#Urbs in Horto

[shoutsthedustflake]

Some architectural ornament for you. From the Harold Washington Library in Chicago.

[eveshmeve]

urbs in horto ٭ the completed design for something a little bigger

[canichangemyblogname]

I just saw someone selling a T-Shirt that read, "Chicago; City of Wind," and I just stared at it. As a city native, I understood why the shirt said this, but I also understood why it was incorrect.

The city's official motto is urbs in horto or “city in a garden,” at it's a reference to the city's extensive and historic parks and boulevard system. You can see the system pictured below:

When you go to Google Maps, you can see the parks system as well as all the green space along the lakeshore.

Chicago does have a rival, unofficial motto: "I will." It was adopted after Great Chicago Fire of 1871 to represent the determination of Chicagoans to overcome the destruction and rebuild the city.

Chicago also has a couple nicknames, and I think the city's nicknames are where this T-shirt designer got the idea to call Chicago "The City of Wind."

One of the city's more well-known nicknames is "The Second City," a name that influential travelers and natives of New York City bestowed upon Chicago as a commentary on how the city couldn’t keep up with "The Big Apple." Chicagoans adopted it in an act of ironic self-deprecation, and it evolved from its negative connotation of "less-than-best" to a commentary on what Chicago does well and how the city and its contributions to America are successful and influential in their own right.

Chicago is also popularly called "The Windy City," and while the city is quite breezy, the name does not come from Chicago's local weather patterns. Most people assume it's a commentary on the breezes coming off Lake Michigan, but the term initially held a double meaning meant to highlight both its breezy weather and how local politicians and speakers were "full of wind." We can thank Cincinnati for helping popularize this name. A running rivalry in baseball and the meat-packing industry in the late 1800s led to some scathing articles in the Cincinnati Enquirer. Like "The Second City," Chicago has come to embrace this nickname as a point of pride.

Chicago has also been called "The City of Big Shoulders" (or "Broad Shoulders") in reference to the poem Chicago by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Carl Sandburg. Other nicknames include shortened versions of the city's name: Chicago, with some suffix added to it. Chi-town has been used for big events but is not popular among locals. Chi-beria is a portmanteau of "Chicago" and "Siberia" and a commentary on its cold winter weather, but also not a popular name among locals. Chi-raq is a very controversial portmanteau of "Chicago" and "Iraq" that was intended to compare the city's crime rate to the death rate in war-torn Iraq. It stems from misleading war statistics that completely ignored the civilian death rate in Iraq during the US invasion. The term saw its highest usage among the American public during the American occupation of Iraq and only some usage among musicians and filmmakers. It is most commonly used in right-wing arguments about the supposed danger of "minority" or "democrat-run" cities and the supposed "ineffectiveness" of gun regulation.

[moleshow]

i'll be damned. that urbs really is in horto

[paulinedorchester]

So a bit off the wall - prompted by the picture of you with monkeys in the market... Any Hawkwind encounters for you back in the London days? Did you visit London again? (btw urbs-in-horto is one of my side-blogs - more popular than my random thoughts picture tumblr at sandalstrapchronicles)

Sadly, that was my last visit to London to date — and, in fact, my last trip outside North America until 2011!

I confess to ignorance: what is Hawkwind?

[burritosandpeppermint]

THIS!

Chicago's motto is urbs in horto, or "city in a garden" and folks, it really is, and I'm thrilled every time I see some native plants, especially when they help pollinators! And you could help local pollinators based on where you live, too! Here's a good resource for the United States and Canada:

And here's one for Mexico:

Plant native plants, y’all!

[windycitylibrarian]

This may look like some forest preserve, but it's the neighborhood park across the street from me. Chicago has a lot of these parks across the city, though how nice they are can depend on the ZIP code (shocker). But, Chicago's official motto is urbs in horto or "city in a garden" and I love that.

[twinpeaksdudes]

SPOTIFY FOLLOW CONTEST

We've been releasing new tunes left and right. We want to make sure you don't miss any of them, so we made it easy for you. The best way to do that is to follow our Discography playlist on @spotify. It's got everything, and every time new music comes out we update it. But we know you can't hold a stream in your hands, so we want to sweeten the deal for ya. Five people who follow the playlist this month will get a limited edition copy of Lookout Low on Orange Swirl vinyl and a copy of our sold out 5th Anniversary edition of Wild Onion on Purple Swirl vinyl. One lucky winner will get both of those, plus our entire catalog on wax. We'll holler at winners on September 20th. Follow the playlist here HERE.

[urbs-in-horto]

Erased history of Chicago

Previous Urbs in Horto Chicago Indian Mounds posts here and here

[gornwen]

I have successfully grown peas! Even though a strong storm meant that they are a little more bushy than I would have hoped, it didn't stop them from flowering and fruiting.

Gods willing and hoping I did everything correctly, this little corner should be covered in peas come June 💚

This is my first go at direct sowing and I'm both excited and ready to just pay the garden center a couple hundred dollars for starts when it fails.

[chicagoasitstands]

Emil Bach House

Emil Bach House (2018)

I’ve been inside a few Frank Lloyd Wright buildings since moving to Chicago. It’s been a learning experience for sure. You really can’t understand architecture from photos, or even video. Being inside the Emil Bach House in Rogers Park (they do tours sometimes) helped me understand something about Wright’s buildings.

They are tiny. Teeny tiny small and small. I don’t…

[anxious-astronaut]

Making Breakfast - Live | Twin Peaks

[meltedmagazine]

TWIN PEAKS ANNOUNCE LIVE ALBUM

    Twin Peaks. Ya know ‘em, ya love ‘em. If you haven’t caught them live yet, this could be your chance! Come April, they will be embarking on a Southern US tour. If you don’t live in the South, do not panic. Digitally on March 31, and committed to wax by May 5, comes Urbs In Horto (Latin for “City In a Garden” the motto of their native Chicago), Peaks’ first live album. Recorded from 3 sold out shows in Chicago, this is a release you won’t want to miss.

LISTEN TO “HAVE YOU EVER?” HERE

by JARED HARRISON

[copperbadge]

Can you please tell me about Chicago? How do I get there? Is it really filled with people just like me? My dream is to move to Chicago but I don't know where to start

I suppose it depends on what kind of person you are! But Chicago is full of many varied kinds of people so I think most folks who come here eventually find a niche to fit into.

As for getting here, well, we are a shipping and transportation hub, so the city is your mollusc. We've got two airports, Midway and O'Hare, an Amtrak station which also has a bus hub, and several fine interstate roads that will bring you here by car!

Chicago is a lot of different things. I worry for our future; we're losing population from the city, which tends to lead to economic struggles. But we have very strong manufacturing industries (consumer packaged goods such as fast fashion, prepackaged foods and beverages, cleaning products, etc are big in Chicago and very stable industrially speaking) and we consistently fall into a peer group that includes New York, Los Angeles, and Houston in terms of size, wealth, and productivity.

We have problems; there's a lot of gun violence, particularly in the disadvantaged and traditionally African-American neighborhoods on the south side, our police force is...bad, and we have very high cost of living generally. Our taxes are bananas high and don't seem to generally go towards improving things for the most needful of us. But we have pretty strong unions, we have wonderful museums and tons of public events in the summer, and we are doing our best, as much as we can. We have a lot of institutions of higher education (and also Hamburger University, lol) and as Urbs In Horto, the City in the Garden, we have many beautiful parks. We are secretly a foodie's paradise.

So come to Chicago! We need people, we have good food and nice things to look at, and the housing is still mostly affordable.

[notbecauseofvictories]

Hey! I loved your series of posts about Philly, especially 'Phila', it's in my Favorite Poems Ever collection. What would you recommend for a Philadelphian visiting Chicago for a few days? Any tips?

I realize the inclination whenever you go to a new city is to want to try and experience the “real” parts of it, but the real parts of it involve taking buses to work and trying to figure out whether there’s a half-decent Indian takeout place nearby. If you’re here for a few days, you’re not going to get real Chicago, no matter what you do. But you can still get the greater parts of Chicago.

So, here is my recommendation:

Do some touristy things. I’m talking segway tours of the Lakeshore or crime bus tours of the near North Side or architecture tours on the river. Go to the Art Institute, or the Field Museum. Take a picture with the Bean. I’m serious—it’s definitely very tourist-y, but this is a vital part of Chicago and actually, all the tours I’ve been on and the museums I’ve gone to are pretty neat. It’s a great city to visit as a tourist, and you should let yourself be a tourist in it.

Take in some nature. Chicago’s motto is Urbs in horto, “City in a Garden” and even though it was written at a time when Chicago was mostly meatpacking and EPA violations, in the current day it manages to be true. Chicago has an obscene amount of parks—from the Lakeshore (all of which is under the Park District’s edict) and its various beaches to Lincoln Park, which has a zoo and a greenhouse attached to one of the most expansive urban green areas, all the way up and down to the garden cemeteries of Oak Woods and Rosehill. 

One night, go hang out at a nothing-much bar for a couple hours. If you can get away from the hotel (which I’m assuming is in the Loop) that’s even better. Eavesdrop on peoples’ conversations and chat with the bartender, let yourself sink into the atmosphere. Current Chicago is a bunch of guys at a hole-in-the-wall bar (or Irish pub) talking amongst themselves, and I don’t think I should deprive you of that experience.

Walk. Chicago is not as much of a walking town as Philly—it’s too big, everything is too far apart and even the blocks are bigger than Philly’s—but there’s nothing like walking to make you like a place. I encourage you to take jaunts, even if they’re just around the Loop, and acquaint yourself with the strange hugeness of the city, and see what there is to be seen.

I love Chicago, but I love it the way a native does, and that’s completely different compared to someone visiting. Nevertheless, if you’re up for it, I think there’s a lot here to enjoy, if only for a taste.