“Where are you from?”
“Oh, Chicago.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”

In reality, I actually live about an hour north of Chicago. In fact, I live closer to the state of Wisconsin than I do to the City. I’ve never been a city girl; I am most definitely a product of the suburbs.

So, then, why do I keep telling people I’m from Chicago?

The first reason is convenience. Honestly, if you’re not from Illinois or even from northern Illinois, how many other towns and cities do you know besides Chicago? Instead of going into an uninteresting geography lesson, it’s just easier to tell out-of-staters that I’m from the city that they’re most familiar with. They don’t question it and I don’t have to go into tedious detail. We’re both happy.

Secondly, I love Chicago and I have no compunction about associating myself with the city. Truth to tell, aside from Seoul, I have never been to a major city. I’ve never been to New York City, never been to LA, London, Paris, or any other major city. And yet, I know that none of them will compare to Chicago.

Chicago is a city that was built on hardships and tested by fire. Literally. In 1871, during an exceptionally dry summer, a fire tore through the entire city, utterly destroying it. Hundreds were killed and even more were left homeless. Since everything had been constructed of wood, there was barely even any rubble; just some charred skeletons sketching out the locations of a building or two. It would have been so easy for the survivors to leave and start their lives elsewhere. However, they chose to stay and rebuild and by 1875, there weren’t any traces of the devastating inferno.

It was during this time that Chicago became the architectural wonder that it is today. Just as Christopher Wren gained renown in the aftermath of the Great London Fire of the 17th century, architects flocked to the ruined city on the shores of Lake Michigan with dreams of becoming famous. Architects like Louis Sullivan and the architectural firm of Burnham & Root designed the prototypes of the skyscrapers that make up the distinctive Chicago skyline today.

The nineteenth century was an era of progress and nations competed with one another, not with war, but with the World’s Fair. In 1890, Chicago was the successful claimant with a team of brilliant designers and architects, including Frederick Law Olmstead, the first landscape architect who had designed New York’s Central Park, and headed by Daniel Burnham, of Burnham & Root. By 1893, they presented the “White City” to the world. At this fair, Chicago introduced the world to the Ferris World and Aunt Jemima Syrup. Antonin Dvorak composed his “New World Symphony” in honor of the World’s Fair and Scott Joplin, the composer of, “The Entertainer,” and “The Maple Leaf Rag,” developed his famous ragtime while he working there. L. Frank Baum visited the Fair and was so enchanted he transformed it into the magical world of Oz in his story, The Wizard of Oz.

Unfortunately, the White City burned, one building at a time, after the end of the Fair, but the grounds were not left fallow. Today, where the White City once stood with Lake Michigan as its backdrop, is the Museum Campus, consisting of The Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium. Close by is Grant Park with Buckingham Fountain, the site of the famous Taste of Chicago, a sampling of the different types of food the city has to offer. Michigan Avenue is close by, with its fantastic array of shops and even closer is Millennium Park, with its Frank Gehry designed bandstand and the magnificent “Cloud Gate” by sculptor, Anish Kapoor.

Whenever I see Chicago set as the backdrop of a movie or television show, I inwardly squeal like a schoolgirl. I can’t help myself. You know the movie, The Fugitive? It’s one of my favorite movies. Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones were great together but the icing on the cake was that it was almost entirely set in Chicago.

I’m admitting I’m a dork here, but I love hearing about how O’Hare is the world’s busiest airport and that the Sears Tower is the world’s tallest (occupied) building. It’s probably just a case of me BIRG’ing (Basking In Reflected Glory-it’s a real phrase, look it up), but it’s great to be associated with record holders. When the Chicago Bulls won one NBA championship after another, that was the ultimate BIRG’ing opportunity.

Chicago is a wonderful city but I’m not so blinded by its magnificence that I don’t see the darker side of the city. During the Prohibition, Chicago was the city of Al Capone and other mobsters and bootleggers. Even now, there are neighborhoods that are more or less overrun by gangs and children can’t play out on the sidewalks because their parents fear for their lives. In one area, there are million dollar mansions on one side of the street and run down projects on the other. It saddens me to think that in a city with this much wealth, there are people who are among the poorest in the state.

But I feel strangely optimistic.

After all, this is a city that had already been obliterated once, only to build itself up again. This is a resilient city, a growing city. This is a city with a splendid history and a wonderful future. This is the city I call home.

This is the Windy City, the City of Big Shoulders. Inside its borders are the rich and the poor, the various ethnic enclaves, the best universities and also the worst public schools. It’s a city made of up opposites, but they all share one similarity: strength.

This is Chicago.

Recommended Readings:
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. A factual account of Chicago’s heyday as the site of the 1893 Columbian Exposition and the murderer lurking on the fringes.
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. The dark side of the meatpacking industry in turn of the century Chicago.
The Pit by Frank Norris. Fortunes rise and fall in the pit of the Chicago futures exchange in the early 20th century.

A. Kim is the Halfway Senior Editor

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