Fast Cities

What Makes Chicago the Creative Capital of the Universe?

Kate Rockwood — Mon, 19 May 2008 20:15:08 -0400

Here leading Chicago business people and artisans weigh in on the pressing question, "Is Chicago the creative capital of the Universe?"

“Big yes! A great creative place has to have great art, great food, and a combination of beauty and grit to be inspired by. Chicago has all of that.”

12 Cities to Watch

Ellen Gibson — Mon, 19 May 2008 09:06:06 -0400

Peer through the shroud of smog, and you'll see Beijing all dressed up for the Olympics, with daring new buildings like Rem Koolhaas's CCTV HQ. China's economy is booming, and the arts scene is too. The newest draw in the hip 798 district is the Ullens Center for Contemporary art, funded by a Belgian baron.

Global City of the Year: London

Alice Rawsthorn — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:06:10 -0400

It's shockingly expensive. The roads are jammed with traffic. The subway system's hopeless, and the buses no better. There's a surveillance camera on every other corner, and the sidewalks are strewn with litter. The biggest airport is a joke. The richest residents are fleeing or threatening to; the poorest have been chased out into the suburbs by soaring property prices. And the weather sucks.

U.S. City of the Year: Chicago

Alex Kotlowitz — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:09:51 -0400

In the bottom of the ninth inning of the 2005 World Series, as the long-suffering Chicago White Sox were about to win their first championship in 88 years, play-by-play announcer Joe Buck waxed eloquent about Chicago's South Side, where the Sox play. He described it as "a collection of neighborhoods...Irish neighborhoods. Italian neighborhoods. Polish. Lithuanian. Firemen. Policemen. Schoolteachers. Stockyard workers." Stockyard workers? The last stockyard closed in 1971. Irish, Italian, Polish, Lithuanian?