Chicago
is the third largest city in the United States with
an official population of 2,896,016 as of the 2000 US
Census and when combined with its suburbs a metro area
population rapidly approaching ten million. Recent (2003)
population estimates put the number for the city proper
at 2,869,121 while suburban populations continue to
grow with estimates at 9,650,137 for the combined city
and suburbs. There's some skepticism regarding estimates
for the city proper (See the Demographics section for
more details.)
Chicago is located in the state of Illinois on the shores of Lake Michigan. The city is the county seat of Cook County. The Chicago metropolitan area is known colloquially as Chicagoland, after a term promoted by the Chicago Tribune in the early 20th century. Chicago has many different nicknames and has been ranked as one of ten "alpha" world cities by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network (GaWC), and is recognized around the world for it's magnificent skyline, unique cuisine and an urban style that is all its own. When combined with its surrounding suburbs and with Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Chicago is part of a megalopolis.
When it comes to skyscrapers, Chicago is king, being
the first US city to reach new heights, shortly joined
by New York City. Chicago, along with New York City
and Hong Kong, makes up the "big three" when
it comes to city skylines.
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Madison Street in the heart of Chicago separates the
city into North and South sides. More than just an address
landmark, it serves as Chicago's own version of the
Mason-Dixon Line. Part of this is in someway linked
to history of segregation in Chicago; the South Side
has large African-American neighborhoods while the North
Side tends to be hugely Caucasian. Unfortunately, history
has not been too kind to the South Side, so while it
is undergoing a resurgence in recent years, it was the
site of many urban renewal projects that decimated the
urban geography as well as upset the local economy.
Common literature tends to spread the notion that the
South Side is largely undesirable or unsafe (usually
stemming from the segregationist sentiments about all-African
American areas) despite the fact that large areas of
the South Side are stable and/or middle-to-upper class.
Regardless, residents identify with their side, and
this fact is expressed in the tendency for South Siders
to be strict adherents to the Chicago White Sox (whose
stadium is on the South Side), and the tendency for
North Siders to be strict adherents to the Chicago Cubs
(whose stadium is on the North Side). The West Side,
that is, the area loosely west of the Loop and South
Loop, while long considered a part of either the South
Side or not even considered at all, as well as home
to some of the most neglected and blighted neighborhoods
in the city, is beginning to develop its identity, thanks
in part to massive economic development in the Near
West Side (bordering the Loop), city investment in the
area, and a surging immigrant population. In fact, office/high-rise
development in Chicago is creeping across the river
into the Near West Side, where transit connections are
as strong, if not stronger, than the actual Loop itself.
By
modern standards, Chicago has little reason to build
up: being located in the Midwest, it has plenty of room
to sprawl outwards on almost Euclideanesque flat ground.
There is, of course, the Chicago River, which may bring
some argument as to geographic restriction, but the
impact of which was strongly lessened by the strict
adherence to the Chicago grid across the river. Mostly
though, Chicago runs on energy and inertia. Even today,
Chicago is going through a massive skyscraper building
boom, with projects like 55 East Erie (the tallest residential
building in the US outside New York City) and Trump
International Hotel (to be completed in 2007, to be
the fourth tallest in Chicago and the tallest building
built in the US for nearly three decades) breaking ground
frequently. All this can really be attributed to precedent:
Chicago has always had a history of frantic skyscraper
building, mostly beginning after the Great Chicago Fire,
and since this time developers simply follow the pattern
set before them.
Chicago has the largest park district in the United States and is managed by the Chicago Park District. The Park District manages over 220 facilities throughout the city with 7,300 acres (2,954 hectares) of parkland. Each year the Park District holds thousands of special events for the citizens. The Park District also has the excellent reputation of spending the most per capita on its parks, beating out Boston in terms of park expenses per capita. Some of the more famous parks and facilities include:
Millennium Park (newly opened in 2004, just north of the Art Institute of Chicago)
Grant Park (downtown, the site of the Taste of Chicago and Buckingham Fountain)
Lincoln Park (north of downtown, centrally located in the Lincoln Park community area but follows Lake Michigan past many neighborhoods.)
Chicago is the center of a large metropolitan area, often called Chicagoland. It's the focal point for suburban communities in seven surrounding counties in Illinois and at least one county in Indiana and one in Wisconsin. The 2000 U.S. census estimates Chicagoland's population at 9,157,540. With such a wide area of flat land, the suburbs have been expanding at a tremendous rate since around 1960. Settlement patterns in Chicagoland mirror those in the city itself to some extent: northern suburbs along the lake shore tend to be more affluent, while Southern suburbs tend to be less so, with lower median incomes and a lower cost of living.
The City of Chicago is divided into executive and legislative branches. The mayor is the Chief Executive, elected by general election for a term of four years. The mayor appoints commissioners who oversee the various departments. The current mayor is Richard M. Daley.
The city council is the legislative branch and made up of 50 aldermen, one elected from each ward in the city. The city council makes local ordinances and passes the city budget. Government priorities and activities are established in a budget ordinance usually adopted in November of each year. The city takes official action through the passage of ordinances and resolutions. In addition to the mayor, Chicago's two other city-wide elected officials are the clerk and the treasurer.
Chicago is considered one of the largest Democratic strongholds in the United States, for example, the citizens of Chicago have not elected a Republican mayor since 1927 when William Thompson was voted into office. See this complete list of former Chicago mayors.
For its youth compared to Eastern cities, Chicago has made many significant pop-cultural contributions. In the field of music, Chicago is very well-known for its Chicago blues, but it is also the origin of the House style of music, whose history is related to the development and fostering of the techno electronic style of music in nearby Detroit. In addition, in the field of culinary arts, Chicago provides the antithesis to New York styles of pizza and hot dogs, being synonymous with deep dish and stuffed pizza in addition to being linked to a robustly complex hot dog that challenges the relative simplicity of a New York coney dog. In addition, Chicago schools have developed in various aspects of study, such as the famed Chicago school of architecture and the Chicago schools of economic theory, literary criticism and urban sociology, the three latter founded by the University of Chicago.
Chicago is a well-known theater capital and is the Mecca for improvisational comedy. It is home to The Second City and ImprovOlympic, two of the largest comedy troupes in the world. Many world-famous actors and comedians are from Chicago or have studied there, particularly at Northwestern University.
Historically, Chicago is remembered for machine politics ("Vote early and vote often" and "A city run of the Daleys, by the Daleys, for the Daleys" are two phrases associated with Chicago politics), meat packing (as mentioned in the nicknames section and made infamous by Upton Sinclair's The Jungle), and gangster violence during Prohibition (some key figures are linked to Chicago, such as Al Capone and John Dillinger).
The following sports teams are based in Chicago:
