Chicago, Illinois

Chicago, Illinois, is the third-largest city in the United States and is an important commercial, industrial, and transportation center. Its central location and access to different markets have helped the city grow and prosper throughout its history.

Landscape

Chicago is located in northeastern Illinois along the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, 90 miles south of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The terrain is generally flat and featureless, due to glacial movement during the Ice Age. Two rivers, the Chicago and Calumet, run through the city. Chicago measures 237 square miles in area.

Chicago's climate varies, with warm-to-hot summers and very cold winters. The average high temperature during July is 84 degrees Fahrenheit, but the temperature can reach 100 degrees or more, with uncomfortably high humidity. The average low temperature during January is 13 degrees Fahrenheit, but the wind chill in Chicago is legendary (its nickname is the Windy City), making the weather feel much colder. The city saw its coldest temeratures in decades in January 2019, when a polar vortex brought temperatures of -21 degrees Fahrenheit, with a wind chill of -51 F. Annual snowfall averages about 28 inches. Temperatures during the spring and autumn are cool and somewhat unpredictable, with unseasonable highs and lows common.

People

Throughout the city's history, Chicago has been settled by different ethnic groups—including Irish, Germans, Swedes, and Poles—all of whom maintained close community ties in their adopted home. When other groups of immigrants followed, the same patterns in community settlement occurred—each group stayed together, and outsiders were not welcome in the various ethnic neighborhoods. This territorial attitude would cause the city a great deal of strife throughout the twentieth century.

The Chicago River divides the city into three major sections: the North Side, the South Side, and the West Side, with seventy-seven community areas with more than one hundred distinct neighborhoods throughout. The city is surrounded by an extensive network of suburbs, which make the Chicago metropolitan area one of the largest in the United States. Some of the suburbs are Skokie, which is predominantly Jewish; Cicero, where notorious gangster Al Capone set up his headquarters during Prohibition; and Joliet, once a center for heavy industry.

The composition of Chicago's neighborhoods changed significantly during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, as larger numbers of Hispanic and Asian immigrants have moved into the city. In 2022, the city's population was estimated to be more than 2.6 million. According to US Census Bureau estimates, the city's population is about 32.7 percent non-Hispanic white, 28.8 percent Black or African American, and 7 percent Asian, with people of Hispanic or Latino descent making up 29 percent of residents.

Economy

Economic diversity is one of Chicago's strengths. Commerce, transportation, manufacturing, technology, and service-related businesses all contribute to the city's economy. Chicago was home to many large manufacturers, producing steel, aerospace electronics, medical equipment, scientific equipment, chemicals, agricultural machinery, and railroad equipment, among other products.

Large corporations, particularly those in the meatpacking industry, provided Chicago with a wealth of blue-collar jobs. The arrival of steel mills and other heavy industry helped the city prosper. The city's economy changed during the latter part of the twentieth century, leading to declining employment in the manufacturing sector. The city's largest employers in modern times are in real estate, retail and service industries, health care, and the financial services sector.

Chicago's transportation network has been crucial to the city from its foundation. Beginning with the canals, then railroads, highways, and airports, Chicago has always been a transportation hub for the Midwest. Rail transport remains an important part of the city's infrastructure.

Chicago is one of the leading cities for commodity markets and commercial trade shows in the United States. The Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange are among the world's largest commodity markets, helping set the prices for interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange, and commodities each day.

Landmarks

Chicago boasts many attractions that draw visitors from around the country and the world. More than 30 million tourists come to Chicago each year, for business, vacation, and sightseeing.

Located on Lake Michigan, the Navy Pier has been a Chicago landmark since it first opened in 1916. Originally designed as a facility for both shipping and recreation, the pier also served as a military training site during both world wars and as a venue for concerts and exhibitions. Many restaurants, shops, amusement park rides, and lake cruise ships are found along the pier, as well as attractions such as the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows.

Six hundred parks may be found throughout Chicago. Notable among them are Grant Park in the downtown area, Lincoln Park on the North Side, and Jackson and Burnham parks on the South Side, along the lakefront. Grant Park is one of the premier locations in the city for festivals and concerts. The city also includes more than three hundred sports fields, five hundred playgrounds, and seventy nature and bird sanctuaries.

Music and food events are popular in Chicago throughout the year. The city hosts forty annual film festivals. The Taste of Chicago festival draws millions of people to the city each year. This favorite Chicago tradition offers cuisine from numerous local restaurants as well as entertainment and activities for all ages. Two of the city's largest music festivals are the Chicago Country Music Festival and the Chicago Jazz Festival. Grant Park is the permanent home of the alternative music festival Lollapalooza.

Chicagoans also love parades; it hosts thirty-six annual parades. The famous annual St. Patrick's Day parade, sponsored by the Irish community, was once used as a way to demonstrate political power in Chicago. Other annual parades include the Columbus Day parade, a Bangladesh Day parade in April, and a Mexican Independence Day parade in September.

There are many museums and performing arts halls throughout Chicago and the city is home to two hundred professional dance companies. The Art Institute of Chicago boasts of a collection spanning forty centuries, featuring ancient Chinese bronzes, classic paintings by Rembrandt, and more contemporary artistic efforts. Chicago is also home to the National Museum of Mexican Art, one of the largest Latino cultural institutions in the United States. The Chicago Opera Theater is home to award-winning productions of early and modern opera, and the world-famous Chicago Symphony Orchestra maintains a full schedule of concerts each year.

