Chicago

This article is about the Illinois city. For other uses, see Chicago (disambiguation).
Chicago, Illinois
City
City of Chicago


Flag

Seal
Etymology: Miami-Illinois: shikaakwa ("wild onion" or "wild garlic")
Potawatomi: Gaa-zhigaagwanzhikaag
Nickname(s): The "Windy City", Chi-Town, The "Second City", the City of Big Shoulders
(for more, see full list)
Motto: Latin: Urbs in Horto (City in a Garden), I Will

Location in Cook County and the state of Illinois.
Chicago

Location in the United States

Coordinates: 41°50′13″N 87°41′05″W / 41.83694°N 87.68472°W / 41.83694; -87.68472Coordinates: 41°50′13″N 87°41′05″W / 41.83694°N 87.68472°W / 41.83694; -87.68472[1]
Country  United States of America
State  Illinois
Counties Cook and DuPage
Settled 1780s
Incorporated (town) August 12, 1833
Incorporated (city) March 4, 1837
Named for Miami-Illinois: shikaakwa
(wild onion or wild garlic)
Government
  Type Mayor–council
  Body Chicago City Council
  Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D)
  City Clerk Susana A. Mendoza (D)
  City Treasurer Kurt Summers, Jr. (D)
Area
  City 234.0 sq mi (606 km2)
  Land 227.3 sq mi (589 km2)
  Water 6.9 sq mi (18 km2)  3.0%
  Urban 2,122.8 sq mi (5,498 km2)
  Metro 10,874 sq mi (28,160 km2)
Elevation[1](mean) 594 ft (181 m)
Highest elevation
– near Blue Island
672 ft (205 m)
Lowest elevation
– at Lake Michigan
578 ft (176 m)
Population (2010)[2]
  City 2,695,598
  Estimate (July 1, 2014[3]) 2,722,389
  Rank 3rd largest city in U.S.
Largest in Illinois and in the Midwestern United States
  Density 11,864.4/sq mi (4,447.4/km2)
  Metro 9,551,031 (3rd)
Demonym(s) Chicagoan
Time zone Central (UTC-6)
  Summer (DST) Central (UTC-5)
ZIP Code Prefixes 606xx, 607xx, 608xx
Area codes 312/872 and 773/872
FIPS code 17-14000
GNIS feature ID 0428803
Website www.cityofchicago.org

Chicago (i/ʃˈkɑːɡ/ or /ʃˈkɔːɡ/) is the third most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois and the Midwest. The Chicago metropolitan area, often referred to as Chicagoland, has nearly 10 million people and is the third-largest in the U.S.[4] Chicago is the seat of Cook County.[lower-alpha 1]

Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837, near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed, and grew rapidly in the mid-nineteenth century.[7] The city is an international hub for finance, commerce, industry, technology, telecommunications, and transportation: O'Hare International Airport is the busiest airport in the world when measured by aircraft traffic; the region also has the largest number of U.S. highways and rail road freight.[8] In 2012, Chicago was listed as an alpha global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network,[9] and ranked seventh in the world in the 2014 Global Cities Index.[10] As of 2014, Chicago had the third largest gross metropolitan product in the United States at US$610.5 billion.[11][12] The Chicago metropolitan area is also home to several universities, including Northwestern University, University of Chicago, and University of Illinois at Chicago.

In 2014, Chicago had 50.2 million international and domestic visitors.[13] Chicago's culture includes the visual arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy, and music, particularly jazz, blues, soul, gospel[14] and house music. It also has professional sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. Chicago has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City.[15]

History

Beginnings

Traditional Potawatomi costume on display at the Field Museum

The name "Chicago" is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, translated by some sources as "wild leek" or "wild onion" or "wild garlic", from the Miami-Illinois language.[16][17][18][19] The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as "Checagou" was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir.[20] Henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called "chicagoua", grew abundantly in the area.[17] Other sources say place of the skunk.[21]

In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, who had taken the place of the Miami and Sauk and Fox peoples.[22] The first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s.[23][24][25] He is commonly known as the "Founder of Chicago."

In 1795, following the Northwest Indian War, an area that was to be part of Chicago was turned over to the United States for a military post by native tribes in accordance with the Treaty of Greenville. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn and later rebuilt.[26] The Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833.[27][28][29]

Founding and 19th century

A 1903 painting of Chicago in 1833
The location and course of the Illinois and Michigan Canal (completed 1848)
State and Madison Streets, once known as the busiest intersection in the world (1897)

On August 12, 1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200.[29] Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people. On June 15, 1835, the first public land sales commenced with Edmund Dick Taylor as U.S. receiver of public moneys. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4, 1837 and for several decades was the fastest growing city in the world.[30]

As the site of the Chicago Portage,[31] the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicago's first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois and Michigan Canal both opened in 1848. The canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River.[32][33][34][35]

A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad. Manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy.[36] The Chicago Board of Trade (established 1848) listed the first ever standardized 'exchange traded' forward contracts, which were called futures contracts.[37]

An artist's rendering of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871

In the 1850s, Chicago gained national political prominence as the home of Senator Stephen Douglas, the champion of the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the "popular sovereignty" approach to the issue of the spread of slavery.[38] These issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage. Lincoln was nominated in Chicago for US President at the 1860 Republican National Convention. He defeated Douglas in the general election, and this set the stage for the American Civil War.[39]

To accommodate rapid population growth and demand for better sanitation, the city improved its infrastructure. In February 1856, Chicago's Common Council approved Chesbrough's plan to build the United States' first comprehensive sewerage system.[40] The project raised much of central Chicago to a new grade. While elevating Chicago, and at first improving the health of the city, the untreated sewage and industrial waste now flowed into the Chicago River, then into Lake Michigan, polluting the primary source of fresh water for the city.

The city responded by tunneling two miles (3 km) out into Lake Michigan to newly built water cribs. In 1900, the problem of sewage contamination was largely resolved when the city completed a major engineering feat. It reversed the flow of the Chicago River so that the water flowed away from Lake Michigan rather than into it. This project began with the construction and improvement of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and was completed with the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal that connects to the Illinois River, which flows into the Mississippi River.[41][42][43]

In 1871, a Great Chicago Fire destroyed an area of about 4 miles long and 1 mile wide, a large section of the city at the time.[44][45][46] Much of the city, including railroads and stockyards, survived intact,[47] and from the ruins of the previous wooden structures arose more modern constructions of steel and stone. These set a precedent for worldwide construction.[48][49] During its rebuilding period, Chicago constructed the world's first skyscraper in 1885, using steel-skeleton construction.[50][51]

The city grew significantly in size and population by incorporating many neighboring townships between 1851 and 1920, with the largest annexation happening in 1889, with five townships joining the city, including the Hyde Park Township, which now comprises most of the South Side of Chicago and the far southeast of Chicago, and the Jefferson Township, which now makes up most of Chicago's Northwest Side.[52] The desire to join the city was driven by municipal services the city could provide its residents.

Court of Honor at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893

Chicago's flourishing economy attracted huge numbers of new immigrants from Europe and migrants from the Eastern United States. Of the total population in 1900, more than 77% were either foreign-born or born in the United States of foreign parentage. Germans, Irish, Poles, Swedes and Czechs made up nearly two-thirds of the foreign-born population (by 1900, whites were 98.1% of the city's population).[53][54]

Labor conflicts followed the industrial boom and the rapid expansion of the labor pool, including the Haymarket affair on May 4, 1886. Concern for social problems among Chicago's immigrant poor led Jane Addams to co‑found Hull House in 1889.[55] Programs developed there became a model for the new field of social work.[56]

During the 1870s and 1880s, Chicago attained national stature as the leader in the movement to improve public health. City, and later state laws, that upgraded standards for the medical profession and fought urban epidemics of cholera, smallpox, and yellow fever were both passed and enforced. These laws became templates for public health reform in other cities and states.[57]

The city established many large, well-landscaped municipal parks, which also included public sanitation facilities. The chief advocate for improving public health in Chicago was Dr. John H. Rauch, M.D.. Rauch established a plan for Chicago's park system in 1866. He created Lincoln Park by closing a cemetery filled with shallow graves, and in 1867, in response to an outbreak of cholera he helped establish a new Chicago Board of Health. Ten years later he became the secretary and then the president of the first Illinois State Board of Health, which carried out most of its activities in Chicago.[58]

In the 19th century, Chicago became the nation's railroad center, and by 1910 over 20 railroads operated passenger service out of 6 different downtown terminals.[59][60] In 1883, Chicago's railway managers needed a general time convention, so they developed the standardized system of North American time zones.[61] This system for telling time spread throughout the continent.

In 1893, Chicago hosted the World's Columbian Exposition on former marshland at the present location of Jackson Park. The Exposition drew 27.5 million visitors, and is considered the most influential world's fair in history.[62][63] The University of Chicago, formerly at another location moved to the same South Side location in 1892. The term "midway" for a fair or carnival referred originally to the Midway Plaisance, a strip of park land that still runs through the University of Chicago campus and connects the Washington and Jackson Parks.[64][65]

20th and 21st centuries

Haymarket Square circa 1905
Old photography of downtown Chicago
Men outside a soup kitchen in the Great Depression (1931)
Chicago skyline from Northerly Island in 1941
Racks of meat in cold storage in a meat locker in Chicago as photographed by Stanley Kubrick for Look Magazine in 1949

During World War I and the 1920s there was a major expansion in industry. The availability of jobs attracted African-Americans from the Southern United States. Between 1910 and 1930, the African-American population of Chicago increased dramatically, from 44,103 to 233,903.[66] This Great Migration had an immense cultural impact, called the Chicago Black Renaissance, part of the New Negro Movement, in art, literature, and music.[67] Continuing racial tensions and violence, such as the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, also occurred.[68]

The ratification of the 18th amendment to the Constitution in 1919 made the production and sale (including exportation) of alcoholic beverages illegal in the United States. This ushered in the beginning of what is known as the Gangster Era, a time that roughly spans from 1919 until 1933 when Prohibition was repealed. The 1920s saw gangsters, including Al Capone, Dion O'Banion, Bugs Moran and Tony Accardo battle law enforcement and each other on the streets of Chicago during the Prohibition era.[69] Chicago was the location of the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929, where Al Capone sent men to gun down members of his rival gang, North Side, led by Bugs Moran.[70]

In 1924, Chicago was the first American city to have a homosexual-rights organization, the Society for Human Rights. This organization produced the first American publication for homosexuals, Friendship and Freedom. Police and political pressure soon caused it to disband.[71]

In 1933, Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak was fatally wounded in Miami, Florida during a failed assassination attempt on President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1933 and 1934, the city celebrated its centennial by hosting the Century of Progress International Exposition Worlds Fair.[72] The theme of the fair was technological innovation over the century since Chicago's founding.[73]

In March 1937, there was a violent strike by about 3,500 drivers for Checker and Yellow Cab Companies which included rioting that went on for weeks. The cab companies hired "strike breakers", and the cab drivers union hired "sluggers" who ragged through the downtown Chicago area looking for cabs and drivers not participating in the strike.[74]

On December 2, 1942, physicist Enrico Fermi conducted the world's first controlled nuclear reaction at the University of Chicago as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. This led to the creation of the atomic bomb by the United States, which it used in World War II in 1945.[75]

Mayor Richard J. Daley, a Democrat, was elected in 1955, in the era of machine politics. Starting in the early 1960s due to blockbusting, many white residents, as in most American cities, left the city for the suburbs. Whole neighborhoods were completely changed based on race.[76] Structural changes in industry, such as globalization and job outsourcing, caused heavy losses of jobs for lower skilled workers. In 1966, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Albert Raby led the Chicago Freedom Movement, which culminated in agreements between Mayor Richard J. Daley and the movement leaders.[77]

Two years later, the city hosted the tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention, which featured physical confrontations both inside and outside the convention hall, with anti-war protesters, journalists and bystanders being savagely beaten by police.[78] Major construction projects, including the Sears Tower (now known as the Willis Tower, which in 1974 became the world's tallest building), University of Illinois at Chicago, McCormick Place, and O'Hare International Airport, were undertaken during Richard J. Daley's tenure.[79] In 1979, Jane Byrne, the city's first female mayor, was elected. She helped reduce crime in the Cabrini-Green housing project and led Chicago's school system out of a financial crisis.[80]

In 1983, Harold Washington became the first black mayor of the city of Chicago. Washington's first term in office directed attention to poor and previously neglected minority neighborhoods. He was re‑elected in 1987 but died of a heart attack soon after.[81] Washington was succeeded by 6th ward Alderman Eugene Sawyer who was elected by the Chicago City Council and served until a special election.

Richard M. Daley, son of Richard J. Daley, was elected in 1989. His accomplishments included improvements to parks and creating incentives for sustainable development. After successfully standing for re-election five times, and becoming Chicago's longest serving mayor, Richard M. Daley declined to run for a seventh term.[82][83]

On February 23, 2011, former Illinois Congressman and White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, won the mayoral election, beating five rivals with 55 percent of the vote,[84] and was sworn in as Mayor on May 16, 2011.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Chicago

Cityscape

Chicago skyline April 18, 2009, from Northerly Island looking northwest.
Buildings along the sides of a river in a panorama view
The Chicago River, with the Near North Side and Streeterville on the right, the Chicago Loop, Lakeshore East, and Illinois Center on the left, and Trump Tower at the jog in the river in the center. This view is looking west from Lake Shore Drive's Outer Drive Bridge.
Chicago July 10, 2012, from John Hancock Center looking south.
Chicago skyline at dusk, from North Avenue Beach looking south.

Topography

Downtown and the North Side with beaches lining the waterfront.

