Chicago: it’s so many cities in one!

What I most enjoy about the character of Chicago is that it has so many characters.

The differing neighborhoods and elements of society that come together within the city limits literally create a condition in which you could take two life-long Chicagoans, compare their stories and find totally different circumstances.

I wish the lettering could remain beyond the museum exhibit's end in May. Photographs by Gregory Tejeda

 

YET THEY’RE BOTH fully legitimate in claiming their “life-long” status that might come across to some as boasting. So be it.

It creates for an area where if one is diligent and adventurous enough to travel about the city, one can encounter so many differing experiences. I might be approaching age 50 in just a few more years, yet there are still unseen delights I feel the need to experience without having to travel anywhere.

Which is why this weblog, on many occasions, has proclaimed the wonderfulness of Chicago – even if there are certain elements that might make some people question our sense, even if they truly do add to the overall character of the city.

Life isn’t always pretty, and Chicago at times reflects that reality – while also creating a sense of hope that these problem areas (which in some cases are only problems if your sensibilities were formed by rural communities that were isolated from the rest of the world) will be overcome.

MY NEED TO state a perspective about Chicago was inspired by the New York Times, which on Sunday published what purported to be a “book review” about three new volumes written about differing aspects of our city. Although I have to confess that I saw it, put it aside to read until later, and didn’t get around to it until after I heard from others about how allegedly “outrageous” it was.

Some have interpreted the essay by DePaul University drama professor Rachel Shteir as being a “hit job” on the city. How dare this dame from Noo Yawk say anything bad about us!?!

The one-time 'world's busiest' corner

I’m not going to get all worked up over her, in part because I don’t know anything about her. Although from reading this essay, I get the sense she wishes she were in New York.

And not just anywhere, but Manhattan – the downtown area. The glitz and glamour, and the kind of people who think places like Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens are an embarrassment to be hidden away.

EVEN THOUGH I’D argue they are the “true” New York that give that city its character. The kind of people who get worked up over Manhattan are the same kinds who think all those touristy joints out on Navy Pier are the “true” Chicago.

She can have her opinion. I really don’t care. I remember when I lived in other cities, I was considered the insufferable one because I could easily talk about the wonders of Chicago, and couldn’t wait to return.

Although the one line from her essay that caught my attention was her bit that Chicago winters seem more mild these days, “thanks to global warming.” I’m sure the ideologues who want to believe that global warming is a liberal myth will spend the rest of their lives hounding her for expressing such a sentiment.

The way City Hall, the state government building and the former Bismarck Hotel come together make Randolph and LaSalle streets an intense political intersection.

 

But back to Chicago and what makes it unique, and why we realize that people like Texas Gov. Rick Perry are just being "dinks" when they try to trash us and steal our business entities. Deep down, they probably wish they were us.

WE HAVE THE cultural and business amenities (the symphony orchestra, the mercantile exchange, just to name a couple) that ensure the city has significance beyond the occasional “Chicago” dateline that crops up in out-of-town newspapers when they publish stories about the occasional crime occurring here.

Some still wish they could shop here

Yet we also have vibrant neighborhoods that exist in-and-of themselves. There are those people whose lives don’t revolve around a downtown viewpoint. You can even take your pick about what to see. What some claim as excessive segregation is also the notion that so many differing groups have their own communities – rather than a generic mish-mash of people that loses its character.

One can easily find the downtown hustle and bustle of millions of people co-existing (which personally, I have always found to provide a greater sense of privacy than being in a tiny community where everyone feels compelled to mind the business of everybody around them).

But just the other day, my duties in writing for one of the daily newspapers in the suburbs took me out to the shores of Lake Calumet.

You could almost forget you're in Chicago ...

I’M TALKING THAT body of water that usually is kept fenced in by the Illinois International Port District – but which also has unique environmental opportunities.

It was a trip to be standing out in the prairie grass just a few feet away from the water feeling that sense of isolation – yet also knowing that if I turned to the south, I’d be able to see the Port of Chicago. And a view to the east would show me the Bishop Ford Freeway and the structures of the Pullman neighborhood off in the distance.

Yet at no point was I outside the city of Chicago. The city limits were literally about three miles further south (and the state line about three miles to the east).

... until you turn around and see the Port of Chicago in the distance

Chicago is, the hope that someday a Lake Calumet might actually be revitalized enough to show that nature and urban life can co-exist.

IT ALSO IS, the belief that the oft-random violence that occurs here (and in other places too, check out the “Five dead in Manchester, Ill.” story that cropped up Wednesday morning) really is of the fluke nature and does not define our essential character. The way we respond to it does.

 

And it is that sense that we have easy access to those cultural amenities. I once had a friend try to downplay that aspect by snapping, “Who goes to the Opera every day?” Yet it beats not even having the option!

