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These are defining times for both Chicago and the nation, a watershed moment where it is so evidently clear we have transferred from one era to another.
That that new era is unclear, edgy, and productive of great anxiety causes us to create our own paradigms on what it might look like. Ours are as good as the “experts” insofar as how thinks will shake out is anyone’s guess.
Thus as I share below, this is merely my spin on things with no sense that my perspective had any more insight than any of yours. I’m just here to share in some random observations and commentary:
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1. THE OLYMPICS AND THE GLOBAL CITY: This isn’t the early 90’s when Atlanta put its bid in for the 1996 Olympics. In this far more global era, only the heavy weights among US cities, the likes of Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, were going to be considered to represent our nation’s bid. Chicago won (admittedly in a two way battle with SF taking itself out of the running) and as of today with financial package and huckersim that exceeds all competiton, we are the favorite. The bid is merely one icon (albeit one of the strongest) of a city that has transcended nation and now belongs to the world.
2. OUT OF THAT SMALL AMERICAN POND: And with it being out of that realtively small American pond, Chicago faces a far more favorable global arena than the more provencial national one which it has existed in from almost two centuries. While global cities most definitely have their hierachies, they are less debilitating to Chicago than the hierachy our own nation creates. In the US, New York is given a supremacy above all else even when some of that status is more historical than present related. New York and Los Angeles are given the true megaolopolis accolades with Chicago coming in an obvious third. That NY and LA are on opposite coasts and that the American paradigm plays out the silly notion that coastal trumps interior, Chicago does not get its due nationally. Internationally with the diversity of major cities, the relatively large number of them, the playing field is flatter and the concept of “flyover country” just doesn’t exist. There is no “New York” on top because the globe is just too complex to allow any one city to play that role. And all global cities work more from their ability to electronically connect, interface, and work with each other. NY, Chgo, and LA take on a more similiar status when compared to the planet than when compared to the nation.
3. NEW YORK, CHICAGO, THE U.S. AND THE WORLD: Our economic crisis (along with our military, social, environmental, and other crisises) show that the United States’ status as the nation on top has been very short lived. This is not the 20th, or American, century. As an American city, that hurts Chicago, of course. Yet in a more global world and in a city that is sophisticated to avoid some of the worst of American insanity and irratonality, Chicago can reasonably expect to use its global position to fare better (perhaps far better) than the nation as a whole. What about New York? Doesn’t it have ths same advantages as Chicago in this respect and perhaps more. Sure. But Chicago has its own edge over the Big Apple IMHO. Chicago stands for Chicago and seeks nothing more than being the best Chicago it can be. By global standards: that’s pretty damned well good. New York, on the other hand, thrieves on being The World’s Greatest City. It is dependent on seeing itself as The Center Of The Universe. That the true rise of NYC coincided and totally related to the rise of the United States into the global powerhouse between the two world wars shows how much New York is hitched to the American star (far more than Chicago’s). New York is actually, as viewed by itself, as The Greatest City On Earth Located In The Greatest Country On Earth. America’s slide and the rise of other global cities is shaking the myth that this is a city apart from all others. And while a Paris or a Rome can continue on their delightful ways when such inevitable passages occur, New York may not be so fortunate due to the psyche of the city: simply put, New York’s excesses can’t exist in a vacuum; they exist because of it hyped sense of power and importantce. Only New York’s importance makes it worth the hassles of negotiating its environment. Less pretentious Chicago is not primed to face the same fate.
I’d be surprised if many of you made it this far through my personal paradigm for Chicago’s future. I’ll fully admit, as stated, these are merely opinions. And I could easily be far off the mark. But my sense is that despite the US’s problems, the future is actually quite bright for the shining city by the lake in the heart of it all. And when things eventually right themselves, nationally and internationally, I have not a single doubt that the Windy City will be a major, major player on the new world stage.
One of the 4 stars on the Chicago flag stands for the Century of Progress, the city's world fair during the 1930s. It is ironic that this event at the height of the Depression was actually quite profitable.
Or maybe not so ironic. The fair may have been just what the city..and the nation...needed during those bleak times, the diversion it was craving for.
The story of America on the ascent, as despite depression and war what most of the first half of the 20th century was about, was an excilerating time, arguably far better than the times afterward when we had "arrived".
Creativity and sense of purpose and an an electric sense of energy are all part of the process of a society on the go, looking towards its future with enthusiasm and optimism.
So maybe that's the real story if (and, quite frankly, it's beginning to look like if not a sure bet, than at least a damned good one) Chicago gets the 2016 Olympics.
Chicago, that huckster city, than global marvel of the 19th century when it exploded with a growth rate unmatched by any city on earth in which the "I will" spirit became more mission than motto.
What the Olympics will give the city if gained is not just the goodies of 2016 itself or the spill over effect from the city being front and center on the world stage that will accrue afterwards, but a critical burst of energy between announcement and the games themselves that will permeate every aspect of the city's life. The spill over effect will be massive and transformational.
A totally charged life, a happening place at a time when things appear will be happening much slower in much of the rest rather depressed America. And in such a climate, the magnet will not only be drawing Chicagoans and suburbanites to their city, but will be a draw for those beyond....pumping the number of high powered Chicagoans in addition to the so many others who have been doing so for years.
