The Windy City



""I have struck a city -- a real city -- and they call it Chicago ... I urgently desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages.""

- Rudyard Kipling, 1891

Chicago, Illinois: incorporated in 1837. The name comes from the Algonquian word shikaakwa, or "wild onion". We shit you not: it was what was growing in the swampland that was perfectly situated for continental-scale commerce. It's the third most populous city in the United States and a fabled fortress of jazz, organized crime, Michael Jordan, Daaaaaa Bearsss, the 1893 World's Fair, deep-dish pizza, Frank Lloyd Wright, house music, improvisational theatre, two baseball teams known for perennial mediocrity which fiercely battle for the city's love/scorn, skyscrapers, revolving doors, a very pleasant lakefront, very unpleasant winters, our current president, and a certain roughneck Midwestern charm. Its nickname of "The Windy City" comes from the Lake Michigan breezes that rattle around the skyscrapers, but wisecrackers will tell you it's from boastful windbag politicians. Aside from that, the city had a massive fire in 1871, widely suspected in Urban Legend of having been started by a cow, which leveled much of the city and killed 200-300 people.

During the Prohibition period, it was the home base of Al Capone. Blacks, fleeing the Jim Crow south, made it a blues center. A squash court at the University of Chicago was the site of the world's first controlled nuclear reaction.

Chicago has a public rail system called the 'L,' a combination of subways and elevated tracks that radiates from a loop around the city center towards the city's edges and (in some cases) the surrounding suburbs. This "Loop" runs through some of the most prominent buildings in the city, including the recently renamed Willis Tower (most people still know it as Sears Tower, the tallest building in the Americas; the retail company had moved out long before the rename). Contrary to the popular belief, the Loop got its name from the now-gone cablecar loop rather than the elevated rail tracks that encircle it today. Also, the system is called the 'L', not the "El" (that would be New York's elevated railroad).

The vast majority of Chicagoans live, play, eat, and occasionally kill in Chicago's many, many neighborhoods. People call Chicago "a city of neighborhoods," with each having their own distinct character and well defined boundaries. Many current-day neighborhoods were originally cities or suburbs on their own that Chicago swallowed up as it grew. Many of these cities kept something of their previous character, even unto today.

Chicago's sprawl puts Los Angeles to shame, with over a hundred neighborhoods organized into several Sides. Most people are familiar with the North and South sides. The North Side is commonly depicted as wealthy and white while the South Side is usually depicted as poor and black. There is a certain truth to those assumptions - North Side contains some of the city's wealthiest neighborhoods, while the South Side contains some of the city's poorest, most crime-ridden ghettos. But as most Chicagoans would tell you, there are plenty of exceptions - North Side has its share of poor and working-class neighborhoods with fairly diverse immigrant population (Uptown and Rogers Park immediately come to mind), and South Side has its share of working class, middle class and even wealthy neighborhoods (Hyde Park, Kenwood, Bronzeville & Beverly). The reason why the perception exists is because historically, the North Side was wealthier than the largely working-class South Side. Also:

North Side: "GO CUBS!" South Side: "GO WHITE SOX!"

For the love of God, don't get those two confused.

In addition to North Side and South Side, there are several other lesser known sides - West Side, Northwest Side, Southeast Side, Far Northwest Side, Far South Side and the neighborhood known as the East Side. Generally speaking, all sides can be described as follows:

