Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Another free weekly, New City ( & 312/243-8786 ), also publishes excellent
comprehensive listings of entertainment options. Appealing to a slightly younger
audience than the Reader, its editorial tone tends toward the edgy and irreverent.
Published every Wednesday, it's available in the same neighborhoods and locations
as the Reader.
Most Chicago hotels stock their rooms or lobbies with at least one informa-
tional magazine, such as Where Chicago, that lists some of the city's entertain-
ment, shopping, and dining locales.
CITY LAYOUT
The Chicago River forms a Y that divides the city into its three geographic
zones: North Side, South Side, and West Side (Lake Michigan is where the East
Side would be). The downtown financial district is called the Loop. The city's
key shopping street is North Michigan Avenue, also known as the Magnificent
Mile. In addition to department stores and vertical malls, this stretch of prop-
erty north of the river houses many of the city's most elegant hotels. North and
south of this downtown zone, Chicago stretches along 29 miles of Lake Michi-
gan shoreline that is, by and large, free of commercial development, reserved for
public use as green space and parkland from one end of town to the other.
Today Chicago proper has about 3 million inhabitants living in an area about
two-thirds the size of New York City; another 5 million make the suburbs their
home. The towns north of Chicago now stretch in an unbroken mass nearly to the
Wisconsin border; the city's western suburbs extend 30 miles to Naperville, one of
the fastest-growing towns in the nation over the past 2 decades. (Lake Michigan is
to the city's east, while, a few miles to the south, you've got economically depressed
former steel towns such as Gary, Indiana.) The real signature of Chicago, however,
is found between the suburbs and the Loop, where a colorful patchwork quilt of
residential neighborhoods gives the city a character all its own.
FINDING AN ADDRESS Chicago is laid out in a grid system, with the
streets neatly lined up as if on a giant piece of graph paper. Because the city itself
isn't rectangular (it's rather elongated), the shape is a bit irregular, but the per-
pendicular pattern remains. Easing movement through the city are a half-dozen
or so major diagonal thoroughfares.
Point zero is located at the downtown intersection of State and Madison
streets. State Street divides east and west addresses, and Madison Street divides
north and south addresses. From here, Chicago's highly predictable addressing
system begins. Making use of this grid, it is relatively easy to plot the distance in
miles between any two points in the city.
Insider Tours—for Free!
Want a personalized view of the city—aside from your trusted Frommer's
guidebook? A new program called Chicago Greeter matches tourists with
local Chicagoans who serve as volunteer guides. Visitors can request a spe-
cific neighborhood or theme (everything from Polish heritage sites to
Chicago movie locations), and a greeter gives them a free, 2 to 4-hour tour.
(Greeters won't escort groups of more than 6 people.) Specific requests
should be made at least a week in advance, but “InstaGreeters” are also
available on a first-come, first-served basis at the Chicago Cultural Center,
77 E. Randolph St., from Friday through Sunday. For details, call & 312/744-
8000 or visit www.chicagogreeter.com.
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