While AH continues to trot her little feet in places exotic, I’ve got some news of my own: I had a very brief trip to Chicago. It was very short, like a hop, skip and jump minus the skip. But, despite the brevity, I have a few observations to make about the Windy City, which, because this is a blog about LA, I can tie back to life in Los Angeles.

Downtown Los Angeles aspires to be Downtown Chicago. What a neat little urban area there is in the city! Great shops! Fabulous little restaurants! Diversity for palettes of all kinds — flavorful, fashionable and festival. Why when I asked my hotel to give me a breakfast recommendation, they sent me to NON-CHAIN cafes! I’m already thinking that I need to come back for a weekend, just for pleasure.

Despite diversity for sale, I did notice that there were no minorities in Downtown Chicago. The professionals, the servers, the retailers, the cleaners, everybodies all appeared to be of European descent. As evening approached, I finally saw some people of African descent….on the streets, with styrofoam cups in front of them and cardboard signs. In particular, a woman sat on the sidewalk, cradling her 10-year (?) child who was fast asleep. People walked by.

There were persons of Middle Eastern/Indian descent who I only noticed in cabs. It just reminded me of when you go into Los Angeles nether-suburban reaches…..white families own nice, white picket houses in which to raise and educate their white children while their latino maids/nannies/gardeners/etc putter around them.  I would like again to add, that I really just skipped into Chicago for the shortest of tastes, but the lack of multicultural diversity did make an impression on me.

For a beautiful urban center with fabulous skyrise buildings, there was a shocking lack of neon signs, billboards and advertisements….at least around the Magnificent Mile. I wonder if its city ordinance? If it were LA, there would definitely be gardens of disgarded ads on the sidewalk, and tapestries of billboards falling over each other. I poked on the internet, but I didn’t find an answer. Does anyone know?

No sunglasses. No one was wearing them at all. Ok, I saw some people….like five. But they could have been tourists. It was a bit distressing to go outside and not wear my shades.

Anyway, the weather was beautiful, the city intriguing, and I would definitely come again. Oh the wonders of travel, even if it is for all too brief a time!

P.S. The airport must be made by the same architect or firm as the Twin Cities airport. They both have a neon underground walkway.

Out.

DZ