North Side
North Side - a historically working class area with a few wealthy enclaves here and there, it has recently seen some gentrification efforts on all sides. The wealthy neighborhoods are concentrated in the Near North Side - the city's original northern section that begins at Chicago River and ends at North Avenue. Some of the more notable neighborhoods include:
 * Gold Coast - one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Chicago and, for a while, the only wealthy neighborhood in the Near North Side. It is made up of a peculiar mix of high-rises and small, yet expensive rowhouses (plus a few historic mansions here and there).
 * Streeterville - established by Civil War veteran George Steeter on the landfill formed by the debris created during the Chicago Fire, it was an industrial neighborhood for much of its existence. In recent decades, it saw some very heavy-duty gentrification as high rises were built where warehouses and factories once stood - today, it is home to some of the most expensive real estate in Chicago.
 * Cabrini-Green - a public housing complex infamous for its crime and poverty, it is currently undergoing slow and painful forced gentrification as the decaying public housing buildings are slowly being replaced by mixed-income housing. One of the more common Did Not Do the Research points when it comes to Chicago is placing Cabrini-Green, on the South Side. It is actually in Near North Side, to the west of Gold Coast.
 * River North - another former industrial area, it got a new lease on life as Chicago's oldest artist colony. These days, the poor artists that defined it either got rich and stayed put or moved elsewhere. Most of the people that lived here now fall into upper-middle class, but its artistic legacy survives in its art galleries.
 * Magnificent Mile - one of Chicago's three original high-end shopping districts, it was the only one to survive to this day. Currently the classic deparment stores have been outted by typical mall shops and a few museums still spot it.
 * Lincoln Park - one of the poster children for North Side gentrification, it was originally a working-class neighborhood dominated by (in chronological order) Germans, Poles and Puerto Ricans. These days, it's largely middle class, with the coastal area threading towards "wealthy."
 * Lakeview - another former working-class neighborhood, this area houses Boystown and Wrigleyville. Contains the goth and hipster friendly Alley shopping complex and lots of overpriced apartment buildings.
 * Boystown - the latest in the long line of Chicago's gayborhoods (and so far, the longest-lasting), it developed along the Chicago Pride Parade route. Gentrification has eroded some of its GLBT-centric aspects, but only to a point.
 * Wrigleyville - Exactly What It Says on the Tin, this section of Lakeview is the area surrounding Wrigley Field, home of baseball's Chicago Cubs, who are notable for being the only team that still plays the majority of their home games during the daytime. The apartment buildings across from Wrigley on Waveland and Sheffield Avenues have been expanded to become part of the field's seating un officially, though they have to pay the Cubs a premium for the privilege.
 * Uptown - one of the North Side's historically wealthy neighborhoods and home to what was then the city's largest entertainment district, it was hit pretty hard during the Great Depression. After World War II, it became a refuge for ethnic and social groups that had hard time settling anywhere else on the North Side. There have been some efforts to gentrify Uptown, and they were somewhat successful, but much of Uptown is still either working-class or poor. These is lots of back-and-forth between the gentrifiers and everybody else about what the neighborhood is like and what needs to be done in order to fix it. Taking any position on the matter will cause flame wars.
 * Edgewater - originally Uptown's wealthier section, it broke away to make a fresh start. Gentrification has been more successful here, though as with Uptown, it didn't completely take. It has a sizable immigrant population, and many of those immigrants came from African countries.
 * Andersonville - a historic Swedish neighborhood, it developed a sizable lesbian enclave back in the 80s. During the most recent real estate boom, it was heralded as the Next Hip Thing, but while it never did become the next Lakeview, it lived up to the label in many respects.
 * Rogers Park - a former site of a major Pottawatomie Indian settlement, the neighborhood has become a haven for immigrants from all over the globe, including India, Pakistan, Russia, Ecudaor, Korea, China and various Middle Eastern countries. It is one of the few Chicago neighborhoods that can be safely called "integrated." The section closest to Chicago's northern border (locally known as Juneway Terrace or, less charitably, Juneway Jungle) is fairly poor, but the rest of the neighborhood is largely working class, with some middle-class incursions along the coast and near Loyola University.
 * West Ridge - the western section of Rogers Park back when Rogers Park was an independent village, it shares many characteristics with its parent community, except it has less gentrification, more immigrants and less genuinely poor areas.

South Side
South Side - once the wealthiest section of Chicago, its fortunes took a dramatic turn for the worse in the wake of the Great Depression. It also contained the city's largest black enclave - Bronzeville. Any black who tried to settle outside of its borders wasn't looked upon very kindly (to put it mildly). When Supreme Court made housing restrictions illegal and blacks spread out beyond the overcrowded Bronzeville, white residents panicked. There were some attempts to stop the process, but ultimately, the older residents couldn't fight demographics. Most chose White Flight. Red-Lining and blockbusting made things worse for the black residents that replaced them.

For a while, South Side contained the largest concentration of public housing in United States (mostly because white aldermen didn't want it in their neighborhoods and fought to keep it in Bronzeville's immediate vicinity). From late 1980s onward, the city has been tearing them down and replacing them with mixed-income housing. Or, at least, that's the theory - the replacement part has been kind of slow. There has also been some gentrification going on, mostly in the Near South Side (the city's historic southern section).

