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Chicago National League Ball Club, Inc. Business Information, Profile, and History
Wrigley Field
1060 West Addison Street
Chicago, Illinois 60613-4397
U.S.A.
History of Chicago National League Ball Club, Inc.
Chicago National League Ball Club, Inc., better known to Major League Baseball fans as the Chicago Cubs, is a subsidiary of the publicly traded media giant Tribune Company. The Cubs have played longer in one city than any other sports franchise. After winning a number of championships in its early history, the Cubs have evolved into sports' most lovable losers, failing to win the World Series since 1908 and not even reaching the Series since 1945. Win or lose, the Cubs have been a perennial favorite on Chicago's WGN television superstation, and draw well at the gate. Often the team's ballpark, Wrigley Field, the second oldest in Major League baseball, is a greater attraction than the team itself. It was the last major league stadium to install lights, and any changes to the facility are met with community opposition, leading to efforts to have Wrigley designated a landmark, which would give the city the power to veto any major renovations.
Late 19th Century Origins
The history of professional baseball dates back to the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, a barnstorming team that took on and defeated all challengers. In 1870 the Chicago White Stockings was formed to challenge the Reds, and in 1871 became one of the founding members of the National Association, baseball's first professional league. At the end of the league's inaugural season, the team's ballpark was destroyed by the great Chicago fire, and the club was forced to withdraw from the National Association for the next two years.
When it resumed play, one of its early boosters, coal baron William A Hulbert, emerged as an officer, and a year later took over as president. Not only would he found the Chicago Cubs, he would have a major influence on the history of professional baseball. The game at the time was poorly run and suffered from the rampant practice of players jumping from one club to another, regardless of contracts. Convinced that he was operating under a disadvantage because of an eastern bias in the game, Hulbert felt no compunction about luring several players away from Boston's perennial championship club. Anticipating retribution from the eastern owners, Hulbert made a preemptive strike; he convinced other club owners to form a new league. Thus, in 1876 the National League was organized, promising to put baseball on a more sound business footing, with contracts honored, no play on Sunday, no drinking, and no gambling. The strongest National Association franchises joined the new league, and the National Association soon disbanded.
Hulbert would become both the president of the National League and the Chicago franchise, which would win the league's first championship. Hulbert died in 1882 at the age of 49, but he had been responsible for a number of important practices in professional baseball, such as having the league determine team schedules (rather than club secretaries), hiring professional umpires, and writing a reserve clause into baseball contracts. This clause bound a player to a club from year to year, and although it prevented contract jumping, it was open to abuse and kept down player salaries. It wasn't until the 1970s that baseball players gained the right to become free agents after fulfilling the terms of their contract.
In 1882 the team's manager, Albert Spaulding, replaced Hulbert as the owner of the Chicago franchise. Spaulding had also been a star pitcher and was already starting to build a sporting goods business that still bears his name. During this early period the Chicago club was known by a variety of nicknames: the White Stockings, Colts, and Orphans. They were also winners, taking the league championship in six of the National League's first 11 seasons. It wasn't until 1902 that the nickname of the Cubs was applied to the team, first appearing in a March 27, 1902, article in the Chicago Daily News. The name was officially adopted by the club in 1907.
There was also a change in ownership in 1902 when Spalding's agent, James A. Hart, took over. Three years later he was looking to sell. A former newspaperman and press agent for the New York Giants named Charles W. Murphy had been hired to work for the Chicago team, but when he learned of Hart's intentions, he bought the Cubs, using $100,000 he borrowed from his former publisher, Charles Phelps Taft, the older half-brother of William Howard Taft, who would be elected President of the United States in 1908. Because the team was successful, Murphy was soon able to repay Taft, who retained a minority interest.
World Champions in 1908
During Murphy's tenure the club became the first back-to-back winners of the World Series, which pitted the National League Champions against the best team in the upstart American League. The early years of the century were also the golden era for the Chicago Cubs. The 1908 World Championship would be the last in club history through 2003. It was also the period that witnessed the best-known double-play combination in baseball history--Tinkers to Evers to Chance--immortalized in a piece by New York Times writer Franklin Pierce. In truth, by modern standards they did not complete a high number of double-plays, and it was ironic that they should be linked together for posterity, given that Tinkers and Evers utterly despised one another.
The Cubs in 1908 were also involved in what was arguably the most controversial moment in baseball history: the "bonehead Merkle" incident. During that season the Cubs were in a tight race with the New York Giants for the National League title when on September 23, 1908, the two teams met in New York's Polo Grounds in a crucial game. The Giants appeared to win the game in their final at bat with a two-out hit, but 19-year-old Giant rookie Fred Merkle, the runner at first, failed to touch second base. Rather, he ran for the clubhouse in center field to avoid the crowd surging onto the field. The Cubs retrieved the ball, or at least claimed they did, and touched second base, thus forcing out Merkle, negating the run, and extending the game. Because a similar circumstance involving the Cubs had occurred earlier in the season, the umpires were alerted to such a possibility and agreed with the Cubs' argument and called out Merkle. The league ruled that the game would be replayed at the end of the season, if necessary. Since the teams were tied in the standings, the game was played, the Cubs won, and went on to defend their World Championship.
