Chicago

There are plenty of fun things to do in Chicago and we're here to help you plan your next vacation or business trip to our fair city. Explore the official tourism.
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Late in the 19th century, Chicago was part of the bicycle craze, with the Western Wheel Company, which introduced stamping to the production process and significantly reduced costs, [] while early in the 20th century, the city was part of the automobile revolution, hosting the Brass Era car builder Bugmobile, which was founded there in Chicago is a major world convention destination.

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The city's main convention center is McCormick Place. With its four interconnected buildings, it is the largest convention center in the nation and third-largest in the world. The city's waterfront location and nightlife has attracted residents and tourists alike. Over a third of the city population is concentrated in the lakefront neighborhoods from Rogers Park in the north to South Shore in the south.

Downtown is the center of Chicago's financial, cultural, governmental and commercial institutions and the site of Grant Park and many of the city's skyscrapers. Many of the city's financial institutions, such as the CBOT and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago , are located within a section of downtown called " The Loop ", which is an eight-block by five-block area of city streets that is encircled by elevated rail tracks.

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The term "The Loop" is largely used by locals to refer to the entire downtown area as well. These areas contribute famous skyscrapers , abundant restaurants, shopping , museums , a stadium for the Chicago Bears , convention facilities , parkland , and beaches. The Chicago Pride Parade , held the last Sunday in June, is one of the world's largest with over a million people in attendance. It also contains the University of Chicago , ranked one of the world's top ten universities, [] and the Museum of Science and Industry.

Two of the city's largest parks are also located on this side of the city: Jackson Park , bordering the waterfront, hosted the World's Columbian Exposition in , and is the site of the aforementioned museum; and slightly west sits Washington Park. The two parks themselves are connected by a wide strip of parkland called the Midway Plaisance , running adjacent to the University of Chicago. Adalbert's Church in Pilsen.

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The city's distinctive accent, made famous by its use in classic films like The Blues Brothers and television programs like the Saturday Night Live skit " Bill Swerski's Superfans ", is an advanced form of Inland Northern American English. This dialect can also be found in other cities bordering the Great Lakes such as Cleveland , Milwaukee , Detroit , and Rochester, New York , and most prominently features a rearrangement of certain vowel sounds, such as the short 'a' sound as in "cat", which can sound more like "kyet" to outsiders.

The accent remains well associated with the city. Broadway In Chicago offers Broadway-style entertainment at five theaters: Polish language productions for Chicago's large Polish speaking population can be seen at the historic Gateway Theatre in Jefferson Park. Since , the Joseph Jefferson Awards are given annually to acknowledge excellence in theater in the Chicago area.

Chicago's theater community spawned modern improvisational theater , and includes the prominent groups The Second City and I. In the summer, many outdoor concerts are given in Grant Park and Millennium Park. Other live-music genre which are part of the city's cultural heritage include Chicago blues , Chicago soul , jazz , and gospel.

The city is the birthplace of house music , a very popular form of Electronic Dance Music, industrial music , and is the site of an influential hip-hop scene. In the s and 90s, the city was the global center for house and industrial music, two forms of music created in Chicago, as well as being popular for alternative rock , punk , and new wave. The city has been an epicenter for rave culture, since the s.

A flourishing independent rock music culture brought forth Chicago indie. Annual festivals feature various acts, such as Lollapalooza and the Pitchfork Music Festival. Chicago has a distinctive fine art tradition. For much of the twentieth century, it nurtured a strong style of figurative surrealism , as in the works of Ivan Albright and Ed Paschke. Henry Darger is one of the most celebrated figures of outsider art.

Chicago contains a number of large, outdoor works by well-known artists. Chicago also has a nationally televised Thanksgiving parade that occurs annually. The McDonald's Thanksgiving Parade is seen across the nation on WGN-TV and WGN America , featuring a variety of diverse acts from the community, marching bands from across the country, and is the only parade in the city to feature inflatable balloons every year. More than neighborhood festivals are celebrated annually in Chicago, most during the warm summer months.

