From aging industrial capital to model of livability and environmental stewardship, Chicago is becoming our kind of town.

Phil Ponce, local TV news anchor, peers at the amazing array of sausages dangling from overhead racks in Gene’s Deli in north Chicago’s Lincoln Square. “Chicago’s not the city of big shoulders,” he jokes, referring to poet Carl Sandburg’s early-20th-century characterization of what was then America’s industrial capital, “but rather the city of pig shoulders.” (And that refers not just to actual pork, he later explains, but also to the long line of Chicago politicians convicted of taking bribes.)

It’s Sunday afternoon, and the sidewalks are jammed in this longtime enclave of sausage-loving Germans and Eastern Europeans. Recent years have seen a growing ethnic diversity among residents, as well as an influx of shops and galleries. Yet, a steel archway labeled “Lincoln Square” lets the world know that pride in the neighborhood—pig shoulders and all—is stronger than ever.

“A few years ago people here decided they didn’t want big developments,” Ponce says, explaining that condos were prevented from taking over the local movie theater, though locals welcomed new residents moving into renovated apartments. “There are more than 50 neighborhoods in Chicago just as distinct and as cherished as this one,” he adds, vital components in the overall good vibe of this historic Midwestern metropolis.

Chicago is a big city—approaching three million in population—but has been called the Second City since the 1950s, when a New Yorker article by the late A. J. Liebling asserted that Chicago could never measure up to New York, period. By then, Chicago had already given the world the car radio, large-scale mail-order sales, and a futures and options exchange (where contracts for pork bellies, for example, are still bought and sold). This past decade, Chicago’s livability and environmental stewardship have earned it a more modern street cred. Nonetheless, last year the city lost an important popularity contest, being passed over as the site for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

I’ve come to see for myself what the Olympic committee missed. Plenty, I’m discovering. For starters, the sun does shine here, despite frequent cloud cover that forms over adjacent Lake Michigan. The city’s public transportation functions, its parks are almost as ubiquitous as those sausages, and the architecture is breathtaking—literally, if you ascend America’s tallest building, the Willis Tower, and stand on a platform of Plexiglass looking down 103 stories.

What’s more, the museums are fabulous, the arts scene—symphony, opera, Art Institute, Museum of Contemporary Art—is rhapsodic, and the food…well, I’ll get to that. In short, there’s a lot here. As Ponce puts it: “We have the necessary critical mass for vibrancy.”

That includes major sports franchises—the White Sox, Bulls, Blackhawks, Cubs, and Bears—and a rowdy politics that Ponce calls “the real blood sport.” At the city’s political heart is Richard M. Daley, currently in his sixth term as mayor. Daley proclaimed Chicago the “city of the future” in both opportunity and quality of life. To him, the latter meant going green, and a decade ago he ordained that the roof of City Hall be transformed to reflect the city’s motto, Urbs in Horto (City in a Garden).

City Hall sits within the Loop, the historic downtown area encircled by the “L” (short for elevated train). But the famous rooftop garden, I discover, isn’t open to the public. The closest view I can find is from a nearby office building, whose windows are among the thousands around here that look down on what was the first green patch of its kind in the Midwest.

“Now there are four million square feet of rooftop gardens in Chicago alone,” says David Yocca, who designed City Hall’s, determining how much soil was needed and which native trees, shrubs, and grasses to plant. “The garden insulates the building and conserves energy,” he says, “making it cash positive.”

Mayor Daley also created the Chicago Center for Green Technology (CCGT), housed in America’s first rehabilitated municipal building to receive a LEED Platinum rating for its use of green technology. There’s even vegetable oil in the elevator’s hydraulic system.

Chicagoans go to the CCGT for advice on ecological building and landscaping. Lead architect Doug Farr shows me around, talking enthusiastically about “sustainable urbanism,” his dream that every part of the city be “walkable, served by public transportation, and have a high percentage of green buildings.”

Farr’s partner designed what was the first “net zero” home in the Midwest, producing as much energy as it uses. The four-bedroom house in the Ravenswood neighborhood has a butterfly roof, solar panels, and a lot of windows, recycled concrete, and sustainably forested wood. The $1.6 million structure serves as a testing ground for innovative architecture, right down to the specially vented kitty litter box equipped with an occupancy sensor.