Murphy later wore out his welcome with Cubs' fans for trading away popular players and doing little to prevent World Series' tickets getting into the hands of speculators who jacked up the price. He was also becoming unpopular with his fellow owners for unflattering comments he made to the press about Major League Baseball. The National League owners banded together to oust Murphy in 1914, and Taft stepped in to buy Murphy's interest for approximately $500,000. Taft also made it clear, however, that he did not intend to hold the club for very long. Finding no acceptable financial offers, he held onto the team until 1916, finally selling the Cubs to restaurateur Charles Weeghman and a group of partners. Weeghman was the owner of the Chicago Whales of the Federal League, a rival big league that played in 1915, and took Major League Baseball to court. As part of a settlement between the two parties, Weeghman was allowed to buy into the National League. He moved the Cubs to the new Northside ballpark he called Weeghman Park, which he had built the year before for the Whales at a cost of $250,000.
One of Weeghman's minority partners was William K. Wrigley, Jr., a lifelong baseball fan who moved to Chicago from Philadelphia, where he was born in 1861, the son of a soap maker. Wrigley started his own soap business in Chicago, and as an inducement to merchants for carrying his scouring soap he offered baking powder as premium. When baking powder proved more popular than the soap, he began selling the baking powder and offered chewing gum as a premium. Then chewing gum was even more popular, and Wrigley cast his lot with the future of chewing gum. In 1893 he introduced Juicy Fruit and Spearmint gums, and by advertising heavily he was able to make Wrigley's Spearmint the most popular chewing gum in America and make himself a wealthy man. Wrigley loved to spend afternoons at the ballpark with friends, and he quietly began buying up stock in the club so that by 1921 he became sole owner. Single-deck Weeghman Park now became Cubs Park in 1921 and was renamed Wrigley Field in 1926, the same year that plans were announced to add a second deck, which would increase seating to 40,000. Also of note during the 1920s, WGN Radio, on April 14, 1925, broadcast its first regular season Cubs game.
The Wrigley Years
Under William Wrigley's ownership, the Cubs were willing to spend on top players and fielded winning teams, albeit no World Champions. When he died in 1932 he left the chewing gum business and the Cubs to his son, Philip Knight "P.K." Wrigley. Reportedly Wrigley, on his deathbed, elicited a promise from Philip to never sell his beloved Cubs. P.K. Wrigley never did sell the team, but he was also reluctant to spend money on the club. To get fans to come out to Wrigley Field, he decided to sell ambience. He was quoted as saying, "The Fun ... the sunshine, the relaxation. Our idea is to get the public to go see a ball game, win or lose." In 1937 the famous vines were planted on the outfield wall, and bleachers and a new scoreboard would be installed. Wrigley's approach may have angered fans who wanted to root for winners, but his ballpark kept bringing them back. Wrigley Field would remain standing as other cities tore down their vintage ballparks, replacing them with multipurpose stadiums in the 1960s and 1970s. Wrigley Field was the last to install lights, which had begun appearing in the 1930s at major league parks. The Cubs actually purchased lighting equipment in 1941, but on the day after the Pearl Harbor attack that led to America's entry into World War II, Wrigley donated the equipment to the War Department. During his lifetime he never tried installing lights at Wrigley Field. Most owners had turned to lights as an economic necessity, to boost attendance, but Wrigley lacked the need, and since all the other clubs installed lights, not having them made Wrigley Field even more unique.
The Cubs next made it to the World Series in 1945. According to lore, William "Billy Goat" Sianis, the Greek-immigrant owner of a local establishment, the Lincoln Tavern, was not allowed to bring his pet goat Murphy into Wrigley Field to watch the fourth game of the series even though the goat had a ticket. Angered that Murphy had been turned away because he smelled, Sianis placed a curse on the team, saying "Cubs, they not gonna win anymore." After the Cubs lost the series to Detroit, Sianis sent a telegram to Wrigley: "Who smells now?"
After decades of success, the Cubs now became perennial losers, but their fans would at least be able to follow the team's exploits on the newly invented television. On April 16, 1948, WGN-TV broadcast its first game, an exhibition between the Cubs and the crosstown rival White Sox. The fortunes of the Cubs became so bad that in 1960 the team implemented what it called a "College of Coaches," a system in which the team's coaches took turns as manager. The idea was scrapped after five seasons, and Leo Durocher was brought in. He built a strong club that appeared to be on the verge of returning the Cubs to the World Series in 1969. However, the upstart New York Mets began catching up, and although Sianis, who would die a year later, supposedly lifted the curse, the Cubs faltered badly and ended up eight games behind the Mets, who would go on to win the World Series that October.
The Enlightening 1980s
During the 1970s the Cubs would often lead their division only to fall short. In 1977 P.K. Wrigley died, and the family sold the team to the Tribune Company four years later. Tribune was the parent company of WGN, and by buying the Cubs it locked up very valuable programming, which it would then be able to distribute to cable systems via satellite, joining WTBS in Atlanta, which broadcast Braves' games, as a so-called superstation. A new management team was installed with the Cubs, a number of players changed, and the team won a division title in 1984, only to fall short in the playoffs, losing to the San Diego Padres and again failing to reach the World Series.