As many as , people enjoy the traditions, entertainment, and cuisines of the respected neighborhoods. Some of the more famous festivals include:. In [update] , Chicago attracted The city is the United States' third-largest convention destination. A study by Walk Score ranked Chicago the fourth-most walkable of fifty largest cities in the United States. The historic Chicago Cultural Center , originally serving as the Chicago Public Library , now houses the city's Visitor Information Center, galleries and exhibit halls.

The park also hosts the annual Taste of Chicago festival. Also, an outdoor restaurant transforms into an ice rink in the winter season. Two tall glass sculptures make up the Crown Fountain.


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The fountain's two towers display visual effects from LED images of Chicagoans' faces, along with water spouting from their lips. Behind the pavilion's stage is the Harris Theater for Music and Dance , an indoor venue for mid-sized performing arts companies, including the Chicago Opera Theater and Music of the Baroque. Dutch Wheels, a world renowned company that manufactures ferris wheels, was selected to design the new wheel. It also has entertainment systems inside the gondolas as well as a climate controlled environment. On June 4, , the city officially opened the Museum Campus , a acre 4.

Buckingham Fountain anchors the downtown park along the lakefront. The University of Chicago Oriental Institute has an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern archaeological artifacts. With an estimated completion date of , the Barack Obama Presidential Center will be housed at the University of Chicago in Hyde Park and include both the Obama presidential library and offices of the Obama Foundation. The Willis Tower formerly named Sears Tower is a popular destination for tourists. The Willis Tower has an observation deck open to tourists year round with high up views overlooking Chicago and Lake Michigan.

The observation deck includes an enclosed glass balcony that extends 10 feet out on the side of the building. Tourists are able to look straight down. Chicago lays claim to a large number of regional specialties that reflect the city's ethnic and working-class roots. Included among these are its nationally renowned deep-dish pizza ; this style is said to have originated at Pizzeria Uno.

The Chicago-style hot dog , typically an all-beef hot dog, is loaded with an array of toppings that often includes pickle relish, yellow mustard , pickled sport peppers , tomato wedges, dill pickle spear and topped off with celery salt on a poppy seed bun. A distinctly Chicago sandwich, the Italian beef sandwich is thinly sliced beef simmered in au jus and served on an Italian roll with sweet peppers or spicy giardiniera. A popular modification is the Combo—an Italian beef sandwich with the addition of an Italian sausage.

The Maxwell Street Polish is a grilled or deep-fried kielbasa —on a hot dog roll, topped with grilled onions, yellow mustard, and hot sport peppers. Chicken Vesuvio is roasted bone-in chicken cooked in oil and garlic next to garlicky oven-roasted potato wedges and a sprinkling of green peas.

The Puerto Rican -influenced jibarito is a sandwich made with flattened, fried green plantains instead of bread. The mother-in-law is a tamale topped with chili and served on a hot dog bun. One the world's most decorated restaurants and a recipient of three Michelin stars, Alinea is located in Chicago. Well-known chefs who have had restaurants in Chicago include: In , Robb Report named Chicago the country's "most exceptional dining destination".

Chicago literature finds its roots in the city's tradition of lucid, direct journalism, lending to a strong tradition of social realism. In the Encyclopedia of Chicago , Northwestern University Professor Bill Savage describes Chicago fiction as prose which tries to " capture the essence of the city, its spaces and its people ". The challenge for early writers was that Chicago was a frontier outpost that transformed into a global metropolis in the span of two generations. Narrative fiction of that time, much of it in the style of "high-flown romance" and "genteel realism", needed a new approach to describe the urban social, political, and economic conditions of Chicago.

At least, three short periods in the history of Chicago have had a lasting influence on American Literature. What would become the influential Poetry magazine was founded in by Harriet Monroe , who was working as an art critic for the Chicago Tribune. Eliot 's first professionally published poem, " The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock ", was first published by Poetry. The magazine was instrumental in launching the Imagist and Objectivist poetic movements.

