.
Most of you know by now that although I was born and bred in and around Chicago, I hate the city. However, thanks to a series on PBS Channel 11 recently, I have had my eyes opened to a pretty amazing town. Contrary to my feelings, I still get a little angry when people referred to New York with any variable of 'the greatest city in America'. New York probably is a fine city, but I always felt that Chicago was a 'small New York', especially since it is one solid piece of land, instead of 5 little boroughs. Similarly I resented the Dallas Cowboys calling themselves "America's team" - I felt they had some monstrous egotistical gall considering that there were 15 other teams playing at the time, not to mention that Chicago's George Halas had a huge hand in forming professional football, so if anyone was America's team . . .
Anyway, there is this guy who filmed tours and narrated things like A Walking Tour of the Chicago Loop, a ride down the Chicago River, seeing the North Side of the City, and another called the South and Southwest sides.
I learned a lot from these shows, like Chicago had the first skyscrapers, even before NY and he showed through old photos how the Chicago River was originally a small stream that just stretched from the southwest end to the north in fact, at one point the flow of the river was changed to run in the opposite direction from its normal flow. Most of the loop show was about the great architecture and artists who envisioned the buildings. It showed how the theaters went from live theater to movie houses, and back again. Downtown Chicago has loads of riverwalks all along the Michigan river, with parks for both people and dogs. Commerce has moved from downtown to Michigan Avenue leaving the downtown area (the Loop), as living quarters in high rise buildings which originally were places like Marshall Field, Sears, Lord and Taylor, etc.
There is so much information packed into these programs I can't even start to mention all of it, but here at the start of summer, I am suggesting anyone who will be here in the next few months that it would be to your definite advantage to check out the riverboat tours, and the walking tours which are available. I'm going to do my best to get down there and check them out myself.
Chicago, Chicago, That Toddlin' Town . . .
Chicago, Chicago, That Toddlin' Town . . .
Anne
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Re: Chicago, Chicago, That Toddlin' Town . . .
That was really nice of you Anne to relate how you originally "hated" the city but now have found out all of these nuggets of information about the city and are looking forward to visiting some of what the city has to offer this summer. I lived in the Chicago suburbs from July 1975 until December 2006. That was a long time. When we first moved there after living for a few years in West Jefferson, North Carolina (about 75 miles west of Winston Salem at an elevation of 3,300 feet) things were a lot different than they are now. For one thing the population explosion in the suburbs had not yet hit. That would not really happen until the mid eighties, after the recession of the early eighties. I know, my mother was an accountant for a home builder in a small town with the name of Carol Stream. Interesting story about the naming of that town.
When we first settled in Carol Stream, the population was under 10,000. Pretty big for a young 15 year old especially having lived in a town of less than 1,000 for three years. By the time my wife and I left Illinois for a job in Virginia Beach in 2006, Carol Stream's population was 40,000. Many of the Chicago suburbs, especially the newer, outlying 'burbs which were no more than hamlets started sprouting upwards in their population as more and more people were leaving Chicago and Cook County in the 1980's and 1990's. In fact I think the population of Du Page County, one of the Chicago collar counties is now just over 900,000. Back in 1976 I think it was close to 500,000. So with a very small land footprint, many, many people moved there.
The city does have a lot to offer. Especially the night life, all of the wonderful restaurants (oh my God!) the parks and the lakefront. Who wouldn't love that. At Christmas it is a wonderful place to stroll, downtown on the Mag Mile, and in the summer its a blast to go down to the lakefront and walk along the bike path right next to the lake. Visiting Wrigley Field to watch the ever worsening Cubs, or going to Navy Pier to watch the tall ships when they come in July. July 4th and the fireworks listening to the Chicago Symphony play Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture while the fireworks are shot off out over the lake, oh I could go on and on.
