<i>GQ</i> Names Chicago 'City Of The Year'

GQ magazine named Chicago its City of the Year Thursday, citing the Third Coast's politics, literature, film and architecture as the reasons.

Chicago has experienced something of a national media renaissance during the 2008 presidential campaign, but in what may be a first for these sorts of accolades, the magazine doesn't cite President-elect Barack Obama as the reason for its pick.

In the Politics category, GQ lists Mayor Daley, Obama senior advisor David Axelrod, siblings and rival Democratic fundraisers J. B. and Penny Pritzker and husband-and-wife politicians Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and Ald. Sandi Jackson as "the six Windy City Democrats who are changing the way Chicago--and the rest of the country--does politics."

The Literature section acknowledges that Saul Bellow and Carl Sandburg "are long gone, and [David] Mamet is living near the beach in L.A. Luckily for readers everywhere, a new crop have emerged with their own stories to tell." GQ turns to Time Out Chicago books editor and writer Jonathan Messinger to point the way to new local talent.

The inclusion of Film seems to rest entirely on the city's role as Gotham in The Dark Knight, which made "the movie feel like a complete world." Architecture is the final category, though the only building that rates a specific mention is the financially-troubled, Santiago Calatrava-designed Chicago Spire.

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