Even Chicago’s restaurant scene is going sustainable. Farr sends me to Xoco, a mile north of the Loop, which he designed for Rick Bayless, a chef renowned for his Mexican dishes. Xoco is a bright, narrow space smelling wonderfully of chiles and slow-cooked meats. It’s packed with people waiting for sumptuous caldos and tortas baked in the wood-fired oven.

Bayless keeps electricity costs down by combining LED lighting with incandescent bulbs, achieving efficiency without losing the friendly glow. And the stove vents are designed to reduce heat loss, a revolutionary step. “People don’t get lectures on environmental ethics here,” Bayless is quick to add, “just good food.”

The chef, who owns two nearby restaurants as well, supports the “locavore” notion of sourcing his food from within a 500-mile radius, including buying veggies from Chicago’s own City Farm, started by social activist Ken Dunn in the impoverished Cabrini-Green neighborhood. Dunn invites me to visit, picking me up in his little red Honda. He wears a studded leather jacket and a goatee and proudly points out that “this was once among the poorest tracts in the nation.” Now it’s an intensely cultivated urban farm next to a housing development, a viable horto in urbs. “It will stay this way as long as we can sell hand-grown arugula, Brussels sprouts, and rainbow chard to upscale restaurants,” he says.

For contrast I check out a couple of Chicago’s old-line eateries not known for their ecological concern. The one favored by pols and sports stars, Gibson Steakhouse, is famed for its red meat and ten-ounce martinis. “Take your pick,” says the waitress, showing me a tray arranged with slabs of raw protein. I choose the “W.R. Chicago Cut,” an extra-thick rib eye with bone attached. It arrives charcoal broiled, some of the best beef I’ve ever tasted.

Along with the steak comes a twice-baked potato the size of a small football smothered with melted Wisconsin cheddar. I finish with a wedge of Texas pecan pie too large for the dish. “Don’t worry,” a woman sitting nearby says, “food hanging over the edges of plates is very Chicago.”

The Chicago food scene, I discover, is rife with traditional favorites having their own spin and fierce devotees: the Reuben egg roll from a local vendor in the Richard J. Daley Center; the strong, creamy cappuccino from Intelligentsia cafés; crispy fried Lake Erie perch at the airy Terzo Piano restaurant at the Art Institute; enchiladas with pork and red chile sauce at Nuevo Léon in the Latino quarter known as Pilsen, south of the Loop; and sausage in most any guise, most anywhere.

Back in 1959, an offbeat theater group was founded in a former Chinese laundry in Old Town. It called itself Second City. Since then, Second City has become one of the most successful, long-running live shows in America, combining comedy and social commentary. Its alumni include the likes of Mike Myers, Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, and the late Chris Farley.

I remember a Saturday Night Live skit in which Farley and other football fans sit around a table in Chicago eating sausage and cheese in great quantities. Farley has a couple of simulated heart attacks and is revived via electric shock so he can continue eating and praising “da Bears.”

This image of Chicago as a haven of cholesterol and sports fanaticism persists, but the city’s sophistication and progressiveness are gaining ground. I drop by Second City, still going strong just a few doors from the old location, for a performance of Studs Terkel’s Not Working, a fast-paced, edgy revue about life in the city today.

A decidedly younger audience sips beer while a statuesque blonde takes the stage and says, “Organizers of the Southside Irish Parade cancelled the event for 2010, citing public safety risk. In order to prevent acts of lewd behavior, the city of Chicago will also be shutting down The Taste of Chicago, Wrigleyville, the Red and Green lines, Ladies Wine Night, and senior proms.”

Later, I take a cab to North Pond, a café surrounded by parkland. Its natural wood interior and prairie-style hanging lamps reflect the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright, who got his start in Chicago apprenticing with famed architect Louis Sullivan in the era that began after the great fire of 1871.

