Chicago haters

West suburban Downers Grove resident Amy Hebert has heard it all.

Is she always eating at Chili's? Doesn't she get sick of driving everywhere? Aren't the suburbs just a bunch of chain stores?

Hebert's answer to all of the above is "no." After three years of living in Chicago, she chose to move back to the suburb of her youth in 2010, and she's totally fine with the decision. In fact, she likes it much better.

"In the suburbs, I'm kind of in the middle of everything," the 27-year-old said. "For me, it's always been kind of like a quieter, slower pace. I'm the kind of person that likes to go to a forest preserve or a farm and pick apples. It's harder to do that when you live in the city."

It's no secret Chicagoans love to rag on the suburbs. North Siders balked at the idea of the Cubs calling anywhere but Wrigley Field home when Rosemont Mayor Bradley Stephens suggested the team relocate to the northwest suburb in March. Last August, when rumors swirled that Chicago favorite Kuma's Corner was considering a Schaumburg location at Woodfield Mall, the burger joint took to social media to deny the claims. Even Hebert said she has to make an effort to get friends and co-workers to travel outside Chicago just to pay her a visit.

City living just isn't for her.

In 2010, Census data seemed to indicate others were primed for a change as well. The city lost about 200,000 residents while suburban counties saw gains in population over a 10-year period, though more recent estimates show Chicago has seen a slight bump in population.

Hebert said she moved to Chicago for the convenience when she worked as a research technician between her undergraduate years at Benedictine University in Lisle and graduate school at UIC. Though she was unhappy with the lack of open spaces to walk her dog, constant noise, crowding and the distance from rural locations, she stayed to be close to her then-boyfriend. But when the couple broke up, Hebert said, the final factor keeping her in Chicago was gone. She moved back to the 'burbs with her parents.

"I go into the city for work every day," she said. "I like the food, some of the bars. But at the end of the day, I like going back to the suburbs, where it's a little quieter, to get away from all that."

John Scarpa, a 32-year-old from Edgewater and broker at Apartment People, said he's seen some suburbanites in his line of work turn around and head back toward the suburbs.

"There are people that don't mesh with the sights, the sounds, the population density of living the in the city," he said.

Nick Vandermolen, 27, of Logan Square, can understand why transplants to the city don't always immediately fall in love, or why they would want to go back to where they came from. When he moved to Chicago in 2008 from northern Michigan, the city wasn't at all what he expected. At one point, he found himself contemplating a permanent move.

"I was afraid of the difference," he said. "I had all these negative stereotypes [of the city]. I didn't want to learn, I was really frustrated."

Part of his frustration came from the sharp contrast from his hometown. There was no place to go camping, and he found Chicago noisy and overcrowded. It didn't help, he said, that he struggled to find a job while living in an "economy" apartment to stay within his budget-the refrigerator was next to the toilet, and he slept in a closet using a sweatshirt as a towel.

"It's easy to blame the city," Vandermolen said. "It's kind of this nebulous thing. To just say, 'I hate it.'"

His experience even led him to self-publish a book titled "I Hate Chicago" in 2008, based on his time learning to adjust to the poverty, segregation and crime he said he noticed more coming from a less urban background. Eventually, though, Vandermolen said he decided to stay and study to be a social worker in order to make a difference. He said he also has quit blaming the city as a whole for some of his smaller gripes.

"I still get pissed off about traffic, bar culture, hipster culture, dumb things like that," he said. "But that's not necessarily Chicago. That's just life. It could happen in any city."

Stephens, who pitched the idea of the Cubs' relocation, said he's heard some of the hate from Chicago natives, but he takes it with a grain of salt.

"I think that in my position, the success of our community is a natural bull's-eye on our back," he said. "People like to take pot shots. You take a little bit of it to heart, but you have to have a strong backbone and thick skin and it all rolls off. "

mswasko@tribune.com