Don't forget the cell phone. It is a very imortant part of your EDC in Chicago.

When I'm downtow I myself find a small compass handy since I get turned around easily, but if you're there a lot the buildings and roads provide direction. You might also carry a map of the city/burbs, if you don't already.

I tend to think a Leatherman Wave is better for urban carry than a large blade.

I think AnotherInkling's advice is good: Start with Doug's suggestions for "Don't leave home without it" gear.

Then, If you carry a briefcase or bookbag, consider adding a small first aid kit such as an Adventure Medical Kits Ultralight .5 and maybe one of Doug's PSKs and an inexpensive emergency poncho. Those three items would give you a lot of utility in a fairly small space.

From there, a zillion different directions you can go. You might want to do some searches on this site and see what people EDC (everyday carry). You'll pick up a ton of ideas.

Once you've got your EDC where you want it , you can start thinking about home kits, car kits, BoBs, etc. Warning: It can get a bit addictive, but it's fun.

There's no real deadline ... just increase your preparedness a little bit every opportunity you get. Next thing you know, you'll be thinking about upgrades.

Equipped4Chicago

Hello and welcome. I live in Chicago as well and have given this subject quite a lot of thought. I live at approximately Montrose and Clark in an apartment. I don’t work in the loop but am downtown a lot on business.

As far as the knife situation is concerned I carry a 3 inch blade folding Gerber lock blade in my brief case. I hate to admit it but I was riding in Chicago with a friend from out of town and we got pulled over. His tags were expired. The officer asked us to step out of the car. They asked the standard questions of do you have any weapons on you>…(Mind you we were both in suits.) I politely informed the officer that I didn’t have anything “on” me but I did have a folding knife in my brief case. He searched my briefcase found the knife and gave a little chuckle and told me that it was no problem I am allowed to carry it. In addition to that I was at the state building last week picking up some legal forms and had my brief case with me and so was the knife. I was already in line at the metal detector when I remembered about the knife. I figured I would just see what happened expecting to either have it confiscated or held for me. My briefcase and knife went through the x-ray machine and they didn’t say a word. I don’t know if I was just lucky or they missed it but just walked right in.

I also carry a small flashlight. As I am sure you are aware we have a little problem with high-rise fires and probably the occasional stopped elevator.

Other than that I ALWAYS carry a CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) rail card with at least $20.00 on it. I figure this will get me out of the city if we have a traffic jam. If CTA is out of commission I have a bike. With a Bike you could go from the loop to Elgin in about 2.5 to 3 hours. Wisconsin border in about 6 to 7 hours. You can also take your bike on the CTA. I don’t have it but it wouldn’t hurt to have an open ended Metra ticket as well.

I always carry cash, Phone, Credit Cards, Calling Card, lighter, CTA fair card. In my briefcase Knife, flashlight, poncho, matches, change, Chemical hand warmers.

I am an avid camper so I use all of my camping gear as my home emergency equipment. Also of course I have 5 gallons of drinking water and a couple cases of MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat)

Cameron

WOW! Thanks all!

Considering I always have a briefcase, I can store things in there. I will do more research for a top notch flashlight also. Bus card was a great IDEA! Calling Card is another super IDEA!

Keep those suggestions coming. I hope I get the hang of this thread to best utilize it.

You can find a ton of information about flashlights at candlepowerforums.com

I think the best way to "get equipped" is to sit down and try and think of what sort of scenarios you can encounter daily. Chicago wind and snow, broken down car, transit strike, power outages, etc. Then given your daily patterns and distance traveled you should be able to outline a few highly likely scenarios that you would like to be able to respond to. Start asking questions about:

How will you get home from work? Should you even try and get home from work? How will the kids get home from school? What will the school do with the kids? What will my spouse do? Who can you leave messages with outside of the state in an emergency? Loads of questions like this for each of your likely scenarios. The plan is more important than the tools in my view. The tools and necessary skills fall out of the plan, but without the plan all you have is a sack of tools.

Take a real easy scenario at first...a Chicago blizzard while you are at work...toss in a power outage or two and then figure out the family plan.

Also you state that you carry nothing...actually you probably carry a load of stuff. Inventory your daily carry of money, the sort of shoes do you wear, your typical clothing set etc. Each of these items may need improvement based on the questions you formulate based on your scenarios. An office kit could be the result of this sort of review...better shoes or boots, overshoes, windpants, sweater, windproof, mittens, money, city map or transit maps, water.

Then the daily carry stuff can be improved as you see fit or supplimented with a car kit.

Being prepared for everything seems an huge goal, but being prepared for "known" things actually makes you about 100% more prepared for the unknown things.

To minimize blathering on endlessly, I do highly recommend Doug's main site for specific kit development....but strongly recommend a family discussion of events that will require some sort of thought on everyone's part, and then a development of a family plan along with some basic tools.

If you can stomach a bit more reading you can see more of my urban philosophy in two articles I have posted. These cover my kit contents and my attempts to evaluate scenarios that will affect me.....the absolute key is to develop you own skills and kits bases on your likely issues.

http://outdoors-magazine.com/s_article.php?id_article=171