“The fire created a blank slate upon which to raise up a new city,” explains Lori Kolb as I walk with her the next day. She’s an unpaid docent for the Chicago Architecture Foundation who’s leading me up windy Jackson Street and away from Lake Michigan. “By the 1880s, this was a boom town. Ten thousand people a week were arriving; there were more railroad tracks passing through here—and more port activity—than in any other city in the world. This was the grain center of the country, with slaughter-houses, packing plants, tanneries, and huge lumberyards making it the place to be if you wanted a job.”

Momentarily drowned out by the clattering L train, she continues: “That meant new buildings to contain all the activity, but what kind of buildings?”

Chicago’s comeback from the fire was marked in 1893 with its World’s Columbian Exposition, including the “White City” exhibition that can still be visited, with its surviving Museum of Science and Industry. The new city’s architecture evolved over the coming decades, the first attempts tending toward neoclassical restraint, a so-called Beaux Arts bonanza favored by prominent architect Daniel Burnham and illustrated by the hotel named for him at the corner of Washington and State.

Other styles followed. Today’s downtown remains a wonderful medley: John Wellborn Root’s Monadnock Building (an example of the Chicago School), which is the world’s tallest commercial building made of brick; Mies van der Rohe’s Federal Building (in modern style), with its spectacularly open ground floor; Philip Johnson’s 190 South LaSalle building (postmodern) with a gold-leaf cathedral ceiling. Probably the best contrast of old and new is the immense Beaux Arts-style Art Institute of Chicago, housing 260,000 works of art. Neoclassical restraint meets contemporary glass and light in the Modern Wing opened in 2009. It has a specially designed “flying carpet” of moving blades under the skylights that moderate the exposure to harmful ultraviolet light of the huge collection of 20th- and 21st-century art. Today the institute is awash with students of all ages courted with special exhibitions and classes.

Next, I stroll the open walkway that spans Lurie Garden to reach the 24-acre Millennium Park, a mix of open space and art that may be the city’s crowning glory. A park favorite among visitors and locals alike is the Cloud Gate, better known as the Bean, a kidney-shaped, stainless steel sculpture whose mirrored surface performs a unique bit of reflective magic: Skyscrapers of the lakefront rising regally in the background are captured dramatically in the artful orb, as are the surrounding groves of trees.

Behind me, Frank Gehry’s spidery steel beams overhang the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, all part of the original neoclassical footprint reinterpreted in the modern age. “It was Montgomery Ward, in that building there, who insisted that the lakefront ‘be forever open, free and clear,’ and it still is,” says Nathan Mason from the city’s cultural affairs department, who walked with me.

No visit to Chicago is complete without riding the L train. My favorite ride is to the Garfield Park Conservatory, a Victorian hothouse of epic proportions with an amazing array of mostly tropical flora. The Conservatory’s otherworldliness is as enveloping as its heat—with no other section of it more transporting than the Fern Room. Dense, intensely green, almost audibly growing, the interior of this room mimics what Chicago must have looked, and felt, like 200 million years ago. “I lost my pruning shears,” laments one of the horticulturalists, down on her knees, searching fruitlessly under innumerable ferns and shaggy mosses.

Later, I walk south of Millennium Park, past the heroic Buckingham Fountain, one of the city’s top draws, and on to the landscaped Museum Campus, which includes the Field Museum of Natural History, with its rearing dinosaur skeleton out front; the Shedd Aquarium; and Adler Planetarium, all world-class institutions and each easily worth a day of your time.

I stand at the stone wall overlooking Lake Michigan, perhaps the single defining element of this city in a garden. Just one of its urban glories is Lake Shore Drive, with its 30-mile-long biking and walking path stitching parks and vistas as far as I can see. Under clear skies, the water is azure and the view beyond the breakwaters almost Mediterranean.

A football game is about to start at Soldier Field, where “da Bears” are playing. Fans walk along the lake toward the stadium, past all these institutions of science and culture. Some greet me with smiles, while others lift their cups in salute to the cop pedaling past, who ignores them. And I’m thinking, “It’s all very Chicago.”

Contributing editor James Conaway wrote “Portland Reigns” in our Nov.-Dec. 2009 issue and “London Step by Step” in March 2009. Photographer Melissa Farlow’s last feature assignment for Traveler was “Tweet Me in Miami” in our April issue.

