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Why Chicago?

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Why Chicago?
Post by Hasek   » Thu Feb 12, 2015 4:08 pm

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Of all the places on Earth, how the hell did Chicago become the capital city of the SL?
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Re: Why Chicago?
Post by Duckk   » Thu Feb 12, 2015 4:11 pm

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Could be something to do with the Final War. Perhaps it was one of the few metropolitan areas which survived relatively unscathed.
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Re: Why Chicago?
Post by SWM   » Thu Feb 12, 2015 4:22 pm

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Or perhaps it was a control center for the winning side of the Final War.
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Re: Why Chicago?
Post by Weird Harold   » Thu Feb 12, 2015 4:49 pm

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Hasek wrote:Of all the places on Earth, how the hell did Chicago become the capital city of the SL?


From a more pragmatic view, it's because DW is American and knows Chicago better than he does Mumbai, Moscow, London, or Sydney -- or whatever other major City you wish to nominate that wouldn't have been the target of a direct NBC attack.
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Re: Why Chicago?
Post by SharkHunter   » Thu Feb 12, 2015 4:51 pm

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Duckk wrote:Could be something to do with the Final War. Perhaps it was one of the few metropolitan areas which survived relatively unscathed.
Just to be a wise-ar$e, I'm gonna say it was because "Chicago style politics won!" on planet Earth, after all the other countries and strong political entities flushed themselves down the tank.

More 'seriously' though, one of the short stories in the Beginnings collection talks about actions that triggered a financial meltdown that likely contributed, plus in Cauldron of Ghosts there's a discussion that pretty much says that the Solarian League grew out of the recovery efforts which were heavily Beowulfan in origin. perhaps that region had the smallest biohazard footprint for a major "world centric" population and planetary recovery center, given that North American agriculture and medicine, etc. was probably still the state of the art on Terra pre-Final War.

Could be it was just the best surviving space port or the only one that all of the factions on earth could agree to because of those elements. Might be a detail for a future pearl or in RFC's bucket of tum-tee-tum tums alka-selzer for our fevered minds.
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Re: Why Chicago?
Post by Annachie   » Thu Feb 12, 2015 6:16 pm

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Because that's where the Blues Brothers come from. Could there be any better reason?
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Re: Why Chicago?
Post by Ensign Re-read   » Thu Feb 12, 2015 6:44 pm

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I nominate global warming and/or some sort of tsunami type event that wiped out the East and West coast cities.
i.e.: No Los Angeles, No San Francisco, No New York, No D.C., etc., etc., etc....

That leaves Chicago as one of (if not THE) largest US City that is NOT near the coast(s).



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Re: Why Chicago?
Post by Weird Harold   » Thu Feb 12, 2015 8:06 pm

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Ensign Re-read wrote:That leaves Chicago as one of (if not THE) largest US City that is NOT near the coast(s).


"Global Warming" would affect the Great Lakes as wells as sea levels. If GW or tsunamis were the driving factor, Lima, Peru or Quito, Ecuador would be the surviving center of Western Hemisphere civilization (as several post-apocalyptic fiction authors espouse.)

Chicago became one of the premier cities of North America because it's central to several transportation networks and a central trans-shipment hub. As new transportation modes have been added/invented, Chicago has adapted to remain a central trans-shipment Hub.

If the center of civilization after a financial crash and or an apocalyptic final war was to be in North America. Chicago is a logical choice.

Personally, I'd expect South America, Australia, or some other southern hemisphere center of civilization would dominate a post-apocalyptic recovery, but I'm not writing the series, so my expectations don't matter.
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Re: Why Chicago?
Post by FLHerne   » Thu Feb 12, 2015 8:24 pm

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SWM wrote:Or perhaps it was a control center for the winning side of the Final War.

Seems unlikely - the HQ for the Western Alliance was under Cheyenne Mountain, until it got wiped out by a kinetic strike near the end of the Final War.

QUICKEDIT: Maybe that was solely military, and civilian leadership was in Chicago and not hit in the same strike. Or civilian leadership was destroyed in that strike, but in other cities, and Chicago was the largest city still generally intact?

Who did win that, anyway? (well, no-one, but...). :|
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ALL WRONG ... WRONG ... WRONG!!! ...
Post by HB of CJ   » Thu Feb 12, 2015 8:35 pm

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Actually what probably happened is that Mr. Weber just had a big USA map on the wall and only ONE dart and he let fly ... from across the room ... blindfolded ... over his shoulder ... after a bunch of Old Tillman! The rest, as they say, is history! Works for me. HB of CJ (old coot) Junior Captain now so you better salute me so there! :) :)
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