CITIES « In Which We Aim for New York and Land in Chicago »
Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at 10:14AM 
Chicago
by NICHOLAS FREILICH
Chicago is known by many names: The Windy City; The Second City; The Third Coast; The Homeless Man’s New York; etc. It’s the place I aspired to build when I played Sim City in junior high school. It’s where actors go to star in a few regional commercials and get an agent before moving to Los Angeles. It’s filed with people who eat and drink and root for sports teams named after large animals. It was Frank’s kind of town, and — for the next two years or so — it’ll be my kind of town, too.
I’ve lived in Chicago for a month, haven’t been to a single museum, and still can’t figure out where to put my recyclables. In other words: don’t try this at home. With that out of the way, some advice and observations.
Transportation
The Red Line is the key to Chicago’s train system. Without it, the CTA’s rail system becomes DC’s or — even worse — Boston’s, two plans based on the premise that people only travel from their homes to downtown and back. With the the Red Line, however, CTA offers a direct path south from the Evanston-Chicago border to end of the Dan Ryan Expressway, a near-perfect Y-axis from which riders can transfer to any number of buses running parallel to Chicago’s X-axis.
The grid makes it easy for people like me to feign knowledge of how to get around. While the numbered streets don’t start until south of the Downtown Loop area, all the street signs indicate how far they stand from the intersection of State and Madison, the grid’s origin. It gets tricky when the diagonal streets come into play, but those are mainly useful for cyclists and delivery truck drivers.
Residents polled for advice recommend buying a bike, as Chicago is a "bike-friendly" city. This is half-true. Yes, Mayor Daley declared that he wanted to make Chicago the "most bicycle-friendly city in the United States," and the expansion of bikeways — from 50 to 350 miles in the past 10 years -- as well as the introduction of Bike Chicago — a 3-month series of organized rides — indicate a clear commitment to that goal, as does the McDonald’s Cycle Center in Millennium Park. Unfortunately, motorists hate cyclists here as much as they do in any other big city, and if one is foolish enough to ride on the sidewalk to avoid traffic-related death, fines and imprisonment await.
The drivers aren’t the only crazies here, though. The folks on public transportation put Boston’s Green Line passengers to shame. In the last week I’ve watched a quartet of Crips down a handle of off-brand Vodka at two in the afternoon, a Nigerian woman put a curse on an entire train before an angry guy with a unibrow told her to “shut up,” and a small group of teens simulating a snowstorm by breaking up pieces of styrofoam and tossing them into the air. Hey, at least the Red Line runs all night.
The Soul of the City
A friend recently remarked that she found New York overwhelming in large doses, the idea being that once the initial enthusiasm of moving there wears off, you lose the motivation to attend art openings, free concerts and weekly group Spanish lessons. Chicago doesn’t seem to have such a brutal personality, at least not yet.
The “tall city” feel is concentrated in the Loop area where tourist necks snap up at sights like the Hancock Center and the Willis nee Sears Tower. The rest of the city rolls out like an endless urban rug, akin to Queens, or Brooklyn, or Omaha.
This sort of urban sprawl is less oppressive and indomitable than the up-up-up of Manhattan. It’s also much cleaner here than in New York, perhaps because there are fewer skyscrapers.
That’s not to say Chicago is without its stunning edifices. The architecture here is richer than that in any other American City. It buries New York’s. For proof, watch Batman Begins or The Blues Brothers. If you’re tired of those classic films, try Adventures in Babysitting — it shows off what may or may not be a Chicago bus terminal.
For the best view up close of Chicago’s towering skyline, there are a few boat-based architectural tours, all of which are priced for tourists from countries where the Euro is king. If you don’t mind making up the facts as you go along, take a Chicago Water Taxi from Michigan Avenue to Chinatown. An all-day pass is only six bucks and it includes all the best views as well as complimentary lifejacket use.