Some of the more notable South Side neighborhoods include:


 * South Loop - once an enormous network of docks, rail yards, factories and storage facilities, the area immediately south of the Loop is being transformed beyond recognition as high-end development after high-end development is built. The Central Station development, which was built near a demolished eponymous rail terminal, contains some of the most expensive buildings in the city.
 * Chinatown - originally a South Italian neighborhood, it has been home to Chinese immigrants since 1920s. Overcrowded, incredibly touristy but nonetheless pleasant, it is trying to strike a balance between serving the needs of its residents and attracting visitors.
 * Bridgeport - Chicago's first Irish neighborhood and the heart of the city's legendary Democratic machine. A long-time bastion of European immigrants and their descendants, the neighborhood has seen significant influx of Chinese and Mexican residents, to the point where they operate a significant portion of the neighborhood's businesses. For a while, black weren't particularly welcome there, even after the civil rights era, but that is gradually changing.
 * Bronzeville - Chicago's oldest black neighborhood, it has recently become a site of major redevelopment efforts as the middle-class descendants of its original residents hope to transform it into a safe, bustling black community. North of Pershing Road, things look like they are heading in that direction - south of it, not so much.
 * Hyde Park - A neighborhood that exists in symbiosis with University of Chicago, which invested considerable money and resources into making sure that it wouldn't succumb to economic depression and decay the way most surrounding neighborhoods did. It is one of the few Chicago neighborhoods that can be considered integrated, but, as many people would bitterly pointed out, most of the residents are middle class. Hyde Park and UC enforce the peace with very heavy police presence and an extensive emergency alert system.
 * Kenwood - a historically white, middle class neighborhood, it has been going through a process similar to Bronzeville, except in this case, it went on for almost a decade longer and had more successes. Some of Chicago's wealthiest and most famous black residents live here (including Barack Obama, who moved in from Hyde Park in 2005). As with Bronzeville, the development has been uneven - it's a solidly middle-class black enclave south of 47th Street, but things get a lot more mixed in the rest of the neighborhood.
 * Englewood - one of Chicago's most dramatic falls from grace, this was once a wealthy neighborhood with a thriving shopping district at par with Magnificent Mile. The Great Depression took a heavy toll on it, and it has only gotten worse since. Today, its shopping strip is virtually abandoned, the once-majestic homes are decaying and the population shrinks every year. After most South Side housing projects were demolished, Englewood became one of the most crime-ridden neighborhoods in Chicago by default. There have been lot of redevelopment and gentrification attempts, but nothing took.
 * Back of the Yards - former site of the Union Stockyards (which, in turn, figured prominently in Upton Sinclar's The Jungle). Originally dominated by Poles and other Eastern European immigrants, it became a Mexican-American neighborhood in 1970s.

Far South Side
Far South Side - often conflated with the South Side, this section of Chicago is more recently developed and, historically speaking, was largely working class. Its fortunes are tied to the factories around Lake Calumet and adjacent bodies of water. When South Side took a turn for the worse, this area was regarded as a preferable alternative, and many blacks of all economic levels were able to live comfortably here. Unfortunately, the Lake Calumet industrial region has been slowly but surely falling apart since the 1970s. The persistent pollution has only made things worse, and when public housing was demolished en masse on the South Side, many of the former residents headed for Far South Side's working class neighborhoods, bringing their criminal histories and rivalries with them. Although many communities are still holding on, others have taken the turn for the worse. Some of the more notable Far South Side neighborhoods include:


 * Chatham - a middle-class enclave since the 1920s, it transitioned from a white majority to a black majority with little difficulty. Its shopping areas are spotty at best, but the residential homes are pretty nice. While there is some concern about the rising crime, crime rates still pale in comparison to the greater South Side averages.
 * Beverly - a former luxury resort for the wealthy, this distant neighborhood redefined itself as one of Chicago's few remaining Irish neighborhoods. Its residents fought against White Flight and blockbusting while trying to make black feel welcome. The resulting neighborhood is similar to Hyde Park, except with better architecture, a more suburban atmosphere and significantly less police presence.
 * Calumet Heights - founded by railroad workers, this working-class neighborhood transitioned to black majority pretty late in the game (1970s-1980s). It's fairly safe and reasonably comfortable. Pill Hill, an upper-class black enclave, is located right in the middle of it.
 * Pullman - a company town built by George Pullman, a rail car magnate, it was supposed to be an ideal workers' settlement - except George Pullman was an authoritarian prick who didn't mind screwing his employees over. The whole thing ended in a strike that had to be out down with federal troops. Since then, Pullman has been a working-class, multi-racial neighborhood that is fairly safe, yet fairly isolated - a few restaurants, virtually no businesses and no entertainment venues to speak of. Local residents are trying to turn the now-abandoned Pullman factory complex into a museum, but lack of money slows the process to a crawl.
 * Mount Greenwood - a predominantly Irish neighborhood, it has become home to many Chicago fire fighters and police officers.
 * East Side - a neighborhood near Illinois/Indiana border (you can actually see Gary from there), this working class community is isolated from the rest of Chicago by Calumet River in the north and west and a forest preserve in the south. Many native Chicagoans don't even realize it exists. An Eastern European community with heavy Mexican presence, it doesn't have that much to offer, but it's calm and peaceful.

West Side
West Side - an area that was dominated by factories and working-class neighborhoods, the West Side fought integration kicking and screaming, to no avail. When Martin Luther King Jr died, the riots ravaged most of the side's business areas, something which it never quite recovered from. The departure of manufacturing jobs only made things worse. Taken at large, West Side is poorer than the South Side, though it's also a bit more diverse. There has been some fairly aggressive gentrification going on in the area's eastern section. Its notable neighborhoods include:


 * West Loop - the heart of the old manufacturing district, this area received a lion's share of West Side gentrification - given that not a whole lot of people lived there to begin with, it didn't receive that many complaints. There is no consensus as to just how far it extends, though most can agree that it probably stops at some point before Ashland Avenue. The neighborhood contains Oprah's Harpo Studios and a museum of holography.
 * Greektown - a neighborhood established when the original Greektown was torn down to make way for what is now University of Illinois at Chicago's East Campus. Most Greek-Americans don't actually live here, but they do maintain a decent shopping district and a fairly neat museum.
 * Little Italy - one of Chicago's oldest Italian neighborhood, it is best known for its variety of restaurants and a couple of neat churches. It was once home to Jane Addams Homes, the oldest public housing development in the city.
 * University Village - a neighborhood created when UIC demolished the old Maxwell Street neighborhood to pave the way for its South Campus. Lots of Chicagoans are still bitter about it. The neighborhood used to be home to Maxwell Street Market, the city's biggest flea market, but it has since been moved a a few blocks northeast.
 * Pilsen - originally established by the many ethnic groups that lived in Austria-Hungary, this working-class neighborhood has since become the city's oldest Mexican neighborhood. The eastern section has seen some gentrification and a burgeoning artist colony. The neighborhood dealt with some major gang problems back in the 1990s, but things have quieted down (mostly).
 * East Garfield Park - a poor neighborhood without much to offer except for the eponymous park, which has a pretty neat conservatory. There have been many attempts to gentrify it, but so far, none of them really took. Not to be confused with the more dangerous West Garfield Park.
 * Little Village - this Mexican-American neighborhood hovers between working-class and poor. It has a decent commercial district and lots of community organizations, but it also suffers from sizable gang activity that occasionally escalates into full-fledged violence.
 * Austin - Chicago's largest neighborhood, this historically middle class community fell on hard times in 1970s. Things haven't gotten much better since. It has one of the highest crime rates in the city, though the sheer size of the neighborhood is probably skewing the figures. It is also home to the only Wal-Mart to ever be opened within Chicago city limits.
 * Near West Side - Can refer to the collection of west side neighborhoods nearest the loop as a whole, but more commonly known for the area between the West Loop, University Village, and Medical Village that includes the United Center, home of the Blackhawks and Bulls. Former location of the Chicago Stadium which is regarded as the loudest sports venue in history, most notably during the Crowning Moment of both Awesome and Heartwarming that was the 1991 NHL All-Star game.