A nice shout out to Lincoln Square!

Images from Field Notes

The idea of carrying around a pocket notebook has become quite popular these last few years, revived by the introduction of the current incarnation of the “Moleskine” into the market. It’s become so popular that I’m afraid it has come to be seen as trendy or faddish, and this is putting some men off to starting this important habit themselves. Some find the Cult of the Moleskine and its faux history understandably distasteful. The company shills their pricey Made in China notebooks as the notebook of Hemingway, Van Gogh, and Matisse, when the company that currently makes them only got into the business in 1997.

But don’t let the pocket notebook’s current image dissuade you from carrying one around. The truth is that you don’t need to use a Moleskine (unless you really like them)-even some note cards clipped together will do. And far from being a modern fad, the pocket notebook has a long, important, and manly history. Pocket notebooks were part of the arsenal of a long list of great men from Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Edison (we’re working on an in-depth post of how these men used their notebooks for the future). The repositories of eminent men’s personal effects nearly always includes a pocket notebook full of their ideas and musings.

I spent many hours combing through the google book archives looking for references on the use of pocket notebooks by ordinary men during this past century. The following excerpts I collected show the pocket notebook’s history and demonstrate that far from being the domain of the modern hipster, the pocket notebook has always been used by men from many different walks of life.

The Farmer

“One farmer I know keeps his notebook in his pocket to jot down the tasks which can be performed on a rainy day. This enables him to plan quickly the work for a rainy day. In planning rainy day work, do first the jobs which are in danger of getting in the way of the next dry weather work. The rule is to leave no rainy-day work to be done when it is not raining for in this climate our profits are limited by the amount of outdoor work we get done.” -Circular, Issues 46-105, By Agricultural Experiment Station, College of Agriculture , 1914

The Salesman

“There should be a book in your pocket all the while ready for the name of anyone who might be induced to handle your product. A name overheard, a name suggested by a fellow traveling man, a name secured by visiting with someone from a town you do not make, a name seen in a local newspaper—any such name may be that of your prospect.

One salesman I know buys the local newspaper in every town he enters and reads the personal columns as well as the advertisements in search of men who may be or may become possible customers. He studies openings in towns where there is a possible opportunity, and he puts the right men in touch with them. He visits with representatives of the local commercial organizations and advertising clubs and gathers much information that he tabulates in a pocket notebook. He always has at hand information of value to men in his line of trade, and in time they come to realize it and look forward to his coming, saving him some kind of an order even if they are not much in need, because they want a chance to talk with him.” -The Successful Salesman, By Frank Farrington, 1918

The Minister

“Have upon your study table, always accessible, a good-sized substantially bound blank book. Whenever a germinant thought comes seize your pen and write it down. Such thoughts will come out of your special course of literary reading, out of your cursory scanning of current fiction, even out of the five-minute glance given to the morning paper, out of nowhere and from anywhere. Thought-compelling suggestions entirely foreign to the sermon on which you are just now engaged will frequently send you to your treasure book, and without any damage to present preparation you will scribble down a page of matter that will set you on fire at some future day just when you are in need of inspiration and help. Have also a special vest-pocket notebook and let nothing escape you.” -The Methodist Review, 1907

The Boy Scout

“In one of the pockets there should be a lot of bachelor buttons, the sort that you do not have to sew on to your clothes, but which fasten with a snap, something like glove buttons. There should be a pocket made in your shirt or vest to fit your notebook, and a part of it stitched up to hold a pencil and a toothbrush….

No camper, be he hunter, fisherman, scout, naturalist, explorer, prospector, soldier or lumberman, should go into the woods without a notebook and hard lead pencil. Remember that notes made with a hard pencil will last longer than those made with ink, and be readable as long as the paper lasts.

Every scientist and every surveyor knows this and it is only tenderfeet, who use a soft pencil and fountain pen for making field notes, because an upset canoe will blur all ink marks and the constant rubbing of the pages of the book will smudge all soft pencil marks.

