Chicago Facts

The Chicago River is, under normal light, always green. The green is a darker Pullman green or olive green. On St. Patrick's Day the city pours vegetable dye into the river to make it a purer Kelly green. Also, the Chicago River has more movable bridges in proportion to its length than any other river in the United States.

Chicago is the center of the American steel industry with the integrated mills (steel mills that make steel from ore) concentrated in Northwest Indiana. Chicago always was a steel center; the decline of steel in the 1980's affected steel mills in other areas of the country more than in Chicago.

Chicago's Loop is the second Loop, completed in 1897. The original Loop was built in the 1880's for cable cars. Chicago had cable cars from 1885 to 1906; the Chicago cable car system was bigger and hauled more passengers that the San Francisco cable car system. Cable cars on State Street lasted longer than those on Market Street in San Francisco.

Chicago has more people working in professional sports than in any other American city. Chicago's professional sports teams are expected to be profitable, since they are a larger part of their owner's business interests than in other cities. This accounts for the relative lack of success in postseason play; since Chicago's team owners can't buy championships.

O'Hare Field is the only airport in the United States that is a hub for two airlines, United and American. Chicago is the only city that is a major hub for four carriers: American, Amtrak, Southwest, and United. For many years the world's busiest airport, O'Hare Field has become the world's second busiest airport because there is only one airport in Atlanta; the Atlanta airport is the world's busiest for that reason.

Chicago has the largest proportion of its land area devoted to parks in the United States. Most of this is lakefront parkland; the inner city has relatively little parkland because land for parks wasn't available during the 19th century.

According to the Places Rated Almanac, Chicago is one of the most atypical cities in the United States in that has a score over 95 (on a scale of 100) in some aspects (transportation, recreation, health care) but extremely low scores in others (climate, cost of living, crime).

Disasters in Chicago have an "Only in Chicago" quality, like a cow with attitude (Great Chicago Fire, 1871), a ship capsizing at the dock because people rush to the side to see another boat go by (Eastland disaster, 1915), a flood that only affects basements (Chicago tunnel flood, 1992) and a fan's grabbing of a baseball costing the team the pennant ("Bartman", 2003 NLCS).

Unlike other cities, the City of Chicago does not operate all the municipal services in Chicago. Libraries, public schools, public transportation, toll roads, and sewage are handled by independent government bodies. A Chicagoland homeowner has to pay property taxes to over fifteen government bodies.

Chicagoland is more dependent on nuclear power than any other city in the world, with 90% of the electricity coming from nuclear power plants (with their higher rates). However, water costs less than in most other cities; many Chicago residents still pay a flat rate for water.

Chicago is one of the best cities for public art in the United States. In addition to well known items like the Picasso in Daly Center Plaza and Millennium Park, Chicago has a staggering quantity of religious art. Much of this religious art was commissioned by relatively poor (at the time) congregations as a means of expressing pride in their beliefs. While most of the artists were specialists in religious art, secular artists like Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, and Louis Tiffany created works in Chicago's churches.

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