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Originally Posted by Via Chicago
most people dont have a clue about anywhere outside of their immediate surroundings. ask an average American to find Poland on a map and I suspect they will fail, much less articulately be able to describe what life is like there or any level of its history/geography/culture. this isnt somehow unique to chicago, although people here do seem to take it more personally.
the fact is everyone forms sterotypes about places, and most will see a mere fraction of the planet in their lifetimes, even if theyre lucky. we have kids on the southside who have never seen the lake or a world outside of their neighborhood, much less a forest or a mountain.
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No, it's not a matter of accurately knowing what life is like elsewhere, it's about the manner in which their expectations tend to be inaccurate. Certain places tend to be over-exaggerated and certain places tend to be under-exaggerated. You always hear the tales of immigrants from Europe expecting the streets to be paved with gold in NYC. People tend to underestimate Chicago in many ways while also overestimating some of our negatives like crime. And, Chicago, still being a relatively young city, perpetually feels like it has something to prove when it comes to the other great cities of the world. So we take it personal when people underestimate us and we collectively seem to feel the need to correct that. That's why we're the windy city, it really hasn't changed much at all from the days of the Tribinue and other paper chiefs on the next train to NYC the day after the fire. Always boasting, but usually backed up with the facts. Always the city on the make, trying to prove itself.
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Chicago has been called the “windy” city, the term being used metaphorically to make out that Chicagoans were braggarts. The city is losing this reputation, for the reason that as people got used to it they found most of her claims to be backed up by facts.
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Chicago Tribune, Nov. 20, 1892