Therefore, have a pocket especially made, so that your notebook, pencil and fountain pen, if you insist upon including it—will fit snugly with no chance of dropping out.” -The American Boys’ Handybook of Camp-lore and Woodcraft, By Daniel Carter Beard, 1920

The Doctor

“When I started in practice, I got in the habit of putting many of my spare moments (had plenty of them!) into studying up some of the rarer diseases that we had to deal with. I would read up all I could find on one subject, then I would take some time in thinking it over, then I would formulate a plan of treatment and write it out in a pocket-notebook. In after years, that old notebook helped me out of a good many difficult situations; and some of the best work I have ever done has come from those notes.” -The American Journal of Clinical Medicine, Volume 25, 1918

The Architect

“The little pocket notebook, I soon discovered, was not a record book in the accounting sense of the term. Nevertheless, it was a very necessary part of the architect’s business paraphernalia. The rules of the American Institute of Architects do not permit members of the profession to advertise, or go after new business in most of the ways that are current among commercial organizations. Therefore, the successful architect is a man with a wide ‘acquaintance among the classes of persons who are likely to become builders. He quickly learns to take note of projected buildings, in order to follow up the prospective owners, and secure for his own office the work of designing the building.

This is the purpose of the architect’s pocket notebook. Whenever he gets wind from any source of a projected building, he makes a note of it. Sometimes he secures his information from news notes in the daily papers; more frequently he gets advance information from the people he associates with, and from regular commercial agency reports. If the prospect has in mind constructing a building of the class the architect is used to handling, he makes a personal call on the owner.

‘Sometimes,’ says the architect, ‘I don’t need to use my little book so strenuously as at other times. A growing reputation and a ‘come-back’ clientele are gradually making it possible for me to devote less time to getting business and more time to handling the work that is under way. I keep the book up from habit; and occasionally it brings me a job of the kind I particularly want, and might miss if I didn’t have my notebook as a daily reminder.’” -The Magazine of Business, Volume 27, By Arch Wilkinson Shaw, 1915

The Naturalist

“I am often asked to recommend the best kind of notebook and diary to use for nature observations; but I have never seen any that is satisfying. The value of notes depends upon their being taken on the spot. If you think that you can carry the records of a country ramble home in your head and write them down at your leisure in the evenings, you are very much mistaken. You must carry them home, already written, in your pocket; and for that purpose you must have a handy pocket notebook. But the notes hurriedly written on the spot are not, of course, intended to be your permanent record. Indeed, your penciled scrawls on a cold day would often become unintelligible within a week. If, however, you use a good system of abbreviations, you will find that you can get a surprising amount of detailed observation into each small page of the pocket notebook; and if the book is “self-opening,” i.e., if the pencil is always fixed to the page on which the next entry will be made, very little time is spent in taking the notes.” -Country-Side: A Wildlife Magazine, Volume 4, By British Empire Naturalist’s Association, 1928

The Student

“But you may say, “I have already begun wrong with a long list of words; my problem now is how to get them right, and how to avoid similar mistakes with new words in the future. It is too late to take spelling over again. What is the short cut to improvement?”

Improvement may be made to begin at once by following a very simple plan. Buy an indexed pocket notebook and enter in it from day to day words that you find yourself habitually misspelling. Study Appendix IV, section by section, and copy from it into your notebook words that seem to resist mastery. Copy only a few at a time.

From this notebook choose a word at a time, and by a deliberate act of attention, look at it as if you had never seen it before; if practicable, spell it aloud—slowly, so that you have time to realize the presence of each letter. Then write it correctly again and again; cover a page with it, writing without a pause; if you can, spell it aloud as you write. Underline, as you write, the part of the word in which your error occurs. Repeat this process for five minutes at a time, if necessary every day for a week, or until you know that you can never misspell this word again…

If you feel that this is hard to do, remember that the alternative is lifelong exposure to the unjust suspicion of illiteracy.” -The Writing of English, By John Matthews Manly, Edith Rickert,

Carrying a Pocket Notebook

Hopefully the excerpts above inspired you to start carrying a pocket notebook yourself. It’s a manly tradition that ought to be continued today. Along with a pocket knife and handkerchief, a notebook should reside in the pocket of every man.

