This past weekend the highly anticipated NATO summit arrived in Chicago. If you've been following my Twitter feed @levois you saw a lot of retweets about a clash between police and the Black Bloc on Cermak Rd. Quite a few injuries no loss of life and Garry McCarthy our superintendent was right in the thick of the action.
Anyway aside from not paying a whole lot of attention to anything involving this summit - and inexcusable since I was a political science major - sooner or later John Schmidt at his WBEZ blog would discuss the one time Chicago was considered as a permanent home for the United Nations. It was a possibility over 60 years ago and it didn't come to pass. One case for this however:
The war had been over less than six months, and much of Europe was still devastated and poor. UN officials were frankly worried about the high cost of living in the United States. That was one area where Chicago had an advantage over other American sites.And I'm sure other cities around the nation would have a leg up on Chicago in this area. BTW, how many people think that Chicago will at some point turn into another New York City?
“We impressed on these people that they can get more for their money in Chicago,” labor leader William McFetridge said. Housing, food, recreation, and education were cheaper than in any of the other cities. Foreign diplomats could live very well in the Windy City.
Adlai Stevenson, an up-and-coming Chicago lawyer, was then serving in London as deputy U.S. delegate to the UN. Stevenson wanted to get into politics. Helping make Chicago the Capital of the World would also help young Adlai’s career.
Anyway other posts of interest from Schmidt and they're all about the settlement from those NATO nations in my fair city:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are now moderated because one random commenter chose to get comment happy. What doesn't get published is up to my discretion. Of course moderating policy is subject to change. Thanks!