Chicago is located in northeastern Illinois on the southwestern shores of Lake Michigan. It is the principal city in the Chicago Metropolitan Area, situated in the Midwestern United States and the Great Lakes region. Chicago rests on a continental divide at the site of the Chicago Portage, connecting the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes watersheds. The city lies beside huge freshwater Lake Michigan, and two rivers—the Chicago River in downtown and the Calumet River in the industrial far South Side—flow entirely or partially through Chicago.[85][86] Chicago's history and economy are closely tied to its proximity to Lake Michigan. While the Chicago River historically handled much of the region's waterborne cargo, today's huge lake freighters use the city's Lake Calumet Harbor on the South Side. The lake also provides another positive effect, moderating Chicago's climate; making waterfront neighborhoods slightly warmer in winter and cooler in summer.[87]

When Chicago was founded in 1833, most of the early building was around the mouth of the Chicago River, as can be seen on a map of the city's original 58 blocks.[88] The overall grade of the city's central, built-up areas, is relatively consistent with the natural flatness of its overall natural geography, generally exhibiting only slight differentiation otherwise. The average land elevation is 579 ft (176.5 m) above sea level. The lowest points are along the lake shore at 578 ft (176.2 m), while the highest point, at 672 ft (205 m), is the morainal ridge of Blue Island in the city's far south side.[89]

The Chicago Loop is the central business district, but Chicago is also a city of neighborhoods. Lake Shore Drive runs adjacent to a large portion of Chicago's lakefront. Some of the parks along the waterfront include Lincoln Park, Grant Park, Burnham Park and Jackson Park. There are twenty-four public beaches across 26 miles (42 km) of the waterfront.[90] Landfill extends into portions of the lake providing space for Navy Pier, Northerly Island, the Museum Campus, and large portions of the McCormick Place Convention Center. Most of the city's high-rise commercial and residential buildings are close to the waterfront.

An informal name for the entire Chicago metropolitan area is "Chicagoland". There is no precise definition for the term "Chicagoland", but it generally means the entire conurbation. The Chicago Tribune, which coined the term, includes the city of Chicago, the rest of Cook County, eight nearby Illinois counties: Lake, McHenry, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Grundy, Will and Kankakee, and three counties in Indiana: Lake, Porter and LaPorte.[91] The Illinois Department of Tourism defines Chicagoland as Cook County without the city of Chicago, and only Lake, DuPage, Kane and Will counties.[92] The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce defines it as all of Cook and DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties.[93]

Communities

Community areas of the City of Chicago.

Major sections of the city include the central business district, called The Loop, and the North, the South, and West Sides.[94] The three sides of the city are represented on the Flag of Chicago by three horizontal white stripes.[95] The North Side is the most densely populated residential section of the city, and many high-rises are located on this side of the city along the lakefront.[96] The South Side is the largest section of the city, encompassing roughly 60% of the city's land area. The South Side contains the University of Chicago and most of the facilities of the Port of Chicago.[97]

In the late 1920s, sociologists at the University of Chicago subdivided the city into 77 distinct community areas, which can further be subdivided into over 200 informally defined neighborhoods.[98][99]

Streetscape

Chicago's streets were laid out in a street grid that grew from the city's original townsite plat, which was bounded by Lake Michigan on the east, North Avenue on the north, Wood Street on the west, and 22nd Street on the south.[100] Streets following the Public Land Survey System section lines later became arterial streets in outlying sections. As new additions to the city were platted, city ordinance required them to be laid out with eight streets to the mile in one direction and sixteen in the other direction (about one street per 201 meters by two in the other direction). The grid's regularity provided an efficient means of developing new real estate property. A scattering of diagonal streets, many of them originally Native American trails, also cross the city (Elston, Milwaukee, Ogden, Lincoln, etc.). Many additional diagonal streets were recommended in the Plan of Chicago, but only the extension of Ogden Avenue was ever constructed.[101]

Many of the city's residential streets have a wide patch of grass and/or trees between the street and the sidewalk itself. This helps to keep pedestrians on the sidewalk further away from the street traffic. Chicago's Western Avenue is the longest continuous urban street in the world.[102] Other famous streets include Michigan Avenue, State Street, Clark Street, and Belmont Avenue. The City Beautiful movement inspired Chicago's boulevards and parkways.

Architecture

The Chicago Building (1904–05) is a prime example of the Chicago School, displaying both variations of the Chicago window.

The destruction caused by the Great Chicago Fire led to the largest building boom in the history of the nation. In 1885, the first steel-framed high-rise building, the Home Insurance Building, rose in the city as Chicago ushered in the skyscraper era,[51] which would then be followed by many other cities around the world.[103] Today, Chicago's skyline is among the world's tallest and most dense.[104]

Some of the United States' tallest towers are located in Chicago; Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) is the second tallest building in the Western Hemisphere after One World Trade Center, and Trump International Hotel and Tower is the third tallest in the country.[105] The Loop's historic buildings include the Chicago Board of Trade Building, the Fine Arts Building, 35 East Wacker, and the Chicago Building, 860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments by Mies van der Rohe. Many other architects have left their impression on the Chicago skyline such as Daniel Burnham, Louis Sullivan, Charles B. Atwood, John Root, and Helmut Jahn.[106][107]

The Merchandise Mart, once first on the list of largest buildings in the world, currently listed as 44th largest (as of September 9, 2013), had its own zip code until 2008, and stands near the junction of the North and South branches of the Chicago River.[108] Presently, the four tallest buildings in the city are Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower, also a building with its own zip code), Trump International Hotel and Tower, the Aon Center (previously the Standard Oil Building), and the John Hancock Center. Industrial districts, such as some areas on the South Side, the areas along the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, and the Northwest Indiana area are clustered.[109]

Chicago gave its name to the Chicago School and was home to the Prairie School, two movements in architecture.[110] Multiple kinds and scales of houses, townhouses, condominiums, and apartment buildings can be found throughout Chicago. Large swaths of the city's residential areas away from the lake are characterized by brick bungalows built from the early 20th century through the end of World War II. Chicago is also a prominent center of the Polish Cathedral style of church architecture. The Chicago suburb of Oak Park was home to famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who had designed The Robie House located near the University of Chicago.[111][112]

Monuments and public art

Chicago is famous for its outdoor public art with donors establishing funding for such art as far back as Benjamin Ferguson's 1905 trust.[113] A number of Chicago's public art works are by modern figurative artists. Among these are Chagall's Four Seasons; the Chicago Picasso; Miro's Chicago; Calder's Flamingo; Oldenburg's Batcolumn; Moore's Large Interior Form, 1953-54, Man Enters the Cosmos and Nuclear Energy; Dubuffet's Monument with Standing Beast, Abakanowicz's Agora; and, Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate which has become an icon of the city. Some events which shaped the city's history have also been memorialized by art works, including the Great Northern Migration (Saar) and the centennial of statehood for Illinois. Finally, two fountains near the Loop also function as monumental works of art: Plensa's Crown Fountain and Burnham and Bennett's Buckingham Fountain.

More representational and portrait statuary includes a number of works by Lorado Taft (Fountain of Time, The Crusader, Eternal Silence, and the Heald Square Monument completed by Crunelle), French's Statue of the Republic, Edward Kemys's Lions, Saint-Gaudens's Abraham Lincoln: The Man (a.k.a. Standing Lincoln) and Abraham Lincoln: The Head of State (a.k.a. Seated Lincoln), Brioschi's Christopher Columbus, Meštrović's The Bowman and The Spearman, Dallin's Signal of Peace, Fairbanks's The Chicago Lincoln, Boyle's The Alarm, Polasek's memorial to Masaryk, memorials along Solidarity Promenade to Kościuszko, Havliček and Copernicus by Chodzinski, Strachovský, and Thorvaldsen, a memorial to General Logan by Saint-Gaudens, and Kearney's Moose (W-02-03). A number of statues also honor recent local heroes such as Michael Jordan (by Amrany and Rotblatt-Amrany), Stan Mikita, and Bobby Hull outside of the United Center; Harry Caray (by Amrany and Cella) outside Wrigley field, Jack Brickhouse (by McKenna) next to the WGN studios, and Irv Kupcinet at the Wabash Avenue Bridge.[114]

There are preliminary plans to erect a 1:1‑scale replica of Wacław Szymanowski's Art Nouveau statue of Frédéric Chopin found in Warsaw's Royal Baths along Chicago's lakefront in addition to a different sculpture commemorating the artist in Chopin Park for the 200th anniversary of Frédéric Chopin's birth.[115]

Climate

Main article: Climate of Chicago

The city lies within the humid continental climate zone (Köppen: Dfa), and experiences four distinct seasons. Summers are warm to hot and often humid, with a July daily average of 75.8 °F (24.3 °C). In a normal summer, temperatures can exceed 90 °F (32 °C) as many as 21 days. Winters are cold and snowy with few sunny days, and the normal January high is just below freezing. Spring and autumn are mild seasons with low humidity. Dewpoint temperatures in the summer range from 55.7 °F (13.2 °C) in June to 61.7 °F (16.5 °C) in July.[116] The city is part of the USDA Plant Hardiness zone 6a, transitioning to 5b in the suburbs.[117]

According to the National Weather Service, Chicago's highest official temperature reading of 105 °F (41 °C) was recorded on July 24, 1934,[118] although Midway Airport reached 109 °F (43 °C) one day prior and recorded a heat index of 125 °F (52 °C) during the 1995 heatwave.[119] The lowest official temperature of −27 °F (−33 °C) was recorded on January 20, 1985, at O'Hare Airport.[116][119] The city can experience extreme winter cold waves and summer heat waves that may last for several consecutive days. Thunderstorms are common during the spring and summer months which may sometimes produce hail, high winds, and tornadoes.[120] Like other major cities, Chicago also experiences urban heat island, making the city and its suburbs milder than surrounding rural areas, especially at night and in winter. Also, the proximity to Lake Michigan keeps lakefront Chicago cooler in early summer and milder in winter than areas to the west.[121]

Climate data for Chicago (Midway Airport), 1981–2010 normals, extremes 1928–present
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °F (°C) 67
(19)
75
(24)
86
(30)
92
(33)
102
(39)
107
(42)
109
(43)
102
(39)
101
(38)
94
(34)
81
(27)
72
(22)
109
(43)
Average high °F (°C) 31.5
(−0.3)
35.8
(2.1)
46.8
(8.2)
59.2
(15.1)
70.2
(21.2)
79.9
(26.6)
84.2
(29)
82.1
(27.8)
75.3
(24.1)
62.8
(17.1)
48.6
(9.2)
35.3
(1.8)
59.4
(15.2)
Daily mean °F (°C) 24.8
(−4)
28.7
(−1.8)
38.8
(3.8)
50.4
(10.2)
60.9
(16.1)
71.0
(21.7)
75.9
(24.4)
74.1
(23.4)
66.4
(19.1)
54.2
(12.3)
41.5
(5.3)
29.0
(−1.7)
51.31
(10.73)
Average low °F (°C) 18.2
(−7.7)
21.7
(−5.7)
30.9
(−0.6)
41.7
(5.4)
51.6
(10.9)
62.1
(16.7)
67.5
(19.7)
66.2
(19)
57.5
(14.2)
45.7
(7.6)
34.5
(1.4)
22.7
(−5.2)
43.5
(6.4)
Record low °F (°C) −25
(−32)
−20
(−29)
−7
(−22)
10
(−12)
28
(−2)
35
(2)
46
(8)
43
(6)
34
(1)
20
(−7)
−3
(−19)
−20
(−29)
−25
(−32)
Average precipitation inches (mm) 2.06
(52.3)
1.94
(49.3)
2.72
(69.1)
3.64
(92.5)
4.13
(104.9)
4.06
(103.1)
4.01
(101.9)
3.99
(101.3)
3.31
(84.1)
3.24
(82.3)
3.42
(86.9)
2.57
(65.3)
39.09
(992.9)
Average snowfall inches (cm) 11.5
(29.2)
9.1
(23.1)
5.4
(13.7)
1.0
(2.5)
trace 0
(0)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0.1
(0.3)
1.3
(3.3)
8.7
(22.1)
37.1
(94.2)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in) 10.7 8.8 11.2 11.1 11.4 10.3 9.9 9.0 8.2 10.2 11.2 11.1 123.1
Average snowy days (≥ 0.1 in) 8.1 5.5 3.8 0.7 0 0 0 0 0 0.1 1.8 6.7 26.7
Source: NOAA,[122][116][119] WRCC[123]
Climate data for Chicago (O'Hare Int'l Airport), 1981–2010 normals, extremes 1871–present[lower-alpha 2]
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °F (°C) 67
(19)
75
(24)
88
(31)
91
(33)
98
(37)
104
(40)
105
(41)
102
(39)
101
(38)
94
(34)
81
(27)
71
(22)
105
(41)
Average high °F (°C) 31.0
(−0.6)
35.3
(1.8)
46.6
(8.1)
59.0
(15)
70.0
(21.1)
79.7
(26.5)
84.1
(28.9)
81.9
(27.7)
74.8
(23.8)
62.3
(16.8)
48.2
(9)
34.8
(1.6)
59.1
(15.1)
Daily mean °F (°C) 23.8
(−4.6)
27.7
(−2.4)
37.9
(3.3)
48.9
(9.4)
59.1
(15.1)
68.9
(20.5)
74.0
(23.3)
72.4
(22.4)
64.6
(18.1)
52.5
(11.4)
40.3
(4.6)
27.7
(−2.4)
49.82
(9.89)
Average low °F (°C) 16.5
(−8.6)
20.1
(−6.6)
29.2
(−1.6)
38.8
(3.8)
48.3
(9.1)
58.1
(14.5)
63.9
(17.7)
62.9
(17.2)
54.3
(12.4)
42.8
(6)
32.4
(0.2)
20.7
(−6.3)
40.8
(4.9)
Record low °F (°C) −27
(−33)
−21
(−29)
−12
(−24)
7
(−14)
27
(−3)
35
(2)
45
(7)
42
(6)
29
(−2)
14
(−10)
−2
(−19)
−25
(−32)
−27
(−33)
Average precipitation inches (mm) 1.73
(43.9)
1.79
(45.5)
2.50
(63.5)
3.38
(85.9)
3.68
(93.5)
3.45
(87.6)
3.70
(94)
4.90
(124.5)
3.21
(81.5)
3.15
(80)
3.15
(80)
2.25
(57.2)
36.89
(937)
Average snowfall inches (cm) 10.8
(27.4)
9.1
(23.1)
5.6
(14.2)
1.2
(3)
trace 0
(0)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0.2
(0.5)
1.2
(3)
8.2
(20.8)
36.3
(92.2)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in) 10.5 8.8 11.1 12.0 11.6 10.2 9.8 9.8 8.3 10.2 10.8 11.0 124.1
Average snowy days (≥ 0.1 in) 8.2 5.9 4.2 0.9 0 0 0 0 0 0.2 1.7 6.9 28.0
Average relative humidity (%) 72.2 71.6 69.7 64.9 64.1 65.6 68.5 70.7 71.1 68.6 72.5 75.5 69.6
Mean monthly sunshine hours 135.8 136.2 187.0 215.3 281.9 311.4 318.4 283.0 226.6 193.2 113.3 106.3 2,508.4
Percent possible sunshine 46 46 51 54 62 68 69 66 60 56 38 37 56
Source: NOAA (relative humidity and sun 1961–1990)[116][126][127]

Demographics

Historical population
Census Pop.
18404,470
185029,963570.3%
1860112,172274.4%
1870298,977166.5%
1880503,18568.3%
18901,099,850118.6%
19001,698,57554.4%
19102,185,28328.7%
19202,701,70523.6%
19303,376,43825.0%
19403,396,8080.6%
19503,620,9626.6%
19603,550,404−1.9%
19703,366,957−5.2%
19803,005,072−10.7%
19902,783,726−7.4%
20002,896,0164.0%
20102,695,598−6.9%
Est. 20142,722,389[128]1.0%
U.S. Decennial Census
[129]

During its first hundred years, Chicago was one of the fastest-growing cities in the world. When founded in 1833, fewer than 200 people had settled on what was then the American frontier. By the time of its first census, seven years later, the population had reached over 4,000. In the forty years from 1850 to 1890, the city's population grew from slightly under 30,000 to over 1 million. At the end of the 19th century, Chicago was the fifth largest city in the world,[130] and the largest of the cities that did not exist at the dawn of the century. Within sixty years of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the population went from about 300,000 to over 3 million,[131] and reached its highest ever-recorded population of 3.6 million for the 1950 census.