From the s through s, American poetry continued to evolve in Chicago. Additionally, Chicago is one of the six cities in the United States to have won championships in the four major professional leagues and, along with New York and Los Angeles, is one of three cities to have won soccer championships as well. Chicago is the only city that has had more than one MLB franchise every year since the AL began in New York hosted only one between and early The two teams have faced each other in a World Series only once: The Cubs are the oldest Major League Baseball team to have never changed their city; [] they have played in Chicago since , and continuously so since due to the Great Chicago Fire.

They have played more games and have more wins than any other team in Major League baseball since They had not won their sport's title since , and had not participated in a World Series since , both records, until they beat the Cleveland Indians in the World Series. The White Sox have played on the South Side continuously since , with all three of their home fields throughout the years being within blocks of one another. They have won three World Series titles , , and six American League pennants, including the first in The Sox are fifth in the American League in all-time wins, and sixth in pennants.

The other remaining charter franchise, the Chicago Cardinals , also started out in the city, but is now known as the Arizona Cardinals. The Bears have won more games in the history of the NFL than any other team, [] and only the Green Bay Packers , their longtime rivals, have won more championships. The Bears play their home games at Soldier Field. Soldier Field re-opened in after an extensive renovation. The Blackhawks have won six Stanley Cups , including in , , and Both the Bulls and the Blackhawks play at the United Center.

The Fire have won one league title and four U. Open Cups , since their founding in Chicago will be home to a new USL team starting in They plan to play in a 20, seat stadium located in Lincoln Park. They play home games at the Allstate Arena. The team was founded before the WNBA season began. The Chicago Marathon has been held each year since except for , when a half marathon was run in its place. When Chicago was incorporated in , it chose the motto Urbs in Horto , a Latin phrase which means "City in a Garden".

There are 31 sand beaches , a plethora of museums, two world-class conservatories, and 50 nature areas. There is a historic boulevard system , [] a network of wide, tree-lined boulevards which connect a number of Chicago parks. It includes nineteen boulevards, eight parks, and six squares , along twenty-six miles of interconnected streets. With berths for more than 6, boats, the Chicago Park District operates the nation's largest municipal harbor system. The wealth of greenspace afforded by Chicago's parks is further augmented by the Cook County Forest Preserves , a network of open spaces containing forest, prairie , wetland , streams, and lakes that are set aside as natural areas which lie along the city's outskirts, [] including both the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe and the Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield.

The government of the City of Chicago is divided into executive and legislative branches.

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The Mayor of Chicago is the chief executive, elected by general election for a term of four years, with no term limits. The current mayor is Rahm Emanuel. The mayor appoints commissioners and other officials who oversee the various departments. As well as the mayor, Chicago's clerk and treasurer are also elected citywide. The City Council is the legislative branch and is made up of 50 aldermen, one elected from each ward in the city.

The Chicago Police Department provides law enforcement and the Chicago Fire Department provides fire suppression and emergency medical services for the city and its residents. Civil and criminal law cases are heard in the Cook County Circuit Court of the State of Illinois court system, or in the Northern District of Illinois , in the federal system. During much of the last half of the 19th century, Chicago's politics were dominated by a growing Democratic Party organization. During the s and s, Chicago had a powerful radical tradition with large and highly organized socialist, anarchist and labor organizations.

Even before then, it was not unheard of for Republican presidential candidates to win handily in downstate Illinois, only to lose statewide due to large Democratic margins in Chicago. The citizens of Chicago have not elected a Republican mayor since , when William Thompson was voted into office. The strength of the party in the city is partly a consequence of Illinois state politics, where the Republicans have come to represent rural and farm concerns while the Democrats support urban issues such as Chicago's public school funding.

All eight of the city's representatives are Democrats; a Republican has only represented a significant portion of the city twice since , for one term each— Robert P.

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Hanrahan from to , and Michael Patrick Flanagan from to Machine politics persisted in Chicago after the decline of similar machines in other large U. The independents finally gained control of city government in with the election of Harold Washington in office — From until May 16, , Chicago was under the leadership of its longest serving mayor, Richard M.

Daley , the son of Richard J. On May 16, , Rahm Emanuel was sworn in as the 55th mayor of Chicago. Because of the dominance of the Democratic Party in Chicago, the Democratic primary vote held in the spring is generally more significant than the general elections in November for U. House and Illinois State seats.

