Chicago is said to have derived its nickname of ‘The Windy City’ from ‘The Mighty Hawk’ – that fearsome, bitingly cold wind that whistles down the canyons between the skyscrapers in the dreary depths of winter. I prefer, though, the alternative theory that the tag was inspired by the city’s notoriously wind-bagging politicians.
Think of New York but cleaner, friendlier and somehow more human and you’ll have an idea of what to expect from this lively city nestled on the South Western shores of the mighty Lake Michigan.
The famed Route 66 snakes, in the words of the song, “From Chicago to LA, more than two thousand miles all the way” but you’ll find plenty to make you tarry in America’s third most populous city and the surrounding state of Illinois.
Close on three-million call Chicago home and there are another 6.4 million living in the city’s greater metropolitan area, which also encompasses parts of neighbouring Indiana and Wisconsin.
Strategically established in 1833 as a transportation centre linking the Great Lakes with the Mississippi river system, Chicago became the Mid West’s key transportation centre for riverboats and rail traffic alike and today, at O’Hare, has the world’s busiest airport.
Though many will associate it with the Al Capone gangster era of prohibition days, Chicago is today one of America less crime-ridden cities, provided you steer clear of some of the poorer, more rundown suburbs.
It’s a truly cosmopolitan place. They dye the river green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day each year and the whole city takes part in a great Irish American celebration. Today, more Poles live in Chicago than in Warsaw and how about these for wow-factor statistics: Chicago has an Italian American population of half-a-million, the largest Bulgarian community (all 150,000 of them) outside Bulgaria itself, is the second largest Serbian and Lithuanian and third largest Greek city in the world, has the nation’s largest Swedish American population (close on 125,000), hosts 100,000 people of Romanian heritage and has the second largest Afro American community in the country. Yet all of them are fiercely Chicagoans.
They party hard in a city that’s replete with blues bars, nightclubs, trendy cocktail spots and great restaurants, including one called Sushi Samba where they deftly combine the cuisine of Japan and Brazil in a manor that exemplifies Chicago’s status as a true melting pot of the nations.
They work hard too in a place that by the time of its landmark World’s Fair, in 1893, was being touted as one of the world’s 10 most influential cities, with its formidable imprint on the worlds of business, finance, retailing food packing – especially meatpacking – and manufacturing. It is now a major player in the fields of medicine, technology and education, with all the aura of a capital city without actually being one, even for the state of Illinois, which is governed from the far smaller town of Springfield, the home of Abraham Lincoln.
The distinctively shaped Flat Iron Building, the world’s first skyscraper, soared skywards here and for a short time the Hancock Tower ranked as the world’s tallest building. Today, the skyline possesses an elegance and self-confidence not quite matched by other cities, even New York, maybe because there’s more of an air of permanence. It’s a big place, brash maybe, but there’s great attention to detail in its architecture.
The principle of ‘shop till you drop’ rules along the famed Magnificent Mile while only Las Vegas and Orlando surpass Chicago as a convention hub.
Chicago is a city re-born as projects get torn down to be replaced by upscale condominiums. The 3,000 ft (900 m) long Navy Pier was turned into a leisure mecca, with shops, restaurants, exhibitions halls and a 150 ft (45m) Ferris wheel, drawing nearly 10-million visitors a year.
The city as a whole is said to attract around 35-million people from abroad and out of state each year and has a brilliant infrastructure to cope, including a great metro system, reliable urban rail links, good buses and a flock of cabs, along with some truly outstanding hotels, including the renowned Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, located just off of Michigan Avenue. Known in the inner circles as the “White House of the Midwest”, the hotel was Bill Clinton’s Midwestern home away from home during his eight years as President. As the city’s premier downtown convention and large meetings hotel, the hotel features the largest hotel ballroom in the Midwest , at 40,000 sq ft.
The Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers is also an ideal location for more powerful, smaller meetings perfectly suited for their high-tech executive boardrooms. Throughout its 15-year history, the hotel has undergone many enhancements, including a recent $20m renovation, further proving its dedication to offering guests unmatched levels of service and a top-of-the-line travel experience by continually upgrading its product. Recent renovations include upgraded technology features, including Wi-Fi access in the hotel lobby, meeting rooms, ball room and the executive club lounge.
Business traveller’s needs are also high on the agenda at the Westin Chicago River North, where weary road warriors can engage in the Unwind Ritual, which transforms the hotel’s lobby into a meet-and-greet space, replete with a variety of cocktails a speciality food. Continuing the themes of relaxation and wellness, the hotel also offers Feng Shui meetings, where the ancient Chinese art of managing the environment is employed to provide spaces that will invigorate and stimulate any business meeting.
With 2007 estimates of around $445bn, Chicago has the third largest domestic product of any American city and is said to have the nation’s most balanced economy, due to its high level of diversification.
Boeing relocated its corporate headquarters from Seattle to Chicago in 2001 and the city has logged up the largest number of corporate start-ups, expansions and re-locations in the USA for five of the past six years.
Once renowned as part of the so-called ‘Rust Belt’, Chicago has expanded its portfolio from heavy industry into the realms of high tech and information technology, in which sector its employs far more people than does any other metropolitan area, including Silicon Valley.
There are four major financial and futures exchanges and the banking and insurance industries flourish while the manufacturing and industrial outputs of the surrounding area have made Chicago the third largest intermodal port in the world, after Hong Kong and Singapore.
With America’s second largest labour pool – 4.25 million workers – Chicago is placed 10th on the UBS list of the world’s richest cities.
As for that ‘Mighty Hawk’, well, as they say, it’s an ill wind that blows no good and Chicago suffers less from pollution than does any other of America’s major conurbations.
For business or leisure it’s a great place to visit and an even better place to live.