Because the Cubs came so close to playing in the World Series, Wrigley Field's lack of lights became an issue for Major League Baseball, which wanted all World Series' games played at night in order to attain the highest television ratings. The Cubs began the lengthy process of gaining approval to install lights, a move opposed by baseball purists as well as people who lived in the residential area surrounding the park. Finally, in February 1988 the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance permitting a limited number of night baseball games at Wrigley Field. The first game under the lights at Wrigley was scheduled for August 8, 1988, with the Philadelphia Phillies, but rain caused a cancellation after three-and-a-half innings. The first official night game would have to wait until the next day. Later in 1988, the team reaffirmed its commitment to Wrigley Field by launching a $14 million renovation project that would add 67 mezzanine suites and a new press box.
In 1992 Major League Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent proposed moving the Cubs from the Eastern to the Western division, an idea that was vehemently opposed by the Tribune Company, which was concerned about having so many West Coast games on WGN that would not only attract fewer viewers but also disrupt the station's highly profitable local news broadcast. In the end, the Cubs stayed, and Commissioner Vincent left. Several years later, baseball would realign further and the Cubs would be placed in the National League's Central division, a change that met with no opposition from the club.
Although the Cubs and their fans were wedded to Wrigley Field, the club was at a disadvantage compared to other teams with larger capacities and revenues from luxury suites, naming rights, and large parking concessions. For years, the Cubs battled with the row houses across the street from the outfield fences where makeshift seating was set up. At first it was just lawn chairs and maybe a kettle grill or two, but the rooftops evolved into revenue-generating enterprises. In 2002 the team constructed large windscreens that blocked some of the view and later in the year sued the rooftop operators. A deal was reached before the start of the 2004 season, with the rooftop owners agreeing to pay the Cubs 17 percent of their revenues. They simply passed that cost onto their patrons, who happily paid the increased ticket price. It was a win-win solution for both sides. The Cubs took in additional revenues, and the rooftop owners were able to book corporate parties in advance, knowing that there would be no disruption.
The Late 1990s and Beyond
In the late 1990s Cubs fans were entertained by the home-run exploits of outfielder Sammy Sosa, but it was the team's development of outstanding pitching that made it a contender. The team made it to the postseason in 2003 and was on the verge of making it to the World Series for the first time in half a century, when once again fate intervened. A Cubs' fan ended up snagging a foul boul that the Cubs fielders might have caught, giving the Florida Marlins new life in game six of the National League Championship Series. The Marlins won that night and closed out the series in seven games, then went on to win the World Series. For the Cubs the cry was once again "Wait until next year."
Meanwhile, Tribune Company was interested in expanding Wrigley Field and adding more night games, ideas that once again met stiff opposition from the community. The city threatened to designate Wrigley Field as a landmark, which would prevent the Cubs from doing much without government approval. It was also uncertain how committed Tribune was to its ownership of the Cubs. Because of its investment in the WB Network, WGN was less dependent on the Cubs for programming. Moreover, Tribune appeared ready to launch a major television-station buying spree and could use the $300 million the club would likely fetch. During Tribune's ownership of the Cubs, however, there were periodic rumors that it was about to sell. Whether they would prove to be true this time remained to be seen.
Principal Operating Units: Mesa Cubs; Boise Hawks; Lansing Lugnuts; Dayton Cubs; West Tenn Diamond Jaxx; Iowa Cubs.
Principal Competitors: St. Louis Cardinals, L.P.; Houston Astros Baseball Club; Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club; The Cincinnati Reds; Pittsburgh Baseball Club.
Related information about Chicago
41°53N 87°38W, pop (2000e) 2 896 000. Third
largest city in the USA; seat of Cook Co, NE Illinois, on L
Michigan; built on the site of Fort Dearborn; settled in the 1830s;
city status, 1837; developed as a result of its strategic position
linking the Great Lakes with the Mississippi R after the Illinois
and Michigan Canal was completed (1848), and after the railway to
the E was opened (1853); much of the city destroyed by fire, 1871;
notorious gangster activity in the Prohibition years (1920s),
notably by Al Capone; now the major industrial, commercial,
financial and cultural centre for the US interior; electrical
machinery, metal products, steel (one-quarter of the nation's steel
produced in and around the city), textiles, chemicals, food
products, printing and publishing; commerce and finance centred
upon ‘The Loop’ area; transport centre of the USA, with one of the
busiest airports in the world; major rail network and inland port;
seven universities; Sears Tower (1974), the world's second tallest
building in 1999 (443 m/1454 ft); professional teams,
Cubs, White Sox (baseball), Bulls (basketball), Bears (football),
Black Hawks (ice hockey); Lyric Opera, Art Institute, Museum of
Science and Industry, Shedd Aquarium, Planetarium; Chicago Film
Festival (Nov).
) is the largest city in
the U.S. state of
Illinois, as well as
the third-most populous city in the United States,
with nearly 2.9 million people. Located along the southwestern
shore of Lake
Michigan, it is the seat of Cook County.
Chicago is known as the "Second City," the "Windy City," the "City of Big Shoulders", and
"Chi-town". When combined with its suburbs and nine surrounding counties in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana, the greater metropolitan area
known as Chicagoland
encompasses a population greater than 9.4 million, making it the
third largest in the United States.