The aldermanic, mayoral, and other city offices are filled through nonpartisan elections with runoffs as needed. The Obamas' residence is located near the University of Chicago in Kenwood on the city's south side. Chicago had a murder rate of However, it was less than in many smaller American cities, including New Orleans , Newark , and Detroit , which had 53 murders per , residents in The year-end crime statistics showed there were murders in Chicago in compared with the year before, a Chicago had more homicides than any other city in in total but not on per capita basis, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The department also reported murders in Chicago for the year , a total that marked a According to reports in , "most of Chicago's violent crime comes from gangs trying to maintain control of drug-selling territories", [] and is specifically related to the activities of the Sinaloa Cartel , which by had decided to seek to control illicit drug distribution, against local street gangs.

Chicago's homicide tally remained low during , , and but rose to in , breaking for the first time since It was also nicknamed Chiraq by Chicago drill rappers. At that time, the murder rate was historically low for Chicago. Louis , New Orleans , Detroit and Baltimore had the highest murder rate. In September , an Illinois state appellate court found that cities do not have an obligation under the Illinois Constitution to pay certain benefits if those benefits had included an expiration date under whichever negotiated agreement they were covered.

The Illinois Constitution prohibits governments from doing anything that could cause retirement benefits for government workers to be "diminished or impaired. Chicago Public Schools CPS is the governing body of the school district that contains over public elementary and high schools citywide, including several selective-admission magnet schools.

There are eleven selective enrollment high schools in the Chicago Public Schools, [] designed to meet the needs of Chicago's most academically advanced students. These schools offer a rigorous curriculum with mainly honors and Advanced Placement AP courses. Young Magnet High School , which was opened in , is ranked fourth. Chicago high school rankings are determined by the average test scores on state achievement tests.

Chicago has a network of Lutheran schools , [] and several private schools are run by other denominations and faiths, such as the Ida Crown Jewish Academy in West Ridge. There are also the private Chicago Academy for the Arts , a high school focused on six different categories of the arts and the public Chicago High School for the Arts , a high school focused on five categories visual arts, theatre, musical theatre, dance, and music of the arts. The Chicago Public Library system operates 79 public libraries, including the central library, two regional libraries, and numerous branches distributed throughout the city.

Since the s, Chicago has been a world center of higher education and research with several universities. These institutions consistently rank among the top "National Universities" in the United States, as determined by U. Top universities in Chicago are: Other notable schools include: William Rainey Harper , the first president of the University of Chicago, was instrumental in the creation of the junior college concept, establishing nearby Joliet Junior College as the first in the nation in The city has also been the base of several talk shows, including, formerly, The Oprah Winfrey Show.

The city also has two PBS member stations: Two major daily newspapers are published in Chicago: In addition, Chicago is the recent home of satirical national news outlet, The Onion , as well as its sister pop-culture publication, The A. Dark of the Moon , Transformers: Age of Extinction , Transformers: Chicago has also been the setting for many popular television shows, including the situation comedies Perfect Strangers and its spinoff Family Matters , Married The city served as the venue for the medical dramas ER and Chicago Hope , as well as the fantasy drama series Early Edition and the — drama Prison Break.

Discovery Channel films two shows in Chicago: Chicago has five 50, watt AM radio stations: Chicago is also home to a number of national radio shows, including Beyond the Beltway with Bruce DuMont on Sunday evenings. Chicago is also featured in a few video games, including Watch Dogs and Midtown Madness , a real-life, car-driving simulation game. In , indie rock artist Sufjan Stevens created a concept album about Illinois titled Illinois ; many of its songs were about Chicago and its history.

Chicago is a major transportation hub in the United States. It is an important component in global distribution, as it is the third-largest inter-modal port in the world after Hong Kong and Singapore. The city of Chicago has a higher than average percentage of households without a car. The national average was 8. Seven mainline and four auxiliary interstate highways 55 , 57 , 65 only in Indiana , 80 also in Indiana , 88 , 90 also in Indiana , 94 also in Indiana , , , , and run through Chicago and its suburbs. Segments that link to the city center are named after influential politicians, with three of them named after former U.

