This is such a basic topic, I'm really surprised we never got to it.

Every home town has people in it who call it home, who are drawn to it as such and have special feelings for it. That's a given.

But there is something special about the way that so many Chicagoans feel about their city, how they are drawn to it, and how they would never consider living elsewhere. Outsiders know it about us and think, at times, on the negative side we truly are the Windy City. We know it here on this board, how we are drawn to discuss our city. We have passion for it, and know that passion is shared by so many other Chicagoans who don't post here.

So what's the reason? What accounts for the draw, the pull Chicago has on us? I don't mean just downtown, I don't mean just the city, I mean the whole area, Chicago and suburbs. What are those special factors that gives us the feeling there is no place like Chicago, like Chicagoland, and why we wouldn't consider living elsewhere?

People can faithfully back any city, if that is the city they are from. hometown pride and bias is a very powerful force. however, its even more powerful in huge cities, such as Chicago, that are growing, thriving, building, expanding... satisfying all our ideas and needs and wants in an urban space, and what an urban space should be. when that happens, you're hooked onto something thats 10x more addictive than crack. :P

i love chicago. born and raised a north sider, h.s in the north suburbs then back to north side of city for my independent adult years. anyway, i wonder if i grew up in boston or phoenix or austin or manhattan or.. .wherever, if i would have such strong feelings for that city? my guess is... yes. i imagine if i visited the other city streams on this site i would read odes to those city's similar in aspects to the ways we rage on about chicago. its our identity and we protect it and polish it.
however, i have moved away from chicago. i do not love it any less (IMHO) than anyone who loves it and chooses to stay. but the world beckoned and i wanted to experience living overseas. i often miss the people of the city. hearing that special chicago language. feeling the heartbeat of chicago as i woiuld go to work on the brown line or walk through the neihborhoods that hold such wonderful glorious stories. the rich tapestry that is chicago, i do not feel the rich tapestry of sydney (my current home) but, i do not doubt for a moment that the tapestry exists for those native sydney siders.
and oh yeah just the thought of an italian beef on garlic bread dipped with sweet peppers can keep me going for days. would love to hear from others who have experienced or are experiencing living overseas

We arrived in Chicago in 1961 from NYC aboard a Pennsylvania RR. We approached the city through its south end; not a pretty sight then. Even the loop was a sooty, red-bricked factory feeling city bristling with black gravity tanks. My wife wept. That said, during my years at the Univ. of Chicago we discovered first the Chicago school of architecture, then the Burnham Plan, and finally the recognition that we were living in a work of art in progress. The excitement of that discovery has only grown over the years, and it is a great pleasure to share that feeling with everybody else on this forum. Nothing can pull me away from the Chicago of the twenty-first century.

I've been overseas for a long time. But I make a point to apend at least a month back home in Chicago every year.

And edsg, to answer your question. Gravity.

I have met many fellow Chicoans around the world. It's funny, when this happens, there is often a feeling of reverence for the hometown. Lotsa nodding and "damn I miss the lake" or "what I'd give for a decent hot dog".

Sometimes I feel I'm representing Chicago more than America.

I too spend about a month back home in chicago every year ( i try to get back in either june july or august for obvious reasons). and also like you rockford, i often feel like i am representing chicago to those i meet on my travels. its much easier being a representative of chicago than it is being a representative of the USA these days.
"GRAVITY" yeah, i like that.
:righton: :righton:

I never had a fancy life. Born in a fairly shabby bungalow on Kimball St. in Elgin surrounded by an equally shabby neighborhood filled with run-down victorian piles and overgrown lawns wispering of Elgin's now faded glory days as a wealthy industrial river town. We never went a night in my childhood without hearing the sounds of gunfire in the distance and booming music at the house we always thought was inhabited by drug dealers across the street.

