1. politics<\/span><\/p>\n For decades, Chicago has been a proving ground for any left-leaning midwesterner hoping to make the leap to D.C. But this year, the city made its mark as the seat of political power\u2014and not just because the two top Democratic presidential candidates have roots there. Here are the six Windy City Democrats who are changing the way Chicago\u2014and the rest of the country\u2014does politics. <\/p>\n Richard M. Daley <\/b> As civic leader Valerie Jarrett puts it, \u201cAll roads lead to Mayor Daley.\u201d Daley was an early proponent of the green city, overhauled public housing, and put together a multiracial coalition of business and civic leaders. He\u2019s even working to get Chicago onto the world stage with a bid for the 2016 Olympic Games. If there\u2019s any question as to whether Chicago residents want someone new, one need only look at last year\u2019s election, where he won all fifty wards in the city. <\/p>\n David Axelrod <\/b> Better than anyone in or outside the Beltway, Axelrod knows how to frame a candidate for a skeptical public. In 2004 he helped a little-known state senator win a race for U.S. Senate, and he\u2019s seen as being largely responsible for the no-drama ethos of the Obama presidential campaign. Forget James Carville and Joe Trippi; come January, Axelrod will be the party\u2019s most sought-after consultant.<\/p>\n J. B. and Penny Pritzker<\/b> These ultrarich siblings are the leading liberal moneymen in the city. He shilled for Hillary, and she broke fund-raising records for Obama. They wield more financial power for the Democrats than anyone else in the Midwest. <\/p>\n Jesse Jackson Jr. and Sandi Jackson<\/b> This husband and wife are a match in every way. The son of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, he\u2019s moved from under his father\u2019s shadow as a widely respected congressman; she beat out an entrenched machine pol for her seat in Chicago\u2019s Seventh Ward. Odds are that one (or both) makes a play for higher office. Watching their rise, one can\u2019t help but be reminded of another famous Democratic power couple.\u2014sarah goldstein<\/span><\/p>\n 2. film<\/span><\/p>\n The Dark Knight <\/i>may end up being remembered as the final glimpse of Heath Ledger\u2019s genius, but there was another mesmerizing presence in the year\u2019s highest-grossing film: the city of Chicago. It was on Chicago\u2019s expansive streets\u2014and just as often above them\u2014that the action unfolded. Emma Thomas, one of the film\u2019s producers and the wife of director Christopher Nolan, explains the decision to bring Gotham to the Midwest.<\/p>\n \u201cChris had always wanted to ground Gotham in a real place and do as much on-location shooting as he could. He was looking for a city that could be larger than life. One of the amazing things about Chicago is that it\u2019s built on different levels, and that was perfect for the action in The Dark Knight.<\/i> There are so many different styles of architecture, and it all works together fantastically. Bruce Wayne\u2019s bedroom was shot in a hotel downtown, and the party scene was in the lobby of another building. Plus, we got to do some really crazy stuff. We blew up a building; we flipped over an eighteen-wheeler. And it\u2019s not like we were doing it on some out-of-the-way deserted street. We were doing it in the financial center of the city. All the scenes where people are evacuating\u2014we really<\/i> did that. They let us close down their streets for weeks at a time. I think one of the reasons the film feels so big is that we were able to use every inch of Chicago and make the movie feel like a complete world.”\u2014as told to sarah goldstein<\/span><\/p>\n 3. literature<\/span><\/p>\n Bellow, Sandburg, Mamet. These are some of the heavyweights who carved out Chicago\u2019s reputation as a writer\u2019s town. But the first two are long gone, and Mamet is living near the beach in L.A. Luckily for readers everywhere, a new crop have emerged with their own stories to tell. Jonathan Messigner, co-founder of Chicago\u2019s independent Featherproof Books, takes us through an exceptional year in the city\u2019s literary tradition.\u2014sarah goldstein<\/span><\/p>\n The Lazarus Project <\/b><\/i> Hemon, a Bosnian native, wound up living in Chicago when Sarajevo came under siege in 1992, and by 2004 he\u2019d mastered the English language enough to make the MacArthur Foundation come knocking with a \u201cgenius\u201d grant. Hemon used the grant to write this year\u2019s Lazarus Project,<\/i> a brilliant novel about a Bosnian journalist in Chicago who becomes obsessed with a Jewish immigrant. The author of the year\u2019s best book is not technically from around these parts, but we\u2019re happy to embrace him as our own.<\/p>\n Demons in the Spring <\/b><\/i> Prolific South Sider Meno is the closest thing we\u2019ve got to a literary ambassador. Demons explores the darker side of damaged adolescence and is sure to be handed to every 16-year-old Chicagoan with a learner\u2019s permit. No one has captured the odd blend of grit and fantasy, community and danger, that comes with an urban upbringing quite like Meno.<\/p>\n Stop Smiling<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n The most literary magazine that isn\u2019t actually a literary magazine, SS<\/i> is cut from the mold of \u201960s countercultural mags and dedicated to the idiosyncratic enthusiasms of its editors, who have set about reviving the old-school, Playboy-<\/i>style long-form interview. With issues devoted to boxing, cult heroes, and outlaws, you\u2019re not going to find anything like it on the rack.<\/p>\n 4. architecture<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n The next American landmark isn\u2019t just another impossibly tall megastructure; it\u2019s a skyscraper doing a pirouette. Designed by starchitect Santiago Calatrava, the Chicago Spire, when completed (developers are predicting 2012), will be the world\u2019s tallest residential tower\u2014giving man the chance to live, at last, with his head in the clouds.\u2014michael hsu<\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 Each of its 150 stories will be, on average, 2.44 degrees askew from the one below it. The entire building will corkscrew 360 degrees upward.<\/p>\n \u2022 At 2,000 feet high, the Spire will have the world\u2019s longest elevator run. A trip to the top will cover the length of more than five football fields. Once you get there, you\u2019ll be able to see the curvature of the earth.<\/p>\n \u2022 Because of its unusual shape, the 1,194 apartments in the seven-sided building will all be unique, right down to the doorknobs. Each will be designed by Calatrava, and some will bear his handprint.<\/p>\n \u2022 The Spire will be the thinnest supertall building ever built\u2014about half the width of the nearby Sears Tower.<\/p>\n \u2022 The shape of the building will help direct wind upward, preventing gusts near the ground.<\/p>\n \u2022 The top floor will have a 10,000-square-foot duplex penthouse with wraparound views. On clear days, you will see four states.<\/p>\n \u2022 The building will have a (very long) garbage chute that automatically separates trash from recycling.<\/p>\n
mayor<\/p>\n
chief strategist for Obama<\/p>\n
fund-raisers<\/p>\n
U.S. congressman and Chicago alderwoman<\/p>\n
by Aleksandar Hemon<\/p>\n
by Joe Meno<\/p>\n