Chicago is also highly walkable, but I’ve found that walking around here reminds me of the 30 Rock episode where Liz Lemon realizes that if she moved to Cleveland, she could be a model. It’s not that people are unattractive in Chicago — they’re just closer to the mean than folks in Manhattan and Paris are. If Fox were to cast a reality show called “Real People of America,” they could just grab a handful of Red Line riders and call it a day.
Dining and Entertainment
For people who can afford to dine out with impunity, Chicago’s restaurants are truly what make it The City Second Only to New York. In my sole break-the-bank eating experience, I ate at Prosecco, a high-end Italian kitchen that includes among its repeat clientele Bon Jovi, Vince Vaughn, and Jakob Dylan. If you have the means, you must drop in; the risotto alone is worth the visit.
Of course, there are those of us in Chicago who would prefer to get our food free, in the form of hot-wings if at all possible. Thankfully there is BrokeHipster.com, a site dedicated to Chicago’s free and cheap dining. You don’t have to sport an ironic mustache or ride a fixed-gear bike to use the site.
Fun and laughs are plentiful here. Chicago is the core of the improv universe. Every night of the week offers a free or cheap show of mid- to high-level entertainment value. Some of the best include TJ and Dave at iO, Messing with a Friend at The Annoyance Theater, and the independently owned and operated Dirty Water, a 5-man show about “the fun-loving wise-cracking regulars” of the fictitious Boston bar bearing the show’s name (the first Friday of every month at Town Hall Pub, 3340 N. Halsted, 8:00pm).
Chicago is also great for fans of Public Radio. Both Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! and This American Life are co-produced by Chicago Public Radio. Wait Wait… is even recorded weekly in front of a live Chicago audience. Anyone with $21.99 and directions to The Chase Auditorium can join in the fun.
Lastly, a note on working out: Gym use is down in middle-America, so most gyms are eager to let you sample their facilities, some even for weeks at a time. Most of the people who purchase memberships are coastal transplants, young professionals, and law students who are too good for university-level athletic centers. If you are stealth enough, you can sneak into the Crunch at Grand and Wabash for months without being asked to show proof of membership. (This Recording does not endorse gym membership theft).
And Then…
I could go on… I’ll go on: Al Capone. David Mamet. The Cubs. SCTV. The Green Mill. University of Chicago Physics Grad Students. Ferris Bueller. Pitchfork, the Festival and the Music Hype Machine. Chicago, the Band. Wrigley. Obama. Kanye. Common. Uncommon. Deep Dish Pizza. Michigan Avenue. Lake Michigan. The Goat. Art Institute of Chicago. Navy Pier. Lakeshore Drive. Oprah. Ozzie Guillen. MJ. Da Bears. And don’t forget House Music.
Nicholas Freilich is a writer living in Chicago. He maintains The Poetry Project, which you can find here.
"Numero" - Chewy Chocolate Cookies (mp3)
"Apocalypse" - Chewy Chocolate Cookies (mp3)
"It Was Only A Kiss" - Chewy Chocolate Cookies (mp3)
Reader Comments (18)
Is this an entry from the Tacitly Mostly White Tourist Guide? Why, goodness, this makes Chicago look about as blackish as Mary Tyler Moore's Mpls, c. 1970. Nothing about Roseland, Morgan Park, Hyde Park, Kenwood or The Midway? (Or is "Obama" shorthand for all that?) Nothing about VeeJay Records (temporary early semi-home of The Beatles)? 36% of the city is officially black, Nick... I can send you pictures from *Germany* with more melanin in them than appears in some of the eerily depopulated images above.
The Southside is Chicago's elephant in the room to a particular Weltanschauung; I'm not saying you should stray over there or anything (let's not be foolhardy, Nick)... but acknowledging the reality would be nice. Well, not "nice" ("nice" is what you've already done), but... true? Cool, even?
"Chicago is known by many names: The Windy City; The Second City; The Third Coast; The Homeless Man’s New York; etc."
