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Culture and contemporary life
Culture and contemporary life
The city's waterfront allure and nightlife has attracted residents and tourists alike.
Over one-third of the city population is concentrated in the lakefront neighborhoods (from Rogers Park in the north to Hyde Park in the south).
The North Side has a large gay and lesbian community.
Two North Side neighborhoods in particular, Lakeview and the Andersonville area of the Edgewater neighborhood, are home to many LGBT businesses and organizations.
The area adjacent to the North Side intersection of Halsted and Belmont is a gay neighborhood known to Chicagoans as "Boystown".
The city has many upscale dining establishments as well as many ethnic restaurant districts.
These include the Mexican villages such as Pilsen on 18th street and "La Villita" on 26th street, "Greektown" on South Halsted, "Little Italy" on Taylor Street, just west of Halsted, "Chinatown" on the near South Side, "Little Seoul" on and around Lawrence Avenue, a cluster of Vietnamese restaurants on Argyle Street and South Asian (Indian/Pakistani) on Devon Avenue.
Entertainment and performing arts
Chicago’s theatre community spawned modern improvisational theatre.
Two renowned comedy troupes emerged — The Second City and I.O.
(formerly known as ImprovOlympic).
Renowned Chicago theater companies include the Steppenwolf Theatre Company (on the city's north side), the Goodman Theatre, and the Victory Gardens Theater.
Chicago offers Broadway-style entertainment at theatres such as Ford Center for the Performing Arts Oriental Theatre, LaSalle Bank Theatre, Cadillac Palace Theatre, Auditorium Building of Roosevelt University, and Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place.
Polish language productions for Chicago's large Polish speaking population can be seen at the historic Gateway Theatre in Jefferson Park.
Since 1968, the Joseph Jefferson Awards are given annually to acknowledge excellence in theatre in the Chicago area.
Classical music offerings include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, recognized as one of the finest orchestras in the world, which performs at Symphony Center.
Also performing regularly at Symphony Center is the Chicago Sinfonietta, a more diverse and multicultural counterpart to the CSO.
In the summer, many outdoor concerts are given in Grant Park and Millennium Park.
Ravinia Park, located 25 miles (40 km) north of Chicago, is also a favorite destination for many Chicagoans, with performances occasionally given in Chicago locations such as the Harris Theater.
The Civic Opera House is home to the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
The Joffrey Ballet and Chicago Festival Ballet perform in various venues, including the Harris Theater in Millennium Park.
Chicago is home to several other modern and jazz dance troupes, such as the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.
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 and is the site of an influential hip-hop scene.
In the 1980s, the city was a center for industrial, punk and new wave.
This influence continued into the alternative rock of the 1990s.
The city has been an epicenter for rave culture since the 1980s.
A flourishing independent rock music culture brought forth Chicago indie.
Annual festivals feature various acts such as Lollapalooza, the Intonation Music Festival and Pitchfork Music Festival.
Tourism
Chicago attracted a combined 44.2 million people in 2006 from around the nation and abroad.
Upscale shopping along the Magnificent Mile, thousands of restaurants, as well as Chicago's eminent architecture, continue to draw tourists.
The city is the United States' third-largest convention destination.
Most conventions are held at McCormick Place, just south of Soldier Field.
The historic Chicago Cultural Center (1897), originally serving as the Chicago Public Library, now houses the city's Visitor Information Center, galleries, and exhibit halls.
The ceiling of Preston Bradley Hall includes a 38-foot (11 m) Tiffany glass dome.
Millennium Park, initially slated to be unveiled at the turn of the 21st century, and delayed for several years, sits on a deck built over a portion of the former Illinois Central rail yard.
The park includes the reflective Cloud Gate sculpture (known locally as "The Bean").
A Millennium Park restaurant outdoor transforms into an ice rink in the winter.
Two tall glass sculptures make up the Crown Fountain.
The fountain's two towers display visual effects from LED images of Chicagoans' faces, with water spouting from their lips.
Frank Gehry's detailed stainless steel band shell Pritzker Pavilion, hosts the classical Grant Park Music Festival concert series.
