read.
Jake Lyons: Yeah, at least that. Yeah. Drew, hey, how are you?
Drew Tilton: I'm doing well. Doing well. Thanks for having me, Jake. This is fun.
Jake Lyons: Yeah, absolutely. Well, let's just go ahead and get right into the old life story. So you are a little bit of an anomaly in terms of who I've had on at least so far and people that I even just know in my life. And that so here in Chicago, you know, you get maybe 10% of people that you meet are actually from the city of Chicago. And then you get a bunch more people who are from like the suburbs and, you know, they come here and do their like, oh, it's I'm in my twenties and thirties.
I guess I'll do the city life before moving right back to the suburbs thing. You get a lot of that. You got a lot of people from like Wisconsin. You get a lot of people from Miss, a lot of people from Michigan. Yeah. Couple people from Indiana here and there. I would be I would be in there. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of Iowa. Well, you know, just Midwest.
Drew Tilton: That makes sense. It's kind of this hub, you know, where it's like, get the big city life, but don't leave the Midwest sort of thing. Exactly.
Jake Lyons: Yeah. And then even, you know, rarer, but you still do get them. You get the people from like the East Coast that, you know, maybe they they went to New York because of the big city job and then their company transferred them to Chicago, whatever. You know, you see a lot of that. You're from LA and you just don't, you don't meet many people in Chicago who came here from Southern California.
This is not a thing that people seem to do. So I'm just curious to start there and, you know, to see what all went into that decision and life choice.
Drew Tilton: No, I'm racking my mind right now. I'm trying to think of other people I've met from Southern California that live here. There are one or two that come to mind, but really very few and far between. And most people were like, oh, we went to California from Chicago and then came back or something like that. We came here because my wife was at the time finishing her degree in psychology and there's an internship placement involved in that for a doctorate. She had gotten placed here in Chicago and actually in the suburbs, but we were like, well, if we're going to go to Chicago, we want to live in Chicago.
We don't want to go to live in the suburbs of Chicago. So that's really brought us out here. But, you know, we chose that, you know, we, Marissa, when looking at my wife, when looking at different sites that she could potentially, there's like this whole ranking system and you pick certain sites.
And this Chicago site was at the top of her list because of a lot of reasons to do with the site itself, but also because the city of Chicago really interested us and we had, it had always been on a list we had never visited before we found out we were placed here. So we, neither of us had ever been here. And then we decided that we're going to move here. But it just had interested us in a lot of ways.
I think being a big city, but not being New York, you know, like New York one is just massive to another degree that Chicago just isn't. But to just density of it. Yeah. And then there's just to the price. Like, I mean, obviously New York is, I think, the most expensive place to live in all of America if I'm not mistaken. Maybe San Francisco.
Jake Lyons: Yeah, them San Francisco's in there.
Drew Tilton: Somewhere in there. I don't know. But Chicago is actually very reasonable as far as city living goes. Like when you compare different cities across the United States, Chicago is not crazy. Price, especially coming from Southern California, you know, where, you know, rents are essentially like double, you know, what you would pay.
And, you know, what you would pay here in Chicago. So for us, it was kind of an interesting thing because we were moving into the city, but we were saving money on rent. So that was actually a really cool thing. And, you know, like moving to a place that you've never been, you know, it's not even like we had visited and fallen in love with the city or something. We just had had a good feeling about it and had heard really cool things and, you know, from other people.
And so we were kind of like, well, that could be really cool. And it's a different place. We were, you know, at that stage in our lives. This was, we've been here now for almost three years. And as Marissa was finishing up her degree, I think it was a time for us to really feel like we could go out and explore. We had this freedom that we hadn't had throughout our marriage. You know, for, we probably could have moved, but, you know, for various reasons, we were locked into where we were.
And we were in this season where I had, you know, in a lot of ways just started my writing career working for myself, you know, rather than working for an organization. And we had a level of freedom that we, we like, well, what if we went and lived somewhere else and tried something different and did something different? And that's really what led us into the move. And we've been really, really pleased with it. Yeah.
Jake Lyons: Nice. And that was, what, two years ago? Two or three?
Drew Tilton: Summer of 2021. So we're coming up on three years. It'll be three years in the summer this summer. So we're two and a half, two and a half years.
Speaker 3: Okay. So we stay, you know, Marissa's internship was only a year. Long and we decided we wanted to stay longer. And initially we were like, well, let's just go for a year. And that led us into, you know, coming here, but it really, you know, we fell in love with the city. We really did once we moved here. And I think so much of that has to do with the friend group that we made once we got here. But in a lot of ways it has to do with this place and the balance of size and things to do and interesting things going on with also not, I never feel overwhelmed by Chicago. And maybe that's a product of where I'm from is very crowded place in and of itself, Southern California. You know, but a very different place to Chicago as well.
And so it never feels overwhelming to me, but it does feel interesting to me and different to me. And we're, you know, LA is so spread out, you know, where Chicago is very condensed in comparison with so many great things going on in these neighborhoods that you're kind of doing this series. It's all these neighborhoods are so interwoven and intermixed among each other. And, you know, I think maybe if you're coming from a context like where I'm coming from, where a neighborhood, you know, LA is just like, it's spread out.
Like you almost wouldn't describe things in neighborhoods, you describe things in cities, you know, like, but here it really is like this, this, this really concentrated area of tons of neighborhoods just all butting up against each other in a really cool and exciting way because so where I am in River West and just stop me, I'm just talking. I don't know.
