“Celebrating the awesome nature of Chicago every day.”

That’s the answer that one of you offered up to our audience-survey question: “Best idea to salvage from Chicago 2016.” We couldn’t agree more—that could actually be our tagline.

When we sat down as a group of editors and writers to plan this, our seventeenth edition of the Best of Chicago, the city’s lost Olympics bid was still a fresh wound. Whether you found that day’s news devastating or perhaps a relief, chances are you felt at least a little bit worse. Like deciding to break up with someone and having them beat you to the punch: you’re left wondering what was wrong with you. Read the rest of this entry »

Stir the Soul

In this year after we sent the first Chicagoan to the White House, the spirit of possibility was never stronger. And no matter where you stood on the desirability of the Olympics bid, there was no denying the dynamic of seeing the city’s business, government and cultural communities banding together to try to make something great happen. Sure, it would have quickly dissolved into a fair bit of the old “where’s mine” had we won the bid, but the events of these last two years have driven home the power of a communal effort to achieve a larger goal. Let’s not lose that spirit, but instead redirect it into immediate efforts to make no little plans in other ways. Imagine, for example, a harnessing of civic energy across all spectra of cultural, civic and commercial realms to, once and for all, turn the CTA into the world-class public transit that our city deserves. Or to turn the last four miles of lakefront into the public park that embodies our city’s heritage. Or… Why not still make 2016 a landmark year in Chicago?

Audience choice:
Fix the CTA

Best audience comments:
“The South Side needs love too”; “If you liked it then you should have put some rings on it’ -a la T-Shirt Deli, Bucktown”; “Adding a fifth star to the Chicago flag”; “arresting hippies”; “The Olympic bid really created some deep thought about improving our infrastructure and repairing and revitalizing our areas of urban blight. It is important that this dialogue not go to waste. Chicago has a lot to be fixed”; “Think locally, act locally.”

Best of Chicago 2009

Second Cityitis

There was a pathetic undertone to much of the discourse surrounding the Chicago bid for the Olympics, which went along the lines that we need this to be a world-class city, that too much of the planet still thinks “Al Capone” when they hear “Chicago,” to which we say: bunk! In all of our world travels, we’ve never had Al Capone come up in conversation. Architecture? Yes. Michael Jordan? Yes. House music? Yes. The weather? Sadly, yes. But Scarface Al? No. Kind of makes you wonder what crowd those other guys are running in. If we want to be world-class, the first step is to realize we are world-class and not to worry about it. World-class cities never fret about their status; they simply do what makes them great and make sure the world knows about it. So let’s get over this inferiority complex and start marketing our assets. Like our architecture. Our beautiful lakefront. Our extraordinary cultural life. And while we’re at it, make sure we tell everyone how nice our weather is. In summer.

Audience choice:
Hosting the Olympics

Best audience comments:
“Obama + Oprah = Unbeatable”; “‘Let Friendship Shine.’ Friendship isn’t chrome!”; “Britney Spears and whatever she does or doesn’t do”; “Forget tearing down the Michael Reese Hospital campus! We’ve already lost one of the Gropius-designed buildings there and Chicago is ready to destroy more at any moment.” “That I could have made a boatload salvaging my condo.”

Best of Chicago 2009

Roger Ebert’s Journal

Some of us write for a living, but we suspect Roger Ebert writes to live. How else to explain why, after a career that nearly every writer would sell a soul for—Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic for a major daily, star of an extremely successful television show, several best-selling books—his output seems to increase, not decrease with time, even after his well-publicized battles with cancer. A more recent endeavor, his blog leads him out of the screening room and into the very heart of the body politic, where he tackles a mix of social issues and personal insights, ranging from memoir to revelation, like his recent discussion of his battle with alcoholism years ago. (And sometimes, yes, he discusses movies.) Ebert is a thoughtful, gracious writer, and his blog epitomizes the best of the medium: not only is he a joy to read, but he gets comments that are the envy of anyone in the business, hundreds and hundreds of comments (his recent take on healthcare reform elicited nearly a thousand responses). And unlike the sites that seem to traffic in knuckleheads, most of his commenters—even those who disagree with his politics—do so in reasonably articulate and informed manners. Best of all, perhaps, is that Ebert is not just content to drop in his post and move on, but reads and responds personally to many of his correspondents.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/

Audience choice:
Chicagoist

Best of Chicago 2009

Knew When to Quit

Audience choice:
Cast deciding vote on Universal Health Care

Best audience comments:
“First African-American Senator Appointed by Impeached Governor”; “First man on Mars”; “Never Indicted”; “Winnie the Pooh impersonator extraordinaire”

Best of Chicago 2009

Big Black

Quick. Raise your hand if you think it’ll still be Willis Tower in thirty years. Didn’t think so. In this age of naming rights being sold with little regard to public consciousness, the public needs to retake the vernacular by nicknaming such buildings. We like “Big Black” for its powerful directness, a nickname that seems to match the building’s gritty posture in our sky. And it doesn’t hurt that it’s also the name of a seminal eighties rock band from Chicago, but we’ll keep that our little secret.

Audience choice:
Big Willy

Best of Chicago 2009

Start enforcing the ban on talking on a cell phone while driving

Take a look around you the next time you’re at a busy intersection. We’re just saying…

Best of Chicago 2009

Chicago Neighborhood Bike Tours

Lee Diamond is co-owner of a small real estate brokerage, Big Shoulders Realty, located on the city’s Northwest Side, who realized that not every homebuyer is alike. Some, like him, would rather travel the city by bike than car, and what better way to check out a potential new neighborhood than seated atop a two-wheeler, cruising at a modest pace up and down its streets. Before long, Diamond was conducting neighborhood tours focused on the many architectural wonders that make up our city. The tours, intensely researched and planned, have become little marvels of city living, one of those serendipitous things—a free bike tour with really good planning and information!—that deserves all the praise we can muster.

www.bigshouldersrealty.com/things/tours.php

Best of Chicago 2009

Sarah Spain

She’s got the full package: the looks, the skills, the voice, the mouth to go to any bar and out-argue a man on any topic involving Chicago sports, the name, the brains, the love, the connects, the sense of humor that would make anyone (man or woman) struggle between wanting to ask for her hand in marriage or ask if she wouldn’t mind being your best friend. But the one thing that puts Sarah Spain over-the-top of most media starlets that wannabe the next Peggy Kazinski/Janet Davies/Mary Schmich is her ambition. She’s been able in the last year to parlay her wit and talents to go from Mouthpiecesports.com to convincing the Tribune Co. that they need to do something with her before someone else discovers her. And here’s the catch: She has a crew. Between her, Jullian Jesks and Molly Dapier, Charlie might need to come outta retirement. There’s some new Angels in town.

sarahspain.net

Best of Chicago 2009

Active Transportation Alliance

Founded about twenty-five years ago as the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, today the Active Transportation Alliance deploys a staff of forty in a mission they describe as “to make bicycling, walking and public transit so safe, convenient and fun that we will achieve a significant shift from environmentally harmful, sedentary travel to clean, active travel.” They work toward their goals through advocacy and lobbying, awareness campaigns and studies, and through hands-on consulting to municipalities looking to increase the presence of bike and pedestrian trails in their cities. And unlike so many nonprofits who pursue their goals with an almost comical seriousness, ATA puts fun right into their mission statement, and achieves it by producing events such as Bike the Drive, which takes over Lake Shore Drive one morning each spring and lets thousands of bicyclists enjoy the city’s promenade.

www.activetrans.org

Best of Chicago 2009