Northwest Side
Northwest Side - a largely working class area that is often grouped with either North Side or West Side (or both). For much of the 20th century, its population was largely Polish with significant Jewish, German and Italian components, but these days, it is mostly known for some fairly aggressive gentrification attempts. During the height of the most recent real estate speculation, virtually every neighborhood was seen as the next Wicker Park and everybody was looking to jump on the bandwagon. While some neighborhoods would up living up to the hype, most didn't - at least not yet.


 * Wicker Park - originally a middle-class neighborhood settled by Germans and later Poles, it became a Puerto Rican working class neighborhood by 1970s. When the fire swept through River North in 1991, many artists wound up moving to Wicker Park and, before you knew it, it became a magnet for emerging artists. These days, it is thoroughly gentrified, overwhelmingly hip and yet surprisingly diverse - it's just that most of the new residents have middle-class income.
 * Bucktown - Wicker Park's historically working class sister neighborhood. When Wicker Park's popularity took off, many artists went to Bucktown, only to find that gentrification followed in their footsteps. It isn't quite as thoroughly gentrified as Wicker Park, but depending on which way the economy goes, this may or may not be true in a few years.
 * Ukrainian Village - one of the longer-lasting, most stable ethnic communities in Chicago, this neighborhood has lots of beautiful churches and decent Ukrainian stores. The eastern section has become an entity in its own right as the significantly more gentrified East Village.
 * Logan Square - a working class, largely Puerto Rican and Mexican neighborhood, it has reasonable rents, a decent shopping district and surprisingly high crime rates (at least compared to other areas). Also plays home to Bucket O' Blood Books And Records, a book/record store owned by Marc Ruvulo, the owner of legendary local punk label Johann's Face.
 * Albany Park - another significant immigrant enclave, this neighborhood plays hosts to over eighty ethnic groups. Most of the local businesses are either Mexican or Korean, which leads people to assume that they make up the majority (they don't).
 * Ravenswood - a working class neighborhood that owes its existence to Ravenswood branch of what is now the Brown 'L' line. Has lots of apartment buildings and quite a few pockets of gentrification.

Far Northwest Side
Far Northwest Side - usually conflated with either North Side or Northwest Side, this area is a mix of working-class and upper-class communities, many of which are indistinguishable from the suburbs. The population of the wealthy communities are largely well-paid white city workers who have to live in Chicago as part of their contracts, but would prefer to live in the suburbs. Notable neighborhoods include:


 * Jefferson Park - a working-class neighborhood largely inhabited by Poles and Mexicans. Buses, commuter trains and an 'L' line converge near the middle, so the neighborhood gets lots of through traffic.
 * Also home to a large number of Police and Firefighter households.
 * Sauganash - a neighborhood that's pretty much a suburb in everything but designation, it is home to most of the city workers mentioned above.
 * Norwood Park - a former resort, this middle-to-upper class community is best known for being only Chicago neighborhood to favor Republicans in most elections.
 * O'Hare - a blanket term for a community created when Chicago annexed a bunch of land in order to consolidate its claim over the recently built O'Hare Airport. Because the land was purchased by lots, its borders are very confusing. It is mostly made up of office towers, hotels and some 50s era working and middle class housing.

Chicago's most famous mayor was Richard J. Daley, who spent 21 years in the job before dying. Known (among other things) as "The Man On Five" after the floor his office was on. The last of the big "bosses" in U.S. politics, he was allegedly responsible for John F. Kennedy's suspicious Illinois electoral victory in 1960 and built one of the most theatrically corrupt political machines in American history. This machine still exists, though it's more bipartisan and less powerful than it used to be. He was quite good at his job, though prone to George W. Bush-style mis-speaking and dogged by controversies like the violence surrounding the 1968 Democratic Convention. His son is Richard M. Daley, who remained in office for 22 years, surpassing his father in length of tenure and arguably having the same if not a greater amount of clout. In 2010, he decided he'd rather not follow in Dad's footsteps and try to die on the job, so he stepped down after his sixth term--leaving the reins to former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel took office on May 16, 2011; consensus is that while Daley is a Tough Act to Follow, if anyone could do it, it would be "Rahmbo."