Behind the pavilion's stage is the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, an indoor venue for mid-sized performing arts companies, including Chicago Opera Theater and Music of the Baroque.
In 1998, the city officially opened the Museum Campus, a 10-acre (4-ha) lakefront park surrounding three of the city's main museums: the Adler Planetarium, the Field Museum of Natural History, and the Shedd Aquarium.
The Museum Campus joins the southern section of Grant Park which includes the renowned Art Institute of Chicago.
Buckingham Fountain anchors the downtown park along the lakefront.
The Oriental Institute, part of the University of Chicago, has an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern archaeological artifacts.
Other museums and galleries in Chicago are the Chicago History Museum, DuSable Museum of African-American History, Museum of Contemporary Art, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, the Polish Museum of America, Museum of Broadcast Communications and the Museum of Science and Industry.
Parks
When Chicago incorporated in 1837 it chose the motto "Urbs in Horto" a Latin phrase which translates into English as "City in a Garden", and today the Chicago Park District consists of 552 parks with over 7,300 acres (30 km²) of municipal parkland as well as 33 beaches, nine museums, two world-class conservatories, 16 historic lagoons and 10 bird and wildlife gardens.
Lincoln Park, the largest of these parks has over 20 million visitors each year, making it second only to Central Park in New York City.
Nine lakefront harbors located within a number of parks along the lakefront render the Chicago Park District the nation's largest municipal harbor system.
In addition to ongoing beautification and renewal projects for existing parks, a number of new parks have been added in recent years such as Ping Tom Memorial Park, DuSable Park and most notably Millennium Park.
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 periphery which are also home to both the Chicago Botanic Garden and Brookfield Zoo.
Cuisine
Chicago lays claim to a number of regional specialties, all of which reflect the city's ethnic and working class roots.
Included among these are its nationally renowned deep-dish pizza, although locally the Chicago-style thin crust is also popular; featuring a thinner than normal crust.
There are very few pizzerias that specialize in true Chicago-style deep dish, the most prominent being Lou Malnati's, Gino's East and Giordano's.
The number of "authentic" Chicago pizzerias specializing in the thin crust version is much higher, with many being "Mom and Pop" style shops.
Among the largest chains in Chicagoland with this area of specialty are Home Run Inn, Rosati's and Aurelio's.
The Chicago-style hot dog, typically a Vienna Beef dog loaded with an array of fixings that often includes Chicago's own neon green pickle relish, yellow mustard, pickled sport peppers, tomato wedges, dill pickle spear and topped off with celery salt.
Ketchup on a Chicago hot dog is frowned upon.
There are two other distinctly Chicago sandwiches, the Italian beef sandwich, which is thinly sliced beef slowly simmered in an au jus served on an Italian roll with sweet peppers or spicy giardiniera, and the Maxwell Street Polish, which is a kielbasa — typically from either the Vienna Beef Company or the Bobak Sausage Company — on a hot dog roll, topped with grilled onions, yellow mustard and the optional sport peppers.
Portillo's is one of the most dominant chains among local restaurants specializing in Chicago-style cuisine.
McDonald's even adds its own downtown flavor, with their Rock-n-Roll McDonald's.
The grand tour of Chicago cuisine culminates annually in Grant Park at the Taste of Chicago, the largest food festival in the world which runs from the final week of June through Fourth of July weekend.
Chicago features a number of celebrity chefs, a list which includes Charlie Trotter, Rick Tramonto, Jean Joho, Grant Achatz, and Rick Bayless, Chicago has in recent decades developed into one of the world's premiere restaurant cities.
Some of the most notable restaurants in Chicago are Gibson's Steakhouse, The Berghoff, Harry Caray's Steakhouse, Ditka's Steakhouse, Hard Rock Chicago, and Goose Island Brewery.
Sports
Chicago was named the Best Sports City in the United States by The Sporting News in 1993 and 2006.