Surrounded by these negative influences, my mom was always understandably worried that I would never be able to see the finer things in life, culture, beauty, and peace. So every year as a young child my mom would scrimp and save for our annual trip to downtown Chicago. We would walk to the National St. metra station on the morning of our trip to take the train into the city. My first beautiful childhood memory would be of the giant steel bullet of a train roaring through downtown Elgin from the Chicago St. terminus to the platform on National St. like a mighty archangel ready to sweep us up into heaven. The train ride was always magical with the landscape flying past us as the train rattled and roared like a giant metal bull. The feeling of wonder and elation would be indescribable as, soaring above the houses and factories and trees, I could see a mighty tower of black and glass with soaring antennas, white like the clouds, reaching up to pierce the heavens. Around this mighty tower would soon appear others, rising with our approach, like a steel and glass and stone redwood forest.

Even as a child I always knew there was something special about this sky city that was like nothing I had ever seen. Finally, the train would pull into a huge building with many other trains. I would cling to my mother's hand as we were jettisoned into a mighty hoard of people all running in many directions but somehow would end up on the street with us.

Walking down Jackson Blvd. from Union Station would be a magical experience; the street seemed to be lined by edifices so mighty that many seemed to dissapear into the clouds. People in fine suits would sweep by us like a writhing river of humanity flowing through the steel and stone canyon. Eventually we would arrive at the Art Institute on Michigan Ave. I remember the real fear I would have seeing the huge stone lions guarding the entrance to a building more beautiful than any I had ever seen. I never had an appreciation for art really but as my mother would guide me through the galleries I quickly realized that she did. I like to think that she imparted to me some appreciation for the wondrous sweeping strokes of paint and carved stone sculptures. Even as a small child I knew that the art I was seeing along with the beautiful sky city that was housing it were part of something greater, that we were capable of achieving so much more, that perhaps one day I wouldn't have to live in a rundown bungalow in the ass end of a worn down industrial town.

Leaving the Art Institute we would walk down to State Street where my mom and I would delight in window shopping and occaisonally real shopping. The glamour of the window displays and opulence of the shops and buildings would thrill and amaze me. Walking down the aisles of Marshall Fields would be both dazzling and depressing seeing the most beautiful merchandise I had ever seen and realizing that is was too expensive to actually possess.

As we boarded the train home and I watched the burnished spires of that magical sky city of Chicago pass into the horizon I knew that the place I had just seen was something special. Even today my most magical memory is seeing the Sears tower rise from the horizon like a mighty pillar of mankind stretching upward as if to hold up the sky in defiance of gravity, in defiance of everything. Standing tall as a symbol of everything I could be and everything I could achieve.

That is one tiny part of what the "pull of Chicago" means to me. I certainly hope that those of you living in the city never take it for granted. :)

Well, it is simply where I've spent most of my life and have most of my memories. Wherever I find myself living, I'll probably consider it my real home. I was born in Chicago Heights, and grew up in the south 'burbs. Went to my first Sox game when I was 8 years old, in the old Comisky park. My dad worked on the south side of the city for years, my "unofficial godfather" lived in Beverly and the South Side Irish parade has been a family tradition since I was born, my parents have now initiated their grandchildren to it, even though they now live in Northwest Indiana. I spent the late 80's as one of those annoying suburban punks on Belmont ;). My parents took me to taste Chicago one of the first years it happened and picnics in Lincoln Park were a very memorial part of my childhood. I remember our car running out of gas on the Dan Ryan and walking down 35th street to go to my friend's cousin's house to for help. I still accidently call the "el" lines their previous names and have ridden the Red Line to 95th street, and to Howard, and still think that Aurelio's in Homewood is some of the best pizza out there. It is a hometown thing, simple as that. Here is were some of my best and worst memories have been made.

Well, I have a lot of family and economic ties here. That's the only pull Chicago has on me. I'm actually thinking about leaving at year's end.

Well, I have a lot of family and economic ties here. That's the only pull Chicago has on me. I'm actually thinking about leaving at year's end.

LA?

LA?