Jake Lyons: Go no. Perfect. Yeah. It's great. We're, we're, we're out in River West. We're in this really cool place where we're, we're one, we're along what's called the blue line. So if you're not familiar with Chicago, there's a, there's a elevated train. It's called the L. But, you know, the blue line is actually a subway, which is funny. But the blue line runs all the way to O'Hare and it runs along this street called Milwaukee pretty much the whole way. And. At least where you are, it's a subway. It is elevated in some parts of the street.
Drew Tilton: That's true. Yeah. You are. You don't see it. It jumps up above the ground at a certain point. But yeah, where we are, it's a subway. But anyway, we were once one or two stops from the loop, which is kind of downtown area, which is becoming cooler and cooler all the time. It used to be, as I understand it used to be more just, just, you know, where people went and had, you know, their jobs and stuff, which I think there's still are a ton of jobs. But more and more, there's resident living down there. And it's, it's, there's a lot of cool stuff down there. But then we're also up near these really unique neighborhoods like Wicker Park or what is it, Brick? Um, town Brick?
Jake Lyons: So anyway, there's just all these, all these Logan square. And then, you know, as you go up Milwaukee, there's these great neighborhoods all the way up to where you live, Jake, you
Drew Tilton: know, and we're, we're kind of at the very start of that. So if you imagine the city center and then Milwaukee running northwest from that, you know, all along there, there's these great neighborhoods and we're kind of that first neighborhood river west that comes out of there. And it, it's been such a perfect neighborhood. You know, I think in a lot of ways, I love this neighborhood. It's really small, but it's, it's kind of like tucked in here between what's called West town and in River North. And it's, you know, it's kind of like in this, you know, above, above all these really cool neighborhoods, but nobody really knows about River West.
I think it's kind of this like little gem. And I kind of like it for that. There's not necessarily all this like really trendy restaurants or stuff right here, which is nice because the only people that really get off at our stop or, or, or drive, you know, or stop here are people that live here. Well, at the same time, being so close to all these great neighborhoods with all this great, these great restaurants, these great things to do. You know, we're so close to the river and downtown and there's new, there's this brand new concert venue just north of us called the Salt Shed that just went in. There's, you know, we're, as I mentioned, we're right by Wicker Park, right by Bricktown, Bricktown, whatever that place is called, you know, but these, these really cool neighborhoods.
Jake Lyons: Time for the real estate stats corner presented by me, Jake Lyons, real estate advisor here in the Chicago area with app properties and my website, the Chicago home source.com. Information provided here is courtesy of InfoSparks and Rentometer respectively. In this segment, I am going to give you two statistics about the real estate prices in the River West neighborhood that I believe will give you at least a good general idea of what those prices are looking like and what people are paying to live in the River West neighborhood. I think that real estate, you know, without real estate, what even really is a neighborhood. So I might be a little bit biased being a real estate agent, but I think real estate prices are super relevant to any conversation about any neighborhood.
So with that being said, let's get into it. The two statistics that I am going to put out there are the median sales price for two bed condos in the River West neighborhood as of January of 2024. The most recent data that I have access to. So if you're listening to this any, any later than that, it's going to be different. These things change all the time. So median sales price of two bed condos and then also the median rental price for two bed apartments. Normally, if you've listened to some other episodes, I will also do the median sales price for single family detached homes, but this being River West, and I want to keep this as specific to River West as possible. There are pretty much zero actual houses in this neighborhood. It's all, it's all condos. There's been like one single family house sale in the last year or two.
So not relevant, not a big sample size to go off of. So that all being said, the median sales price as of January of 2024 in River West where a two bed condo is coming to $489,000. And if you want to rent a two bed apartment in the River West neighborhood, the median monthly rental price is coming out to, we can go ahead and round that up to $3,300 per month. So there you have it. There's obviously way more, way more variables involved than just the median sales price. There's all kinds of different variables and, you know, we can get into the weeds in that, if on that, if you want to. But in the meantime, if you want to see what all is available in the West town area, the River West area or anywhere in the Chicago area, for that will be in the show.
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course, Bucktown. Yeah, you have Bucktown, Ukrainian village, Wicker Park, Logan Square, even like Irving Park, Jefferson Park, those are, you know, getting cooler by the day as you go up Milwaukee like you're talking about. But yeah, you're right, man.
Jake Lyons: You really are in the first wave of, you know, they're on the blue line is, you're in a prime spot right there in terms of getting to, getting to those neighborhoods. Because yeah, I mean, Wicker Park alone is like just such a cool area. And gosh, yeah. Yeah, stuff like that.
But yeah, you're to go back. I mean, yeah, but I do, I do picture Chicago as being more dense than, than LA. Just in my like week that I've spent in LA, it didn't seem like LA was,
Speaker 3: I was like, how do they even call this one city? Oh, it's, it's, I mean, it's a, I know it's a county first of all, but you
Drew Tilton: know, and I'm not even from LA, like I'm not even from LA County, like it just is easier to tell people I'm from LA because that's the only thing they've ever heard of in Southern California. But yeah, you know, I'm from, you know, an hour inland from LA from the beach really.
Right. And so I'm in a different county. But you know, that said, it's just as like LA is just this web of cities and counties that just kind of beat out and then San Diego kind of comes up and meets it.
And you know, so it's just a very different context to be here in Chicago without it being, like I said, without it being so overwhelming. Yeah. So I really like that. Yeah.
Jake Lyons: I mean, the density is such that, you know, our neighborhoods really are kind of like those cities. Like think of like, I did an episode on Humboldt Park. And I think Humboldt Park has like 60,000 people live in Humboldt Park. Like that's a city.
