In defense of the Windy City

Re “Chicago -- the wimpy city,” Opinion, Aug. 31

I’ve never been to Chicago, and I had no intention of visiting until I read Nick Gillespie’s silly diatribe against the Windy City. The less-than-reasonable editor of something called Reason magazine lists what he views as silly, fun-killing bylaws -- but what I, and no doubt most Chicagoans, see as eminently sensible and reasonable restrictions. Banning smoking in public, prohibiting cellphone use while driving and forcing giant retailers to pay a barely living wage seem eminently sensible and progressive measures designed to improve the living standards and health of the city’s residents.

If Gilliespie’s brand of reason were to stand, we apparently would all give up such nonsensical provisions as water-quality standards, seat-belt laws and even traffic lights. Gillespie presumably would love living in such a “fun” metropolis. Personally, I’m looking forward to my first trip to Chicago. It may no longer qualify as the Second City, but in my view it can now lay claim to the nickname “the Reasonable City.”

DAVID J. MARTIN

Ottawa

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As a native Chicagoan, I have to respond to Gillespie’s diatribe on Chicago’s recent decisions to limit certain activities -- what he calls “just about everything that makes a city a city. Namely, fun.” What “dead pleasures” does he cite? Foie gras? Smoking in public places? Trans fats? Paying people poverty wages? I can assure you, when I was growing up there, driving around on Saturday nights with our pit bulls munching foie gras while we chattered on our cells about how we managed to lower our help’s standard of living was not what we yearned for to break the tedium of our daily lives.

As a foodie, I regret the ban on foie gras, but I’ll wager that a dinner at Charley Trotter’s will still be sublime, and as difficult to get. Concerts in Grant Park, weekends at Navy Pier, jazz on Rush Street, the magnificent lakeshore (which everyone gets to use, by the way) and the glorious plenitude of neighborhood saloons of every stripe will still be there to distract Chicagoans from the blight of having to pick up after their dogs. And if the Cubs can manage to win the World Series, Gillespie can rest assured Chicagoans will manage to find a way to celebrate, and teach the world how to do it in the bargain.

SCOTT L. PETERSON

Studio City