NP: Newton Faulkner, "Dream Catch Me"

On principle, I agree with David Brooks that there's something intrinsic about Chicago that helps you understand Barack Obama. But then there's this:

In Chicago, there is a tension between the lakefront and the neighborhoods inland. The lakefront tends to be idealistic, earnest and liberal. The neighborhoods are clever, cautious and Machiavellian. In all great endeavors, the Obama administration weaves together both of these tendencies.

I've lived here for 17 years now, and I have no earthly idea what he's talking about. Unless he's pivoting off the fact that both of the notable gay neighborhoods -- Boystown and Andersonville -- are on the lakefront. And/or that Jan Schakowsky represents most of that territory. So maybe I do know what he's talking about from the lakefront perspective, although I'm not so sure about the flipside -- whether or not Humboldt park is secretly trying to fuck with Norwood Park or some shit like that. And I don't like the way it's just tossed off for those readers who have never been here as one of those things that people who either live here or went to a cloistered liberal arts school on the South Side (Brooks is a Maroon, too) just know.