{"id":1931,"date":"2013-11-11T09:51:25","date_gmt":"2013-11-11T17:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/?p=1931"},"modified":"2013-11-11T09:51:25","modified_gmt":"2013-11-11T17:51:25","slug":"podthoughts-curious-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/?p=1931","title":{"rendered":"Podthoughts: Curious City"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/center><\/p>\n

Vital stats:<\/strong>
\nFormat: questions about Chicago history, culture, and infrastructure, investigated
\nEpisode duration: 9-23m
\nFrequency: weekly<\/p>\n

\u201cNot so long ago Chicagoans were convinced that their city would soon be the greatest and most famous on Earth, outranking New York, London, and Paris, the centre of a new world, the boss city of the universe,\u201d writes Jan Morris, our most astute observer of place, in a midcentury essay on the capital of the midwest. But now, \u201cthe blindest lover of Chicago would not claim for the place the status of a universal metropolis. Too much of the old grand assertiveness has been lost. Nobody pretends Chicago has overtaken New York; instead there is a provincial acceptance of inferiority, a resignation, coupled with a mild regret for the old days of brag and beef. For one reason or another, the stream of events generally passes Chicago by.\u201d Chicagoans, a people still famously full of pride, may take issue with the passage quoted above, but they should note that Morris goes on to sing the praises of their city\u2019s \u201cmagnificent art galleries,\u201d \u201csplendid libraries,\u201d \u201cplethora of universities,\u201d \u201cexcellent symphony orchestra,\u201d and so on. Why, just last night, I sat down to pizza with a couple of New York- and Los Angeles-loving urbanist friends just returned from the Windy City, both of whom had many strongly favorable impressions of its robustness, cleanliness, and comforting solidity to share. One of them even declared Chicago\u2019s downtown his very favorite in the world.<\/p>\n

Still, they laughed when I told the old joke about the discussion among Chicago\u2019s founders: \u201cOkay, we like New York; we like the crime, and we like the overcrowding. But consarn it, it\u2019s not cold enough!\u201d But our conversation, quite pro-Chicago overall, came at an advantageous time, for I\u2019d spent the past few weeks listening to\u00a0Curious City<\/em><\/a>\u00a0[RSS<\/a>] [iTunes<\/a>], a newish podcast from well-regarded Chicago-based public radio station WBEZ. Each week, the show hits the street in search of answers to questions about the city\u2019s history, culture, and infrastructure submitted by residents: \u201cAre there tunnels under the Loop?<\/a>\u201d, \u201cWhat Do Aldermen Do?<\/a>\u201d, \u201cHow do they clean the Bean?<\/a>\u201d These questions will no doubt make more sense to you \u2014 some sense, anyway \u2014 if you\u2019ve lived or spent time in Chicago, but the show, seemingly aiming toward even a non-Chicagoan audience, usually takes pains to explain, in simple, outsider-friendly terms, even the most beloved local landmarks and institutions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the whole thing at Maximum Fun<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vital stats: Format: questions about Chicago history, culture, and infrastructure, investigated Episode duration: 9-23m Frequency: weekly \u201cNot so long ago Chicagoans were convinced that their city would soon be the greatest and most famous on Earth, outranking New York, London, and Paris, the centre of a new world, the boss city of the universe,\u201d writes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chicago","category-podthoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1931"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1932,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931\/revisions\/1932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}