From the last two decades of the 19th century, Chicago was the destination of waves of immigrants from Ireland, Southern, Central and Eastern Europe, including Italians, Jews, Poles, Lithuanians, Serbs and Czechs.[132] To these ethnic groups, the basis of the city's industrial working class, were added an additional influx of African-Americans from the American South — with Chicago's black population doubling between 1910 and 1920 and doubling again between 1920 and 1930.[132]

In the 1920s and 1930s, the great majority of African Americans moving to Chicago were clustered in a so‑called "Black Belt" on the city's South Side.[132] By 1930, two-thirds of Chicago's African-American population lived in sections of the city which were 90% black in racial composition.[132] Chicago's South Side emerged as America's second largest urban black concentration, following New York's Harlem.[132]

Racial composition 2010[133] 1990[134] 1970[134] 1940[134]
White 45.0% 45.4% 65.6% 91.7%
 —Non-Hispanic 31.7% 37.9% 59.0%[135] 91.2%
Black or African American 32.9% 39.1% 32.7% 8.2%
Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 28.9% 19.6% 7.4%[135] 0.5%
Asian 5.5% 3.7% 0.9% 0.1%

As of the 2010 census,[136] there were 2,695,598 people with 1,045,560 households living in Chicago. More than half the population of the state of Illinois lives in the Chicago metropolitan area. Chicago is one of the United States' most densely populated major cities, and the largest city in the Great Lakes Megalopolis. The racial composition of the city was:

Chicago has a Hispanic or Latino population of 28.9%. (Its members may belong to any race; 21.4% Mexican, 3.8% Puerto Rican, 0.7% Guatemalan, 0.6% Ecuadorian, 0.3% Cuban, 0.3% Colombian, 0.2% Honduran, 0.2% Salvadoran, 0.2% Peruvian)[137]

The city's previous largest ethnic group, non-Hispanic white, declined from 59% in 1970 to 31.7% in 2010.[134]

According to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey data estimates for 2008-2012, the median income for a household in the city was $47,408, and the median income for a family was $54,188. Male full-time workers had a median income of $47,074 versus $42,063 for females. About 18.3% of families and 22.1% of the population lived below the poverty line.[138]

According to the 2008-2012 American Community Survey, the ancestral groups having 10,000 or more persons in Chicago were:[139]

  • Irish: (137,799)
  • Polish: (134,032)
  • German: (120,328)
  • Italian: (77,967)
  • American: (37,118)
  • English: (36,145)
  • African American: (32,727)
  • Russian: (19,771)
  • Arab: (17,598)
  • European: (15,753)
  • Swedish: (15,151)
  • Greek: (15,129)
  • French (except Basque): (11,410)
  • Ukrainian: (11,104)
  • West Indian (except Hispanic groups): (10,349)

Persons identifying themselves as "Other groups" were classified at 1.72 million, and unclassified or not reported were approximately 153,000.[139]

Religion

St. Mary of the Angels is one of the three "Polish Cathedrals" located in the neighborhood of Bucktown.

71% of Chicagoans identify as Christian, 7% identity with other faiths and 22% have no religious affiliation.[140][141] Chicago also has many Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and others. Chicago is the headquarters of several religious denominations, including the Assyrian Church of the East, the Evangelical Covenant Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The Fourth Presbyterian Church is one of the biggest Presbyterian congregations in the U.S.

The first two Parliament of the World's Religions in 1893 and 1993 were held in Chicago.[142] Many international religious leaders have visited Chicago, including Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama,[143] and Pope John Paul II in 1979.[144]

Economy

Main article: Economy of Chicago

Chicago has the third largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $547 billion according to 2012 estimates.[145] Only the urban agglomerations of New York City and Los Angeles are larger. The city has also been rated as having the most balanced economy in the United States, due to its high level of diversification.[146] Chicago was named the fourth most important business center in the world in the MasterCard Worldwide Centers of Commerce Index.[147] Additionally, the Chicago metropolitan area recorded the greatest number of new or expanded corporate facilities in the United States for calendar year 2014.[148] The Chicago metropolitan area has the third largest science and engineering work force of any metropolitan area in the nation.[149] In 2009 Chicago placed 9th on the UBS list of the world's richest cities.[150] Chicago was the base of commercial operations for industrialists John Crerar, John Whitfield Bunn, Richard Teller Crane, Marshall Field, John Farwell, Julius Rosenwald and many other commercial visionaries who laid the foundation for Midwestern and global industry.

Chicago is a major world financial center, with the second largest central business district in the United States. The city is the headquarters of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (the Seventh District of the Federal Reserve). The city has major financial and futures exchanges, including the Chicago Stock Exchange, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (the "Merc"), which is owned, along with the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) by Chicago's CME Group. The CME Group, in addition, owns the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the Commodities Exchange Inc. (COMEX) and the Dow Jones Indexes.[151] Perhaps due to the influence of the Chicago school of economics, the city also has markets trading unusual contracts such as emissions (on the Chicago Climate Exchange) and equity style indices (on the U.S. Futures Exchange). Chase Bank has its commercial and retail banking headquarters in Chicago's Chase Tower.[152]

The city and its surrounding metropolitan area contain the third largest labor pool in the United States with about 4.48 million workers, as of 2014.[153] In addition, the state of Illinois is home to 66 Fortune 1000 companies, including those in Chicago.[154] The city of Chicago also hosts 12 Fortune Global 500 companies and 17 Financial Times 500 companies. The city claims one Dow 30 company: aerospace giant Boeing, which moved its headquarters from Seattle to the Chicago Loop in 2001.[155][156] Two more Dow 30 companies, Kraft Foods and McDonald's are in the Chicago suburbs, as are Sears Holdings Corporation and the technology spin-offs of Motorola. The headquarters of United Continental Holdings, are in the United Building and its operations center and its United Airlines subsidiary are in the Willis Tower in Chicago.

Manufacturing, printing, publishing and food processing also play major roles in the city's economy. Several medical products and services companies are headquartered in the Chicago area, including Baxter International, Boeing, Abbott Laboratories, and the Healthcare Financial Services division of General Electric. In addition to Boeing, which located its headquarters in Chicago in 2001, and United Airlines in 2011, GE Transportation moved its offices to the city in 2013, as did ThyssenKrupp North America, and agriculture giant Archer Daniels Midland.[8] Moreover, the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, which helped move goods from the Great Lakes south on the Mississippi River, and of the railroads in the 19th century made the city a major transportation center in the United States. In the 1840s, Chicago became a major grain port, and in the 1850s and 1860s Chicago's pork and beef industry expanded. As the major meat companies grew in Chicago many, such as Armour and Company, created global enterprises. Though the meatpacking industry currently plays a lesser role in the city's economy, Chicago continues to be a major transportation and distribution center. Lured by a combination of large business customers, federal research dollars, and a large hiring pool fed by the area's universities, Chicago is also the site of a growing number of web startup companies like CareerBuilder, Orbitz, 37signals, Groupon, Feedburner, and NowSecure.[157]

Chicago has been a hub of the Retail sector since its early development, with Montgomery Ward, Sears, and Marshall Field's. Today the Chicago metropolitan area is the headquarters of several retailers, including Walgreens, Sears, Ace Hardware, Claire's, ULTA Beauty and Crate & Barrel.

Late in the 19th century, Chicago was part of the bicycle craze, with the Western Wheel Company, which introduced stamping to the production process and significantly reduced costs,[158] while early in the 20th century, the city was part of the automobile revolution, hosting the Brass Era car builder Bugmobile, which was founded there in 1907.[159] Chicago was also the site of the Schwinn Bicycle Company.

Chicago is a major world convention destination. The city's main convention center is McCormick Place. With its four interconnected buildings, it is the largest convention center in the nation and third largest in the world.[160] Chicago also ranks third in the U.S. (behind Las Vegas and Orlando) in number of conventions hosted annually.[161]

Culture and contemporary life

A Chicago jazz club
The National Hellenic Museum in Greektown is one of several ethnic museums comprising the Chicago Cultural Alliance.

The city's waterfront location and nightlife has attracted residents and tourists alike. Over a third of the city population is concentrated in the lakefront neighborhoods from Rogers Park in the north to South Shore in the south.[162] The city has many upscale dining establishments as well as many ethnic restaurant districts. These districts include the Mexican American neighborhoods, such as Pilsen along 18th street, and La Villita along 26th Street; the Puerto Rican enclave of Paseo Boricua in the Humboldt Park neighborhood; Greektown, along South Halsted Street, immediately west of downtown;[163] Little Italy, along Taylor Street; Chinatown in Armour Square; Polish Patches in West Town; Little Seoul in Albany Park around Lawrence Avenue; Little Vietnam near Broadway in Uptown; and the Desi area, along Devon Avenue in West Ridge.[164]

Downtown is the center of Chicago's financial, cultural, governmental and commercial institutions and the site of Grant Park and many of the city's skyscrapers. Many of the city's financial institutions, such as the CBOT and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, are located within a section of downtown called "The Loop", which is an eight-block by five-block area of city streets that is encircled by elevated rail tracks. The term "The Loop" is largely used by locals to refer to the entire downtown area as well. The central area includes the Near North Side, the Near South Side, and the Near West Side, as well as the Loop. These areas contribute famous skyscrapers, abundant restaurants, shopping, museums, a stadium for the Chicago Bears, convention facilities, parkland, and beaches.

Lincoln Park contains the Lincoln Park Zoo and the Lincoln Park Conservatory. The River North Gallery District features the nation's largest concentration of contemporary art galleries outside of New York City. Lakeview has Boystown, which, along with Andersonville, are the best-known LGBT neighborhoods.

The South Side neighborhood of Hyde Park contains the University of Chicago (U of C), ranked one of the world's top ten universities;[165] and the Museum of Science and Industry. The 6-mile (9.7 km) long Burnham Park stretches along the waterfront of the South Side. Two of the city's largest parks are also located on this side of the city: Jackson Park, bordering the waterfront, hosted the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, and is the site of the aforementioned museum; and slightly west sits Washington Park. The two parks themselves are connected by a wide strip of parkland called the Midway Plaisance, running adjacent to the University of Chicago. The South Side hosts one of the city's largest parades, the annual African American Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic, which travels from Bronzeville to Washington Park. Ford Motor Company has an automobile assembly plant located in Hegewisch, and most of the facilities of the Port of Chicago are also on the South Side.

The West Side holds the Garfield Park Conservatory, one of the largest collections of tropical plants in any U.S. city. Prominent Latino cultural attractions found here include Humboldt Park's Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture and the annual Puerto Rican People's Parade, as well as the National Museum of Mexican Art and St. Adalbert's Church in Pilsen. The Near West Side holds the University of Illinois at Chicago and Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Studios.

The city's distinctive accent, made famous by its use in films like The Blues Brothers and television programs like the Saturday Night Live skit "Bill Swerski's Superfans", is an advanced form of Inland Northern American English. This dialect is also found in other cities bordering the Great Lakes such as Cleveland, Milwaukee, Detroit, and Rochester, New York, and most prominently features a rearrangement of certain vowel sounds, such as the short 'a' sound as in "cat", which can sound more like "kyet" to outsiders. Many Chicagoans do not speak with this accent, especially recent arrivals and nonwhites, but it remains well associated with the city.[166]

Entertainment and the arts

The spire of the Gateway Theatre is modeled on the Royal Castle in Warsaw

Renowned Chicago theater companies include the Goodman Theatre in the Loop; the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Victory Gardens Theater in Lincoln Park; and the Chicago Shakespeare Theater at Navy Pier. Broadway In Chicago offers Broadway-style entertainment at five theaters: the Ford Center for the Performing Arts Oriental Theatre, Bank of America Theatre, Cadillac Palace Theatre, Auditorium Building of Roosevelt University, and Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place. Polish language productions for Chicago's large Polish speaking population can be seen at the historic Gateway Theatre in Jefferson Park. Since 1968, the Joseph Jefferson Awards are given annually to acknowledge excellence in theater in the Chicago area. Chicago's theater community spawned modern improvisational theater, and includes the prominent groups The Second City and I.O. (formerly ImprovOlympic).

