Chicago

Hog Butcher for the World,

Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,

Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;

Stormy, husky, brawling,

City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.

And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.

And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.

And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:

Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.

Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;

Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness,

Bareheaded,

Shoveling,

Wrecking,

Planning,

Building, breaking, rebuilding,

Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,

Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs,

Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,

Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people,

Laughing!

Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

-- by Carl Sandburg

Chicago is my favorite city in the United States.

Why? Well, it has almost all the merits of New York City, like skyline, spectacular architectures, walkability, world-class museums and libraries, restaurants, year-round exciting activities, public parks, interesting culture and history, diverse neighborhoods... What is better in Chicago, clean streets, cycling-friendly, beautiful beaches and Lake Michigan, blues music, and more importantly, people are way more friendly than New Yorkers! Chicago has a unique soul.

Chicago is the one for me. I remember the first time I stepped into the city—it was the end of December, when everyone was trying to escape the cold. The streets were wide, the air crisp and biting, and the light reflected off the buildings just so. In that moment, I knew, without question, that this was a place I would one day miss terribly.

When you’re in love, you imbue everything about the beloved with meaning, from the simple to the grandiose: going to a comedy show and the pond in Lincoln Park, walking around Millennium Park and Navy Pier, going to museums and architecture tours. What I remember most is walking by the river and seeing the brilliance of the buildings in the sun. 

Chicago has changed in the last hundred years — it’s a city made by movement and migration — but the character of the city is eerily the same. Unlike New York, which allows people to remain themselves, brash and never-changing, Chicago takes you in and subtly, slyly, turns you into a Midwesterner. You still speak Spanish or Polish or Hindi at home, you’re still proud of your traditions — You dye the river green! You build a two-story outdoor mall filled with tea shops! — but parallel to all this, the city has taken your heart, and suddenly, all the world outside seems less like home. 

Chicago is the greatest American city. Chicago is what non-Americans imagine New York to be. 

"Hog Butcher for the World,

Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,

Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler;

Stormy, husky, brawling,

City of the Big Shoulders."

Yet the city never changes: It’s ignorant that it was born of fire, ignorant of the battles it has lost. Some days I wonder whether in another life, I am still biking along the lakefront, in awe of the ever-changing color of the water.