The city is home to two Major League Baseball teams: the Chicago Cubs of the National League play on the city's North Side, in Wrigley Field, while the Chicago White Sox of the American League play in U.S.
Cellular Field on the city's South Side.
The White Sox recently won the Major League Baseball World Series in 2005.
Chicago is the only city in North America that has had more than one Major League Baseball franchise every year since the American League began in 1900.
The Chicago Bears, one of the two remaining charter members of the NFL, have won thirteen NFL Championships.
The Bears play their home games at Soldier Field on Chicago's lakefront.
Due in large part to Michael Jordan, the Chicago Bulls of the NBA are one of the most recognized basketball teams in the world.
With Jordan leading them, the Bulls took six NBA championships in eight seasons during the 1990s (only failing to do so in the two years of Jordan's absence).
The Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL, who began play in 1926 have won three Stanley Cups.
Both the Bulls and Blackhawks play at the United Center on the Near West Side.
The Chicago Fire association football (soccer) club are members of the MLS.
The Fire have won one league and four US Open Cups since their inaugural season in 1998.
In 2006, the club moved to its current home, Toyota Park, in suburban Bridgeview after playing its first eight seasons downtown at Soldier Field and at Cardinal Stadium in Naperville.
The club is now the third professional soccer team to call Chicago home, the first two being the Chicago Sting of the NASL (and later the indoor team of the MISL); and the Chicago Power of the NPSL-AISA.
The Chicago Rush, of the Arena Football League, The Chicago Bandits of the NPF and the Chicago Wolves, of the AHL, also play in Chicago; they both play at the Allstate Arena.
The Chicago Sky of the WNBA, began play in 2006.
The Sky's home arena is the UIC Pavilion.
The Chicago Marathon has been held every October since 1977.
This event is one of five World Marathon Majors.
Chicago was selected on April 14, 2007 to represent the United States internationally in the bidding for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Chicago also hosted the 1959 Pan American Games, and Gay Games VII in 2006.
Chicago was selected to host the 1904 Olympics, but they were transferred to St.
Louis to coincide with the World's Fair.
On June 4, 2008 The International Olympic Committee selected Chicago as one of four candidate cities for the 2016 games.
Chicago is also the starting point for the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac, a 330-mile (530 km) offshore sailboat race held each July that is the longest annual freshwater sailboat race in the world.
2008 marks the 100th running of the "Mac." .
At the collegiate level, Chicago and its suburb, Evanston, have two national athletic conferences, the Big East Conference with DePaul University, and the Big Ten Conference with Northwestern University in Evanston.
Media
The Chicago metropolitan area is the third-largest media market in North America (after New York City and Los Angeles).
Each of the big four (CBS, ABC, NBC, and FOX) United States television networks directly owns and operates a station in Chicago (WBBM, WLS, WMAQ, and WFLD, respectively).
WGN-TV, which is owned by the Tribune Company, is carried (with some programming differences) as "WGN America" on cable nationwide and in parts of the Caribbean.
The city is also the home of The Oprah Winfrey Show (on WLS) and Jerry Springer (on WMAQ), while Chicago Public Radio produces programs such as PRI's This American Life and NPR's Wait Wait...
Don't Tell Me!.
PBS on TV in Chicago can be seen on WTTW (producer of shows such as Sneak Previews, The Frugal Gourmet, Lamb Chop's Play-Along, and The McLaughlin Group, just to name a few) and WYCC.
There are two major daily newspapers published in Chicago: the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, with the former having the larger circulation.
There are also several regional and special-interest newspapers such as the Chicago Reader, the Daily Southtown, the Chicago Defender, the Chicago Sports Weekly, the Daily Herald, StreetWise, The Chicago Free Press and the Windy City Times.
After a long drought of interest from Hollywood movies, Spider-Man 2 filmed a scene in Chicago, although the movie made it seem like New York City and the actors were not flown out.
In 2005, Batman Begins set out to make Chicago Gotham City in their film.
The success of the movie prompted other films to shoot there including 2008's Wanted and 2008's follow-up to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight.
Source: CIA Factbook, Wikipedia
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