Since its 1833 founding as a frontier town of the Old Northwest, Chicago has grown into one of the
ten most influential world cities.The World According to GaWC (2006).
Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network.
Chicago today is the financial, economic, and cultural capital of
the Midwest, and is recognized as a major transportation,
business, and architectural center.
Origin of name
The indigenous Potawatomi tribe called the marshes on which Chicago was later built "Checagou
(prounounced 'She-Ka-Gan')," which translates to "wild onion" or
"garlic." Before Chicago's founding, the name of the river was
spelled several ways, such as "Chetagu" or "Shikago."
The origin of Chicago's nickname as "The Windy City" is debated
(see List of nicknames for Chicago). The most common
explanation had been that the phrase was created by New York
newspapers in the 1880s during a national debate over which city
would host the 1893 World's Fair, making reference to the long-windedness of
the city's supporters.
History
During the mid-1700s, the Chicago area was inhabited primarily
by Potawatomis, who
took the place of the Miami and Sauk and Fox people. In 1803, the United States Army
built Fort
Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Fort Dearborn
Massacre. The Ottawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi later ceded the land to the
United States in the Treaty of St. Louis of 1816. On August 12, 1833, the Town of Chicago was
organized with a population of 350, and within seven years it grew
to a population of over 4,000. The City of Chicago was incorporated
on March 4, 1837.
Starting in 1848, the city became an important transportation link
between the eastern and western United States with the opening of
the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, Chicago's first
railway, and the Illinois and Michigan Canal, which allowed
shipping from the Great Lakes through Chicago to the Mississippi River.
With a flourishing economy that brought many new residents from
rural communities and immigrants from Europe, Chicago grew from a city of 299,000 to
nearly 1.7 million between 1870 and 1900. The city's manufacturing
and retail sectors dominated the Midwest and greatly influenced the
American economy, with the Union Stock Yards' dominating the packing
trade.
After the Great
Chicago Fire of 1871, Chicago experienced rapid rebuilding and
growth.Bruegmann, Robert (2004-2005). Built Environment of the
Chicago Region. Encyclopedia of Chicago (online
version). During Chicago's rebuilding period, the first
skyscraper was
constructed in 1885 using steel-skeleton construction. In 1893, Chicago hosted the
World's Columbian Exposition on former marshland at the
present location of Jackson Park. The term "midway" for a fair or
carnival referred originally to the Midway, a strip of park land
that still runs through the University of Chicago campus.
The city was the site of labor conflicts and unrest during this
period, which included the Haymarket Riot on May 4, 1886.
Concern for social problems among Chicago's lower classes led to
the founding of Hull
House in 1889, of which Jane Addams was a co-founder. The city also invested in
many large, finely-landscaped municipal parks, which also included
public sanitation facilities.
Lake Michigan -
the primary source of fresh water for the city - was already highly
polluted from population growth and the rapidly growing industries
in and around Chicago. The city responded by embarking on several
large public works
projects, including a large excavation project which built tunnels
below Lake Michigan to newly built water cribs which were two miles (3 km) off
the lakeshore. Beginning in 1855, Chicago constructed the first
comprehensive sewer system in the U.S. In 1900, the problem of
sewage was solved by reversing the direction of the River's flow
with the construction of the Chicago
Sanitary and Ship Canal leading to the Illinois River.
The 1920s brought international notoriety to Chicago as gangsters
such as Al Capone
battled each other and the law during the Prohibition era.
Nevertheless, the 1920s also saw a large increase in Chicago
industry as well as the first arrivals of the Great
Migration that would lead thousands of mostly Southern blacks
to Chicago and other Northern cities. On December 2, 1942, the world's first controlled
nuclear
reaction was conducted at the University of
Chicago as part of the top secret Manhattan
Project.
Mayor Richard J.
Nevertheless, the city hosted the 1968
Democratic National Convention and saw the construction of the
Sears Tower (which
became the world's tallest building), McCormick Place, and
O'Hare Airport.
In 1983 Harold
Washington became the first African American to be elected to the office of
mayor; As a part of its environmentally friendly image, Chicago
declared Peregrine
Falcon, a protected species that started to build its nests in
Chicago skyscrapers, the official bird of the city in 1999.Peregrine Falcon:
Official City Bird of Chicago.
Geography and climate
Located in northeastern Illinois at the southwestern tip of
Lake Michigan,
Chicago's official geographic coordinates are . It sits on the
continental
divide at the site of the Chicago Portage, connecting the Mississippi River and
the Great Lakes
watersheds. The
city lies beside Lake Michigan and two rivers: the Chicago River in
downtown and the Calumet River in the industrial far South Side flow
entirely or partially through Chicago. The Chicago
Sanitary and Ship Canal connects the Chicago River with the
Des Plaines
River, which runs to the west of the city.
When Chicago was founded in the 1830s, most of the early building
began around the mouth of the Chicago River. According to the U.S. Census
Bureau, Chicago has a total area of 234.0 square miles
(606.1 km²), of which 227.1 square miles (588.3 km²) is
land and 6.9 square miles (17.8 km²) is water.
