the city nobody knows what to do with

ItÂ's the city that America canÂ't figure out what to do with. ItÂ's the city that they graple with understanding and just canÂ't get it clear. ItÂ's the city that makes them walk away scratching their heads. It confounds. It frustrates. It defies categorization. The city? Chicago, of course. It just plain doesnÂ't add up. They look at it and it makes no sense. It appears to be a great city. It has all these elements of being world class, on being able to stand on its own two feet, in being able to more than proud of the urban gem it has become. ItÂ's clearly no Atlanta. Not a Seattle. A Houston either. Not even the same league. Its size and power even put such lumanaries like Boston and San Francisco in its wake. And yet, and yet...there is sits at mid-continent. Inland. Fly over country. OK, the capital of the interior. Classy and sophisticated but on a big lake rather than an ocean.The city in fly-over country that transcends fly-over country. And yet itÂ's not coastal. Coast-like, but not coastal. You can speak about its industrialization and the decline of said industry the way you discuss Detroit. Or Cleveland. But everybody knows itÂ's not Detroit or Cleveland. Or New York or LA either, for that matter. But, well, it would be, you know, if it were only coastal. But, well, itÂ's not coastal, so how can we take it seriously?. And yet, damn it, it sure can seem a lot more of a big city than LA and more sophisticated in so many ways as well. ItÂ's New York, but, damn it, it comes across as New York without the hassles. It doesnÂ't look out to Europe across the Atlantic like New York or across the Pacific to Asia like LA. Yet itÂ's damned big and important to ignore. Do we say New York/LA or do we say New York/Chicago/LA? We just donÂ't know. Gosh darn. If we could only move it 800 or so miles east or maybe 2000 miles west, Chicago would make sense. WeÂ'd know what to do with it (which is unfortunately to over-run it with a population we couldnÂ't handle). But where it is...with all that flat land and corn. C'mon. No American city dominates its region the way that Chicago dominates its own (No NY, Boston, & DC in the east, Miami,Atlanta, Houston in South, LA, SF, Seattle out west). And yet its region is interior and its dominace nationally shouldnÂ't count. Or should it? New York is the worldÂ's greatest city, but Chicago is the great American city. Whatever the hell that means. Second City, compliment or curse? Damn! Chicago. The city that nobody knows what to do with.>