Don't forget "America's Yankee Jo'burg"
On the positive side: I'm listening to your "A Sine For Any Occasion" and enjoying it, man. In other words: the Tao gives while it takes away. Spooky.
(Ever into Morton Subotnick... ?)
gah, this post made me exceptionally sad. what, have you been attending cubs games for the past month? you need a broke hipster tour guide. i am available, and can be paid in la pasadita tacos.
In the words of Midge Decter, Chicago is a ggggrrrreat American city
Yeah, I really don't get the point of this "guide" to my hometown, which is one of the most segregated cities in the U.S. and very hard to describe to outsiders. Chicago isn't the way New York is now -- most parts of it are NOT welcoming, and most native Chicagoans are not forward-thinking liberals, despite how they vote...it's an immensely complicated and intimidating city if you leave Wrigleyville once in a while. So while I appreciate any kind words that Chicago gets, this was really disappointing. Can it be that L.A.-based blogs are just as clueless about the Midwest as New York ones? Say it ain't so!
Steven --
Thank you for your comments. With regards to the sugar -- I'm happy you enjoy my music. "A Sine..." is one of my personal favorites. And while I can't say that I ever got "into" Morton Subotnick, I am familiar with "And the Butterflies Begin to Sing," which, despite some artifacts of cheesy 80s synthesizer and stereo panning effects, is a fun piece. It reminds me of some of John Adams darker stuff. If there is another work of his you suggest I investigate, I'd certainly do so -- always looking for new music.
As for the salt -- your critique is fair, though perhaps a little harsh. I made it clear in my introduction that I'm a month-young here. I've also not been exploring the city with any guidance, and most of my adventures, if you want to call them that, have been utilitarian in nature. Besides, I wasn't setting out to write anything definitive or to give a holistic picture of Chicago. This piece is simply a series of fragmented first impressions, snapshots of what I've seen and experienced.
It seems to that the main problem with my early impressions and experiences is that they have been too white, and the issue with my photographs is that they focus on architecture and signage ("eerily depopulated," you said) and not real people, 36% of whom should be black. I wonder -- would you be even tougher on someone who wrote up Washington, DC -- a city with a 55.5% black population -- and failed to mention Go-Go music, Howard University and Old Anacostia while making room for notes about the Smithsonian, the US Capital, and The White House (pun most definitely not intended), especially if that person had just moved there? That seems both oversensitive and insensitive to me.
Your criticism also hones on my failing to mention certain neighborhoods -- Roseland, Morgan Park, Hyde Park, etc -- yet I didn't say a word about Roscoe Village, Boy's Town, or Lincoln Park, either, and those are very important places to many residents of Chicago. There are plenty of other things I didn't mention, too, that have nothing to do with race, one way or the other. I am only one person. Even if I spent all 720 hours of my time thus far in Chicago going through the Top-100 Things-to-Do-Places-To-See List, I'm sure I still would have missed quite a bit of what you've criticized my piece for not mentioning.
I also resent the suggestion that I short-handed "Black" with my mention of Obama. I also name-checked quite a few other Black-Chicago icons, mainstream and white-friendly as they may be. As a matter of fact, 23% of the names I dropped in my final paragraph are unequivocally "Black," while others -- such as the Art Institute, Lakeshore Drive, and Da Bears have no racial affiliations, and most definitely overlap with Black culture (though perhaps not to the 36% level that seems to be a passing grade for pieces on Chicago).
I have a very good idea about how raw a deal Black culture has gotten over time. When it's safe, it's celebrated, when it's "dangerous," it's attacked, and when it's neither it's often ignored. I have gone out of my way to publicize elements of Black culture with which I am familiar that I think others should appreciate -- take a look at my poetry blog, where two out of five of the featured poets are, in fact, black. The piece on Sterling Brown includes commentary from under-appreciated black scholars Michael S. Harper and Anthony Walton.