Drew Tilton: Right. Totally. Yeah. No. And in other places, that's a city, you know, but it's just this, you know, it's like whatever Humboldt Park is, like, I mean, you know, some square miles of just people just packed in there, but in a cool way. And it's like each area has this unique feel to it. And, you know, I think there's just so many cool new, I mean, they're not new neighborhoods, but they're, as you mentioned, like neighborhoods where essentially is how it works, right? People go from like, they move into one neighborhood, make it cool. And then they're like, ah, we priced ourselves out, let's move to the next neighborhood. And so it's like getting into those neighborhoods as they're growing and becoming so these new hit cool spots, I think it just drives a property value up probably, I mean, would be my guess. But I think all those things really have attracted us here to Chicago to stay, you know, and we're, you know, we're always holding loosely like, okay, are we going back to California?
We're getting ready to have a baby. And so we would, you know, move back to California for family, but really, you know, like, and this is nothing against California, we love California, but there's just so many more options for us here in Chicago financially to still live in a really awesome place, but to have a level of just financial freedom that in California would just be a lot harder for us. Like for instance, my business, you know, in California, we couldn't live off what I'm making from my business, you know, we would have, I would have to go back and work for somebody, which, you know, it wouldn't be the end of the world or anything. And then that may happen.
But here I have the freedom to do that. And as we're here, I mean, we're days away from our due date, starting a family here in Chicago. And I think with that, it just gives me like a sense of that in this season, at least when we're going to have an infant here, I have unlimited flexibility to support my wife as she recovers from birth, which I hear is a very intense process.
Jake Lyons: And I guess I have like five friends who just had a baby within the last two months. So I've been having, I've been hearing all the stories of recovery and all this stuff. And it's just like, man, it's a lot.
Drew Tilton: And if I was working, you know, at, you know, let's say a publisher or something along those lines, I don't know that I would have that level of flexibility. I mean, obviously you would, you would hope some publishers would give you some time off, some jobs, I think do that. But it's not like this given thing out in the, you know, the corporate world or something. Right.
Jake Lyons: Can you can you negotiate like retroactive paternity leave?
Drew Tilton: Right. Yeah. Would you pay me for the time that I took off? Anyway, I'll have to say, though, like, because we live in Chicago, I'm able to keep freelancing. And that enables us to have this level of flexibility and a season of life that it's really, really important to us to have that flexibility in and really important to our family and to me being involved in this very, in so many ways, very condensed season of my daughter's life, but a season nonetheless, that is, that is very, I mean, by this time next year, I'm going to have a daughter crawling, maybe walking, you know, around this place.
And so it's like, there's so much that goes into these early this first year of birth and or of having a child. And so I think just having that level of flexibility here financially and again, I mean, this is going to be perspective for some people, perhaps you're coming from an area where it's, you know, much less expensive than Chicago. So I just want to acknowledge that. But in comparison for us, that's meant a lot. That's meant a lot to be a big city that's affordable. And it truly is affordable. It's not like it's, you know, I don't mean to say it's cheap, but I do mean to say in comparison to other places, it's very affordable.
Yes. And that's been huge for us and given us just options, you know, and, and to top it all off, it's an amazing place to live. It's a fun place to live. It's like, you know, summers in Chicago, I mean, summertime shy, you know, they talk about that. Yeah, man.
Oh, yeah. It is so fun. And the city comes alive in a way that, you know, Californians were just so spoiled, we never think of the summer. I mean, we love the summer. But it's just like, oh, we get good weather all the time, you know, but here is, oh, just like, we're going to come alive here in a few months.
Jake Lyons: And if anything, the summers in LA might be, might be kind of oppressive. This starts getting too hot and
Drew Tilton: you know, some, some parts of LA for sure. If you live on the beach,
Jake Lyons: but who can, I'm sorry, live on the beach. So I've only ever been, I've been to LA once. It was for a week, but it was like in the middle of February.
So kind of a weird time to get there. Like it would, it would be kind of nice during the day, but then like it would get kind of chilly and, you know, whatever.
Drew Tilton: But yeah, I mean, comparatively though, it's like nothing. I mean, sure, it'll get, it'll get maybe into the high fifties and you'll be like, oh, like if it was the high fifties right now for us, we'd be in t-shirts outside enjoying the nice weather. So yeah. Yeah.
Jake Lyons: But yeah, I do, as a real estate agent, I do love working with people from, you know, from, from California and New York and some of these other places because they look at the prices here and it's just like, wow, I can't believe how cheap this is. This, you know, this luxury apartment's only $6,000 a month. Like this would be $20,000 in New York.
Drew Tilton: And that's true. Like, I mean, it really is all relative. And so for some people that are watching this, they'll probably be like, this guy's an idiot. Like, what does he know? But I think there is like this group of people like me and like my wife who are coming from these really expensive places to live and we're struggling to live there and to make a living there. Because those places just are unrealistic. I mean, you need to be making hundreds of thousands of dollars, you know, to even afford to buy a home there, like, you know, a year. And it's just like, but then the jobs aren't paying that at the same time. Like, you know, so I think this kind of problem is popping up in areas like where we're from, but all over the country.
Like I think, I think of our, my cousin used to live in Seattle, like that's another place that's like that. Super expensive. Yeah.
Super expensive. And, you know, like I think there's there's places like that with highly condensed groups of people, like it's a lot of people that are coming from those places and they're looking for new places to be not because they don't love those places. But really, because it's just we've been priced out, you know, and it's like trying to make a living. And so we've found Chicago to be this really great refuge in a way for us, you know, oh, well, we're figuring out our futures and very much don't have it figured out. And, you know, but this is a fun place to be. It's a cool place to be. It's a place where we feel very ingrained in our community and connected to our friends. Well, at the same time, a place where, you know, at least for now, we want to start our family, you know, and we'll see where we go, you know, in the future, obviously, there's big questions with starting a family with how long we want to be away from parents and even as our parents age and do we want to be closer to them for that. But, you know, I think for now, we're very happy with where we are.