But you are right about those television programs telling the story about how and why the Chicago River was made to run the opposite way, and really the interesting thing was just how polluted the river was as recently as the early 1970s. Now you have people plying the waterways with their kayaks, and small boats and I think there is fishing going on there now as well. There are many neighborhood festivals every summer. The one in Andersenville is a lot of fun, and walking down Lincoln Avenue down by the Biograph Theater is alot of fun as well, especially all of the little shops to go in. If you are ever down there near the Biograph theater, be sure to go into the Red Lion Inn across the street. It's a great little English pub that makes the best Shepherd Pie I have ever had. The Biograph Theater is right next to the alley where John Dillinger was killed by the FBI in 1934
The city of Chicago however has seen growth in some areas and continued blight in many many areas. Most of the blight continues to be on the near west and far west side of the city and most of the south side. It's actually very sad. I do not think many people from outside Chicago really knows just what kind of bad shape Chicago really is in. The perception of the city as being this grandiose, wonderfully attractive city is really an allusion. The tours never really give anyone who is visiting the city the proper narrative or story about the blighted areas. I know that when Daley was mayor he spent billions of dollars on making improvements to the downtown areas, and the lakefront, but little money was left over for all of the abandoned areas once you leave the oasis that is known as the Loop, the lakefront, the Magnificent Mile, and many areas of the near north side.
Don't get me wrong, I love Chicago and I have a great many friends who still live there. If I was able to get another job there, I would be willing to move back. Of course I would not buy a house there again due to the crushing blow to the housing industry there. I just have a problem with how the Chicago city councilmen act as if they try to help their constituents but really don't give a hoot about them. They all act as though they are powerless about helping their residents when we all know that they are beholden to the city's unions and the politics of unions in the city. What they write about the political crooks in Chicago is true. Just look at what happened recently to Jesse Jackson Jr. and his wife. And lets not talk about the outrageous property taxes in Chicago. Ever drive down any of their streets outside of the downtown area?
When we first settled in Carol Stream, the population was under 10,000. Pretty big for a young 15 year old especially having lived in a town of less than 1,000 for three years. By the time my wife and I left Illinois for a job in Virginia Beach in 2006, Carol Stream's population was 40,000. Many of the Chicago suburbs, especially the newer, outlying 'burbs which were no more than hamlets started sprouting upwards in their population as more and more people were leaving Chicago and Cook County in the 1980's and 1990's. In fact I think the population of Du Page County, one of the Chicago collar counties is now just over 900,000. Back in 1976 I think it was close to 500,000. So with a very small land footprint, many, many people moved there.
The city does have a lot to offer. Especially the night life, all of the wonderful restaurants (oh my God!) the parks and the lakefront. Who wouldn't love that. At Christmas it is a wonderful place to stroll, downtown on the Mag Mile, and in the summer its a blast to go down to the lakefront and walk along the bike path right next to the lake. Visiting Wrigley Field to watch the ever worsening Cubs, or going to Navy Pier to watch the tall ships when they come in July. July 4th and the fireworks listening to the Chicago Symphony play Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture while the fireworks are shot off out over the lake, oh I could go on and on.
But you are right about those television programs telling the story about how and why the Chicago River was made to run the opposite way, and really the interesting thing was just how polluted the river was as recently as the early 1970s. Now you have people plying the waterways with their kayaks, and small boats and I think there is fishing going on there now as well. There are many neighborhood festivals every summer. The one in Andersenville is a lot of fun, and walking down Lincoln Avenue down by the Biograph Theater is alot of fun as well, especially all of the little shops to go in. If you are ever down there near the Biograph theater, be sure to go into the Red Lion Inn across the street. It's a great little English pub that makes the best Shepherd Pie I have ever had. The Biograph Theater is right next to the alley where John Dillinger was killed by the FBI in 1934
The city of Chicago however has seen growth in some areas and continued blight in many many areas. Most of the blight continues to be on the near west and far west side of the city and most of the south side. It's actually very sad. I do not think many people from outside Chicago really knows just what kind of bad shape Chicago really is in. The perception of the city as being this grandiose, wonderfully attractive city is really an allusion. The tours never really give anyone who is visiting the city the proper narrative or story about the blighted areas. I know that when Daley was mayor he spent billions of dollars on making improvements to the downtown areas, and the lakefront, but little money was left over for all of the abandoned areas once you leave the oasis that is known as the Loop, the lakefront, the Magnificent Mile, and many areas of the near north side.
Don't get me wrong, I love Chicago and I have a great many friends who still live there. If I was able to get another job there, I would be willing to move back. Of course I would not buy a house there again due to the crushing blow to the housing industry there. I just have a problem with how the Chicago city councilmen act as if they try to help their constituents but really don't give a hoot about them. They all act as though they are powerless about helping their residents when we all know that they are beholden to the city's unions and the politics of unions in the city. What they write about the political crooks in Chicago is true. Just look at what happened recently to Jesse Jackson Jr. and his wife. And lets not talk about the outrageous property taxes in Chicago. Ever drive down any of their streets outside of the downtown area?