Outline · [ Standard ] · Linear+ No One Knows Chicago

[Reaperducer]

Chicago is "Second City" to New York, but might as well be 2,000th city to the rest of the world.

There's an article in the Tribune about the challenge of making people around the world understand what Chicago is, especially ahead of the 2016 Olympic decision. My favorite quote is from a teacher in Beijing:

"Famous for being the automobile city, right?" he offers, before adding his best guess for where Chicago is. "It's in the western district."

In my travels, I've found that people seem pretty aware of Chicago. When I've visited people in London and Vienna, they knew about the city. Well, mostly they know Al Capone.

But in Asia IMO there is probably the same level of knowledge of Chicago that Chicagoans have of cities like Manchester, England. In Tokyo there's a clothing store in a very prominent location called "Chicago." In Hong Kong, Kowloon, Taipei, and Singapore there is a chain restaurant called "Dan Ryan's Chicago Grill."

I don't think things are as dire as the Tribune makes them out to be, but still there is work to be done.

[South.Side.Chicago]

Yes, I been to many cities around the world. They ask were am from and I say Chicago there what? Where is that.

[Xenocide]

I call journalists and government officials all over the world. Telling them my company usually means nothing, but if I say, "I'm calling from Chicago" then a light bulb seems to go off in their heads that it's important, or at least very foreign. Strange.

Oh, and like the article, hardly anyone knows where Chicago is, and they all associate it with Capone.