And I think we always say like if our families were here, we know we would for sure stay like without a doubt, like we would stay because, you know, the stuff that draws you back to California outside of being from there is of course the weather.
Jake Lyons: But it's outside of the fact that it's literally negative nine degrees right now as we're having this conversation for a week. Well, actually, no, it's it's nine degrees. Actually, it went up. It was negative nine yesterday.
Drew Tilton: Yes, nine now. Today, it went up 20. Big swing. I went outside today. I was like, I was salting my stairs and I was like, I don't even have to zip up my jacket. Like, it's funny how you adapt. Like, I thought we would just be, you know, like we go to California now, it's 60 degrees out and we're laying outside somebody.
It's it really is that way, like your body adjusts. But, you know, and I think that that's obviously there's there's hard aspects to living in Chicago in comparison. You know, I think there are the the weather is a thing like it's different. But we also love the weather, you know, being from a place that has doesn't really have seasons, you know, it gets colder. But it's it's kind of like it's summer, it transitions slightly out of summer, then transitions slightly back into summer, then it's summer again.
Like that's kind of what it feels like, you know, the trees get brown because it's a drought and there's no water, like, you know, they don't get brown because of the fall. Like, so we actually really, really love the seasons here. You know, the fall is so beautiful. It's still very, very nice out, you know, the weather, you know, as long as you got good coats and jackets, you're doing fine. Christmas is beautiful here, especially we didn't get snow this year. But last year, we got a great snow right before Christmas. It was beautiful. They put lights up all over the city.
It's a beautiful place. And then January, everybody will tell you January through April can be can be tough at times, you know, like it's cold. But none of it outweighs the benefits for us. You know, I think we have grown to appreciate the weather changes, you know, the the seasons. You also realize how 30 degrees isn't as cold as you thought it was. And, you know, there's a lot that you can do outside still. Like I go for walks all the time. And, you know, obviously, I won't go for a walk today or yesterday or anything, you
Jake Lyons: know, you know, but this is legitimately dangerous. Yeah, but we're talking about like a couple days or a couple weeks a year, you know, that where it's to that point of cold. And then the rest is really just like, you know, it's beautiful.
Honestly, I mean, a fresh snow in Chicago is incredible, especially here in River West. We have this great church, you know, like, I don't know when it's from or anything, I don't know anything about it to be honest. But this is beautiful church.
We hear the bells from our house here. It gets, you know, covered in snow. They have this great, you know, yard here. It's just a very it can be a really beautiful place. It's a I mean, it's a really clean city to like comparative to like New York. No, it's New York. I feel like I'm shitting on New York. But I know this is a certificate.
I don't mean there's nobody from New York who's gonna who's gonna hear that and be like, no way. We were so clean. We're so clean. I haven't I haven't seen gum on the sidewalk in almost three seconds. Yeah.
Drew Tilton: So I don't I don't mean that any judgment. I'm just saying like compared to LA even LA, I mean, is not a clean place by any stretch. And and it feels very clean here. You know, I know Chicago, it's a bad rap about crime and stuff like that. But that's really, you know, worked down into mostly some select neighborhoods for the most part. I mean, if you go if you try to find where the crime is going on, you can find it through these like websites that sometimes my wife will get like hooked on like neighborhood app and whatever you'll hear about.
It happens. It's a big city. But you know, when you really look at the crime rates per capita, it's it's not even close to some of the other places in America and Chicago gets a bad rap for probably some political reasons and stuff. But yeah, to be honest, we we feel safe here a lot.
You know, you obviously it's a city so you got to be aware and but our our neighborhood in particular, I think because we don't have as much stuff here, like in this in River West, like there's not like all these cool risks. I mean, we have our local places. We have a great pizza joint down the street that has a great deal. Me and Jake just went there last week, has great deals. We've you know, like we've got I've got my favorite coffee shop, just you know, a two minute walk away.
Jake Lyons: But let's drop some names. Let's drop some names.
Drew Tilton: Yeah, shoulders. They're showing us shoulders. Yeah, shoulders. River West, I think they have a couple more locations, but I've only been to this one and it's my favorite. I mean, the windows in there incredible. I go and work there a lot working for myself.
I you know, like, I'm always looking for a place to mix things up. And so big shoulders is a great one. Di Agostino's also has a couple other locations, but there's one right here in River West.
And it's awesome. They have a great Wednesday pizza deal. You get like large pizza for half off. And then, you know, it's like cheat beer and if I don't know, whatever you want. So they have salads too.
Speaker 3: So I mean, they're like mom and yeah, yeah, they're mom and pop feeling places. You know, they're not they're not like, I don't know. It's not like the hipsters are flocking to River West to go to Di Agostino's. But, you know, like for us, we love living here and we love having a local spot that we can go to. There's a few bars here that we really like. There is the matchbox is right over here is a little local bar.
There's Dandy Crown, which actually is kind of hipster. So but they're they're very cool place and they're right here. There's a there's a new Tiki bar that we've been to once. That's kind of cool. And then in the back, they have a speakeasy.
That's an old, old L train. So that's pretty cool if you wanted to come and adventure out in River West. But I kind of don't want you to.
I kind of want this place to sail its little hidden elf and be the best place for people who live here. You know, because it really is. It's it's such a cool. I mean, we live in this really cool, like little couple blocks of of homes. And there's lots of kids that live here right across the way in particular. There's this these I don't even know what the town homes, I guess. And there's tons of kids that live in that tons of families. And, you know, like we we dream of one day owning one of those places. It was awesome. But really, it's it's just a really cool place to live and we enjoy it a lot. And.
