Chicago: Our Kind of Town

In his recently published book, "The Third Coast: When Chicago Built the American Dream," author Tom Dyja argues that America as we know it today would be very different without Chicago’s contributions.  In fact, he identifies 10 ways that Chicago has affected everyone’s life in America:

1. Architecture
2. Music
3. Food.
4. University of Chicago
5. Television
6. Civil-Rights Movement
7. The Institute of Design
8. Urban Preservation
9. Literary Romance
10. Hugh Hefner and Playboy

I'm not sure what his book has to do with Freakonomics or incentives (except, perhaps, the University of Chicago), but Dyja is featured on the latest Freakonomics podcast, "The Middle of Everywhere," in which he details how Chicago contributed in the ten areas listed above. If Dyja's right, then perhaps we can understand why Sinatra considered Chicago to be his (or, perhaps, our) "Kind of Town:"