Culture kings ... Marilyn immortalised in Chicago.Credit: Reuters
Comparisons with New York are inevitable, but Lance Richardson revels in Chicago's energy and singular character.
The story goes like this: it was Catherine O'Leary's cow that did it, kicking a kerosene lantern in the barn and burning down Chicago. The year was 1871 and much of the city was made from wood. By the time firefighters brought the blaze under control, more than 18,000 buildings were destroyed, about 300 people were dead and one-third of the population was homeless. O'Leary proclaimed the cow's innocence for years but she died shamed by people's lingering accusations.
Since then, the woman and her cow have been thoroughly exonerated, though the true culprit behind the Great Chicago Fire remains a mystery. But one thing is certain: the disaster wiped the slate clean, setting the scene for construction of a "second city".
The nickname has accrued an additional meaning, however. Despite having the world's first high-rise building and a cherished skyline - impossible without the razed real estate left behind by the fire - a 1952 New Yorker article by A. J. Liebling dismissed Chicago as "a theatre backdrop with a city painted on it". By naming his profile "Second City", Liebling suggested, in no uncertain terms, that New York was the better metropolis. The uproar was immediate but was he right? Or, taking into account more than 50 years of development and growth, how do comparisons between New York and Chicago fare today?
Using this question as a launching point, I fly from the east coast to Chicago to see for myself. When I leave the city, four days later, it's with one overriding impression. New York has the Statue of Liberty. Chicago has, until July or so, an enormous aluminium sculpture of Marilyn Monroe trying to hold down her white dress. As Saul Bellow said: "Chicago does not restore; it makes something wildly different."
The first suggestion of difference flows from the enormous blue expanse of Lake Michigan, virtually an inland sea. In New York, Manhattanites have built an insulating highway between the rivers and their high-rises; attention is focused inward, with recreation centred on the parks. Chicago, by comparison, presses up against the shore, buildings competing for the best view of a lake decorated with white yachts in summer and ice floes in February. From the heights of the John Hancock Observatory, just off the city's "Magnificent Mile", I see the small sickle of Oak Street Beach, covered with the umbrellas of residents enjoying the respite from infamous winter blizzards.
Since the city rejuvenated its waterfront in the past decade, installing bike paths and manicured parks to accompany the famous Navy Pier, it's easy to forget this is the American midwest, more than 1200 kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean. As the proximity to beaches influences the ambience of a city such as Sydney, so Chicago assumes the unexpected attitude of an oceanfront town. The city even legalised surfing in 2009 (it was previously outlawed for safety reasons), though an underwhelming response to surf packages at the Hotel Palomar suggests this was more wishful thinking than anything else.
Nevertheless, the domino effect of such an attitude is apparent everywhere. New York has Radio City and the Lincoln Centre but, in Chicago, Frank Gehry's Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park takes the spectacle outside, with its sinuous bandshell facing a field of grass packed nightly in summer with rapt audiences who have come to see jazz and orchestras play under the stars. Art receives a similar treatment: everything from Picasso's sculpture in Daley Centre Plaza to Anish Kapoor's famous stainless-steel "bean" can be found somewhere outdoors, enjoying the weather year-round.
Chicago has steadily accrued a reputation as a centre for art; given its embrace of summer, it's not surprising the two have been brought together with considerable avidity. That is not to say things shut down in winter, however, despite a chill so unyielding many residents retreat to underground tunnels in order to minimise exposure.
When it comes to indoor attractions, Chicago has the country's second largest art repository, the Art Institute of Chicago. New York's Metropolitan Museum is bigger but with works including American Gothic and the lonely diners in Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, it's difficult to underestimate the significance of Chicago's collection. While I find the hours evaporate as I wander through the reconstructed trading room of Chicago's stock exchange, or stand dazzled before Marc Chagall's stained-glass America Windows, the museum has a one-hour digest guide for those with a finite attention span. I'd add to this a stroll through the dramatic modern wing, opened in 2009. "What is art?" is a postmodernist question. These halls are filled with intriguing responses, including a film in which Ana Mendieta writes "there is a devil inside me" on the wall in blood.
Of course, a city shows its true colours after dark. Like their compatriots in the city that never sleeps, Chicagoans know how to have a good time. Along with a thriving fine-dining scene is a firm commitment to dive bars and grungy jazz hangouts, meaning every social proclivity is well-catered for here. This was the location of the world's first Playboy Club, after all, opened by Hugh Hefner in 1960 (the Chicago History Museum displays an original "bunny suit").
At the other end of respectability, Chicago has a range of well-regarded theatre venues where the focus, unlike Broadway, is quality over spectacle. At least, that's the case at Steppenwolf theatre, which features a troupe of performers and writers who count a Pulitzer Prize winner among their ranks. The modesty of Steppenwolf is characteristically midwestern, yet you'll struggle to find a more consistently brilliant output anywhere in the country.
The same goes for The Second City, an improvisational comedy company and go-to source for actors on New York's Saturday Night Live. A night at this institution involves everything from the confronting use of a burrito to God trying his hand at the pokies. Always irreverent, performances nevertheless touch on important issues in Chicago, including that ever-present spectre of race.
As with New York, Chicago was a destination for African-Americans from the south during the "Great Migration" of the early 20th century. Just as most of these migrants to New York settled around Harlem and the Bronx, Chicago has its enclave of South Side. This was where the sound of jazz and blues, a daring blend of syncopated rhythms and improvisation, was first heard in the northern states. As the music forms have spread across the world, so they've infused greater Chicago, becoming important notes in the tenor of its overall character. If you want to understand Chicago, I quickly realise, this is where you finish up.
The club called Blue Chicago is on the Near North Side, though its decor is a disorienting mix of Aretha Franklin portraits and poorly lit whisky bottles. A man in a white cowboy hat strums his electric guitar; a large black woman leans into the microphone. "Mmmmm," she croons. "Come on, give me more. I want some more." Then, as the crowd gets up to dance, she sings: "It's Friday night. Everyone got pain."
Spend a few days in Chicago and comparisons with New York seem irrelevant. It's not what you've got, after all, it's what you do with it.
Lance Richardson travelled courtesy of Chicago Tourism.
FAST FACTS
Getting there
Qantas has a fare to Chicago from Sydney and Melbourne for about $1450, low-season return, including tax. Fly Qantas to Los Angeles (about 14hr), then American Airlines to Chicago (4hr). Australians must apply for travel authorisation before departure at https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov.
Staying there
Near the John Hancock Centre, the Ritz-Carlton has spacious and luxurious rooms. For terrific views, request a suite facing Lake Michigan. Rooms from $US350 ($339); see fourseasons.com/chicagorc.
Often ranked as one of the best hotels in the US, the Elysian has rooms with Carrara marble bathrooms and a two-Michelin-star restaurant, Ria. Rooms from $US445; see elysianhotels.com.
Things to do
A good introduction to the rise of "second city" and its geography is an architecture cruise. Phone +1 312 222 9328, see shorelinesightseeing.com.
For a calendar of summer events in Millennium Park, including the Jay Pritzker Pavilion; see millenniumpark.org.
Steppenwolf theatre has a full annual program and travelling productions. See steppenwolf.org.
The Second City stages nightly comedy, runs courses in improvisation and a city walking tour in the summer. Phone +1 312 337 3992, see secondcity.com.
Chicago History Museum is an excellent museum on the edge of Lincoln Park, focused on the turbulent history of the midwest capital. Entry $14, including an audio tour. See chicagohistory.org.
More information
See explorechicago.org.
Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter
Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.