Drew Tilton: Yeah, I forget where we got in that train of me talking about the restaurants. But all I have to say.
Jake Lyons: Have you been to the Bluebell Mart? Bluebell Mart. No. The Bluebell Mart. It is. So it's just like this little convenience store, Bo Daga thing on this is down the street from you. It's on Milwaukee. It's on Milwaukee and Morgan. So it's like right around the street, right around the corner from, you know, that big grocery store right there.
Drew Tilton: Yeah, yeah. Well, it's not Urban Marketing. Gang Gangnam, I think they just went through ownership. It's actually really cool market, too. I haven't been to that Bo Daga. I would I want to send me that because I want to go check it out.
Jake Lyons: So here here's why I bring up the Bo Daga. You know, you go in there and it's just like, you know, it's a Bo Daga. They're selling whatever, like chips, chips and drinks and like, yeah, bongs and, you know, just whatever they feel like they can sell to people.
But they have like the best sandwiches. Really? And it's just, yes, man. I'm trying to promise you, like they just have like a little, you wouldn't even know that they make sandwiches there, but you go up to like the front, you know, the counter and there's just like a little, a little nothing like page to the left.
Like if you didn't know, you would miss it a thousand times out of a thousand. And but that's their menu. And, you know, they just have like wraps and this basic stuff, you know, it's wraps and sandwiches and stuff, but they do a really like phenomenal job with them and they're like eight, nine dollars, you know, something like that. Like that's awesome. That's not that's not nothing. But in Chicago and that area, like, you know, you're expecting to spend sixteen dollars
Drew Tilton: on eight dollars is actually what lunch costs now for the most part.
Jake Lyons: I mean, that's the 20. That's the 2024 version of the five dollar footlong is like nine dollars.
Drew Tilton: Like, yeah, you can't. I mean, finding a five dollar lunch these days, I can't imagine.
Jake Lyons: I wish you wouldn't even trust it if you did find it. Yeah, you're like, this place sucks. There's like, there's no way this is above board. Like this is like dog meat. Yeah.
Drew Tilton: Well, no, that that market sounds awesome. So Jake actually works down the street from where we live. So, you know, you know, this neighborhood pretty well, too.
Jake Lyons: And so, yeah, yeah, I've walked down there a few times. I didn't know that the urban market changed, though.
Drew Tilton: I was looking at this. Or I saw that. I think it still pops up as the urban market. Essentially, it's just a great market. It doesn't. It doesn't. Oh, Gangnam.
Jake Lyons: It doesn't. Yeah, like Gangnam style, like, but it's called Gangnam Market, I think. And they have this this whole like little
Drew Tilton: food court in there, too, like on top of it. So it's great for us because it's like we still do most of our shopping at Jewel or Trader Joe's or something because they have more specialty things and they don't have everything. But it's perfect for us when we just need something quick. And I don't feel like jumping in the car and I can just, you know, it's a two minute walk from where we live. And I just walk over and I can get an onion. I can get, you know, some milk. I can get, you know, like some chips that my pregnant wife is craving, whatever. You know, like it's super easy in that way. And you're not paying like convenience store prices, you know, so we're really not in a food desert, which can be a thing here in Chicago, you know, depending on where you live. Oh, yeah. You know, you can live kind of far away from a good market. And so it's true.
Jake Lyons: We have a great south side, west side. Yeah, that's a big problem. Yeah, totally, totally. Not not not really the areas that we've talked about today, but, you know, in some areas, but we're really thankful, you know, we have a place that's in walking distance that we can go to, you know, because sometimes it's just inconvenient to drive in Chicago, depending on what time it is and stuff like that. So which is another great thing about Chicago that we love is that it's very accessible, getting around.
Drew Tilton: Uh, sorry, my cat scratching at the door, but, you know, getting around on the public transport and stuff like is very accessible, depending on where you are, you know, the further out you get from the center, the less, you know, accessible it can be. But getting around down where I am, getting around on the bus, getting around on the L like is so easy. And, you know, you can go and car.
Jake Lyons: You're right by the highway. You're like a football field away from the highway. So that's, you know, pretty in Milwaukee, you can get, you know, Milwaukee's a it's not a big street. Like, you know, it's a two lane street, but it's an important street.
Drew Tilton: It is. It is. And it runs all the way down into the heart, you know, of Chicago and then runs all the way out, you know, to, I mean, I don't know where Milwaukee ends really. I would assume it goes basically all the way to O'Hare.
Jake Lyons: It goes way past that. It's like I've driven in. I've been like pretty much near like the Wisconsin border and you still see like the I think it goes through like some name changes along the way, but it's still like the same, you know, the same thing.
Drew Tilton: Yeah. It's continuous street that runs from the heart of downtown Chicago all the way to Alaska.
Jake Lyons: Might go to Milwaukee for all I know. It might actually go to Milwaukee. It might.
Drew Tilton: I never I've never tracked it that far. I think it goes in the wrong direction, but it does. It does. Yeah. But you don't know what it does up there, but
Jake Lyons: somebody out there can can look that up and let me know. Yeah. Anyway, you know, I wanted to I wanted to go back a little bit to where you were talking about the friends and community that you've made and, you know, full disclosure. I am one of those.
Speaker 3: I, you know, this isn't going to be like so true. Tell me about how good of a friend I am. Man, but I have this great name, Jake. Yeah. But, you know, that's that's probably something I'd say it's fair to say that whether they
Jake Lyons: are consciously thinking of it or not, probably, you know, something that is is going to be a potential hurdle for somebody making a move to any new place, but especially a city that seems as, you know, hustle and bustle and from the outside might just seem cold, literally and figuratively, but more figuratively in this case that, you know, how am I going to find friends?