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) performs at Symphony Center, and is recognized as one of the best orchestras in the world.[167] Also performing regularly at Symphony Center is the Chicago Sinfonietta, a more diverse and multicultural counterpart to the CSO. In the summer, many outdoor concerts are given in Grant Park and Millennium Park. Ravinia Festival, located 25 miles (40 km) north of Chicago, is the summer home of the CSO, and is a favorite destination for many Chicagoans. The Civic Opera House is home to the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The Lithuanian Opera Company of Chicago was founded by Lithuanian Chicagoans in 1956,[168] and presents operas in Lithuanian.

The Joffrey Ballet and Chicago Festival Ballet perform in various venues, including the Harris Theater in Millennium Park. Chicago has several other contemporary and jazz dance troupes, such as the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Chicago Dance Crash.

Other live-music genre which are part of the city's cultural heritage include Chicago blues, Chicago soul, jazz, and gospel. The city is the birthplace of house music and is the site of an influential hip-hop scene. In the 1980s, the city was a center for industrial, punk and new wave. This influence continued into the alternative rock of the 1990s. The city has been an epicenter for rave culture, since the 1980s. A flourishing independent rock music culture brought forth Chicago indie. Annual festivals feature various acts, such as Lollapalooza and the Pitchfork Music Festival. A 2007 report on the Chicago music industry by the University of Chicago Cultural Policy Center ranked Chicago third among metropolitan U.S. areas in "size of music industry" and fourth among all U.S. cities in "number of concerts and performances."[169]

Chicago has a distinctive fine art tradition. For much of the twentieth century, it nurtured a strong style of figurative surrealism, as in the works of Ivan Albright and Ed Paschke. In 1968 and 1969, members of the Chicago Imagists, such as Roger Brown, Leon Golub, Robert Lostutter, Jim Nutt, and Barbara Rossi produced bizarre representational paintings.

Chicago contains a number of large, outdoor works by well-known artists. These include the Chicago Picasso, Miró's Chicago, Flamingo and Flying Dragon by Alexander Calder, Agora by Magdalena Abakanowicz, Monument with Standing Beast by Jean Dubuffet, Batcolumn by Claes Oldenburg, Cloud Gate by Anish Kapoor, Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa, and the Four Seasons mosaic by Marc Chagall.

Chicago also has a nationally televised Thanksgiving parade that occurs annually. The McDonald's Thanksgiving Parade is seen across the nation on WGN-TV and WGN America, featuring a variety of diverse acts from the community, marching bands from across the country, and is the only parade in the city to feature inflatable balloons every year.[170]

Tourism

Main article: Tourism in Chicago
Ferries offer sightseeing tour along the Chicago River and Lake Michigan.
The Magnificent Mile hosts numerous upscale stores, as well as landmarks like the Chicago Water Tower
View of Navy Pier from the 23rd floor of Lake Point Tower

In 2014, Chicago attracted 50.17 million domestic leisure travelers, 11.09 million domestic business travelers and 1.308 million overseas visitors.[171] These visitors contributed more than US$13.7 billion to Chicago's economy.[171] Upscale shopping along the Magnificent Mile and State Street, thousands of restaurants, as well as Chicago's eminent architecture, continue to draw tourists. The city is the United States' third-largest convention destination. A 2011 study by Walk Score ranked Chicago the fourth most walkable of fifty largest cities in the United States.[172] Most conventions are held at McCormick Place, just south of Soldier Field. The historic Chicago Cultural Center (1897), originally serving as the Chicago Public Library, now houses the city's Visitor Information Center, galleries and exhibit halls. The ceiling of its Preston Bradley Hall includes a 38-foot (12 m) Tiffany glass dome. Grant Park holds Millennium Park, Buckingham Fountain (1927), and the Art Institute of Chicago. The park also hosts the annual Taste of Chicago festival. In Millennium Park, there is the reflective Cloud Gate sculpture. Cloud Gate, a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, is the centerpiece of the AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park. Also, an outdoor restaurant transforms into an ice rink in the winter season. Two tall glass sculptures make up the Crown Fountain. The fountain's two towers display visual effects from LED images of Chicagoans' faces, along with water spouting from their lips. Frank Gehry's detailed, stainless steel band shell, the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, hosts the classical Grant Park Music Festival concert series. Behind the pavilion's stage is the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, an indoor venue for mid-sized performing arts companies, including the Chicago Opera Theater and Music of the Baroque.

Navy Pier, located just east of Streeterville, is 3,000 ft (910 m) long and houses retail stores, restaurants, museums, exhibition halls and auditoriums. In the summer of 2016, Navy Pier will have constructed their new DW60 Ferris wheel. Dutch Wheels a world renowned company that manufactures ferris wheels was selected to design the new wheel.[173] It will feature 42 navy blue gondolas that can hold up to eight adults and two kids. It will also have entertainment systems inside the gondolas as well as a climate controlled environment. The DW60 will stand at approximately 196 ft (60 m), which is 46 ft taller than the previous wheel. The new DW60 will be the first in the United States and will be the sixth tallest in the U.S.[174] Chicago was the first city in the world to ever erect a ferris wheel.

On June 4, 1998, the city officially opened the Museum Campus, a 10-acre (4.0 ha) lakefront park, surrounding three of the city's main museums, each of which is of national importance: the Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum, the Field Museum of Natural History, and the Shedd Aquarium. The Museum Campus joins the southern section of Grant Park, which includes the renowned Art Institute of Chicago. Buckingham Fountain anchors the downtown park along the lakefront. The University of Chicago Oriental Institute has an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern archaeological artifacts. Other museums and galleries in Chicago include the Chicago History Museum, the Driehaus Museum, the DuSable Museum of African American History, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, the Polish Museum of America, the Museum of Broadcast Communications, the Pritzker Military Library, the Chicago Architecture Foundation, and the Museum of Science and Industry.

With an estimated completion date of 2020, the Barack Obama Presidential Center will be housed at the University of Chicago in Hyde Park and include both the Obama presidential library and offices of the Obama Foundation.[175]

The Willis Tower (formerly named Sears Tower) is a popular destination for tourists. The Willis Tower has an observation deck open to tourists year round with high up views overlooking Chicago and Lake Michigan. The observation deck includes an enclosed glass balcony that extends 10 feet out on the side of the building. Tourists are able to look straight down.

In 2013, Chicago was chosen as one of the "Top Ten Cities in the United States" to visit for its restaurants, skyscrapers, museums, and waterfront, by the readers of Condé Nast Traveler.[176][177]

Cuisine

A Polish market in Chicago

Chicago lays claim to a large number of regional specialties that reflect the city's ethnic and working-class roots. Included among these are its nationally renowned deep-dish pizza; this style is said to have originated at Pizzeria Uno.[178] The Chicago-style thin crust is also popular in the city.[179]

The Chicago-style hot dog, typically an all-beef hot dog, is loaded with an array of toppings that often includes pickle relish, yellow mustard, pickled sport peppers, tomato wedges, dill pickle spear and topped off with celery salt on a poppy seed bun.[180] Enthusiasts of the Chicago-style dog frown upon the use of ketchup as a garnish, but may prefer to add giardiniera.[181][182][183]

There are several distinctly Chicago sandwiches, among them the Italian beef sandwich, which is thinly sliced beef simmered in au jus and served on an Italian roll with sweet peppers or spicy giardiniera. A popular modification is the Combo—an Italian beef sandwich with the addition of an Italian sausage. Another is the Maxwell Street Polish, a grilled or deep-fried kielbasa — on a hot dog roll, topped with grilled onions, yellow mustard, and hot sport peppers.[184]

Ethnically originated creations include chicken Vesuvio, with roasted bone-in chicken cooked in oil and garlic next to garlicky oven-roasted potato wedges and a sprinkling of green peas. Another is the Puerto Rican-influenced jibarito, a sandwich made with flattened, fried green plantains instead of bread. There is also the mother-in-law, a tamale topped with chili and served on a hot dog bun.[185] The tradition of serving the Greek dish, saganaki while aflame, has its origins in Chicago's Greek community.[186] The appetizer, which consists of a square of fried cheese, is doused with Metaxa and flambéed table-side.[187]

A number of well-known chefs have had restaurants in Chicago, including Charlie Trotter, Rick Tramonto, Grant Achatz, and Rick Bayless. In 2003, Robb Report named Chicago the country's "most exceptional dining destination."[188]

Carl Sandburg's most famous description of the city is as "Hog Butcher for the World/Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat/ Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler,/ Stormy, Husky, Brawling, City of the Big Shoulders."

Literature

Further information: Chicago literature

Chicago literature finds its roots in the city's tradition of lucid, direct journalism, lending to a strong tradition of social realism. In the Encyclopedia of Chicago, Northwestern University Professor Bill Savage describes Chicago fiction as prose which tries to "capture the essence of the city, its spaces and its people." The challenge for early writers was that Chicago was a frontier outpost that transformed into a global metropolis in the span of two generations. Narrative fiction of that time, much of it in the style of "high-flown romance" and "genteel realism", needed a new approach to describe the urban social, political, and economic conditions of Chicago.[189] Nonetheless, Chicagoans worked hard to create a literary tradition that would stand the test of time,[190] and create a "city of feeling" out of concrete, steel, vast lake, and open prairie.[191] Much notable Chicago fiction focuses on the city itself, with social criticism keeping exultation in check.

At least, three short periods in the history of Chicago have had a lasting influence on American Literature.[192] These include from the time of the Great Chicago Fire to about 1900, what became known as the Chicago Literary Renaissance in the 1910s and early 1920s, and the period of the Great Depression through the 1940s.

What would become the influential Poetry magazine was founded in 1912 by Harriet Monroe, who was working as an art critic for the Chicago Tribune. The magazine discovered such poets as Gwendolyn Brooks, James Merrill, and John Ashbery.[193] T. S. Eliot's first professionally published poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", was first published by Poetry. Contributors have included Ezra Pound, William Butler Yeats, William Carlos Williams, Langston Hughes, and Carl Sandburg, among others. The magazine was instrumental in launching the Imagist and Objectivist poetic movements.

Sports

Top: Soldier Field; Middle: Wrigley Field; Bottom: Toyota Park
Main article: Sports in Chicago

Sporting News named Chicago the "Best Sports City" in the United States in 1993, 2006, and 2010.[194] Along with Boston, Chicago is the only city to continuously host major professional sports since 1871, having only taken 1872 and 1873 off due to the Great Chicago Fire. Additionally, Chicago is one of the six cities in the United States to have won championships in the four major professional leagues and, along with New York and Los Angeles, is one of three cities to have won soccer championships as well. Several major franchises have won championships within recent years – the Bears (1985), the Bulls (91, '92, '93, '96, '97, and '98), the White Sox (2005), the Blackhawks (2010, 2013, 2015), and the Fire (1998).

The city has two Major League Baseball (MLB) teams: the Chicago Cubs of the National League play in Wrigley Field on the North Side; and the Chicago White Sox of the American League play in U.S. Cellular Field on the South Side. Chicago is the only city that has had more than one MLB franchise every year since the AL began in 1901 (New York hosted only one between 1958 and early 1962). The Cubs are the oldest Major League Baseball team to have never changed their city; they have played in Chicago since 1871, and continuously so since 1874 due to the Great Chicago Fire. They have played more games and have more wins than any other team in Major League baseball since 1876.[195] They have won two World Series titles, but have the dubious honor of having the two longest droughts in American professional sports: They have not won their sport's title since 1908, and have not participated in a World Series since 1945, both records.

The White Sox have played on the South Side continuously since 1901, with all three of their home fields throughout the years being within blocks of one another. They have won three World Series titles (1906, 1917, 2005) and six American League pennants, including the first in 1901. The Sox are fifth in the American League in all-time wins, and sixth in pennants.

The Chicago Bears, one of the last two remaining charter members of the National Football League (NFL), have won nine NFL Championships, including the 1985 Super Bowl XX. The other remaining charter franchise, the Chicago Cardinals, also started out in the city, but is now known as the Arizona Cardinals. The Bears have won more games in the history of the NFL than any other team, and only the Green Bay Packers, their longtime rivals, have won more championships. The Bears play their home games at Soldier Field. Soldier Field re-opened in 2003 after an extensive renovation.

The Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA) is one of the most recognized basketball teams in the world. During the 1990s, with Michael Jordan leading them, the Bulls won six NBA championships in eight seasons.[196][197] They also boast the youngest player to win the NBA Most Valuable Player Award, Derrick Rose, who won it for the 2010–11 season.[198]

The Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL) began play in 1926, and are one of the "Original Six" teams of the NHL. The Blackhawks have won six Stanley Cups, including in 2010, 2013, and 2015. Both the Bulls and the Blackhawks play at the United Center.

Major league professional teams in Chicago (ranked by attendance)
Club League Sport Venue Attendance Founded Championships
Chicago Bears NFL Football Soldier Field 62,358 1919 9 Championships (1 Super Bowl)
Chicago Cubs MLB Baseball Wrigley Field 42,495 1870 2 World Series wins
Chicago White Sox MLB Baseball U.S. Cellular Field 40,615 1900 3 World Series
Chicago Blackhawks NHL Ice hockey United Center 21,775 1926 6 Stanley Cups
Chicago Bulls NBA Basketball United Center 21,716 1966 6 NBA Championships
Chicago Fire MLS Soccer Toyota Park 16,409 1997 1 MLS Cup, 1 Supporters Shield

The Chicago Fire Soccer Club is a member of Major League Soccer (MLS) and plays at Toyota Park in suburban Bridgeview, after playing its first eight seasons at Soldier Field. The Fire have won one league title and four U.S. Open Cups, since their founding in 1997. In 1994, the United States hosted a successful FIFA World Cup with games played at Soldier Field. The Chicago Sky is a professional basketball team based in Rosemont, Illinois, playing in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). They play home games at the Allstate Arena. The team was founded before the 2006 WNBA season began.