Since the first recorded earthquake in 1804,200th Anniversary of the First
Recorded Chicago Earthquake (9/14/2004). More recently, an
earthquake with an epicenter in Ottawa, Illinois,
registering about 4.3 on the Richter scale shook some buildings in Chicago on
June 28,
2004.
Climate
Chicago, like much of the Midwest, has a climate that is prone to extreme, often
volatile, weather conditions. Weatherbase. According to the
National
Weather Service, Chicago's highest official temperature reading
of 105 °F (40 °C) was recorded on July 24, 1934. The lowest temperature of −27 °F
(−32 °C) degrees was recorded on January 20, 1985.
Chicago's yearly precipitation averages about 38 inches (965 mm). Chicago's highest one
day precipitation total was 6.49 inches (164 mm) which fell on
August 14, 1987.
Cityscape
[[Image:DowntownChicagoILatNight.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Downtown
Chicago along the
Chicago River looking northeast]]
The city?s urban context is organized within a grid pattern. The Northwest
and Southwest sides of the city area also referenced with
frequency, though they tend to be subsumed under one of the three
aforementioned areas.
Since the first steel-framed high-rise building of the world was
constructed in the city in 1885, Chicago has been known for the
skyscraper.Chicago (2004).
Chicago Public Library. Today, many high-rise buildings are
located in the downtown area, notably in the Loop and along the
lakefront and the Chicago River. The three tallest buildings are
the Sears Tower
(also the tallest building in North America), the Aon Center, and
the John Hancock
Center. There are clusters of industrialized areas, including the lakefront near the
Indiana border, the area
south of Midway
Airport, and the banks of the Chicago
Sanitary and Ship Canal.
Future building sites that will contribute to Chicago's skyline
include Waterview
Tower, 400 North Lake Shore Drive, and the Trump International Hotel and Tower.
Along Lake Shore
Drive, parks line the lakefront. The most notable of these
parks are Grant Park and Millennium Park, which border the east end of the Loop,
Lincoln Park on the north side, and Jackson Park
in the Hyde
Park neighborhood on the south side. Interspersed within this
system of parks are 31 beaches, a zoo and several bird sanctuaries, McCormick Place
Convention Center, Navy
Pier, Soldier
Field, the Museum Campus, and a water treatment plant.
Pushed along by the national real estate boom in recent years,
Chicago has seen an unprecedented surge in skyscraper construction,
most notably in the area directly south (South Loop)
and north (River North) of the Loop. However, these homes (and
others throughout Chicago) have been all but demolished in
Chicago's recent movement to replace public housing with
mixed-income, progressive new housing developments, known as the
Plan for Transformation (see The Chicago Housing
Authority).
Regardless of this, many areas of the South Side, despite
perceptions to the otherwise, are stable, middle-class, and
diverse. U.S. Bureau of the Census (accessed April 20,
2006).
As one of the largest cities in North America, the population of
Chicago is cosmopolitan. This encompasses about one-fifth of the
entire population of the state of Illinois and 1% of the population of the United States. The
population
density was 12,750.3 people per square mile (4,923.0/km²). The racial makeup of
the city was 36.39% Black
or African American, 31.32% White, 26.02%
Hispanic or
Latino,
4.33% Asian and
Pacific Islander, 1.64% from two or more races, 0.15%
Native American, and 0.15% from other
races.Chicago Demographics
(2003). US Census Bureau The city itself makes up 23.3%
percent of the total population of Illinois, down from a high of
44.3% in 1930.
Like most large American cities, Chicago is a minority-majority city.
Of the 1,061,928 households, 28.9% have children under the age of
18 living with them, 35.1% were married couples living together, 18.9% had a female
householder with no husband present, and 40.4% were non-families.
Of the total population, 28.1% of those under the age of 18 and
15.5% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.
Chicago has a large Irish-American population on its South Side. The
majority of African Americans are also located on Chicago's South Side. Other European ethnic groups are the
Germans,
Italians and
Polish. Chicago
has the largest population of Swedish-Americans of any city in the U.S. with
approximately 123,000. After the Great Chicago Fire,
many Swedish carpenters helped to rebuild the city, which led to
the saying the Swedes built Chicago.Chicago Stories - Swedes in Chicago
(2006). Chicago is the home of the Evangelical
Covenant Church www.covchurch.org..
Chicago has the largest Bulgarian community in the world (outside Bulgaria) with more than
150,000 Bulgarians living in the city. The city has the largest
ethnically Polish
population outside of Poland, making it one of the most important Polonia centers.America the diverse -
Chicago's Polish neighborhoods (5/15/2005). USA Weekend
Magazine. Chicago is also the second-largest SerbianSerbian Delegation
(4/30/2004). WTCC Weekly News at www.wtcc.org. and
Lithuanian
city,Cities Guide Chicago -
A hard-knock life (2006). Economist.com. and the third
largest Greek city in the
world.Chicago Stories - The Greeks
in Chicago (2006). Accessed June 5, 2006. Chicago has a large
Romanian-American community with more than
100,000,About Us. The city is home
to the seat of the head of the Assyrian Church
of the East, Mar
Dinkha IV, the Evangelical Covenant Church www.covchurch.org.,
and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
headquarters.Contact Us.
ELCA.org.
The Chicago Metropolitan area is also a major center for Indian-Americans and
South Asians.
