UP and Geoff have done a great job in introducing new threads here that celebrate Chicago. I'll try my best and join them with mine.
We love competition on the skyscraper board. Thrive on it. Put cities in rank order and see which measure up and, more delicously, which ones do not. So I'll join the fray.
There are two cities that Chicago is VERY MUCH in competition with. Two cities that dominate how we do things here. Two cities that are totally pervasive in how this city works and thinks. This is not sarcasam. This is real. And true.
The two cities? The first is the Chicago-that-was. The second is the Chicago-that-is. Chicago, as it moves to the future, measures itself by both. We celebrate and love both, but we are convinced that the Chicago-to-be will be the best of the trio.
You see, we totally enjoy our uniqueness. And what the past and present have done to create it. So, what is unique...and what makes the city work now and better in the future. No matter what some of you think, there is not another US or world city out there that we aspire to be.
Look at it as a recipe: create a flat inland plain on a vast, inland sea. throw in a river that creates a confined central space from which to grow. Sprinkle in a locale that ties the interior of the continent together. Impose a grid system to keep the whole place tied together. Toss in a rail system to connect it with the world. Stir in industry...and the rich diversity of groups from around the world who helped make it work. Make money off that industry, but invest it in culture. Burn the place down so you can start from scratch and get everything right; bring in the best architects to do the rebuilding. Clear off the lakefront and open it up to parkland for the people. Garnish with jazz, el tracks, a quirky ivied ball park, a mile that is more than magnificent and even a little of Emeril's "BAM" in the form of a racy, gangland past.
So where is Chicago today as it heads to the future? This huge, magnificent city with great big awe-inspriring towers has low rise lands adjacent to its core that allow it to develop like no such powerful city today can develop. New urbanism has found its home.Rail tracks allow for areas south of the Loop to develop on a scale unconfined by the old city grid (or look to Lake Shore East & Central Station to see that type of development taking place today).
Note the number of suburbanites moving downtown for the joy of urban living, increasing the critical mass and, in the process, the city's ammenities. Look at what civic projects like Navy Pier, Millenium Park, Museum campus have done to the urban landscape...and salivate thinking about what a developed river walk, the city/private sector combination at Block 37, the south lakefront reconstruction, the growth in the McC Pl area, the Circle Line, etc.
Look in awe at new construction close to downtown that still comes with 2, or 3, or 4 floors: imagine....a huge, powerful city and it still builds short so that it won't become a forest of soulless skyscrapings. Think of it: the city that created the skyscraper and brought it to new height wants valuable land used for low scale building....and isn't afraid to say to Donald Trump "Get the damned thing right or build it elesewher"Flat out amazing.
Meanwhile look at neighborhoods like Chinatown, Pilsen, Bronzeville, Rogers Park, and others and see our diversity is black and white and Asian and Hispanic and others.
Like no other American city, Chicago is in the process of combining power with available land to build a new American dream city. Some other places have the power but not the land to devleop. Many, many have the land,but not the power. Chicago is unique.
And, somehow, as much as I love the Chicago that was and the Chicago that is, the Chicago that will be will undoubtedly be the best of the bunch. Wishing all a Happy Chicago and a Happy Thanksgiving.> |
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