Harpo Studios is home of The Oprah Winfrey Show and conspicuous as one of the only local production firms; history and economics left Chicago stranded between the film companies on the West Coast and the television studios on the East Coast. As a consequence, Chicago has been relatively unexposed in American fiction, especially when compared to the omnipresence of New York City and Los Angeles. What little got under the wire tended to be gritty crime dramas that were shot in Toronto. This was mitigated somewhat by the loyalty of Chicago-trained talents (like John Hughes, David Mamet, and legions of Second City improv troupe alumni), who often come back after hitting the big time to make affectionate, gangster-free movies. Lately, a weakening dollar and tax breaks have lured more and more films to the area, leading to an increase in cultural prominence that coincides with the rise of adopted Chicagoan Barack Obama.

Music and radio, on the other hand, have flourished in Chicago. Chicago, thanks to its location on the main route between the Mississippi and the East Coast, and the fact that it was a major destination for Southern blacks migrating north in search of better lives, was was the first city outside of the South to really get hit by the waves of jazz and blues, developing unique styles of both. Various rock and pop bands also hit early, and as for hip-hop...well...let's just say that Kanye is from Chicago (although he was born in Atlanta), and leave you to judge for yourself. On the radio front, Chicago is home to the notable WBEZ-Chicago, which produces both This American Life and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. Another Chicago station, WLUP ("The Loop", a rock station) was responsible (in part) for the original Disco Demolition Night, which had a lasting effect.

Sports in Chicago are very passionate subjects, although their fans tend to have a well-deserved reputation for idealizing the sports instead of looking at them objectively. With the Stanley Cup in 2010, Chicago became the first city to win all four major professional sports championship in a 25 year span. However it's record was broken a year later by Boston by the Bruin's Cup win which brought the span down to 7 years.

Because the city has loads and loads of teams, both at the major and semi-major level we'll put them in their own folder.

Chicago Sports Teams

 * The Bulls led by Michael Jordan in The Nineties are considered one of, if not the greatest sporting dynasty of all time. After a few years ranging from OK to bad they have resurged on the heels of area native Derrick Rose.
 * The Bears have remained popular, and it's hard to find anyone who doesn't remember Walter Payton or the team's victory in Super Bowl XX. Unfortunately, this has a habit of creating a fanbase that doesn't really understand that winning a Super Bowl in 1985 doesn't lay out a blueprint for victory today. Currently lead by the second-winningest Coach in Bears history: Lovie Smith (a controversial Coach for some fans, because he's The Stoic and not Mike Ditka), under whose rule the team appeared in Super Bowl XLI (a loss to the Indianapolis Colts) and the 2010-11 NFC Championship Game (a loss to the Green Bay Packers).
 * Baseball loyalties are split between the Cubs on the North Side and White Sox on the South Side. Both teams suffered from legendarily long titles droughts until the Sox won the World Series in 2005, while the Cubs have continued past the 100 year marker with nothing. Each has periods of up and downs, however the last few years, neither has been one to write home about. That said, the Fandom Rivalry tends to spark interest regardless of how they are actually playing.
 * Last, but not least is the Blackhawks. Like the sport itself, the Hawks have classically played last fiddle to the more popular sports and their teams. The Hawks entered a severe Dork Age in the late 90s, mostly because of a penny-pinching owner, who is most well known for not letting Blackhawks games air locally. However, the passing of said owner (now in the hands of his son), along with management changes and hot draft picks, allowed them to win the Stanley Cup victory in 2010. With success comes popularity, however, and many die-hard fans began to be grumble about those new, young, ethnically diverse people who have the nerve to claim to be fans of equal value as they are, and how said interest in the Hawks has increased ticket prices. With a lack of success since then, it remains to be determined if the Hawks are on the verge of a new era for the team, or a return to the last-fiddle role.

Outside of the big five teams, the city and surrounding suburbs are also home to numerous other pro sports clubs that have ammassed solid, consistant followings.


 * The MLS Fire won a championship in their first season and have maintained popularity throughout ups and downs over the years. Their stadium, Toyota Park in suburban Bridgeview is one of the first major soccer specific stadiums built in the US.


