Survey Says: August Sucks

By Soyoung Kwak in Miscellaneous on Aug 1, 2010 5:45PM

Summer in Chicago. What's not to love? We've got music festivals (Pitchfork, Lollapalooza), food festivals (Taste of Chicago), neighborhood festivals (like this weekend's Wicker Park Fest), and beaches by Lake Michigan. This summer, we even have a blockbuster movie filming in our very own backyard. June was sublime, July was hot and stormy. What's up for August? Well, discontent and anger, apparently.

In a highly scientific and complex survey carried out by Chicago Tribune/WGN, 800 Chicago residents were asked what their favorites months of the year are. A sad 4 percent of the respondents said that August was their favorite month, placing it among the pile of months to be forgotten. Lance Sundermeyer, a resident who was polled, did not hide his hatred for August and summed up his frustration thusly:

"By then, the fun of the summer street festivals is over, you've run through all the good ones. And you're just left with the heat. It's bizarre. It drives me nuts."

Ouch. Sure, August might not be as action-packed as June or July, but there's plenty of summer left to go around. On the flipside, June was announced as Chicago's favorite month (taking 21 percent of the share). Even though August didn't fare well against the other summer months, August wasn't Chicago's absolute least favorite month - that title belonged to November, which, really? Worse than the sub-zero temps of January?