Chicago has the third-largest South Asian population in the United
States, after New York
City and the San Francisco Bay Area. The Devon Avenue
corridor on Chicago's north side is one of the largest South Asian
neighborhoods in North
America. Chicago also has the second-largest Puerto Rican
population in the United States after New York City.
Population
Chicago's 2006 population of estimate of 2,873,790 is debated by
some since there has been signifcant construction in the city in
the 6 years since the 2000 census.
Over 1/3 of the population of Chicago is concentrated in the
lakefront neighborhoods of the city (from Rogers Park in
the north to Hyde Park in the south). This makes Chicago's lakefront
the most densely populated area in the United States outside of
New York City.
www.demographia.com/db-chi-nhd2000.htm
Economy
Chicago has the third largest gross
metropolitan product in the nation - approximately $390 billion. The
city has also been rated as having the most balanced economy in the
United States due to its high level of
diversification.www.worldbusinesschicago.com/
about/upload/20ChicagoSunTimes6-23-03.pdf Moody's: Chicago's
Economy Most Balanced in US (1/23/2003). Accessed 08/22/2006 from
'Site Selection Online' at
www.siteselection.com/issues/2006/mar/p176/.
Chicago is a major financial center with the second largest central business
district in the U.S. The city is the headquarters of the
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (the Seventh District of
the Federal Reserve). The city is also home to four major financial
and futures exchanges, including the Chicago Stock
Exchange, the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), the Chicago Board
Options Exchange (CBOE), and the Chicago
Mercantile Exchange (the "Merc"). Chicago and the surrounding
areas also house many major brokerage firms and insurance
companies, such as Allstate Corporation and Zurich North America. Accessed
from 'SAGE Publications' at edq.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/18/1/10?ijkey=50c44cb29d68315499a2aa3771131b328064bf28&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha.
Manufacturing (which includes chemicals, metal, machinery, and
consumer electronics), printing and publishing, and food processing
also play major roles in the city's economy. Encyclopedia of
Chicago (online edition). Several medical products and services
companies are headquartered in the Chicago area, including Baxter
International, Abbott Laboratories, and the Healthcare Financial
Services division of General Electric. Moreover, the construction of the
Illinois
and Michigan Canal, which helped move goods from the Great Lakes south on the
Mississippi
River, and the railroads in the 1800s made the city a major
transportation center in the United States. In the 1840s, Chicago
became a major grain
port, and in the 1850s and 1860s Chicago's pork and beef industry
expanded. Chicago is third in the U.S. behind Las Vegas and
Orlando as
far as the number of conventions hosted annually.Chicago falls to 3rd in U.S.
convention industry (4/26/2006). Crain's Chicago
Business. In addition, Chicago is home to eleven Fortune 500 companies, while
the metropolitan area hosts an additional 21 Fortune 500
companies.Fortune 500 2006 -
Illinois. CBRE - CB Richard Ellis, at
www.cbre.com/NR/rdonlyres/9326419A-60CC-47BC-9960-448BD4B32C52/0/MarketOutlook06FINAL.pdf.
In 2006, Chicago placed 10th on the UBS list of the world's richest
cities.
Law and government
Chicago is the county
seat of Cook County. The government of the City of Chicago is
divided into executive and legislative branches. The Mayor of Chicago is the
chief
executive, elected by general election for a term of four
years. In addition to the mayor, Chicago's two other citywide
elected officials are the clerk and the treasurer.
The City
Council is the legislative branch and is made up of 50
alderman, one elected from each ward in the city.
The council takes official action through the passage of ordinances
and resolutions.
During much of the last half of the 19th century, Chicago's
politics were dominated by a growing Democratic Party organization dominated by ethnic
ward-healers. During the 1880s and 1890s, Chicago had a powerful
radical tradition with large and highly organized socialist,
anarchist and labor organizations. For much of the 20th century,
Chicago has been among the largest and most reliable Democratic
strongholds in the United States, with Chicago's Democratic vote
totals' leading the state of Illinois to be "solid
blue" in presidential elections since 1992. The citizens of
Chicago have not elected a Republican mayor since 1927, when William Thompson
was voted into office. The strength of the party in the city is
partly a consequence of Illinois state politics, where the Republicans have come
to represent the rural and farm concerns while the Democrats
support urban issues such as Chicago's public school funding.
Former Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley's mastery of machine politics
preserved the Chicago Democratic Machine long after the demise of
similar machines in other large American cities. During much of
that time the city administration found opposition mainly from a
liberal "independent" faction of the Democratic Party. Chicago
Tribune, found at
qrc.depaul.edu/djabon/Articles/ChicagoCrime20030101.htm. After
adopting crime-fighting techniques recommended by the New York Police
Department and the Los Angeles
Police Department in 2004,David Heinzmann and Rex W. City murder toll lowest
in decades Chicago Tribune. Chicago recorded 448
homicides, the lowest total since 1965. They have prompted some
calls of discrimination since these cameras tend to be prevalent in
Black and Latino communities with higher than average crime
rates.
The FBI often does not accept crime statistics submitted by the
Chicago
Police Department, which tallies data differently than other
cities. As a result, Chicago is often omitted from studies like
Morgan Quitno's
annual "Safest/Most Dangerous City" survey.Locy, Toni (6/7/2005).
