Chicago is an easy city to
negotiate: streets form a grid and
numbering is consistent, beginning
at State and Madison streets. State
Street - "that great
street" in Sinatra's song - is
at zero east and west and Madison at
zero north and south.
Lake
Michigan , which provides
Chicago with some of its most
attractive open space (twenty miles
of lakeshore lie within the city
limits), serves as a clear point of
reference for getting your bearings
- the lake is always to the east of
the urban grid.
Michigan Avenue
is the city's main thoroughfare,
running between the lakeside museums
and parklands, the densely packed
skyscrapers of downtown and the
diverse low-rise neighborhoods that
spread to the north, south and west.
It's here that you might experience
the full force of "The
Hawk," the nickname given to
the strong wind that blows off the
lake. The nickname "
Windy
City " was coined by a New
York newspaper editor describing the
boastful claims of the city's
promoters when pitching for the
World's Columbian exhibition of
1893. The
Chicago River ,
which cuts through the heart of
downtown Chicago to Lake Michigan,
separates the business district from
the shopping and entertainment areas
of the North Side. The latter
include the upscale
Near North
and
Gold Coast neighborhoods
and the artists' lofts and galleries
of
River North , plus the
modestly charming area of
Old
Town , the young professional
enclaves of
Lincoln Park
Wrigleyville and
Lakeview
and hip
Wicker Park.
In contrast to the wealth and
prosperity of the North Side, the
deprived South Side is more
like New York's South Bronx: a huge
and, in places, desperately poor
expanse with a justifiably dangerous
reputation. But while large areas
are definitely unsafe after dark and
dodgy even at midday, a few corners
of the South Side are well worth
visiting - particularly the Gothic
campus of the University of
Chicago , and neighboring Hyde
Park , site of the Museum of
Science and Industry - one of
the largest and most popular museums
in the US. Apart from Oak Park
to the west, which holds the
childhood home of Ernest
Hemingway and more than a dozen
well-maintained examples of the
influential architecture of Frank
Lloyd Wright , suburban Chicago
has little to offer.