The more I review my article and your criticisms of it, the more it seems to me that the purpose of your comment is, above all else, a way to demonstrate your moral superiority. If your intention was to simply educate me, I imagine you would have done without the clever Apartheid reference at the end of your comment, as well as some of the other less-than-friendly and downright condescending remarks. (And really -- really, Steven -- if anything -- DC is "America's Yankee Jo'burg.")
Annika --
Haven't been to a Cubs game yet, unless you count my trip to US Cellular to see them play the Sox. Looks like fun to me, though not something I think I would consider doing more than once or twice in a season.
Zoe --
I was careful not to call this piece a "guide" when I wrote it, though not careful enough when I tweeted about it. I'm sorry for the confusion, and for disappointing you. The point of this piece is -- as I outlined in my response to Steven -- is to share some of my first impressions and early experiences. Of course it's going to come off as clueless to a native of the area -- I'm brand new to the area. I felt my disclaimer in the second paragraph -- including the catch-all catchphrase "don't try this at home" -- made clear the extent to which this piece should be used as any sort of guide. I also don't live anywhere near Wrigleyville -- have only been there to see a couple improv shows. I've gone as far south as Hyde Park and as far north as Evanston. I travel mainly by bicycle, too, so I've gotten to see plenty of the complicated and intimidating sides of the city. Still, I love the city so far.
Alex, can you note down in the papyrus TR ledger that "people care about articles about cities"
Seeing as how the chick that wrote about LA did the same east coast transplant gee whiz everybody here is dependent on cars and eats in n out burger and they don't think all that hard do they schtick, and seemed to ignore vast swathes of the city that are not easy to pigeonhole and stereotype, not to mention the nonwhite parts, I can sympathize with the commenter above bitching about the same thing. Maybe only let people write about cities until they have lived there for a year?
How could there not be a single mention of the rejuvenated and best team in the city, the Blackhawks?
There's not enough in this about Chicago buildings and food.
Nick:
(in reverse order):
1. Don't take it personally, man! It just struck me as a jarring absence in the article.
2. Actually, I'd skip Morton (for now) and head straight for the heart of Luigi Nono (more political than Morton) or the absolute genius Delia Derbyshire (more pop-inflected). There's kitsch appeal to Derbyshire's work but some of it really owns the positive cliche "ahead of her time". Check out this one: it's from *1969* and absolutely beats Trip Hop at its own games:
Delia 1
or
Delia meets Tony
Steven --
First part last:
Good call on Delia. I'd heard "Love Without Sound" on Suck My Deck (Simian Mobile Disco's entry), but I'm fairly sure it's been sampled elsewhere, too -- something that far ahead of its time has bound to have been studied to death by the real heads out there. I don't think I'd heard that second one, though -- I love the sine-ish Moog line, obviously.
Otherwise, you're right -- you can't take things personally if you're publishing on the internet, or doing anything creative for that matter. That said, I couldn't let you get away with landing a sucker-punch like that! Thanks for the dialogue.
Nick:
This feels like a Steve Reeves movie in which two titans start as rivals and become chums in order to unite in battle against a cyclops or something. (Unfortunately, in that tradition, one of us has to sacrifice himself so that the other may live to destroy the beast... we'll worry about that later). In this case, the cyclops is hipster complacency in the face of the sacred splendors of the avant-garde! (blows in conch shell horn)
Steven --
If you want to go really obscure, you've gotta go Gilgamesh. Though anyone who cites Steve Reeves either owns at least two typewriters, or has spent too much time at Gold's Gym in Venice.
In the ultimate conciliatory gesture, I've added you to my blogroll, even though yours is not really a blog.
Speak loudly and carry a large phonograph -- I'll see you in the streets.
Nick:
I somehow knew you'd get me on the Reeves ref...
chicago is shaped like a dick
a surprise happy ending! now I'm going to write horribly misinformed articles about cities I've never been to but would like to visit in the hopes that somebody will give me a free trip.
Your polite response to my comment makes me want to hit myself. Leaving comments always makes me feel dirty, no matter what the subject or what I respond with...anyway, yay Chicago! Yay first impressions!