The Chicago Marathon has been held each year since 1977 except for 1987, when a half marathon was run in its place. The Chicago Marathon is one of six World Marathon Majors.[199]

Five area colleges play in Division I conferences: two from major conferences — the DePaul Blue Demons (Big East Conference) and the Northwestern Wildcats (Big Ten Conference) — and three from other D1 conferences — the Chicago State Cougars (Western Athletic Conference); the Loyola Ramblers (Missouri Valley Conference); and the UIC Flames (Horizon League).[200]

Parks and Greenspace

When Chicago was incorporated in 1837, it chose the motto Urbs in Horto, a Latin phrase which means "City in a Garden". Today, the Chicago Park District consists of more than 570 parks with over 8,000 acres (3,200 ha) of municipal parkland. There are 31 sand beaches, a plethora of museums, two world-class conservatories, and 50 nature areas.[201] Lincoln Park, the largest of the city's parks, covers 1,200 acres (490 ha) and has over 20 million visitors each year, making it third in the number of visitors after Central Park in New York City, and the National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington, D.C.[202]

There is a Chicago Boulevard System,[203] a network of wide, tree-lined boulevards which connect a number of Chicago parks.[204] The boulevards and the parks were authorized by the Illinois legislature in 1869.[205] A number of Chicago neighborhoods emerged along these roadways in the 19th century. The building of the boulevard system continued intermittently until 1942. It includes nineteen boulevards, eight parks, and six squares, along twenty-six miles of interconnected streets. The Logan Square Boulevards Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.[206]

With berths for more than 6,000 boats, the Chicago Park District operates the nation's largest municipal harbor system.[207] In addition to ongoing beautification and renewal projects for the existing parks, a number of new parks have been added in recent years, such as the Ping Tom Memorial Park in Chinatown, DuSable Park on the Near North Side, and most notably, Millennium Park, which is in the northwestern corner of one of Chicago's oldest parks, Grant Park in the Chicago Loop.

The wealth of greenspace afforded by Chicago's parks is further augmented by the Cook County Forest Preserves, a network of open spaces containing forest, prairie, wetland, streams, and lakes that are set aside as natural areas which lie along the city's outskirts,[208] including both the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe and the Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield.[209] Washington Park is also one of the city's biggest parks; covering nearly 400 acres (160 ha). The park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places listings in South Side Chicago.

Law and government

Government

Main article: Government of Chicago
Daley Plaza with Picasso statue and City Hall in background. State law courts are in the Daley Plaza Building at right

The government of the City of Chicago is divided into executive and legislative branches. The Mayor of Chicago is the chief executive, elected by general election for a term of four years, with no term limits. The mayor appoints commissioners and other officials who oversee the various departments. As well as the mayor, Chicago's clerk and treasurer are also elected citywide. The City Council is the legislative branch and is made up of 50 aldermen, one elected from each ward in the city.[210] The council takes official action through the passage of ordinances and resolutions and approves the city budget.[211]

The Chicago Police Department provides law enforcement and the Chicago Fire Department provides fire suppression and emergency medical services for the city and its residents. Civil and criminal law cases are heard in the Cook County Circuit Court of the State of Illinois court system, or in the Northern District of Illinois, in the federal system. In the state court, the public prosecutor is the Illinois State's Attorney; in the Federal court it is the United States Attorney.

Politics

During much of the last half of the 19th century, Chicago's politics were dominated by a growing Democratic Party organization. During the 1880s and 1890s, Chicago had a powerful radical tradition with large and highly organized socialist, anarchist and labor organizations.[212] For much of the 20th century, Chicago has been among the largest and most reliable Democratic strongholds in the United States; with Chicago's Democratic vote the state of Illinois has been "solid blue" in presidential elections since 1992. Even before then, it was not unheard of for Republican presidential candidates to win handily in downstate Illinois, only to lose statewide due to large Democratic margins in Chicago. The citizens of Chicago have not elected a Republican mayor since 1927, when William Thompson was voted into office. The strength of the party in the city is partly a consequence of Illinois state politics, where the Republicans have come to represent rural and farm concerns while the Democrats support urban issues such as Chicago's public school funding. Chicago contains less than 25% of the state's population, but 8 of Illinois' 19 U.S. Representatives have part of Chicago in their districts.

Machine politics persisted in Chicago after the decline of similar machines in other large U.S. cities.[213] During much of that time, the city administration found opposition mainly from a liberal "independent" faction of the Democratic Party. The independents finally gained control of city government in 1983 with the election of Harold Washington (in office 1983–1987). From 1989 until May 16, 2011, Chicago was under the leadership of its longest serving mayor, Richard M. Daley, the son of Richard J. Daley. On May 16, 2011, Rahm Emanuel was sworn in as the 55th mayor of Chicago. Because of the dominance of the Democratic Party in Chicago, the Democratic primary vote held in the spring is generally more significant than the general elections in November for U.S. House and Illinois State seats. The aldermanic, mayoral, and other city offices are filled through nonpartisan elections with runoffs as needed.

Formerly a state legislator representing Chicago and later a US Senator, the city is home of United States President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.

Crime

Chicago had a murder rate of 18.5 per 100,000 residents in 2012, ranking 16th among cities with 100,000 people or more.[214] This was higher than in New York City and Los Angeles, the two largest cities in the United States, which have lower murder rates and lower total homicides. However, it was less than in many smaller American cities, including New Orleans, Newark, and Detroit, which had 53 murders per 100,000 residents in 2012.[215]

According to reports in 2013, "[m]ost of Chicago's violent crime comes from gangs trying to maintain control of drug-selling territories",[216] and is specifically related to the activities of the Sinaloa Cartel, which by 2006 had decided to seek to control illicit drug distribution, over against local street gangs.[217] Violent crime rates vary significantly by area of the city, with more economically developed areas having low rates, but other sections have much higher rates of crime.[216] In 2013, the violent crime rate was 910 per 100,000 people;[218] the murder rate was 10.4 -- while high crime districts saw 38.9, low crime districts saw 2.5 murders per 100,000.[219]

The number of murders in Chicago peaked at 970 in 1974, when the city's population was over 3 million people (a murder rate of about 29 per 100,000), and it reached 943 murders in 1992, (a murder rate of 34 per 100,000).[220] However, Chicago and other major U.S. cities, experienced a significant reduction in violent crime rates through the 1990s, falling to 448 homicides in 2004, its lowest total since 1965 and only 15.65 murders per 100,000). Chicago's homicide tally remained low during 2005 (449), 2006 (452), and 2007 (435) but rose to 510 in 2008, breaking 500 for the first time since 2003.[221][222] In 2009, the murder count fell to 458 (10% down).[223] and in 2010 Chicago's murder rate fell to 435 (16.14 per 100,000), a 5% decrease from 2009 and lowest levels since 1965.[224] In 2011, Chicago's murders fell another 1.2% to 431 (a rate of 15.94 per 100,000).[225] but shot up to 506 in 2012.[226][227]

In 2012, Chicago ranked 21st in the United States in numbers of homicides per person, but in the first half of 2013 there was a significant drop per-person, in all categories of violent crime, including homicide (down 26%).[228] Chicago ended 2013 with 415 murders, the lowest number of murders since 1965, and overall crime rates dropped by 16 percent.[229] (In 1965, there were 397 murders.[230])

Jens Ludwig, director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab, estimated that shootings cost the city of Chicago $2.5 billion in 2012.[231]

In 2014, the Chicago police department reported a total murder count of 390 through December 20, 2014, according to the Chicago Suntimes. That means that Chicago was able to record their lowest number of murder totals in close to five years for the second continuous calendar year, despite an overall increase in shootings. The Cook County medical examiner's office had reported a total of 410 homicides with 16 of those including fatal police shootings, all within the same time period.

Education

Since its completion in 1991, the Harold Washington Library has appeared in Guinness World Records as the largest public library building in the world

Schools and libraries

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is the governing body of the school district that contains over 600 public elementary and high schools citywide, including several selective-admission magnet schools. There are ten selective enrollment high schools in the Chicago Public Schools,[232] designed to meet the needs of Chicago's most academically advanced students. These schools offer a rigorous curriculum with mainly honors and Advanced Placement (AP) courses.[233] Northside College Preparatory High School is ranked number one in the city of Chicago. Walter Payton College Prep High School is ranked second, Jones College Prep is third, and the oldest magnet school in the city, Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, which was opened in 1975, is ranked fourth.[234] The magnet school with the largest enrollment is Lane Technical College Prep High School. Lane is one of the oldest schools in Chicago and in 2012 was designated a National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education.[235]

Chicago high school rankings are determined by the average test scores on state achievement tests.[236] The district, with an enrollment exceeding 400,545 students (2013-2014 20th Day Enrollment), is the third largest in the U.S.[237] On September 10, 2012, teachers for the Chicago Teachers Union went on strike for the first time since 1987 over pay, resources and other issues.[238] According to data complied in 2014, Chicago's "choice system", where students who test or apply and may attend one of a number of public high schools (there are about 130), sorts students of different achievement levels into different schools (high performing, middle performing, and low performing schools).[239]

Chicago has a network of Lutheran schools,[240] and several private schools are run by other denominations and faiths, such as the Ida Crown Jewish Academy in West Ridge. Several private schools are completely secular, such as the Latin School of Chicago in the Near North Side neighborhood, the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools in Hyde Park, the British School of Chicago and the Francis W. Parker School in Lincoln Park, the Lycée Français de Chicago in Uptown, the Feltre School in River North and the Morgan Park Academy. There are also the private Chicago Academy for the Arts, a high school focused on six different categories of the arts and the public Chicago High School for the Arts, a high school focused on five categories (visual arts, theatre, musical theatre, dance, and music) of the arts.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago operates Catholic schools, that include Jesuit preparatory schools and others including St. Rita of Cascia High School, De La Salle Institute, Josephinum Academy, DePaul College Prep, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, Brother Rice High School, St. Ignatius College Preparatory School, Mount Carmel High School, Queen of Peace High School, Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School, Marist High School, St. Patrick High School and Resurrection High School.

The Chicago Public Library system operates 79 public libraries, including the central library, two regional libraries, and numerous branches distributed throughout the city.

Colleges and universities

For a more comprehensive list, see List of colleges and universities in Chicago.

Since the 1850s, Chicago has been a world center of higher education and research with several universities that are in the city proper or in the immediate environs. These institutions consistently rank among the top "National Universities" in the United States, as determined by U.S. News & World Report. Top universities in Chicago are: the University of Chicago; Northwestern University; Loyola University Chicago; Illinois Institute of Technology; DePaul University; and University of Illinois at Chicago.[241] Other notable schools include: Chicago State University; the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Illinois Institute of Art – Chicago; East–West University; National Louis University; North Park University; Northeastern Illinois University; Columbia College Chicago; Robert Morris University; Roosevelt University; Saint Xavier University; Rush University; and Shimer College.

William Rainey Harper, the first president of the University of Chicago, was instrumental in the creation of the junior college concept, establishing nearby Joliet Junior College as the first in the nation in 1901.[242] His legacy continues with the multiple community colleges in the Chicago proper, including the seven City Colleges of Chicago: Richard J. Daley College, Kennedy–King College, Malcolm X College, Olive–Harvey College, Truman College, Harold Washington College and Wilbur Wright College, in addition to the privately held MacCormac College.

Chicago also has a high concentration of post-baccalaureate institutions, graduate schools, seminaries, and theological schools, such as the Adler School of Professional Psychology, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, the Erikson Institute, The Institute for Clinical Social Work, the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, the Catholic Theological Union, the Moody Bible Institute, the John Marshall Law School and the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Media

WGN began in the early days of radio and developed into a multi-platform broadcaster, including a cable television super-station.

The Chicago metropolitan area is the third-largest media market in North America, after New York City and Los Angeles.[243] Each of the big four U.S. television networks, CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox, directly owns and operates a high-definition television station in Chicago (WBBM, WLS, WMAQ and WFLD, respectively). CW affiliate WGN-TV, which is owned by the Tribune Media, is carried with some programming differences, as "WGN America" on cable and satellite TV nationwide and in parts of the Caribbean. The city has also been the base of several talk shows, including, formerly, The Oprah Winfrey Show. Chicago Public Radio produces programs such as PRI's This American Life and NPR's Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! The city also has two PBS member stations: WTTW, producer of shows such as Sneak Previews, The Frugal Gourmet, Lamb Chop's Play-Along and The McLaughlin Group, just to name a few, and WYCC.

Two major daily newspapers are published in Chicago: the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, with the Tribune having the larger circulation. There are also several regional and special-interest newspapers and magazines, such as Chicago, the Dziennik Związkowy (Polish Daily News), Draugas (the Lithuanian daily newspaper), the Chicago Reader, the SouthtownStar, the Chicago Defender, the Daily Herald, Newcity,[244][245] StreetWise and the Windy City Times. The entertainment and cultural magazine Time Out Chicago and GRAB magazine are also published in the city, as well as local music magazine Chicago Innerview. In addition, Chicago is the recent home of satirical national news outlet, The Onion, as well as its sister pop-culture publication, The A.V. Club.[246]

Chicago is a filming-friendly location. Since the 1980s, many motion pictures have been filmed in the city, most notably The Blues Brothers; Ferris Bueller's Day Off; Sixteen Candles; Home Alone; The Fugitive; I, Robot; Wanted; Batman Begins; The Dark Knight; The Dark Knight Rises;Transformers: Dark of the Moon; Transformers: Age of Extinction; Divergent; Insurgent; Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice; and Sinister 2.

Chicago has also been the setting for many popular television shows, including the situation comedies Perfect Strangers and its spinoff Family Matters, Married...with Children, Kenan & Kel, The League, The Bob Newhart Show, and Shake It Up. The city served as the venue for the medical dramas ER and Chicago Hope, as well as the fantasy drama series Early Edition and the 2005–2009 drama Prison Break. Discovery Channel films two shows in Chicago: Cook County Jail and the Chicago version of Cash Cab. Chicago is currently the setting for CBS's The Good Wife and Mike and Molly, Showtime's Shameless, and NBC's Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D. and Chicago Med.

Chicago has five 50,000 watt AM radio stations: the CBS Radio-owned WBBM and WSCR; the Tribune Broadcasting-owned WGN; the Cumulus Media-owned WLS; and the ESPN Radio-owned WMVP. Chicago is also home to a number of national radio shows, including Beyond the Beltway with Bruce DuMont on Sunday evenings.