Well, why not LA? You know how big those la-la land houses are. I can't see any reason why Silverlake couldn't put him up for a month or two until he found a place of his own.

its realy a combo of everything for me. iv lived in 6 cities over the last 7-8 years. i grew up in chicago ,and in the end ended up comming back "home". ive lived in detroit,miami,new york,dallas,jerusalem,and of course chicago. on top of all the cities if lived over the years , iv also visited close to 40 diferant cities in over 35 states and several countries. but iv never been to a city thats been so satesfying in every way a city could be more than chicago!! its got the best of every world. its got big city urbanisim like newyork and the east, its got the midwest mentality , southeren hospitality,beaches like the west,almost:) and the differant neiborhoods give you the authenticity of multipule countrys. weve got more exciting history in the our city than any other city of its kind considering the age of the city ,the great chiago fire, al capone etc. anything you can think of we got it . world class meuseums, world class art and architecture. cultural diversity and the settup of neiborhoods.

its realy hard to sum chiago up in just a few sentances and why its so luring. all i can say is that chicago is just chicago!!!!!!!!!! and theres nothing anyone could do to pull me away from the greatest city in modern history.

they dont call chicago the "wickedest city " for nothin ;) (back in the roaring 20's that was chicago nickname)

Never have I encountered a city that was just so fucking real, plain and simple. In fact, I'm reading the book with that title right now. :)

To me, part of the draw of Chicago is that it is the last of the great American cities, the only one of the super large cities in America that still creates a unified city environment. Chicago is no New York, split into 5 boroughs and sense that four of them are not really "The City". Unlike New York, we're not divided by wide rivers and bay, nor do we have fringe communities that are more like separate towns than a part of NYC. Ditto for LA. No mountain range running through the middle of town, separating city from valley. No Beverly Hills or Santa Monticas in its midst.

Chicago is one, whole, tied together. And flat. Incredibly flat. For all the beauty I've seen of pictures we have on this board of places like Pittsburgh or Cincinnati, those hills divide, separate, discourage walking and urbanity.

Not in Chicago, a city driven by the energy of its highly negotiable grid and the flatness that makes one neighborhood seamlessly flow into the next. In some ways, the sense of urban destination can be more exciting in Chicago than in New York as our core and concentric ring system of development ups the urbanity the closer and closer you get to the Loop.

I cannot imagine any city in America than can touch Chicago in the way it combines dense urbanity with incredible livability. I can't imagine any city that has a waterfront culture as joyous as the relationship that Chicago has with Lake Michigan. Nor can I imagine any city emenating greatness in such a definitive American way as Chicago. The pull is palitable.

LA?

Long Beach, actually but only for a few months.

To me, part of the draw of Chicago is that it is the last of the great American cities, the only one of the super large cities in America that still creates a unified city environment. Chicago is no New York, split into 5 boroughs and sense that four of them are not really "The City". Unlike New York, we're not divided by wide rivers and bay, nor do we have fringe communities that are more like separate towns than a part of NYC. Ditto for LA. No mountain range running through the middle of town, separating city from valley. No Beverly Hills or Santa Monticas in its midst.

Chicago is one, whole, tied together. And flat. Incredibly flat. For all the beauty I've seen of pictures we have on this board of places like Pittsburgh or Cincinnati, those hills divide, separate, discourage walking and urbanity.

Not in Chicago, a city driven by the energy of its highly negotiable grid and the flatness that makes one neighborhood seamlessly flow into the next. In some ways, the sense of urban destination can be more exciting in Chicago than in New York as our core and concentric ring system of development ups the urbanity the closer and closer you get to the Loop.

I cannot imagine any city in America than can touch Chicago in the way it combines dense urbanity with incredible livability. I can't imagine any city that has a waterfront culture as joyous as the relationship that Chicago has with Lake Michigan. Nor can I imagine any city emenating greatness in such a definitive American way as Chicago. The pull is palitable.


The irony is that through much of Chicago's history that flatness that today encourages unity encouraged Chicago to become sprawling and unwalkable only decades after it was founded. The rapid growth of Chicago's population through the 1800's and early 1900's coupled with the lack of geographical barriers incited a spree of subdivision building not unlike what we are seeing today in the suburbs only denser. Furthermore, most of Chicago's population actually lived in single family homes as opposed to New York where most of the population lived in multistory tenements. Interestingly enough, the unbroken prairies around the city actually helped Chicago to become the most sprawling city in the country in the late 1800's. How odd that what once was considered sprawling is now considered dense. It makes me wonder if we will consider sprawling LA dense in 70 years or so.