 * Allstate Arena (formerly Rosemont Horizon ) may as well be considered the world's greatest semi-pro arena. It was built for a planned World Hockey Association expansion that fell through due to the merger into the NHL, but eventually became home to the Wolves of the WHA's Spiritual Successor, the IHL, and has since also become the home of the WNBA's Sky and Arena Football League's Rush.
 * The Wolves won two championships in their first 6 seasons which led to a large fan following as their success coincided with the Hawks' Dork Age. After the IHL folded,the team joined the AHL, the top level of the NHL farm system where they won two more championships remaining unaffiliated. Eventually they became affiliates of the Atlanta Thrashers which led to a slow decline in popularity that continued with the resurgance of the Hawks. Plenty of fans are still there, but it's hard to fill a stadium 3 times the size of the average for the AHL, especially with a thriving NHL team in town. In 2011, with the Thrashers being bought and moved to Winnipeg, the Wolves have now found themselves in the decidely awkward position of being affiliated with the Hawks' Arch Enemy, the Vancouver Canucks leaving many fans conflicted (and just as many hoping to see Roberto Luongo put on waivers).
 * The Sky haven't done much in terms of winning but are still as popular as you would expect any other WNBA team to be, and notably were founded without the affiliation of an NBA team.
 * The Rush have become somewhat of an Ensemble Darkhorse from being consistantly good and being co-owned by legendary Bears coach Mike Ditka.
 * Rounding out the list of semi-major teams in Chicago is the women's pro softball Bandits who won their first championship in 2011.

If you haven't figured it out by now Chicago really loves its sports. The fact that it can support at one (if not two) teams in each of the big four (five if you count MLS) leagues, but also have teams in as many secondary leagues that still amass solid fanbases and financial stability is a testament to the city's love with any and all things sporting related.

Chicago is notable also for its street numbering system and for having its own flag. The four stars depict four major events in the city's history.

See also Gangsterland, for the most enduring Chicago trope, and Down on the Farm, for the region surrounding the city. . It is worth noting however, that as the years go on, the area directly north of Chicago is a lot closer to Suburbia and Strip Malls than Down on the Farm, as the metropolitan areas of Milwaukee and Chicago continue to grow, causing bordering communities to continue to grow as well. In any other direction however, this is true - with only smaller cities such as Elgin (to the west) and Rockford (to the northwest) breaking up a huge quantity of Down on the Farm interspersed with Everytown, America.