History

The site of present-day Chicago was explored by the French in 1673, but the first permanent settlement was established by Jean Baptiste Point du Sable near the mouth of the Chicago River. The settlement was small, and it was nearly wiped out during the War of 1812.

In 1837, Chicago was incorporated as a city with approximately four thousand residents. Because of the city's central location, the residents of early Chicago worked to improve the harbor and attract railroads.

Immigrants began arriving as soon as railroad service came to Chicago in 1848. Eventually, Chicago became the largest railroad center in the world. Irish, Germans, and Swedes were among the first wave of a flood of immigrants to be attracted to Chicago.

The first national political convention held in the city took place in 1860, when the Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln for president. During the Civil War that followed Lincoln's election, Chicago became a Union stronghold and supported the war effort with many soldiers and supplies. The construction of stockyards in 1865 led to the establishment of the meatpacking industry in Chicago, a business that became a vital part of the city's economy.

Chicago continued to grow rapidly due to the increase in rail traffic, shipping, and new businesses. New economic opportunities attracted new waves of immigrants, and the city's population swelled to approximately 250,000 by 1870.

Disaster struck Chicago on October 8, 1871, when a fire broke out near the O'Leary barn. However the Great Chicago Fire started (according to legend, a cow knocked over a lantern), the blaze quickly grew out of control. The fire spread in different directions across the city, and the fire department was helpless. By the time the fire was finally extinguished, thanks to a rainstorm, nearly one-third of the city had been destroyed. More than 300 people were killed, 18,000 buildings were burned down, and 100,000 Chicagoans lost their homes and businesses.

The African American population of Chicago had been relatively small until the early twentieth century, when Black Chicagoans began to encourage Southern African Americans to move to the North. Between 1915 and 1960, hundreds of thousands of African Americans came to Chicago from the South as part of the Great Migration. The new arrivals were welcomed at first but soon clashed with the city's other ethnic enclaves. Riots broke out on occasion, sparked by racism and hatred; one particularly bad riot took place in 1919, leading to the loss of many lives.

While jobs in the factories, steel mills, and stockyards paid much better wages than the agricultural jobs of the South, Chicago was not the paradise that many African Americans had envisioned. Segregation was almost as bad there as it was in the South, and most African Americans were confined to a narrow "Black Belt" of overcrowded apartment buildings on the South Side. For years after their arrival in Chicago, those controlling the real estate market purposely made it nearly impossible for Black residents to leave their segregated neighborhoods.

The criminal element in Chicago flourished during the Prohibition era of the 1920s and 30s, when alcohol was illegal in the United States. Gangsters realized tremendous profits by operating nightclubs, importing alcohol, and conducting other illegal activities. In Chicago, Al Capone rose to the top of the mob and became a popular figure in the city. He was finally arrested on tax evasion charges, but the criminal organization continued to operate in Chicago and influenced labor unions and politicians for many years.

The city's population reached its peak of 3.6 million in 1950. Chicago subsequently underwent a steady decline in population despite the inflow of new immigrants and the continued migration from the South, due in part to the growth of the suburban areas around Chicago.

Chicago politics and city government became corrupt during the 1920s, and a system of single-party rule, supported by government job patronage and fraudulent voting practices, allowed the Democrats to maintain control over the city's most important offices. Richard J. Daley rose through the ranks of "The Machine," as the political structure was called, and became mayor of Chicago in 1955. He ruled the city as a potentate for the next twenty years, surviving countless scandals and gross abuses of power that were rarely challenged by the city's residents.

Daley was the chief political powerbroker and dealmaker in Chicago, and his power extended into the rest of Illinois as well. Daley's political organization manufactured votes whenever needed, and Daley and his cronies usually won elections with ease. He created effective political alliances by awarding lucrative city construction contracts to the labor unions. His cult of personality was such that some of his lackeys would launch into nauseating praise of Daley at city meetings, proclaiming him the "greatest mayor in the history of the world."

In spite of the public works that Daley supported, including O'Hare Airport and many highways and downtown buildings, he did little to improve the deteriorating ghettos on the South and West Sides. Police brutality, in addition to the community's reaction to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., ignited a violent response in 1968. As riots spread across the city, Daley ordered the police to kill anyone caught committing arson. The shocking order outraged many but was also supported by many pro-Daley Chicagoans.

Daley continued his rule over the city despite, or perhaps because of, his heavy-handed use of force. He unleashed his police against Vietnam War protestors, and when the Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago in 1968, Daley turned the police loose to administer beatings to activists and protestors. Daley was reelected to a sixth term as mayor in 1975, but he died in office the following year.

The next mayor was Jane Byrne, the first woman elected mayor of Chicago. She was unseated by Harold Washington, the city's first African American mayor, who died in office in 1987. Richard M. Daley, son of Richard J. Daley, was elected mayor in 1989 and remained in the post until 2010. Like his father, he encouraged the development of the city through construction and public works programs. Rahm Emanuel was elected mayor in 2011, becoming the first Jewish mayor of Chicago. Lori Lightfoot was elected to succeed Emanuel in 2019, making Chicago the largest US city to have a female mayor; she is also the first Black woman to hold that office.

Bibliography

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