No matter what profession you find yourself in, the most essential function of the pocket notebook is to provide a place to capture the ideas that spring to mind throughout the day. You may get a business idea, an insight into something you or a loved one has been struggling with, or hear a quote you wish to record. Even though you feel sure in the moment that you’ll be able to remember these thoughts when you get home, every one of us has experienced the agony of realizing later that an idea is utterly gone from our minds and that no amount of mental gymnastics can bring it back.

But the pocket notebook has many more uses. I use mine for brainstorming sessions and as a place to write down and review my personal goals and keep track of things I need to get done. I use it for mundane things like grocery lists and people’s phone numbers. And I love to make calculations, keeping track of income and figuring out when I can pay off my debt. And of course I use it doodle and play hangman with Kate when I get bored at church.

What do you use your pocket notebook for? Share your ideas in the comments!

Related manly posts:

1. W.R. Case & Sons “What’s In Your Pocket?” Pocket Knife Giveaway
2. How To Properly Rock A Pocket Square
3. Briefcase Essentials: The Saddleback Leather Company Giveaway
4. Announcing the Winner of the W.R Case and Sons “What’s In Your Pocket?” Pocket Knife Giveaway
5. How to Make a Moleskine PDA

I’ve been considering getting one… but not a Moleskine… overpriced.

Filed under: iPhone

iPhone users may soon be putting on their Google Goggles

by Steven Sande (RSS feed) on Aug 24th 2010 at 1:00PM

If iPhone owners are sometimes susceptible to a wee bit of Android envy, one reason might be Google Goggles. If you’re not familiar with the Android app, Google Goggles uses pictures from your mobile phone to search the web.

Point your phone’s camera at a Russian restaurant menu, and it is translated for you. Take aim at a landmark, and find out about the history of the place. Take a photo of a book cover, and you’ll get a summary of the contents, bookstores that carry the title, and pricing. Or there’s always the feature shown above — the Nearby Places Overlay — where you pan your phone’s camera on a street and see labels describing every business.

According to The Register, iPhone users won’t have to wait very long to put on their Google Goggles. Google Staff Engineer David Petrou, speaking at the Hot Chips conference at Stanford University on Monday, mentioned in passing that the app could be released for iPhone by the end of 2010. That, of course, assumes that the app makes it through Apple’s approval process — never a sure thing, as the Google Voice team could share with their colleagues.

[via CNET Web Crawler]

Yes, please.

Awesome. Thanks @fringefocus for sharing.

Meh

Where’s Don Draper?

Today Finland officially becomes first nation to make broadband a legal right

 

By Chad Catacchio Follow Chad Catacchio on twitter on July 1st, 2010

Starting today (July 1), every Finnish citizen now has a guaranteed legal right to a least a 1Mbps broadband connection, putting it on the same footing as other legal rights in the country such as healthcare and education.

As we reported last year, Finland was the first nation in the world to pass this type of legislation, followed by Spain in November.

The Finish government has promised guaranteed speeds of 100Mbps by 2015 for all of its citizens, and currently about 97% of Finns already have access to broadband connections.

As our @Zee mentioned last year: “the fast growth of technology has led the European Commission to bring forward a review of the basic telecoms services Europeans can expect.”

And as this blog points out:

“This is no mean feat in a geographically challenging region, with a quarter of the country lying above the Arctic Circle. The country has followed the Scandinavian trend of fixed-to-mobile migration, with increasing numbers of citizens choosing to bypass the limitations of fixed-line telecoms and Internet for mobile-only connectivity.”

Finland’s communication minister Suvi Linden told the BBC that, “We considered the role of the internet in Finns everyday life. Internet services are no longer just for entertainment.”

So there you have it, broadband access to the Internet is now officially a legal right in one country at least. Here’s hoping the word spreads.

About the Author

Chad Catacchio

Chad Catacchio is a lead writer at The Next Web. He has held management positions at a number of tech companies in the US, as well as 7 years in China in market research and tech management consulting. Follow him on Twitter @chadcat, or contact through email at chad@thenextweb.com.

Wow this is an interesting move by a government.

Sexy. h/t to Thrillist