Wrapping up his classic “Life on the Mississippi” in 1882, Mark Twain wrote of dropping in on Chicago with admiration and awe over its “fetching up the genii, and contriving and achieving new impossibilities.” Chicago, he said, “is always a novelty; for she is never the Chicago you saw when you passed through the last time.”
Today, somebody who has been out of town a few years might have a similar reaction upon visiting. The downtown business core has busted its western seams and, along with residential growth, is pouring into the Fulton Market corridor and the broader Near West Side.