The Kennedy and Dan Ryan Expressways are the busiest state maintained routes in the entire state of Illinois. CTA, Metra, and Pace. Greyhound Lines provides inter-city bus service to and from the city, and Chicago is also the hub for the Midwest network of Megabus North America.

Amtrak long distance and commuter rail services originate from Union Station. Chicago is one of the largest hubs of passenger rail service in the nation. The services terminate in San Francisco, Washington, D. Parts of this were built, but it was never completed. Chicago's Department of Transportation oversees operation of Divvy , North America's largest bicycle-sharing system by geography , allowing residents and visitors the ability to check out public bikes from any of hundreds of automated stations located over a large area of the city, take them for short rides, and return them to any station of their choosing.

Chicago is the largest hub in the railroad industry. Department of Transportation, the volume of imported and exported goods transported via rail to, from, or through Chicago is forecast to increase nearly percent between and Chicago is served by O'Hare International Airport , the world's second-busiest airport measured by airline operations, [] on the far Northwest Side, and Midway International Airport on the Southwest Side.

In , O'Hare was the world's busiest airport by aircraft movements and the second-busiest by total passenger traffic. In recent years the state of Illinois has been leaning towards building an entirely new airport in the Illinois suburbs of Chicago. Army Corps of Engineers. Their service territory borders Iroquois County to the south, the Wisconsin border to the north, the Iowa border to the west and the Indiana border to the east.

In northern Illinois, ComEd a division of Exelon operates the greatest number of nuclear generating plants in any US state. Recently, the city began installing wind turbines on government buildings to promote renewable energy. Domestic and industrial waste was once incinerated but it is now landfilled , mainly in the Calumet area.

From to , the city had a blue bag program to divert recyclable refuse from landfills. This proved successful and blue bins were rolled out across the city. It includes Rush University Medical Center , ranked as the second best hospital in the Chicago metropolitan area by U. Hospital of Cook County , one of the busiest trauma centers in the nation. Two of the country's premier academic medical centers reside in Chicago, including Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the University of Chicago Medical Center. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. Chicago has 28 sister cities around the world.

These relationships have sought to promote economic, cultural, educational, and other ties. To celebrate the sister cities, Chicago hosts a yearly festival in Daley Plaza , which features cultural acts and food tastings from the other cities. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about the city in Illinois. For other uses, see Chicago disambiguation. City in Illinois, United States.

Timeline of Chicago history.

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The location and course of the Illinois and Michigan Canal completed State and Madison Streets , once known as the busiest intersection in the world Community areas in Chicago and Neighborhoods in Chicago. Roads and expressways in Chicago. List of companies in the Chicago metropolitan area.


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Culture of Chicago , List of people from Chicago , and List of museums and cultural institutions in Chicago. Soldier Field ; Middle: Wrigley Field ; Bottom: United Center ; Bottom: Political history of Chicago. Crime in Chicago and Timeline of organized crime in Chicago. For a more comprehensive list, see List of colleges and universities in Chicago.

List of diplomatic missions and trade organizations in Chicago. Illinois portal Chicago portal. Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. United States Census Bureau. Retrieved June 29, Brown Line Normal Service. Orange Line Normal Service. Pink Line Normal Service. Purple Line Normal Service. Yellow Line Normal Service. Red Line Garfield Green , Halsted. Brown Line Diversey , Paulina. To make the most of your inaugural visit, put these Are you looking for free things to do in Chicago? Going sightseeing with a budget in mind is easy to do.

Here is the skinny on Though first-time visitors might come to Chicago for the culture and architecture, many return travelers come for the food. Bucket-List Beats in Chicago. Have a weekend to spend in Chicago? Make it a music-filled stay and discover everything that makes this city sing, from venerable You may be on a trip, but that doesn't mean you take days off.

Chicago is a great destination for those who are always on the Looking for romantic things to do in Chicago? Here are three red-hot itineraries to keep you and your main squeeze toasty on even So you're coming to Chicago. You could stay forever and never see everything.

For starters, here's a list of must-see favorites. Because if you haven't been to "The Bean" let's be honest