How am I going to find my people, my community and things like that? And, you know, the personality difference, you know, to how outgoing are you? Things like that, obviously, there's lots of variables here. But I mean, what, yeah, just what would you say about how that has gone for you guys?
Drew Tilton: It's gone great. I, you know, and and here's what I would say. Obviously, there's so many generalities that we could jump into. But really what I would say is communities here, if you if you if you're intentional and you want to find it, you can, you know, it may take time and, you know, you may, you know, like anywhere else, you got to go through certain ways of being intentional. But I think what makes Chicago a really cool place is it's a really good mix of people who have transplanted here and people who are from here, kind of like what you alluded to a lot of people from the suburbs, but then a lot of people from all over the country and even the world.
Definitely the world. Yeah, totally come to live in Chicago. And I think what that communicates is that there's a lot of people that are going to be just like you looking for community.
And that's true. I mean, me and Jake, you and I came together in so many ways because we were both in these spaces where we were intentionally seeking community, you know, through our church. But, you know, I think there's other ways to intentionally seek community. And when you intentionally seek community, you'll find other people who are intentionally seeking community. And I think that's what's cool about Chicago is that it is that kind of place where people are here intentionally seeking community. And if you do likewise, you'll actually be able to find those people. And there's lots of ways to do that, obviously.
And I won't go into those. But I would just say that we've found that plenty of people here are also looking for community and and maybe in comparison to the only thing I can compare it to is Southern California or no, I lived in London too. But in comparison to Southern California, because everything is is more walkable.
It's it's good public transit. There's people are kind of driven outside and driven into togetherness, not in just their little compartment cars that they drive around and then they, you know, park and, you know, and then a lot of people. No matter where you go, there's going to be people moving from other places. But I just find Chicago has a lot of people hungry for community if you look for them, you know, and if you're one of those people as well, I think it's a matter of putting yourself out there in the right spaces. And so we've found a wonderful community and we feel very blessed by that community. But, you know, I think there's, you know, no matter your journey, no matter your story, there's great ways to find people here in Chicago. Mm hmm. Yeah.
Jake Lyons: Good answer. And even just the Midwest thing. So I mean, you hear about I'm born, you know, I'm from Indianapolis originally, which is still obviously super Midwest. So I, you know, I haven't spent like significant time outside of the Midwest. It's all all I know from that point of view. But, you know, I hear people say all the time like Midwest nice is a thing or.
Drew Tilton: Yeah, I don't know about that. I mean, that doesn't stand out to me as much as, you know, maybe other places might feel that way. I've always found California to be a friendly place. Granted, I'm from there, so maybe people not from there don't feel that.
But, you know, I think it's less that for me and more what I mentioned before. And, you know, because, I mean, this was true in London. And like, you know, like even though people come across very cold, especially in comparison to Chicago, I lived in London for a year and made some great friends. But it was less, you know, that was just the surface level conversational stuff anyway, you know, so it, you know, I think, yeah, you're going to find people that are warm, that are inviting, that are welcoming here. And I think part of that's cultural. But a lot of that is just, I think finding the right people, you know, and I think no matter where you go, there's going to be good people that you like, people that you don't like or people that you don't connect with, people that you do. And it's a matter of being intentional more than it's, you know, a product of culture, because no matter where we go, we're going to need friends and community and people and we all need that. And so it's just a matter of maybe, you know, breaking through a few cultural differences and barriers. Obviously, if you're from the United States, you know, that's going to be less so.
No matter where you're from these days, I think. But, you know, if you're from a different country, certainly there'd be some cultural challenges and shifts and changes. But I found, you know, which I'm sure people will describe California and Chicago as pretty radically different places. And I've found people in both places where it's like, there's really great people here, you know, and there's really great people in California. And I think it's a matter of being intentional and a little bit trying to crack the code of the city and the culture. But at the end of the day, once you get past that, we're all people and we're all longing for community and connection. And so, yeah. So I guess that's a long answer short. I don't notice the Midwest hospitality being making a huge difference as much as I noticed there being good people here who are thirsty for community. Yeah. Gotcha.
Jake Lyons: How would you say Chicago and or your neighborhood specifically has has has impacted your professional and creative endeavors? Talk about the financial aspect of it kind of freeing you up to do that to begin with. But, you know, even a level more than that, if there is any.
Drew Tilton: I mean, I'd say that it's it's a really creative place, you know, like a lot of big cities, a lot of it draws in a lot of creative people. And I think for my industry, obviously, most of my work's online. So it's not as though I'm like making tons of business deals out here in Chicago or something. But but I think, you know, for those in creative professions, like it's a great place in so many ways because it draws in a lot of other creatives that you can build off of also people who are drawn to the creative arts, even if they're not themselves actively involved in them as as creators. You know, I think those people are very drawn to Chicago for that reason, you know, where it can be a city that provides a lot of really good opportunities and connections with the creative arts.
I, you know, in particular, the influence on me has just been, I mean, it's an inspiring place, you know, I think an inspire. It's an interesting place, particularly in writing, you know, you're continually, you know, I think no matter where you are, there's something to write about because writing is really about honesty. And I think all art is really about honesty. But I think, you know, there is a level of interest, you know, like having interesting ways of conveying the thing that you're trying to say, the thing you're trying to communicate through your art. And so I think there's a lot of that here in Chicago to not be too fluffy about it. Sorry, if I'm getting a little too ethereal and artistic. But there's a lot about Chicago that's inspiring, that's exciting, you know, also being a hub, you meet a lot of different people from a lot of different places.
