Chicago Is The Kindest City

       A few years ago I wrote a post on my impression that Chicagoans are the nicest people. The basis for this post was an experience I had almost half a dozen years ago when visiting the city in the icy, frigid, mid-winter weather.   (https://www.ailantha.com/blog/chicagoans-are-the-nicest-people​).

      I had taken a train from the airport, and when I reached my stop I had problems with my suitcase, first getting it through the turnstile, an old-fashioned contraption that looked like this,

...then getting it down the steep flight of stairs from the train platform to the sidewalk.

       However, one nice young man stopped and helped get my suitcase through the turn stile, then another stopped and hauled my suitcase down the steps for me.
        Then, as I was making my way on foot from the train station to my destination I got a little directionally confused, and a nice man on the street helped me find my way. 
          And so it was during that visit that it struck me how nice Chicago folks are. 
         And it was during my most recent visit the second week in December of this year (See post from 12/16/2025, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/walking-and-walking-and-walking-in-a-chicago-winter-wonderland), that I began to take notice of how kind a city Chicago is.
            Everywhere I went there were signs of tolerance and acceptance. I saw signs such as these on public restrooms.

      In shop windows everywhere I walked there were signs standing up for the immigrants who were given refuge in Chicago only to be cruelly persecuted by Donald Trump's heartless ICE gangs.

      For me all these signs brought a a spirit of Christmas feeling, a bit warmth to the cold winter air, a bit of solace in the midst of woe, 

...and made me feel that Chicago is my kind of town.