Chicago is also featured in a few video games, including Watch Dogs and Midtown Madness, a real-life, car-driving simulation game. In 2005, indie rock artist Sufjan Stevens created a concept album about Illinois titled Illinois; many of its songs were about Chicago and its history.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Further information: Transportation in Chicago
Aerial photo of the Jane Byrne Interchange, opened in 1960s

Chicago is a major transportation hub in the United States. It is an important component in global distribution, as it is the third largest inter-modal port in the world after Hong Kong and Singapore.[247]

Expressways

Seven mainline and four auxiliary interstate highways (55, 57, 65 (only in Indiana), 80 (also in Indiana), 88, 90 (also in Indiana), 94 (also in Indiana), 190, 290, 294, and 355) run through Chicago and its suburbs. Segments that link to the city center are named after influential politicians, with three of them named after former U.S. Presidents (Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Reagan) and one named after two-time Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson.

The Kennedy and Dan Ryan Expressways are the busiest state maintained routes in the entire state of Illinois.[248]

Transit systems

Chicago Union Station, opened in 1925, is the third busiest rail terminal in the United States

The Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) coordinates the operation of the three service boards: CTA, Metra, and Pace.

Greyhound Lines provides inter-city bus service to and from the city, and Chicago is also the hub for the Midwest network of Megabus (North America).

Passenger rail

Amtrak train on the Empire Builder route departs Chicago from Union Station

Amtrak long distance and commuter rail services originate from Union Station. Chicago is one of the largest hubs of passenger rail service in the nation. The services terminate in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., New York City, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Portland, Seattle, Milwaukee, Quincy, St. Louis, Carbondale, Boston, Grand Rapids, Port Huron, Pontiac, Los Angeles, and San Antonio. An attempt was made in the early 20th century to link Chicago with New York City via the Chicago – New York Electric Air Line Railroad. Parts of this were built, but it was never completed.

Freight rail

Chicago is the largest hub in the railroad industry.[250] Six of the seven Class I railroads meet in Chicago, with the exception being the Kansas City Southern Railway.[251] As of 2002, severe freight train congestion caused trains to take as long to get through the Chicago region as it took to get there from the West Coast of the country (about 2 days).[252] According to U.S. Department of Transportation, the volume of imported and exported goods transported via rail to, from, or through Chicago is forecast to increase nearly 150 percent between 2010 and 2040.[253] CREATE, the Chicago Region Environmental and Transport Efficiency program, comprises about 70 programs, including crossovers, overpasses and underpasses, that intend to significantly improve the speed of freight movements in the Chicago area.[254]

Airports

Chicago is served by O'Hare International Airport, the world's busiest airport,[255] on the far Northwest Side, and Midway International Airport on the Southwest Side. In 2005, O'Hare was the world's busiest airport by aircraft movements and the second busiest by total passenger traffic (due to government enforced flight caps).[256] Both O'Hare and Midway are owned and operated by the City of Chicago. Gary/Chicago International Airport and Chicago Rockford International Airport, located in Gary, Indiana and Rockford, Illinois, respectively, can serve as alternate Chicago area airports, however they do not offer as many commercial flights as O'Hare and Midway. In recent years the state of Illinois has been leaning towards building an entirely new airport in the Illinois suburbs of Chicago.[257] The City of Chicago is the world headquarters for United Airlines, the world's third largest airline.

Port authority

Main article: Port of Chicago

The Port of Chicago consists of several major port facilities within the city of Chicago operated by the Illinois International Port District (formerly known as the Chicago Regional Port District). The central element of the Port District, Calumet Harbor, is maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.[258]

Utilities

Electricity for most of northern Illinois is provided by Commonwealth Edison, also known as ComEd. Their service territory borders Iroquois County to the south, the Wisconsin border to the north, the Iowa border to the west and the Indiana border to the east. In northern Illinois, ComEd (a division of Exelon) operates the greatest number of nuclear generating plants in any US state. Because of this, ComEd reports indicate that Chicago receives about 75% of its electricity from nuclear power. Recently, the city began installing wind turbines on government buildings to promote renewable energy.[259][260][261]

Natural gas is provided by Peoples Gas, a subsidiary of Integrys Energy Group, which is headquartered in Chicago.

Domestic and industrial waste was once incinerated but it is now landfilled, mainly in the Calumet area. From 1995 to 2008, the city had a blue bag program to divert recyclable refuse from landfills.[262] Because of low participation in the blue bag programs, the city began a pilot program for blue bin recycling like other cities. This proved successful and blue bins were rolled out across the city.[263]

Prentice Women's Hospital on the Northwestern Memorial Hospital Downtown Campus

Health systems

The Illinois Medical District is on the Near West Side. It includes Rush University Medical Center, ranked as the second best hospital in the Chicago metropolitan area by U.S. News & World Report for 2014–15, the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago, Jesse Brown VA Hospital, and John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, one of the busiest trauma centers in the nation.[264]

Two of the country's premier academic medical centers reside in Chicago, including Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the University of Chicago Medical Center. The Chicago campus of Northwestern University includes the Feinberg School of Medicine; Northwestern Memorial Hospital, which is ranked as the best hospital in the Chicago metropolitan area by U.S. News & World Report for 2010–11;[265] the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, which is ranked the best U.S. rehabilitation hospital by U.S. News & World Report;[266] the new Prentice Women's Hospital; and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.

The University of Illinois College of Medicine at UIC is the largest medical school in the United States (2,600 students including those at campuses in Peoria, Rockford and Urbana–Champaign).[267]

In addition, the Chicago Medical School and Loyola University Chicago's Stritch School of Medicine are located in the suburbs of North Chicago and Maywood, respectively. The Midwestern University Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine is in Downers Grove.

The American Medical Association, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, American Osteopathic Association, American Dental Association, Academy of General Dentistry, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, American College of Surgeons, American Society for Clinical Pathology, American College of Healthcare Executives, the American Hospital Association and Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association are all based in Chicago.

Notable people

Sister cities

Chicago has 28 sister cities around the world.[268] Like Chicago, many of them are or were the second most populous city or second most influential city of their country, or they are the main city of a country that has had large amounts of immigrants settle in Chicago. These relationships have sought to promote economic, cultural, educational, and other ties.[269]

To celebrate the sister cities, Chicago hosts a yearly festival in Daley Plaza, which features cultural acts and food tastings from the other cities.[268] In addition, the Chicago Sister Cities program hosts a number of delegation and formal exchanges.[268] In some cases, these exchanges have led to further informal collaborations, such as the academic relationship between the Buehler Center on Aging, Health & Society at the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University and the Institute of Gerontology of Ukraine (originally of the Soviet Union), that was originally established as part of the Chicago-Kiev sister cities program.[270]

Sister cities[268]