Which creates and generates inspiration, generates empathy and connection with other people, other cultures, other places, other ways of life, which I think are all important to the creative arts. And so that in and of itself is a, yeah, I think that's pretty cool. And then, you know, just as being a place to go and sit at a coffee shop in front of the river and, you know, I'm not too far from a place called Blue Bottle Cafe, which I think they have other places, but they have this great spot along the river, right where the river turns. And I just, I sit there, they have these big windows and I look out at the, you know, Chicago skyline along the river there, which is, if you've been to Chicago, you know, is one of the most beautiful scenes in Chicago, in my opinion. And I just sit there and I work and it's a beautiful place to work.
I mean, whether it's inspiring or not, I just like working there. So as a creative with this medium that I can pack up in my laptop and take anywhere, I love having Chicago at my fingertips, you know, and going and exploring and being able to find those places. So for people, even people that aren't necessarily doing creative arts, but have a level of flexibility with their job where they can go and work from anywhere. I think it's a really fun place to be because there is just so much that, you know, you can get down to the lake, you can go along the river, you can go to these different neighborhoods. There's so many cool coffee shops all over the place, which I'm like, you know, I love coffee and I love coffee shops and cool spaces to work and, you know, just break me out of my, you know, norm of, you know, being because I work from home all the time.
So and there's not a lot of connection during my day to day job. So it's like, oh, I just like to go out and be around people. And so I love that about Chicago. So that in particular, maybe beyond just the creative art form piece, but to the practicality of just having, you know, where I live, I really do have Chicago at my fingertips, it feels like. And I can get anywhere really quick and I could work from wherever I want, you know, in the city and get to explore all these cool neighborhoods while I'm working. And so I think that has helped me, you know, on top of just being an inspiring place with a lot of people from a lot of different places and a place with a history that's interesting, you know, I think obviously there's tons of history in Southern California that is interesting. But you can see the history here because it's the buildings are still here. The, you know, it kind of builds up around that where, you know, California has less of that, you know, but yeah, yeah, yeah, I just really, really like it.
Jake Lyons: Yeah, I mean, that's why that's why the the Riverboat architecture tours are such a big deal. And so so much more fun than they sound like they would be because the sky, you know, the skyline of Chicago reads like a history book. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. And this is endlessly fascinating.
Drew Tilton: Yes, it is. It is. I've been on that Riverboat tour because every time somebody comes here and they're like, well, what should we do? And I'm like, well, let's go on the Riverboat Riverboat tour together. I've been on that thing like three or four times and every time I love it, like every time I learn new things every time. And it's just my favorite. The river is really my favorite part of Chicago, to be honest.
And, you know, as far as like a visual piece of Chicago goes and that that tour gives you a great look at everything. And that's where my coffee shop is is right along that part of the river where a lot of those nice. So that's not my coffee shop. That's one of the coffee shops I frequent, but my coffee shop's big shoulders, which is right here two minutes away. And it's just my neighborhood. But yeah, anyway. Yeah, yeah.
Jake Lyons: What are you working on these days that has you excited? When you go to these coffee shops, what are you what is it that you're working on?
Drew Tilton: So the big thing for me in 2024 is trying to launch what I'm calling author coaching school. And author coaching school is essentially this opportunity. You know, I work with a lot of people who have great expertise and great knowledge, great stories, but they have no desire to write themselves or to write a book. And so that's why they hire a ghostwriter. So, you know, they have something to offer, but that writing isn't their thing. But I'm really drawn to people who do want to write, who are interested in the same art form. And so I started author coaching school to kind of answer that question. I think initially I thought maybe it would maybe reach the same clientele, but quickly realized that those clients weren't interested in writing a book themselves. And so this is all about coaching people in what it looks like to become an author, to go from aspiring to authoring. I find that there are a huge group of people out there that want to use writing as an art form.
But just it isn't, you know, one of the normal art forms that people tend to pursue in their spare time and certainly isn't what many people pursue as a career. And so I have this unique space where I've helped a lot of authors, you know, write books and I know what it takes. Well, I'm also in that space of like, I want to write my own books and I want to, you know, like offer my own things. And so I think a lot of this has been, sorry, launched beta back in the last summer. And now I'm coming into my third run through this thing and it's just been really, really good.
And so this year is all about that. I got a new course launching in February. Just shout out to anybody who's interested, ociocreative.com, a s i o creative.com. You can find more information about me there and about the author coaching school and what that looks like for people who are really interested in authoring or writing as a as a means of, you know, expressing themselves, maybe even a means of down the road making money and having a career in authoring. But but more so it's it's for the people who are just like, I would write whether I was getting paid to do it or not, you know, and I just need the habits to help me go for that.
Jake Lyons: And so yeah, this isn't like so this isn't like I'm going to teach you how to use chat GPT to write you a book that like corresponds to some business thing so you can look better in front of prospective clients because there's a lot of that. There is a lot of that out there and this isn't I get a targeted ad for that something like that pretty much every day.
Drew Tilton: So yeah, so you're who actually want
Jake Lyons: to write these are for the artists in their own book. Yeah, absolutely. The artists. I mean, you, you know, knowing your wife and and her being an artist, I think if you could think about it through the same lane as somebody who wants to express themselves through an art form kind of like Emma expresses herself through an art form and who pursues a dream of continuing to do that art form more and more in their life as a means of making an income but also Emma would probably paint even if it wasn't making her money right you know, and and I think because nobody thinks of writing through that kind of lens.
