Streetwise Chicago

Welcome to the fascinating world of Chicago street names! Did you know that Ainslie Street was named after a real estate developer whose widow, in 1848, left for California to pan for gold with a new husband? Or did you know that Crandon Avenue was named for a prohibitionist congressional candidate who lost to his opponent in 1882 by a vote of 11,686 to 663?

In a powerful, revealing portrait of city life, Anderson explores the dilemma of both blacks and whites, the underclass and the middle class, caught up in the new struggle not only for common ground—prime real estate in a racially changing neighborhood—but for shared moral community. Blacks and whites from a variety of backgrounds speak candidly about their lives, their differences, and their battle for viable communities. "The sharpness of his observations and the simple clarity of his prose recommend his book far beyond an academic audience. Vivid, unflinching, finely observed, Streetwise is a powerful and intensely frightening picture of the inner city."—Tamar Jacoby, New York Times Book Review "The book is without peer in the urban sociology literature. . . . A first-rate piece of social science, and a very good read."—Glenn C. Loury, Washington Times

Why don’t Chicagoans douse their hot dogs in ketchup? What do Chicagoans mean when they say, “I’m going on the ‘L’ to the Loop?” How did a snowstorm change a mayoral election? These and many other aspects of life in Chicago are the basis of What’s With Chicago?, a look at a Midwestern city with a cosmopolitan lifestyle. Built on the place where Lake Michigan meets the Chicago River, providing connections to America’s East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico, Chicago has thrived over the decades developing industries that transferred goods across the country by water, railroad, highways, and today, air. Drawing immigrant settlers from around the world, creating neighborhoods where “Old World” food and customs persist while advancing through the twenty-first century, Chicago is the birthplace of the skyscraper, home to spectacular architecture, and host to year-round sports events. Author Ellen Shubart presents a handbook to understanding the city whether you are a tourist, a newcomer, or a long-time resident. Discover the secrets, the not-so-secret, and the well-known stories and facts about the Windy City.

A taxi driver's life is dangerous work. Picking up a bad customer can leave the driver in a vulnerable position, and erring even once can prove fatal. To protect themselves, taxi drivers must quickly and accurately assess the trustworthiness of complete strangers. In Streetwise, Diego Gambetta and Heather Hamill take this predicament as a prototypical example of many trust decisions, where people must act on limited information and judge another person's trustworthiness based on signs that may or may not be honest indicators of that person's character or intent. Gambetta and Hamill analyze the behavior of cabbies in two cities where driving a taxi is especially perilous: New York City, where drivers have been the targets of frequent and violent robberies, and Belfast, Northern Ireland, a divided metropolis where drivers have been swept up in the region's sectarian violence. Based on in-depth ethnographic research, Streetwise lets drivers describe in their own words how they seek to determine the threat posed by each potential passenger. The drivers' decisions about whom to trust are treated in conjunction with the "sign-management" strategies of their prospective passengers—both genuine passengers who try to persuade drivers of their trustworthiness and the villains who mimic them. As the theory that guides this research suggests, drivers look for signs that correlate closely with trustworthiness but are difficult for an impostor to mimic. A smile, a business suit, or a skullcap alone do not reassure drivers, as any criminal could easily wear them. Only if attached to other signs—a middle-aged woman, a business address, or a synagogue—are they persuasive. Drivers are adept at deciphering deceitful signals, but trickery is occasionally undetectable, so they must adopt defensive strategies to minimize their exposure to harm. In Belfast, where drivers are locals and often have histories of paramilitary involvement, "macho" posturing often serves to deter would-be criminals, while New York cabbies, mostly immigrants who view themselves as outsiders, try simply to minimize the damage from attacks by appeasing robbers and carrying only small amounts of cash. For most people, erring in a trust decision leads to a broken heart or a few dollars lost. For cab drivers, such an error could mean losing their lives. The way drivers negotiate these high stakes offers us vivid insight into how to determine another person's trustworthiness. Written with clarity and color, Streetwise invites the reader to ride shotgun with cabbies as they grapple with a question of relevance to us all: which signs of trustworthiness can we really trust? A Volume in the Russell Sage Foundation Series on Trust

Walk the streets of Chicago and discover why the town that brought us Michael Jordan, Al Capone, and Oprah is anything but a "Second City." Chicago's diverse neighborhoods represent a true melting pot of America--from Little Italy to Greektown, Chinatown to New Chinatown, and La Villita to the Ukrainian Village. It's also the most walkable city in the country, with flat streets laid out in a sensible grid and 21 miles of stunning lakeshore. The 31 walks described here include trivia about architecture, political gossip, and the city's rich history, plus where to dine, get the best deep-dish pizza, visit world-class museums, have a drink, and shop.

Publisher Description

Refusing to accept boundaries imposed by birthright, this unique self-help guide shares universal lessons garnered from real experiences of life on the streets.nbsp;Former Chicago gang chief Burrel Lee Wilks introducesnbsp;fresh, dynamic approaches for replacing negative behaviors with positive ones, swapping stress for success, and taking the initiative to stand apart from the crowd. Highlighting the importance of self-confidence, ingenuity, and individuality, this insightful handbook guides readers through effective leadership strategies toward attaining sustainable success and achieving common goals—including security, control, appreciation, love, and happiness. Cutting across social, ethnic, and demographic divides, this unusual account delivers a different kind of success story, offering an alternative perspective for achieving one's personal potential.

Every Wickedness describes the efforts of Kristin Ginelli, an untenured professor at a Chicago university, to discover why a young woman died from a fall on a hospital construction site. Professor Ginelli is a former Chicago cop and she suspects that the woman’s death was not an accident. Her refusal to quit looking into the woman’s death makes a lot of people angry, including the murderer. The more academic administrators and police officials try to get her to stop investigating, the more Kristin is determined to expose the interlocking forces of wickedness in our society that can conspire to lure young people into danger and that can sometimes even get them killed. The purveyors of wickedness are very dangerous, and they will threaten those who try to expose them, including Kristin.