The editorial comment someone has added to this Stop-Work-Order on the door of a condo rehab speaks volumes about the culture of America's original Sin City. The words "Chicago" and "corruption" go together in most people's minds like Al Capone and a Tommy gun. In fact, one of the original nick-names for the Thompson sub-machine gun was "The Chicago Typewriter." Oops, did I mention Al Capone? That's a no-no these days. Remember, Chicago is now a squeaky clean tourist attraction. So lay off that gangster stuff, eh? For as corrupt as Chicago is, and it truly has raised the art of graft to just that, an art; it's equally duplicitous when it comes the expression of it's public reputation. Maybe "duplicitous" isn't the right word. To be charitable, let's use "conflicted", instead. Chicago is actually two cities, light and dark, good and bad. A classic example of the Madonna-Whore Complex if there ever was one, and Catholic to the core. Good Chicago is trying it's best (and doing a pretty credible job) to show the world, and all it's tourists, the well scrubbed face of a modern progressive city. Good Chicago is rightfully proud of it's world class architecture, fine museums, and wonderful symphony orchestra. Good Chicago plants phoney palm trees on the beaches of it's beautiful lakefront every spring in hopes of confusing tourists into thinking that they might be somewhere else. (It's part of that identity crisis I mentioned earlier.) Good Chicago doesn't know where all the money is going, but swears on a stack of Bibles that it's going to find out. Good Chicago is just as mad as you are that the prices keep going up and the taxes are so high. Good Chicago can't help being boisterous, loud, and a bit of a huckster. Good Chicago wants to be loved more than anything else in the world. Good Chicago is a little too good to be true, and kind of boring. Bad Chicago revels in it's checkered past and is almost obscenely proud of it's reputation as a mobster's paradise. Bad Chicago couldn't care less about it's lousy public schools, worse postal service, institutionalized racism, and all those damn poor people. Bad Chicago loves it's skull-cracking politics, dirty deals, padded payrolls and blatant price gouging. Bad Chicago knows where all the money is going and if you know what's good for you, you'll "forgeddaboutit", and mind your own business. Bad Chicago glares over the top of it's Sam Giancana sunglasses, while counting a pile of cash, and suggests ominously that if you can't stand the gaff, maybe you should leave town. Bad Chicago doesn't need to be a huckster, it's already on the take. Bad Chicago doesn't care if you like it or not. Bad Chicago is fun in a dangerous sort of way. And kind of sexy. Living in Chicago is like being married to a super model with bad teeth and a serious personality disorder. You get hooked on the looks and sex appeal, and learn to live with everything else. Photographed somewhere in the bowels of The Beast in August, 2007.