A Cub-free zone!?!

In fact, about the closest I can come to a negative about Chicago is when the talk turns to baseball and the Chicago Cubs.

That much losing on a steady basis can be downright depressing. Thank the Lord those of us who couldn’t take it without experiencing mental collapse have another ball club to follow.

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Happy boit’day, dear She-caw-go

Still a recognizable image, all these decades later

I am a Chicago native by birth, and one who has lived in the metropolitan area (both city and suburban) for the bulk of my life. Even those times when I have left Chicago, it has always been in my brain that I would return (and I did).

So what is it about this metropolis in Illinois (not to be confused with Metropolis, Ill., at the state’s southern tip) that makes it so appealing that I never felt I needed to move to New York in order to consider myself successful?

WHY DO I fully comprehend the idea that people from across the Midwestern U.S. feel compelled to relocate here for an adult life?

It doesn’t even have to be Midwesterners. Take our current president, a Honolulu native who saw our city as being ever so attractive to live (although I wouldn’t be surprised if someday, after the kids are grown, Barack and Michelle wound up retiring to the Hawaii islands).

To me, the appeal of Chicago has always been its variety – the fact that there really isn’t any such thing as the quintessential Chicagoan.

You can take two people who have lived here their entire lives and feel completely devoted to life lived north of 138^th Street (or south of Howard Street) who have next to nothing in common.

OTHER THAN THE fact that they can use the label of “Chicagoan.”

My point being that there is such a variety to this city. One can never have truly experienced it all. There is always something new to see or hear. It can never get dull – unless you are the kind who is inherently dull yourself.

In which case, you’d probably be bored anywhere.

Keep in mind that when I talk about a variety of types of people, I’m not thinking much of (if at all) the varied ethnic and racial beings who populate our city. Although I have always felt the fact that there is no predominant ethnic group for Chicago (no matter how much the Irish want to dream it’s them) is what makes us unique.

“WE ARE THE World” isn’t just the title of a tacky ‘80s musical number. It is an accurate description of our current composition (the 2010 Census Bureau population count for Chicago has it at 33 percent African-American, 32 percent white and 29 percent Latino, with the bulk of the remainder being Asian).

That is roughly where the nation, as a whole, is expected to be by century’s end. In Chicago, we’re leading the way. Perhaps our racial and ethnic outbursts are the nation working out the kinks of how well we behave together.

Just as a part of me wonders if the “Council Wars” of the mid-1980s was a test run for the partisanship tactics now taking place in Washington, D.C. between Obama and those who desperately want to dump him from office. Only the modern-day ideologues are less blunt in their language.

There’s also the fact that Chicago has its elements of high society and sophistication – certain aspects that can only be found here and to which the people of places like London, Paris, Tokyo or New York (just to name a few) must look toward us to experience in their ultimate form.

YET THOSE ELEMENTS don’t totally predominate our existence. Because there also are “very Chicago” places where the locals could care less about anything quite so elite or “hoity-toity” as the world-reknowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra. And anyone who would suggest doing away with those places would be missing the point.

They add to the ambiance that is Chicago. We’re better off for it. The Cubs are NOT quintessential Chicago. The tensions between White Sox and Cubs fans as they co-exist are.

Chicago wouldn’t really be Chicago if it had ever fully appreciated the literary work of Nelson Algren; which in-and-of itself is odd because Algren’s work often championed those “working classes” who wouldn’t have wanted Chicago to get too effete.

Yet we’re also not the types who are eager to linger in the muck for too long. It is a place whose people are constantly remaking themselves – except for the political people.

ONCE SOMEONE GETS elected to public office in Chicago, it seems a foregone conclusion that their grandchildren will be running for office.

Just the other day, I used my “early voting” ballot to refuse to vote for Patrick Daley Thompson – the nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley and grandson to former Mayor Richard J. – for a seat on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.

How inherently Chicago that is!

So what is inspiring this love-letter, of sorts, for my home city?

IT IS THE fact that we’re in the weekend that marks the 175^th anniversary of the signing of the articles of incorporation that made Chicago an actual municipality (population: 4,160), rather than just a trading outpost with a few cabins built nearby.

I don’t know if I’ll still be around (if I am, I’ll be 71) when Chicago hits its bicentennial. So now is the time for me to leave my mark on Chicago’s uniqueness – although no one is likely to match the Carl Sandburg poem of old.

We might not literally be the “City of the Big Shoulders” and “Hog Butcher for the world” any longer. But it’s still a sense of what we aspire to be, and I can’t think of any other city with a more noble goal for itself.

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How many more mayoral “lasts” will Daley do during following two months?