And with the Olympic bid, Chicago gives out another message that's also part of the allure: yes, we are an American city, but not nearly as much as a global city. And it is the globe, not America, that will guide our future. And rightfully so: much of the regressive and backwards traits that come from so many parts of the United States are absent from the Chicago experience. Chicago, like New York or Los Angeles or San Francisco, transcends America and we are not nearly as hitched to the American star as we once were.
The Olympic bid if it comes will attach an aura, a glow, to this city, long before the torch it lit in a giant stadium in Washington Park.
The Olympics is pure Burnham: "Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood." And the third star on the city's flag, the World's Columbian Exhibition and that Century of Progress that was the fourth will rightfully be joined by a 5th in the form of the Olympics in another blockbuster event that so contributes to keeping Chicago at the forefront.
And frankly Chicago is the only city in America with the size, the critical mass, the unity, and the city that works know how to pull off a successful Olympics.
Did you write this yourself, or did you copy a paste from someone else's article?
Either way, I have a few issues with this:
1. Were the Olympics that transformational for Atlanta? Or Nagano, Japan? The world is littered with Olympic host cities that failed to see much spillover effect from the games.
2. While times are tough, the rest of the country is hardly "depressed" right now. True, there are pockets of "depression," I suppose, but many parts of the U.S. are doing fine.
3. What are these regressive and backwards traits that don't exist in Chicago?
4. Los Angeles did a good job with the '84 games, as did Salt Lake with the '02 Winter Games, so other U.S. cities have shown that they can do a good job hosting the Olympics. Chicago wouldn't be the first.
I truly hope Chicago gets the games in 2016 and represents the Midwest well. Still, I don't think the games are a lock for the city the way this writer does. The games have never been in South America, which I think gives Rio a leg up.
Did you write this yourself, or did you copy a paste from someone else's article?
Either way, I have a few issues with this:
1. Were the Olympics that transformational for Atlanta? Or Nagano, Japan? The world is littered with Olympic host cities that failed to see much spillover effect from the games.
2. While times are tough, the rest of the country is hardly "depressed" right now. True, there are pockets of "depression," I suppose, but many parts of the U.S. are doing fine.
3. What are these regressive and backwards traits that don't exist in Chicago?
4. Los Angeles did a good job with the '84 games, as did Salt Lake with the '02 Winter Games, so other U.S. cities have shown that they can do a good job hosting the Olympics. Chicago wouldn't be the first.
I truly hope Chicago gets the games in 2016 and represents the Midwest well. Still, I don't think the games are a lock for the city the way this writer does. The games have never been in South America, which I think gives Rio a leg up.
I wrote it myself. I don't know about you, but I don't copy and paste other people's words and claim them for my own. Nor would I have asked you the same question if I read something you wrote as your own...you'd have my benefit of the dobut that it was your own words for I would trust you for that to be the case.
I don't know about you, but I do find a lot of the insanity of the more ignorant, less diverse, more funtamentalist, less educated parts of the US not nearly as present in places like the northeast, coastal California, and Chicago. You know, I'm hardly alone in thinking that much of the concept of the US is tainted, that the nation is in decline and that the areas most likely to be less affected are the very major metro areas, like ours, which are more connected to a larger world.
I completely disagree with you that there are parts of the US doing just fine. That fine does not transfer down to the level of most people. Jobs have fled so much of the nation. You know, we could argue this one back and forth and it still comes down to what you believe. For all I've read and seen, I have no question that this nation is in serious decline, that we are doing nothing to really keep it together and to seriously fix our problems. It is a view many Americans share with me and the world itself largely sees us coming out of the American era. Our problems, including the debt we're all in to foreign nations is not regional but national. But again....just because I see the nation as being screwed, you hardly have to agree with me.
As for cities, Chicago is a lot more major globally than Atlanta is (or was in the 1990s) and I think that there is more media frenzy around events like the Olympics today. With events along the Chicago lakefront including the areas around Grant Park, I expect that the visions of Chicago will be big selling points to the world.
Other cities have done well with the Olympics. All I was saying is that I feel Chicago has both the size (something it shares with NY and LA) but has an ability to circle around a cause and work towards a degree of unity those cities don't have.
There is nothing I said here that isn't just my opinion. And my opinion is no better than yours, grm. But it my opinion and it is the way I see things as being right...not the way you need to.
I agree. You should have taken up gmasterb on his plagiarism offer. It would have been a quick, easy out.
Just expressing myself, aj. with no regrets.
You don't have to like it. Or approve of it. And you or Irish or anyone else can comfortably consider it to be boosterism gone mad if you choose. I was merely sharing my opinion on the subject and I am more than comfortable if you see things another way.
I don't shy away from what I write based on what others think, nor do I put anything I write on a pedestal. I don't post with ego, I'm just here to share what I have to say and listen to what others have to say, too.
No hard feelings...but no desire to change the way I think or post either.
What is this the 10th separate thread you have made about the Olympics?
More likely the 20th. I suggest that when I put the 21st, 22nd, and 23th on the forum in the next three days you do yourself the favor of either blocking or ignoring them.
Note that the 1893 World's Fair ("White City") occurred after a major economic meltdown as well (called the "Panic of 1893"). It definitely changed Chicago's image at the time, and laid the groundwork for Chicago's international reach.
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Bad times...& the Olympics