See also

Notes and references

Notes
  1. O'Hare International Airport, located within the annexed city limits of Chicago, extends from Cook into a small part of DuPage County.[5][6]
  2. Official records for Chicago were kept at various locations in downtown from January 1871 to 31 December 1925, University of Chicago from 1 January 1926 to 30 June 1942, Midway Airport from 1 July 1942 to 16 January 1980, and at O'Hare Airport since 17 January 1980.[124][125]
  3. Not according official list of Greek government(PDF)
References
  1. 1 2 "City of Chicago". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey.
  2. "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved June 10, 2014.
  3. "Chicago (city), Illinois QuickFacts". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved June 12, 2014.
  4. "Annual Estimates of the Resident Population: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2014". factfinder.census.gov. U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  5. McGrath, Steph (2005). "DuPage County". In Janice L. Reiff; Ann Durkin Keating; James R. Grossman. Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago: Chicago Historical Society. Retrieved December 6, 2015. In 1946 Chicago acquired land for O'Hare Airport, including a portion of northeast DuPage.
  6. Seligman, Amanda (2005). "O'Hare". In Janice L. Reiff; Ann Durkin Keating; James R. Grossman. Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago: Chicago Historical Society. Retrieved December 6, 2015. In order to consolidate its control over the airport area, Chicago annexed it in March 1956, including the western edge, in DuPage County.
  7. Janice L. Reiff; Ann Durkin Keating; James R. Grossman, eds. (2005). "Metropolitan Growth". Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society. Retrieved December 5, 2013.
  8. 1 2 Rodriguez, Alex (January 26, 2014). "Chicago takes on the world". Chicago Tribune (Sec. 1 p. 15).
  9. "The World According to GaWC 2012". Globalization and World Cities Research Network. January 13, 2014. Retrieved May 5, 2014.
  10. "2014 Global Cities Index". A.T. Kearney. Retrieved May 10, 2014.
  11. "GDP by Metropolitan Area, Advance 2014, and Revised 2001–2013". U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. September 23, 2015. Retrieved September 29, 2015.
  12. "Chicago named 7th most expensive city — in the world". Chicago Tribune. September 17, 2015.
  13. "Chicago Tourism Hits Record 50M Visitors". NBC 5 Chicago. February 5, 2015. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
  14. Marovich, Robert M. (2015). A City Called Heaven: Chicago and the Birth of Gospel Music. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. p. 7. ISBN 978 0 252 08069 2.
  15. Sarah S. Marcus (2005). "Chicago's Twentieth-Century Cultural Exports". In Janice L. Reiff; Ann Durkin Keating; James R. Grossman. Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago: Chicago Historical Society. Retrieved December 6, 2015.
  16. Andreas, Alfred T. (1884). "Origin of the Word Chicago". History of Chicago 1. Chicago: Arno Press. pp. 37–38. Retrieved December 5, 2013.
  17. 1 2 Swenson, John F. (Winter 1991). "Chicagoua/Chicago: The origin, meaning, and etymology of a place name". Illinois Historical Journal 84 (4): 235–248. ISSN 0748-8149. OCLC 25174749.
  18. McCafferty, Michael (December 21, 2001). ""Chicago" Etymology". The LINGUIST List. Retrieved October 22, 2009.
  19. McCafferty, Michael (Summer 2003). "A Fresh Look at the Place Name Chicago" (PDF). Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (Illinois State Historical Society) 96 (2). ISSN 1522-1067. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  20. Quaife, Milo M. (1933). Checagou: From Indian Wigwam to Modern City, 1673–1835. Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press. OCLC 1865758.
  21. "UWM Report". University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
  22. Keating, Ann Durkin (2005). Chicagoland: City and Suburbs in the Railroad Age. The University of Chicago Press. p. 25. ISBN 0-226-42882-6. LCCN 2005002198.
  23. Genzen, Jonathan (2007). The Chicago River: A History in Photographs. Westcliffe Publishers. pp. 10–11, 14–15. ISBN 978-1-56579-553-2. LCCN 2006022119.
  24. Keating (2005), pp. 30-31, 221.
  25. Swenson, John W (1999). "Jean Baptiste Point de Sable—The Founder of Modern Chicago". Early Chicago. Early Chicago, Inc. Retrieved August 8, 2010.
  26. Genzen (2007), pp. 16-17.
  27. Buisseret, David (1990). Historic Illinois From The Air. The University of Chicago Press. pp. 22–23, 68, 80–81. ISBN 0-226-07989-9. LCCN 89020648.
  28. Keating (2005), pp. 30-32.
  29. 1 2 "Timeline: Early Chicago History". Chicago: City of the Century. WGBH Educational Foundation And Window to the World Communications, Inc. 2003. Archived from the original on May 26, 2009. Retrieved May 26, 2009.
  30. Walter Nugent. "Demography" in Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society.
  31. Keating (2005), p. 27.
  32. Buisseret (1990), pp. 86-98.
  33. Condit (1973), pp. 30–31.
  34. Genzen (2007), pp. 24-25.
  35. Keating (2005), pp. 26-29, 35-39.
  36. Conzen, Michael P. "Global Chicago". Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society.
  37. "Timeline-of-achievements". CME Group. Retrieved January 20, 2013.
  38. "Stephen Douglas". University of Chicago. Retrieved May 29, 2011.
  39. "Lincoln nominated for presidency". History Channel. A&E Television Networks. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
  40. "Chicago Daily Tribune, Thursday Morning, February 14". nike-of-samothrace.net. Retrieved May 4, 2009.
  41. Condit (1973), pp. 15-18, 243-245.
  42. Genzen (2007), pp. 27-29, 38-43.
  43. Buisseret (1990), pp. 154-155, 172-173, 204-205.
  44. Buisseret (1990), pp. 148-149.
  45. Genzen (2007), pp. 32-37.
  46. Lowe (2000), pp. 87–97.
  47. Lowe (2000), p. 99.
  48. Bruegmann, Robert (2005). "Built Environment of the Chicago Region". Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society. Retrieved December 5, 2013.
  49. Condit (1973), pp. 9-11.
  50. Allen, Frederick E. (February 2003). "Where They Went to See the Future". American Heritage 54 (1). Archived from the original on February 20, 2007. Retrieved December 5, 2013.
  51. 1 2 Lowe (2000), pp. 121, 129.
  52. Cain, Louis P. (2005). "Annexations". The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
  53. "Chicago: Population". 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved December 5, 2013.
  54. "Race and Hispanic Origin for Selected Cities and Other Places: Earliest Census to 1990". U.S. Census Bureau.
  55. "Hull House Maps Its Neighborhood". Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
  56. Johnson, Mary Ann. "Hull House". Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
  57. Sandvick, Clinton (2009). "Enforcing Medical Licensing in Illinois: 1877–1890". Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 82 (2): 67–74. PMC 2701151. PMID 19562006.
  58. Beatty, William K. (1991). "John H. Rauch – Public Health, Parks and Politics". Proceedings of the Institute of Medicine of Chicago 44: 97–118.
  59. Condit (1973), pp. 43–49, 58, 318–319.
  60. Holland, Kevin J. (2001). Classic American Railroad Terminals. Osceola, WI: MBI. pp. 66–91. ISBN 9780760308325. OCLC 45908903.
  61. United States. Office of the Commissioner of Railroads (1883). Report to the Secretary of the Interior. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 19.
  62. "Chicago's Rich History". Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau. Retrieved June 10, 2011.
  63. Lowe (2000), pp. 148–154, 158–169.
  64. "Exhibits on the Midway Plaisance, 1893". Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
  65. Harper, Douglas. "midway". Chicago Manual Style (CMS). Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
  66. Martin, Elizabeth Anne (1993). "Detroit and the Great Migration, 1916–1929". Bentley Historical Library Bulletin (University of Michigan) 40. Retrieved December 5, 2013.
  67. Darlene Clark Hine (2005). "Chicago Black Renaissance". Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society. Retrieved August 6, 2013.
  68. Essig, Steven (2005). "Race Riots". Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society. Retrieved August 6, 2013.
  69. "Gang (crime) – History". Britannica Online Encyclopedia. 2009. Retrieved June 1, 2009.
  70. O'Brien, John. "The St. Valentine's Day Massacre". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
  71. "Timeline: Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement". PBS. WGBH Educational Foundation. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
  72. "Century of Progress World's Fair, 1933–1934 (University of Illinois at Chicago) : Home". Collections.carli.illinois.edu. Retrieved July 3, 2011.
  73. Robert W. Rydell. "Century of Progress Exposition". Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago Historical Society. Retrieved July 3, 2011.
  74. "Arnstein & Lehr, The First 120 Years", (Louis A. Lehr, Jr.)(Amazon), p. 30
  75. "CP-1 (Chicago Pile 1 Reactor)". Argonne National Laboratory. U.S. Department of Energy. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
  76. Mehlhorn, Dmitri (December 1998). "A Requiem for Blockbusting: Law, Economics, and Race-Based Real Estate Speculation". Fordham Law Review 67: 1145–1161.
  77. Lentz, Richard (1990). Symbols, the News Magazines, and Martin Luther King. LSU Press. p. 230. ISBN 0-8071-2524-5.
  78. Mailer, Norman. "Brief History Of Chicago's 1968 Democratic Convention". Facts on File, CQ's Guide to U.S. Elections (CNN).
  79. Cillizza, Chris (September 23, 2009). "The Fix - Hall of Fame - The Case for Richard J. Daley". The Washington Post.
  80. Dold, R. Bruce (February 27, 1979). "Jane Byrne elected mayor of Chicago". Chicago Tribune.
  81. Rivlin, Gary; Larry Bennett (November 25, 2012). "The legend of Harold Washington". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
  82. "Chicago and the Legacy of the Daley Dynasty". Time. September 9, 2010. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
  83. "National Building Museum to honor Daley for greening of Chicago". Chicago Tribune. April 8, 2009. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
  84. "News: Rahm Emanuel wins Chicago mayoral race". MSNBC. February 23, 2011. Retrieved July 3, 2011.
  85. Condit (1973), pp. 5-6.
  86. Genzen (2007), pp. 6-9.
  87. Angel, Jim. "State Climatologist Office for Illinois". Illinois State Water Survey. Prairie Research Institute. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  88. "Thompson's Plat of 1830". Chicago Historical Society. 2004. Retrieved July 3, 2011.
  89. "Chicago Facts" (PDF). Northeastern Illinois University. p. 46. Retrieved August 28, 2013.
  90. Fulton, Jeff. "Public Beaches in Chicago". USA Today. Retrieved August 28, 2013.
  91. "Chicago Tribune Classifieds map of Chicagoland". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved May 4, 2009.
  92. "Chicagoland Region". EnjoyIllinois.com. Illinois Department of Tourism. Archived from the original on September 28, 2011. Retrieved August 14, 2009.
  93. "Fast Facts About The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce". Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. Archived from the original on February 9, 2009. Retrieved January 6, 2014.
  94. "South Side". Encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org. August 1, 1971. Retrieved June 10, 2013.
  95. "Municipal Flag of Chicago". Chicago Public Library. Retrieved March 22, 2013.
  96. "Lakeview (Chicago, Illinois)". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
  97. "CPS Teacher Housing: Chicago Communities". Chicago Public Schools. Retrieved March 22, 2013.
  98. "List of Chicago Neighborhoods - Chicago". StreetAdvisor. Retrieved June 10, 2013.
  99. "Chicago and its Neighborhoods". articlecell. Retrieved March 22, 2013.
  100. "Gulp! How Chicago Gobbled Its Neighbors". Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  101. Condit (1973), pp. 31, 52-53.
  102. Rodolphe El-Khoury; Edward Robbins (June 19, 2004). Shaping the City: Studies in History, Theory and Urban Design. Taylor & Francis. pp. 60–. ISBN 978-0-415-26189-0. Retrieved May 9, 2013.
  103. "The Home Insurance Building". Chicago Architecture Info. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  104. World's Tallest Cities. UltrapolisProject.com.
  105. "U.S.A.'s tallest buildings - Top 20". Emporis. Retrieved September 14, 2013.
  106. Bach, Ira J. (1980). Chicago's Famous Buildings. The University of Chicago Press. pp. 9, 41, 67–68, 97–98. ISBN 0-226-03396-1. LCCN 79023365.
  107. Lowe (2000), pp. 118-127.
  108. Pridmore, Jay (2003). The Merchandise Mart. Pomegranate Communications. ISBN 0-7649-2497-4. LCCN 2003051164.
  109. Bach (1980), pp. 70, 99-100, 146-147.
  110. "Chicago School of Architecture". Boundless. Retrieved August 28, 2013.
  111. Hoffmann, Donald (1984). Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House: The Illustrated Story of an Architectural Masterpiece. New York: Dover Publications. pp. 19–25. ISBN 0-486-24582-9.
  112. "Frederick C. Robie House". Frank Lloyd Wright Trust. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  113. "The Public Art Scene You're Missing in Chicago". Conde Nast Traveler. October 1, 2013. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
  114. Potempa, Philip (August 2, 2006). "Columnist Irv Kupcinet remembered with statue dedication". Northwest Indiana Times. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
  115. "?".
  116. 1 2 3 4 "NowData - NOAA Online Weather Data". NWS Romeoville, IL. Retrieved 2011-12-14.
  117. "USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map". USDA/Agricultural Research Center, PRISM Climate Group Oregon State University. Retrieved June 16, 2014.
  118. Chicago's Official Records. National Weather Service. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
  119. 1 2 3 "Top 20 Weather Events of the Century for Chicago and Northeast Illinois 1900–1999". NWS Romeoville, IL. Retrieved 2014-06-16.
  120. "A Study of Chicago's Significant Tornadoes". National Weather Service. NOAA. Retrieved May 10, 2013.
  121. "Heat Island Effect" (PDF). Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  122. "Station Name: IL CHICAGO MIDWAY AP". National Climatic Data Center. Retrieved 2013-03-12.
  123. "CHICAGO MIDWAY AP 3 SW, ILLINOIS". Western Regional Climate Center. Retrieved 2014-06-12.
  124. History of the Chicago and Rockford weather observation sites
  125. ThreadEx
  126. "Station Name: IL CHICAGO OHARE INTL AP". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 2013-03-18.
  127. "Chicago/O'Hare, IL Climate Normals 1961-1990". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved May 14, 2013.
  128. "Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2014". Retrieved June 4, 2015.
  129. "US Census Bureau is shutdown". Factfinder2.census.gov. Retrieved October 12, 2013.
  130. "Top 10 Cities of the Year 1900". Geography.about.com. Retrieved May 4, 2009.
  131. "Chicago Growth 1850–1990: Maps by Dennis McClendon". University Illinois Chicago. Retrieved August 19, 2007.
  132. 1 2 3 4 5 Lizabeth Cohen, Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919–1939. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1990; pp. 33–34.
  133. "Chicago (city), Illinois". State & County QuickFacts. U.S. Census Bureau.
  134. 1 2 3 4 "Illinois - Race and Hispanic Origin for Selected Cities and Other Places: Earliest Census to 1990". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved April 22, 2012.
  135. 1 2 From 15% sample
  136. American Community Survey: Chicago city. Retrieved March 6, 2011.
  137. Data Access and Dissemination Systems (DADS). "American FactFinder - Results". Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  138. "Selected Economic Characteristics: 2008-2012 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates: Chicago city, Illinois". U.S. Census Bureau, American Factfinder. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
  139. 1 2 "Community Facts: First Ancestry Reported, Chicago city, Illinois". 2008-2012 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. U.S. Census Bureau, American Factfinder. Archived from the original on September 4, 2014. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
  140. Major U.S. metropolitan areas differ in their religious profiles, Pew Research Center
  141. "America's Changing Religious Landscape". Pew Research Center: Religion & Public Life. May 12, 2015.
  142. Avant, Gerry (September 11, 1993). "Parliament of World's Religions".
  143. Watts, Greg (2009). Mother Teresa: Faith in the Darkness. Lion Books. pp. 67–. ISBN 978-0-7459-5283-3.
  144. Davis, Robert (October 5, 1979). "Pope John Paul II in Chicago". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 27, 2013.
  145. "12 American Cities That Rank Among The Biggest Economies In The World". Business Insider. Retrieved 2015-11-30.
  146. Moody's: Chicago's Economy Most Balanced in US (January 23, 2003) PDF. Accessed from World Business Chicago.
  147. "London named world's top business center by MasterCard", CNN, June 13, 2007.
  148. Rasmussen, Patty. "Strength in Diversity". Siteselection.com. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  149. "Washington area richest, most educated in US: report". The Washington Post. June 8, 2006. Retrieved April 17, 2010.
  150. "World's richest cities by purchasing power". City Mayors. Retrieved November 6, 2010.
  151. "Futures & Options Trading for Risk Management". CME Group. April 13, 2010. Retrieved November 6, 2010.
  152. "JPMorgan History | The History of Our Firm". Jpmorganchase.com. Retrieved November 6, 2010.
  153. "Chicago Area Employment" (PDF). Bureau of Labor Statistics. May 2014. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  154. "FORTUNE 500 2007: States – Illinois". CNNMoney.com. Retrieved September 13, 2007.
  155. "The World According to GaWC 2008". Globalization and World Cities Research Network. GaWC Loughborough University. Retrieved April 29, 2009.
  156. P. J. Taylor; et al. (2009). "Measuring the World City Network: New Developments and Results". Research On Relations Between World Cities. Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) Research Network. p. see Table 1. Retrieved April 18, 2009.
  157. "Why You Should Start a Company in ... Chicago". FastCompany.com. February 19, 2010. Retrieved November 16, 2010.
  158. Norcliffe 2001, p. 107
  159. Clymer 1950, p. 178
  160. "Retrieved January 26, 2010". Exhibitorhost.com. September 26, 1987. Retrieved April 17, 2010.
  161. Carpenter, Dave (April 26, 2006). "Las Vegas rules convention world". USA Today. Associated Press. Retrieved January 6, 2014.
  162. "Chicago Demographics" (PDF). City of Chicago. Retrieved August 21, 2013.
  163. Zeldes, Leah A. (August 27, 2009). "Opaa! Chicago Taste of Greece flies this weekend". Dining Chicago. Chicago's Restaurant & Entertainment Guide, Inc. Retrieved September 14, 2013.
  164. "Ethnic Dining in Chicago". Frommers. Retrieved September 14, 2013.
  165. "The World University Rankings". Times Higher Education. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
  166. Gordon, Matthew J. (2004). "New York, Philadelphia, and other northern cities: phonology." Kortmann, Bernd, Kate Burridge, Rajend Mesthrie, Edgar W. Schneider and Clive Upton (eds). A Handbook of Varieties of English. Volume 1: Phonology, Volume 2: Morphology and Syntax. Berlin / New York: Mouton de Gruyter. p. 297.
  167. Huizenga, Tom (November 21, 2008). "Chicago Symphony Tops U.S. Orchestras". NPR. Retrieved December 31, 2008.
  168. "About the Lithuanian Opera Company, Inc. in Chicago". Lithuanian Opera Co. Retrieved September 14, 2006.
  169. Lawrence Rothfield, Don Coursey, Sarah Lee, Daniel Silver and Wendy Norri (November 21, 2007). "Chicago Music City: A Summary Report on the Music Industry in Chicago" (PDF). The Cultural Policy Center at the University of Chicago. Retrieved November 8, 2012.
  170. Wulf, Lauren. "Best Free Thanksgiving Events In Chicago". CBS Chicago. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
  171. 1 2 "2014 Chicago Tourism Profile" (PDF). Choose Chicago. 2015. Retrieved June 10, 2015.
  172. "2011 City and Neighborhood Rankings". Walk Score. 2011. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
  173. "Ferris Wheel 2016 | Navy Pier". Navy Pier. Retrieved 2016-04-22.
  174. "13 Things You Didn’t Know About Navy Pier’s New Ferris Wheel" (PDF).
  175. "The Obama Presidential Center". barackobamafoundation.org.
  176. "Destination Awards and Accolades". Choose Chicago. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
  177. "Top Ten Cities in the United States: Readers' Choice Awards". Condé Nast Traveler. Retrieved December 4, 2013.
  178. Bendersky, Ari. "Chicago's Deep Dish History: It All Started With Uno's". Eater.com. Retrieved April 27, 2013.
  179. Fischer, MD, Stuart J. "Chicago: Landmarks, Pizza, Politics, and Jazz". American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Retrieved April 27, 2013.
  180. "Classic Chicago Hot Dog". Emril Lagasse. 1999. Retrieved September 3, 2007.
  181. "Recipe Detail: Chicago Style Hot Dog".
  182. Gibson, Kelly; Portia Belloc Lowndes (2008). The Slow Food guide to Chicago: Restaurants, markets, bars. Chelsea Green Publishing. p. 384. ISBN 978-1-931498-61-6. Retrieved February 18, 2010. ... no self-respecting Chicagoan would think of using ketchup as a condiment ...
  183. Fodor's (2009). Fodor's Chicago 2010. Fodor's. p. 352. ISBN 978-1-4000-0860-5. Retrieved February 18, 2010. Make sure to never add ketchup to your Chicago-style hot dog: a major no-no among hot dog aficionados.
  184. Zeldes, Leah A. (January 22, 2010). "City of the big sandwiches: Four uncommon Chicago meals on a bun". Dining Chicago. Chicago's Restaurant & Entertainment Guide, Inc. Retrieved June 16, 2010.
  185. Sula, Mike. "Omnivorous: On the Trail of the Delta Tamale". Chicago Reader. Retrieved July 3, 2011.
  186. "History". The Parthenon. Retrieved 2011-05-30.
  187. Zeldes, Leah A (September 30, 2002). "How to Eat Like a Chicagoan". Chicago's Restaurant Guide. Archived from the original on October 1, 2002. Retrieved September 30, 2002.
  188. "Robb Report Editors Name Chicago As Country's Finest Dining Destination". Robb Report.
  189. Encyclopedia of Chicago, "Fiction."
  190. Encyclopedia of Chicago, "Literary Cultures."
  191. Encyclopedia of Chicago, "Literary Images of Chicago"
  192. Encyclopedia of Chicago History, "Chicago Literary Renaissance."
  193. Goodyear, Dana, "The Moneyed Muse: What can two hundred million dollars do for poetry?", article, The New Yorker, February 19 and 26 double issue, 2007
  194. "Sweet home Chicago: Best Sports City 2010". Sporting News. October 2010. Retrieved December 1, 2013.
  195. "MLB Teams and Baseball Encyclopedia - Baseball-Reference.com". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  196. Martin, Clare. "The Bulls Dynasty". NBA. Retrieved November 10, 2013.
  197. Markovits, Andrei S.; Rensmann, Lars (2010). Gaming the World: How Sports Are Reshaping Global Politics and Culture. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 89. ISBN 0-691-13751-X.
  198. "Chicago's Derrick Rose Wins 2010–11 Kia NBA MVP Award". NBA.com. Retrieved May 3, 2011.
  199. "World Marathon Majors" (PDF). The LaSalle Bank Marathon. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 25, 2007. Retrieved July 25, 2007.
  200. "NCAA Members By Division". NCAA. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
  201. "History". Chicago Park District. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  202. "City Park Facts Report" (PDF). The Trust for Public Land. February 2014. p. 30. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  203. "Chicago Park Boulevard System Historic District" map, City of Chicago. Retrieved March 31, 2016.
  204. "Biking the Boulevards with Geoffrey Baer", WTTW. Retrieved March 31, 2016.
  205. Bledstein, Burton J., Project Director. "Chicago's Park & Boulevard System" (PDF). In the vicinity of Maxwell Street Market - Virtual Museum (tigger.uic.edu/depts/hist/hull-maxwell/). University of Illinois at Chicago. Retrieved April 7, 2016.
  206. "Chicago Park Boulevard System Historic District", The Cultural Landscape Foundation. Retrieved March 31, 2016.
  207. "Harbors". Chicago Park District. Retrieved October 9, 2013.
  208. "Forest Preserve District of Cook County". University of Illinois at Chicago. Retrieved August 28, 2013.
  209. "Affiliates". Forest Preserve District of Cook County. Retrieved August 28, 2013.
  210. "City Council, Your Ward & Alderman". City of Chicago. Retrieved October 13, 2013.
  211. "Chicago Government". City of Chicago. Retrieved October 13, 2013.
  212. Schneirov 1998, pp 173–174
  213. Montejano 1998, pp 33–34
  214. Fenton, Justin (June 3, 2013). "Baltimore ranked 6th in murder rate in 2012". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
  215. Munshi, Neil (January 31, 2013). "Chicago toll rises despite gun clampdown". Financial Times. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
  216. 1 2 Lippert, John (September 17, 2013). "Heroin Pushed on Chicago by Cartel Fueling Gang Murders". Bloomberg. Retrieved October 12, 2013.
  217. Morning Edition (September 17, 2013). "Probing Ties Between Mexican Cartel And Chicago's Violence". NPR. Retrieved October 12, 2013.
  218. "Rahm Emanuel's performance as Chicago mayor". Crain's Chicago Business. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  219. "Rahm Emanuel's performance as Chicago mayor". Crain's Chicago Business. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  220. Heinzmann, David (January 1, 2003). "Chicago falls out of 1st in murders". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
  221. "Murder rate jumps in 2008". ABC News. Retrieved May 4, 2009.
  222. "Chicago's Murder Rate Double American Soldiers Killed in Iraq". Tres Sugar. September 5, 2008.
  223. "Illinois: Offenses Known to Law Enforcement, Table 8". FBI. 2009. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
  224. Gorner, Jeremy (January 3, 2011). "Chicago homicides in 2010 fell to lowest level since 1965". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 7, 2011.
  225. "Crime in the United States 2011 ('Metropolitan Statistical Area')". FBI. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
  226. "Tracking Homicides in Chicago". Chicago Tribune ('RedEye'). Retrieved January 23, 2013.
  227. "2012 Homicides". Google Drive. Retrieved January 23, 2013.
  228. Zorn (July 26, 2013). "Wrongly Accused". Chicago Tribune (Section 1). p. 23.
  229. "Police: Chicago Reports 415 Murders In 2013, Lowest Since 1965". Retrieved January 1, 2014.
  230. Lansu, Michael (December 28, 2014). "Chicago's 2014 murder total on track for another low, but shootings rise". Homicide Watch Chicago. ChicagoSun-Times. Retrieved December 10, 2015. 397 slayings in 1965
  231. Jones, Tim; McCormick, John (May 22, 2013). "Chicago Killings Cost $2.5 Billion as Murders Top N.Y.'s". Bloomberg News. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
  232. "Chicago Public Schools : Selective enrollment". Chicago Public Schools. Retrieved May 11, 2013.
  233. "Chicago Public Schools : Selective enrollment". Chicago Public Schools. Retrieved August 30, 2010.
  234. "6 CPS High Schools Rank Among Top 10 in Illinois", WGN-TV, May 13, 2015. Retrieved February 16, 2016.
  235. "Lane Tech College Prep - The School of Champions". Lanetech.org. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  236. "Top 100 Chicago-area high schools". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved October 30, 2010.
  237. "At-a-glance: Stats and Facts". Chicago Public Schools. September 17, 2014. Retrieved October 2, 2014.
  238. "Chicago teachers on strike". Time Out Chicago Kids. Retrieved September 10, 2012.
  239. Lutton, Linda; Metzger, Brendan (July 16, 2014). "The Big Sort". WBEZ. Retrieved October 2, 2014.
  240. Pogorzelski & Maloof 2008, p. 58
  241. "Carnegie Classifications | Institution Profile". Classifications.carnegiefoundation.org. Retrieved July 3, 2011.
  242. "History". Joliet Junior College. 2009. Retrieved July 19, 2009.
  243. "Nielsen Media 2009–2010 Local Market Estimates". Nielsen Media Research. Broadcast Employment Services. September 27, 2009. Retrieved May 17, 2010.
  244. Hollingsworth, Chauncey (May 10, 1995). "Shakey Ground: Arts Magazines Find Chicago's Landscape Still Hostile To New Ventures". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved October 31, 2010. A vast expanse of the local cultural landscape lay unexplored between the realm of free arts weeklies like NewCity and the Reader and commercial ventures like Chicago magazine ... NewCity wasn't quite as sophisticated two years ago as it is now.
  245. Staff writer (December 9, 2005). "Chicago Daily News II: This Time It's Digital". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved October 31, 2010. The competition ... Newcity are in the digital space, ...
  246. "The Onion celebrates controversial Chicago move with banjo playing, steak tartare". Crain's Chicago Business. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
  247. Madigan 2004, p.52.
  248. "Illinois Department of Transportation". Dot.il.gov. Retrieved April 17, 2010.
  249. "New Yorkers are top transit users", by Les Christie,CNNmoney.com, June 29, 2007. Retrieved September 21, 2009.
  250. "About". Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  251. Appendix C: Regional Freight Transportation Profiles. Assessing the Effects of Freight Movement on Air Quality at the National and Regional Level. U.S. Department of Transportation – Federal Highway Administration (April 2005).
  252. Winsor, Jeromie (July 14, 2003). "Metropolitan Planning Council". Metroplanning.org. Retrieved May 4, 2009.
  253. "CREATE Program Benefits Fact Sheets". CREATE. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
  254. "CREATE projects". CREATE. CREATE.org. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
  255. "Annual Traffic Data – 2010 Final". Airports Council International. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
  256. Preliminary Traffic Results for 2005 Show Firm Rebound (March 14, 2006) PDF (520 KB). Airports Council International.
  257. Metsch, Steve. "Top IDOT official says third airport will be built". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
  258. "Calumet Harbor and River". US Army Corps of Engineers. Retrieved June 12, 2013.
  259. "IIT.edu". IIT.edu. June 20, 2003. Archived from the original on June 5, 2008. Retrieved May 4, 2009.
  260. "KentLaw.edu". KentLaw.edu. Retrieved May 4, 2009.
  261. Martin LaMonica Staff Writer, CNET News. "'Micro' wind turbines are coming to town | CNET News.com". news.cnet.com. Retrieved May 4, 2009.
  262. "Waste Disposal". Encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org. Retrieved March 31, 2012.
  263. Bentley, Chris (July 1, 2015). "What really happens to Chicago's blue cart recycling?". WBEZ91.5 Chicago Public Media. Chicago Public Media. Retrieved December 10, 2015.
  264. Havertz, Rieke. "Counting Bullets: A Night at a Chicago Trauma Unit". Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
  265. "Best Hospitals in Chicago, IL – US News Best Hospitals". Health.usnews.com. March 29, 2011. Retrieved March 31, 2012.
  266. "Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
  267. About The University of Illinois College of Medicine (2007). UIC College of Medicine at www.medicine.uic.edu/about.
  268. 1 2 3 4 "Chicago Sister Cities". Chicago Sister Cities International. 2009. Retrieved July 22, 2009.
  269. Leroux, Charles (July 31, 2001). "Chicago has assembled a sorority of sister cities". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved June 22, 2013.
  270. Berdes, PhD, Celia; Levin, Andrew. "Director Emeritus James Webster Looks Backward, Forward" (PDF). Annual Report 2008. Buehler Center on Aging, Health & Society. pp. 5–7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 May 2011. Retrieved July 1, 2009.
  271. "Partnerská města HMP" [Prague - Twin Cities HMP]. Portál "Zahraniční vztahy" [Portal "Foreign Affairs"] (in Czech). July 18, 2013. Archived from the original on June 25, 2013. Retrieved August 5, 2013.
  272. "International relations: special partners". Mairie de Paris. Archived from the original on 25 December 2008. Retrieved 14 October 2007.
  273. "Partnerstädte der Stadt Luzern". Stadt Luzern (in German). Archived from the original on June 21, 2013. Retrieved August 1, 2013.

