The whole world is watching. Food connoisseurs can’t eat enough Chicago; travel scribes compare us to Europe’s most charming cities; we vie against Madrid, Prague, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo to host a future Olympics, the greatest world stage of our time.

World Class yet All-American. No other big city is so completely American as this town, built from scratch in a hundred years, this town untarnished by the distortions of being a media or movie center. You want to see America? This is it. The world sees it.

The town the world sees today is not the city of tomorrow. The city of tomorrow is in the cranes that dot the horizon like invading aliens, pecking away at the city’s face, destroying old buildings, building new.

Likewise, less visibly, the city’s chroniclers face the cranes. The mighty daily newspapers, one even present to describe the Columbian Exposition more than a century ago, fight to live to even see the Olympics a mere decade from now. Among the weeklies, Newcity stands alone as a Chicago publication made by Chicagoans, our competitors all now cogs in the machinery of national or global information manufacturers. Ironic that, as the identity of Chicago crests on the world stage, those who document it lose their local identity.

And so, the Best of Chicago, the fifteenth edition. Much of what we celebrate has been here a decade plus a half and more, those eternal wonders of the city. Some of what we note is brand new, some will not survive the next year. This is a city in transition, a great city, but one to be savored and appreciated.

Click here to read the 2007 Best of Chicago

(2007-09-26)

about Newcitychicago | about Newcity magazine | advertising | privacy policy | FAQ | employment