Chicago in fiction: "Fro'tak: I am Fro'tak of the High Cliffs. O'Neill: Jack, of The Windy City."
 * About Last Night
 * According to Jim
 * Against the Wall - set in Chicago, filmed in Toronto.
 * Above the Law
 * Adventures in Babysitting
 * American Beauty -- but this is only noticeable by looking at the area codes seen for various phone numbers in the film (847, which is the Northern Suburbs, and 312, which is Chicago's most well-known area code)
 * Anything But Love
 * Baccano
 * Backdraft
 * Barbershop
 * The Beast (actually filmed in Chicago)
 * Biker Mice From Mars
 * The Blues Brothers -- wouldn't have worked in any other city.
 * The Bob Newhart Show
 * The Break Up
 * The Breakfast Club
 * Bullitt -- while the main part of the film is set in San Francisco, the opening credits scene takes place in Chicago. The very first thing we see in the film is a shot of the now-demolished Sun-Times Building.
 * Chicago - Well, howdy-doody.
 * The Chicago Code
 * Chicago Hope - Howdy-doody again.
 * Dueling Shows with ER, since both focused on Chicago hospitals and debuted the same fall.
 * The Chicago Story - Need I say it?
 * A CSI New York story is partly set in Chicago, particularly the Tribune Tower. The Tower has bits of other famous world buildings in the walls.
 * Code Of Silence
 * The Color of Money
 * The Dark Knight and Batman Begins
 * Chris Nolan hardly bothers to disguise Chicago as Gotham City in his Batman films. His Caped Crusader broods on the Sears Tower, races through the underground tunnels of Lower Wacker Drive, and fights it out with the Joker on a famous stretch of Lasalle Street. However, the flying-overhead view used in Batman Begins is the canon layout of Gotham.
 * The Dilemma
 * The Dresden Files
 * Due South
 * Eagle Eye
 * Early Edition
 * El Goonish Shive's Moperville is based on Naperville, IL in the outer suburbs.
 * ER - Many token outdoor shots and anything involving the "L" were indeed filmed in Chicago. But if you watch carefully, there are numerous scenes of people walking outside, bundled up against the harsh Chicago winter -- but you can't see their breath.
 * Exo Squad (renamed Phaeton City during the Neo Sapien occupation)
 * Family Matters
 * Ferris Buellers Day Off
 * The Forgotten
 * Friends With Benefits - the NBC TV show, not the movie. Set in Chicago, filmed in New York City
 * The Fugitive (1993 film and 2000 TV series)
 * The Fury.
 * Glengarry Glen Ross
 * Good Times
 * The Good Wife
 * Gunsmith Cats
 * Hardball
 * High Fidelity
 * Hill Street Blues (While the city is technically unnamed on the show, the opening credits utilize Chicago locations.)
 * Home Alone (mostly set in Winnetka, a wealthy Chicago suburb)
 * Honor Harrington (the capital city of the Solarian League)
 * I, Robot (The film version)
 * Johnny Dynamite battled the underworld in Chicago.
 * The Jungle
 * Kenan and Kel
 * The League
 * Unsurprisingly, The Loop.
 * Married... with Children
 * Max Keeble's Big Move (kind of, the setting itself is actually in either California or Washington state, but a large portion of the plot involves the possibility of moving to Chicago, which was also mistaken for Detroit by Robe (The Motor City), although Max does identify it by the correct nickname of the Windy City in the movie.)
 * The Matrix
 * To an extent. The Brothers Wachowski, Chicagoans, named most of the Mega City's streets after actual Chicago roads; however, it was filmed in Sydney.
 * Midtown Madness - a racing game set in a re-creation of the city.
 * Mike and Molly
 * Multiplex - Word of God has that it's set in "Skokiston" (a mix of Evanston and Skokie, two northern Chicago suburbs).
 * Skokiston? What? I've only ever heard "Skevanston."
 * My Big Fat Greek Wedding
 * National Lampoon's Vacation series- The Griswalds live in Chicago.
 * The Negotiator
 * Pal Joey, though the film version relocated it to San Francisco.
 * Paradigm Shift
 * Perfect Strangers
 * Planes, Trains and Automobiles - The whole film is about Steve Martin's character trying to get home to Chicago for Thanksgiving.
 * Public Enemies
 * Punky Brewster
 * The Rebel Set- A 1959 movie about an armored car robbery planned during a four hour train stop in Chicago. As seen on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
 * Red Heat
 * Return To Me
 * Road to Perdition
 * Risky Business- featuring a sex scene on an L train!
 * Running Scared(1986) starring Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines- featuring a car chase on an L train track!
 * Rookie of the Year
 * The Savage Dragon
 * Shake It Up
 * Shameless - the American version, anyway.
 * Shadowrun turned Chicago into an insect-spirit-infested wasteland in Bug City.
 * Siskel & Ebert - The opening credits showed the two movie critics from rival Chicago newspapers individually walking through the streets of their home town and meeting in front of a movie theater.
 * Stargate SG-1 - Jack O'Neill is from Chicago, referenced in this exchange with an alien (sorta)


 * Of course, O'Neill is also from Minnesota; he seems to have grown up there (hence the accent).
 * Still Standing
 * Stranger Than Fiction
 * The Steve Harvey Show
 * The Sting
 * That Guy With The Glasses - Doug and the site's senior staff all live in suburban Chicagoland (mostly in Naperville)
 * The Time Traveler's Wife
 * Tintin in America
 * Transformers: Dark of the Moon
 * The short-lived Olsen twins vehicle Two of a Kind, which even included an episode where, in a Shout-Out to Bueller, the father takes in a game at Wrigley Field.
 * Uncle Buck
 * The Untouchables
 * The Vampire Files
 * Wanted the movie, anyway
 * Wayne's World was set and partially filmed in Aurora, a Chicagoland suburb.
 * Webster
 * What Women Want
 * Whitney
 * Wild Cats
 * The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles- As mentioned in Raiders of the Lost Ark Indy goes to college at the University of Chicago. In the episode "Mystery Of The Blues" set in 1920, Young Indy is a college student working as a waiter at a jazz club and his roommate is Elliot Ness.