There's a lot less writers out there and there's a lot less people that are pursuing that and seeing if that's something that could be just something that fills their heart and and gives them a way to express and share themselves and their story and it's it's a craft. It's an art form. So you got to learn so much. But you can learn as you go and there's a lot of great ways to do that. So so my author coaching course is really about that really for those people that are interested in in that way. And interested in pursuing because those are the people I like to work with, you know, no offense to the people. I know there is a need for people who just, you know, and those are the people I write books for. You know, people that just need need a book is a really, really fancy lead magnet to build credibility authority, all those things that's important.
There's a space for that. It's actually a great way for people who write to make money, you know, like, while they're pursuing their own writing goals. But I think for me, writing is something that I do for myself, even though it's not making me a ton of money right now, you know, like writing does for other people. But when I write for myself, my own stuff isn't making me a ton of money right now.
Drew Tilton: But it's it's less about that and more about a form of expression, a form of sharing a piece of myself with other people in hopes that they'll relate with it in hopes that it'll speak to them in a way that that awakens something in their heart, whether that be challenge, encouragement, you know, or whatever else. Yeah. Yeah, so that's really my heart for for writing and I'm excited to get to work with more and more people that are like that and enjoy that. Very good.
Jake Lyons: So that's that's starting in February starting in February.
Drew Tilton: So enrollment opens coming up this next week. So if you want to apply, feel free. I only have a few spots because it's just me and I'm committed to not making this thing just like a cookie cutter video curriculum. So I really want to have personal connection with people and connection with my authors actually read your work.
It's not like some of these places are just like, yeah, good enough. You know, like, especially if they're you're writing it through chat GPT is like, you know, there's that that technology is awesome. And it's it's come a long way, but it's it's not there yet where it can write you a good book, in my opinion, a good book, it can write you a book. Yeah. So anyway, all that say, yeah, it's it's it's built around personal connection. It's not one of these just like you buy subscription to a bunch of videos or something. It's it's like, no, you get you get access to me. We meet every other week throughout the session and go over your work together and stuff. So Love it.
Jake Lyons: Yeah, that's awesome. I got one more question for you one more neighborhood related question. Great. I'm ready. It's kind of the grand finale. So this bottom this bottom line in summary. Why should somebody want to move to Chicago and more specifically maybe they're already here. Why would they want to live live in the River West neighborhood?
Drew Tilton: Chicago in particular, I think it's a wonderful place in a in a confluence of lots of different people from lots of different places that are excited about this place and its opportunity that it provides for community for fun for enjoyment. And I think there's so many like minded people. So if that sounds like you, you know, this is a great place to find in some ways to find your tribe, you know, of people that think like you talk like you and maybe not always think like you obviously we can't, you know, but in a lot of
Jake Lyons: ways, you know, you don't want too much of that. No, no, no, no, no, but I mean just in a way they're moving in a similar direction. So I think Chicago in general, that's what I would say and it's just a fun place really fun and exciting city. And then River West, I think for all those reasons that I said it's it's a it's actually this like little hidden quiet neighborhood in the midst of this really busy crazy city. But crazy and busy in the best way you can get to the crazy busy exciting stuff really quickly well kind of feeling a little bit separate from here now. That said everybody drives through our neighborhood to get home from work or to work in the morning or whatever. So, you know, there's lots of traffic to avoid to avoid to avoid Chicago Avenue. Yeah, in the middle of the day. Yeah.
Drew Tilton: Yeah, so there's Chicago.
Jake Lyons: We haven't even touched on freeway like all that stuff. Yeah, it gets so backed up right there. We haven't even talked about the casino going in right down the street from you and how that's going to impact things.
Drew Tilton: Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's far enough away from where we are exactly that I don't think it'll impact too much. But you know, some people are concerned about that. There is a casino going into an old newspaper building, so Tribune building. But all that say, I think there is like a level of, you know, off of those main streets as you break off into these little tiny little con clay enclaves enclaves of homes that are in River West. It's very quiet, very, very family oriented in a weird way, which is fun. And Chicago's right at your fingertips. So I think it's a great place to be a great, you know, like if we could, we'd stay here, you know, all of our time in Chicago. So stay in this neighborhood.
Jake Lyons: Through awesome stuff. Thank you so much for sharing all of your experience of the city so far with our audience and it'll get a lot out of it. Anything else before I just stop record here that you would want to say or highlight or promote? If not, it's fine.
Drew Tilton: We've covered a lot of ground here. I don't think so. I don't think so. That's it for me.
Jake Lyons: Okay. All right. Right on. Well, thank you so much for your time. If you've made it this far and you're still listening, you are truly one of the real ones. And I just wanted to take a second to say thank you so much. Really appreciate you giving this podcast a shot.
I hope that you are getting a lot out of it. And if that is the case, please give this podcast a like, a follow, some stars, five if you can, a thumbs up, whatever it is on whatever platform that you're consuming this that will tell that platform that you like this, that you want more of it and that you think others should like this as well. And hey, if you want to be a guest on this show, there's a link in the show notes that will take you to a guest form that you can fill out and we can get the ball rolling from there. So if you live in Chicago and you have some interesting things to say about it, and especially if you have any kind of entrepreneurial or business or creative endeavor that you would like to promote, that's not necessary, but it is encouraged.
Then let's talk, let's chat. And I would love to have you on the show and let's learn about your neighborhood and teach others about it as well. So I just want to say thank you again. And if you wanted to follow us on some other platforms, we are also on YouTube, we're on Instagram, we're on TikTok, we're going to be on whatever else you can be on.
I don't know, can you be on LinkedIn? We'll figure that out before I ramble too much. I just wanted to say thank you again. And that's all. Thanks. Bye.