When Chicago threw its official St. Patrick’s Day celebration (the one along Columbus Drive, not any of the neighborhood- or suburban-based festivals that will occur in upcoming days), we got the sight of Richard M. Daley serving as the parade’s grand marshal.

RICHARD M.: His last (fill in the blank).



In theory, that’s not a big deal. Daley has done the honors many times during his mayoral stint, as did his father, Richard J. The idea of a Daley presiding over the “Irish pride” parade ought to be as routine a happening as could occur.

IT OUGHT TO be evidence that city officials couldn’t find anyone better to do the honors I still remember the parade from a few years ago when then-President George W. Bush was grand marshal, and a few years before that when a film crew took images from the parade along Dearborn Street and worked them into the story line of the Harrison Ford film “The Fugitive.”

Yet one of the results of Rahm Emanuel decisively winning last month’s mayoral election and sparing us a runoff on April 5 is that we can now focus a significant part of our attention to the departure of Daley – who just a couple of months ago surpassed his father in terms of time spent in the position of mayor.

We got to see on Saturday Daley’s last St. Patrick’s Day parade as mayor. How many more “lasts” are we going to have to endure in the coming weeks before Emanuel is sworn in as mayor in early May?

He already presented his final budget proposal to the City Council, so as far as official business is concerned, Daley is merely treading water until the arrival of Emanuel on the Fifth Floor. Digging the city’s way out of the financial chaos it faces is Rahm’s problem.

I CAN’T HELP but wonder if Daley will find some excuse to make a public announcement for some municipal program that will benefit the Bridgeport neighborhood, which likes to claim Richard M. as one of their own – even though he and wife Maggie moved out of there over a decade ago.

The neighborhood that likes to claim to be the home of more mayors than any other neighborhood would like to have one last mayoral visit from Daley before he becomes ex-mayor and can officially forget he ever lived any further south of downtown than the South Loop neighborhood.

Let the denizens of the businesses along Halsted Street near 35^th Street have one last sighting of a “Mayor Daley” walking in their midst – even though the reality of the neighborhood today is a heavy presence of Chinese and Mexican ethnics, making the Irish ethnics of old a minority.

Or perhaps Daley could give us a more culturally sophisticated finale. How about an appearance at an event of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra? One last public appearance of “Maredaley, the younger,” putting on a tuxedo and trying to look sophisticated, with wife Maggie giving him a nudge if he happens to start snoring in mid-concerto.

IT’S NOT EVEN all classical music with the orchestra, which has an event scheduled for March 25 with jazz musicians Branford Marsalis and Terrence Blanchard.



WILLIAM: Still a Daley in D.C.



I can’t help but think that Richard M. Daley can concoct a reason to make one more out-of-town trip as mayor. If he’s really adventurous, he’ll find a reason to travel out of the country to try to expand Chicago’s international horizons – trying to convince the world that despite our Midwestern U.S. location, we’re not just a larger take on Indianapolis or a more well-scrubbed version of Detroit.



More likely, it will be one last mayoral trip within the United States. Possibly even Washington, where the “Daley” name will live on politically through brother William serving as chief of staff to President Barack Obama.

We’ll also have to have some sort of Daley sightings about town – giving him one last time to be seen there as mayor. Perhaps Millennium Park, that over-grandiose location downtown that never would have been done had Daley not had the ambition himself?

OR, IF DALEY really has some gumption, he’ll venture just a few blocks south and make one final trip as mayor to Northerly Island – the one-time site of Meigs Field. Will he have the nerve to remind people of the airstrip that was a political battleground in the 1990s – a fight that state officials won in the political process, but which Daley ultimately won through the power of the bull-dozer.

There is just so much potential everywhere we look for us to see opportunities for a last “Mayor Daley” sighting. The St. Patrick’s Day Parade will merely be the first “last sighting” that we will endure. The only real question will be how ludicrous and gaudy will the whole "last" thing become?

The one I’m most anxious to see involves baseball. Because while any potential Chicago Bulls basketball championship this season will come on Emanuel’s watch, Daley will still be mayor on Opening Day.

Will we get to see Richard M. marching to the pitchers mound at U.S. Cellular Field to throw out the “first pitch” of the season on April 7, when the Chicago White Sox play their first home game of 2011 against the Tampa Bay Rays. That would be a sight I’m sure many Sout’ Side Sox fans would enjoy.

ALTHOUGH PERSONALLY, I’D get a kick out of seeing Daley venture up to the Lakeview neighborhood for the Chicago Cubs season opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Daley at a Cubs’ game may sound ludicrous to some. But when one considers that the Cubs open their season at home on April 1, I’d say April Fool’s Day is the perfect date for Daley to feign interest in what happens at the humble abode of one Elwood J. Blues.

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