Chicago Noir

Начало книги

While I was working as a reporter in Chicago, from 1993 to 2000, the city changed. Very profound, you say. Of course the city changed in seven years; that’s what cities do. True enough, but cities change during certain periods more than others. In the ‘90s, Chicago changed a lot, and it’s changed even more, and more quickly, in the years since I’ve left.

It’s very possible to visit Chicago these days and see no more grit than you would in, say, Indianapolis. During his nearly twenty-year reign over the city, Richard M. Daley has overseen a studied program of urban renewal, civic booster-ism, and tourist pleasing. His Chicago shines with a well-buffed gloss. One by one, the weird old bars and restaurants, the bizarre little museums, the hardware stores that never had any customers disappeared, some in blatant land-grabs, others subtly, almost imperceptibly, like construction dust blown out to the lake. In their place stand condos and fresh-brick branch libraries, a Frank Gehry bandshell, and a spaceship in the middle of Soldier Field. In many ways, it’s a better city than the one Mayor Daley inherited, but it’s a far less interesting one, and it certainly makes for less interesting stories.

Читать дальше →