From a coastal point of view, Chicago is weird!

My love/frustration with Chicago as a city continues. It has SO MUCH going for it, probably more than any city on the western hemisphere besides New York, yet it kind of does things that.....don't make sense. For example, LA's newly elected mayor recently pledged to make LA more urban than it ever has been--build new train lines, build more development around train stations, change the zoning, the style of development, etc etc. He has a specific mission to do this--period. Here in DC, there are TONS of condo buildings, both in DC and (more so) in Virginia/Maryland, that are built around the DC Metro, and they use that as their primary selling point. The entire city of Fairfax, VA just announced that they want to reurbanize their entire city, restrict (even punish) car use, and recreate a downtown in a manner not seen in a city of its size before. Yet Chicago behaves so differently. It sort of builds a TOD/urban format matter-of-factly, and often by coincidence. For example, they will announce a building and comment on all of its features (granite countertops, parking, etc etc) and then say "oh, by the way, it's near the 'L". The part that I love is that Chicago, in its sort of hesitant way, still uses its transit system. The part that I am frustrated with, coming from a coastal perspective where all of these cities are breathing down Chicago's neck for business and to emulate its urban vitality, is the hesitancy part. Why not juice this system up? And no, I'm not talking about sighing and rebuilding the brown line. Why not breathe more life into the system--build more housing around the stations (especially the south and west sides)? Chicago has an advantage that LA and numerous other cities could only DREAM of, and it remains so ho-hum about it. This attitude comes from the top down. Daley himself continues to be lukewarm to the issue. He doesn't seem to get it, even though he's not standing in its way, either. I know, you've heard me complain about this before. But most of you live in Chicago and haven't lived out here on the coasts, where there is definitely a more proactive attitude towards transit than there is in Chicago. Do any of you agree/disagree? Living in Chicago, have you noticed a change in attitudes towards transit recently that would prove my supposition wrong?>