USA Today.
Education
Public education
The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is the school district that
controls over 600 public elementary and high schools in Chicago.
Chicago Public Schools at www.cps.k12.il.us/AtAGlance.html.
is led by CEO Arne Duncan. The CPS also
includes several selective-admission magnet schools, such as
Whitney Young Magnet High School, William
Jones College Preparatory, Walter Payton
College Prep, Lane
Tech College Prep, and Northside College Preparatory High School.
Like many urban U.S. school districts, CPS suffered many problems
throughout the latter half of the 20th century, including
overcrowding, underfunding, mismanagement and a high dropout rate.
In 1987, then U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett named
the Chicago Public Schools as the "worst in the nation." Several
school reform
initiatives have since been undertaken to improve the system's
performance. Reforms have included a system of Local School
Councils, Charter
Schools, and efforts to end social promotion. The city is home to two of
America's top research universities: University of
Chicago in Hyde Park on the South Side and Northwestern
University in northside suburb Evanston. Several
private Catholic universities are located in Chicago, such as
DePaul
University (the largest private university in Illinois),
St. Xavier
University, and Loyola University.
The University of Illinois at Chicago is the city's largest
university and features the nation's largest medical school. The
Illinois Institute of Technology in Bronzeville has
renowned engineering and architecture programs. Dominican
University, outside Chicago in River Forest, teaches many
library courses at the Chicago Public Library's Harold Washington
Building. North Park University, a small Christian liberal arts
university affiliated with the Evangelical
Covenant Church, is located on the northwest side in the North
Park neighborhood. These accredited seminaries are joined in a
consortium known as the Association of Chicago Theological Schools
(ACTS).Association of Chicago Theological
Schools The Moody Bible Institute is near downtown. Chicago State
University and Northeastern Illinois University are other state
universities in Chicago. The city also has a large community college
system known as the City Colleges of Chicago. Additionally, there are
several smaller colleges noted for their fine arts education programs -
Roosevelt
University, Columbia College Chicago, and The
School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Culture
Chicago has a major theater scene, and is the birthplace of modern improvisational
comedy. The city is home to two renowned comedy troupes:
The Second City
and Steppenwolf
Theatre Company (on the city's north side), the Goodman Theatre, and the
Victory Gardens Theater. Other theatres, from nearly 100 storefront
performance spaces such as the Strawdog Theatre Company in the
Lakeview
area to landmark downtown houses such as the Chicago Theatre, present
a variety of plays and
musicals. The
city is home to the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, the Joffrey Ballet, and several modern and jazz dance
troupes. The city's classical music scene is also home to companies
including Music
of the Baroque, Chicago Opera Theater, the Chicago Chamber
Musicians, Chicago a cappella, and many others.
Chicago is known for its Chicago blues, Chicago soul, Jazz, and Gospel. The city is the birthplace of the House style of 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 (spawning
the famous Wax Trax!
label); There is a flourishing independent rock scene, including
the recent explosion of Chicago emo acts, with multiple festivals featuring various acts
each year (Lollapalooza, the Intonation Music
Festival and Pitchfork Music Festival being the most
prominent).
Chicago has several signature foods which reflect the city's ethnic
and working-class
roots. These include the deep-dish pizza and the Chicago hot dog,
which is almost always made of Vienna Beef and loaded with mustard, chopped onion,
sliced tomato, pickle relish, celery salt, sport peppers, and a
dill pickle spear. Chicago is also known for Italian Beef sandwiches and
the Maxwell
Street Polish (always served topped with grilled onions and
mustard).
Sites of interest
In 1998, the city officially opened the Museum Campus, a
10-acre (4-hectare) lakefront park
surrounding three of the city's main museums: the Adler Planetarium, the
Field Museum of Natural History, and the Shedd Aquarium. Grant
Park is also home to Chicago's other major downtown museum, the
Art
Institute of Chicago, which is partnered with The School of the
Art Institute of Chicago. The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, located in
the Hyde
Park neighborhood, is housed in the only in-place surviving
building from the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893.
Navy Pier, a
3000-foot (900 m) pier housing restaurants, shops, museums,
exhibition halls, auditoriums, and a 150-foot-tall (45 m) Ferris wheel, is located
north of Grant Park on the lakefront.
The Chicago
Cultural Center, built in 1897 as Chicago's first permanent
public library,
now houses the city's Visitor Information Center, galleries, and
exhibit halls. The Oriental Institute, part of the University of
Chicago, has an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian and
Near Eastern
archaeological artifacts, while the Freedom
Museum is dedicated to exploring and explaining the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Other
museums and galleries in Chicago are the Chicago History
Museum, DuSable
Museum of African-American History, Mexican Fine
Arts Center Museum, Museum
of Contemporary Art, and the Peggy
Notebaert Nature Museum.
Millennium Park
is a rebuilt section of Grant Park that was planned for unveiling
at the turn of the 21st century, though it was delayed for several
years.