Bibliography

  • Bach, Ira J. (1980). Chicago's Famous Buildings. The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-03396-1. LCCN 79023365. 
  • Clymer, Floyd (1950). Treasury of Early American Automobiles, 1877–1925. New York: Bonanza Books. OCLC 1966986. 
  • Condit, Carl W. (1973). Chicago 1910–29: Building, Planning, and Urban Technology. The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-11456-2. LCCN 72094791. 
  • Cronon, William (1992) [1991]. Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-30873-1. OCLC 26609682. 
  • Genzen, Jonathan (2007). The Chicago River: A History in Photographs. Westcliffe Publishers, Inc. ISBN 978-1-56579-553-2. LCCN 2006022119. 
  • Granacki, Victoria (2004). Chicago's Polish Downtown. Arcadia Pub. ISBN 978-0-7385-3286-8. LCCN 2004103888. 
  • Grossman, James R.; Keating, Ann Durkin; Reiff, Janice L. (2004). The Encyclopedia of Chicago. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-31015-9. OCLC 54454572. 
  • Jirasek, Rita Arias; Tortolero, Carlos (2001). Mexican Chicago. Arcadia Pub. ISBN 978-0-7385-0756-9. LCCN 2001088175. 
  • Lowe, David Garrard (2000). Lost Chicago. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications. ISBN 0-8230-2871-2. LCCN 00107305. 
  • Madigan, Charles (2004). Madigan, Charles, ed. Global Chicago. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-02941-0. OCLC 54400307. 
  • Miller, Donald L. (1996). City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-684-80194-9. OCLC 493430274. 
  • Montejano, David (1999). Montejano, David, ed. Chicano Politics and Society in the Late Twentieth Century. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-75215-6. OCLC 38879251. 
  • Norcliffe, Glen (2001). The Ride to Modernity: The Bicycle in Canada, 1869–1900. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-4398-4. OCLC 46625313. 
  • Pacyga, Dominic A. (2009). Chicago: A Biography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-64431-6. OCLC 298670853. 
  • Pridmore, Jay (2003). The Merchandise Mart. Pomegranate Communications. ISBN 0-7649-2497-4. LCCN 2003051164. 
  • Pogorzelski, Daniel; Maloof, John (2008). Portage Park. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9780738552293. 
  • Sampson, Robert J. (2012). Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-73456-9. 
  • Sawyer, R. Keith (2002). Improvised dialogue: emergence and creativity in conversation. Westport, Conn.: Ablex Pub. ISBN 1-56750-677-1. OCLC 59373382. 
  • Schneirov, Richard (1998). Labor and urban politics: class conflict and the origins of modern liberalism in Chicago, 1864–97. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-06676-6. OCLC 37246254. 
  • Slaton, Deborah, ed. (1997). Wild Onions: A Brief Guide to Landmarks and Lesser-Known Structures in Chicago's Loop (2nd ed.). Champaign, Ill: Association for Preservation Technology International. OCLC 42362348. 
  • Smith, Carl S. (2006). The Plan of Chicago: Daniel Burnham and the Remaking of the American City. Chicago visions + revisions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-76471-0. OCLC 261199152. 
  • Spears, Timothy B. (2005). Chicago dreaming: Midwesterners and the city, 1871–1919. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-76874-0. OCLC 56086689. 
  • Swanson, Stevenson (1997). Chicago Days: 150 Defining Moments in the Life of a Great City. Chicago Tribune (Firm). Chicago: Cantigny First Division Foundation. ISBN 1-890093-03-3. OCLC 36066057. 
  • Zurawski, Joseph W. (2007). Polish Chicago: Our History-Our Recipes. G. Bradley Pub, Inc. ISBN 978-0-9774512-2-7. 

External links

Listen to this article (info/dl)


This audio file was created from a revision of the "Chicago" article dated 2005-07-22, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)
More spoken articles

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, May 06, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.