Chicago : The Windy City

I've travelled to Chicago thrice in the last few years. It is a city with a character and history deeply rooted in the American Civil Rights Movement. Chicago is a hidden gem on the coast of Lake Michigan. It is a segregated city with the majority of the black population living in the South Side, while Downtown Chicago is filled with the glitz and glamour of the wealthy.  Downtown Chicago is uniquely designed with multiple bridges connecting it to the other parts of the city. On arrival at Midway International Airport, I took the train downtown. Trains in the USA are mainly cold steel boggies that rattle down the tracks back and forth, carrying the working class to and from the city.  The orange line in particular had a lot of daily commuters, one of whom started playing his boom box on the train.  

              The train journey takes one through impoverished working-class suburbs with minimum infrastructure. The schools in the area were shaping the lives of children from these neighbourhoods and deserved more funding to provide more access to services.  Chicago is a city which is a safe haven for undocumented workers. In the civil rights days, when slaves were brought to America and were struggling to earn enough, they took temporary pathways into prostitution and other dehumanizing pathways to earn enough to buy themselves a ticket to Chicago. It was seen as the place where the black community could earn a better income and have a better standard of living. Chicago is also popular as a city that harbours a high level of crime. I discovered a map online which sheds light on crime statistics in various neighbourhoods in Chicago.

             Chicago is also the city where the Batman series of movies was filmed. The city was the proverbial Gotham City rife with crime, which Batman took upon himself to solve. for the first-time tourist, the big bus tours of Chicago are well organized and take you on a journey through the city. In my three visits to the city, the first time I did a walking you of the city, which helped me capture the sights and vibes of a glitzy city. Downtown Chicago is famous for its ingenious architecture and luxury shopping district, which lines the sidewalks of the Magnificent Mile.  Chicago is more of a concrete jungle, and if you are nature lover a week is enough in the city before the concrete starts becoming overwhelming.

            one of my favourite places was Maggie Daley Park it was a beautiful park