Media
Chicago is the third-largest market in the U.S. (after New York City and Los Angeles).Nielsen Media - DMA Listing (September 24,
2005). All of the major American television networks have subsidiaries in
Chicago. WGN-TV, which is
owned by the Tribune
Company, is carried (with some programming differences) as
"Superstation WGN"
on cable
nation-wide. The city is also the home of the Oprah Winfrey Show,
while Chicago
Public Radio produces programs such as PRI's
This American
Life and NPR's Wait Wait...
Other television news programs include ABC 7, NBC 5, CBS 2, FOX 32,
WGN 9, and CLTV
There are two major daily newspapers published in Chicago: the Chicago Tribune and the
Chicago
Sun-Times, with the former having the larger circulation.
The Chicago Cubs of
the National
League play at Wrigley Field, which is located in the North Side
neighborhood of Lakeview, commonly referred to as "Wrigleyville." The
Chicago White
Sox of the American League play at U.S. Cellular Field,
in the city's South Side Bridgeport neighborhood.
The Chicago Bulls
of the National Basketball Association is one of the world's
most recognized basketball teams. The Bulls play at the United Center on Chicago's
Near West side. The Chicago Bears of the National Football
League play at Soldier Field. The Chicago Fire,
members of Major
League Soccer, won one league and three US Open Cups since 1997.
Other major league sports teams in Chicago include the Chicago Blackhawks of
the National
Hockey League and the Chicago Sky of the Women's National Basketball Association
The city has offered an official Olympic bid for
the 2016 Summer
Olympics, and is considered a strong contender among the three
candidate American cities.Kathy Bergen and Gary Washburn
(5/11/2006). Chicago Tribune. Chicago also hosted the
1959 Pan
American Games, and Gay Games VII in 2006.
Infrastructure
Health and medicine
Chicago is home to the Illinois Medical
District on the Near West Side. It includes Rush
University Medical Center, the University of Illinois at Chicago medical center, and
John H.
The University of Chicago operates the University
of Chicago Hospitals, which was ranked the fourteenth best
hospital in the country
by U.S. News and World Report. It is the only hospital
in Illinois ever to be
included in the magazine's "Honor Roll" of the best hospitals in
the United
States.
The University of Illinois College of Medicine at
UIC is the largest medical school in the United States
(1300 students, including those at campuses in Peoria, Rockford and
Urbana-Champaign).About the College - A Brief History of the
University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine (2005).
UIC College of Medicine at
www.uic.edu/depts/mcam/history.shtml. Chicago is also home to other
nationally recognized medical schools including Rush Medical
College, the Pritzker School of Medicine of the University of
Chicago, and the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern
University. In addition, the Chicago Medical
School and Loyola University Chicago's Stritch School of Medicine
are located in the suburbs of North Chicago
and Maywood,
respectively. The Midwestern University Chicago College of Osteopathic
Medicine is in Downers Grove.
The leading healthcare informatics organizations are located in
Chicago, including the American Medical Informatics Association and
the Health Information Management Systems Society. These
organizations include as members many healthcare IT vendors and
the CIO/VP Technology leaders of most American healthcare
operations. The American College of Surgeons, American Dental
Association, American Hospital Association, American
Medical Association, and the American
Osteopathic Association are based in the city. It is an
important component in global distribution, as it is the third
largest inter-modal port in the world after Hong Kong and Singapore.
Madigan, p.52. Additionally, it is the only city in North America
in which all six Class I railroads meet.Appendix C: Regional
Freight Transportation Profiles. U.S. Department of
Transportation - Federal Highway Administration (April 2005).
Seven interstate
highways run through Chicago. Other named highway segments are
the Stevenson Expressway (I-55) and Eisenhower Expressway (I-290).
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) handles public
transportation in Chicago and a few adjacent suburbs. The CTA
operates an extensive network of buses and a rapid transit system known
locally as the 'L' (for "elevated"), which among other things provides
rail service from downtown to Midway and O'Hare airports. The
Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) provides service
in forty surrounding suburbs with some extensions into the
city.
Metra operates commuter
rail service in Chicago and its suburbs. The Metra Electric Line
shares the railway with the South Shore Line's NICTD
Northwest Indiana Commuter Rail Service, which accesses Gary/Chicago Airport. Pace operates a
primarily-suburban bus service that also offers some routes into
Chicago.
Chicago is served by Midway Airport on the south side and O'Hare
International Airport, one of the world's busiest airports, on
the far northwest. Gary/Chicago International Airport, located in nearby
Gary, Indiana,
serves as the third Chicagoland airport. Their service territory
borders Iroquois County to the south, the Wisconsin border to the north,
the Iowa border to the west
and the Indiana border
to the east. In northern Illinois, ComEd (a division of Exelon) operates the greatest number of nuclear
generating plants in any US state.
Chronology
- Key Dates:
-
1876: The Chicago National League team is founded.
-
1906: The Cubs moniker is officially adopted.
-
1908: Cubs win the World Series.
-
1914: Wrigley Field (originally named Weeghman Park) is constructed.
-
1921: William Wrigley becomes the Cubs' owner.
-
1932: Wrigley dies, leaving the team in the hands of his son Philip.
-
1945: Cubs make another World Series appearance.
-
1981: The Wrigley family sells the team to Tribune Company.
-
1988: Lights are installed at Wrigley Field.
-
2003: Cubs lose final two games of Champion Series, again failing to reach World Series.
Additional topics
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