Frank, Chicago Isn't Your Kind of Town Anymore

The gritty home of the Bulls and Bears is turning soft, Radley Balko gripes in the Chicago Tribune. The Windy City has developed a nasty case of paternalism that’s trampling the rights of its people to smoke, drink, and eat trans fats freely—and even ranked last in a poll gauging the freedoms of America's most-populated cities.

“Chicagoans get hit from both sides: A City Council oriented toward blue state public health fanaticism, and a more reddish state legislature still prone to occasional bouts of moral prudery.” Yet he urges Chicagoans to hang tough: “Today's cities are large enough to afford most residents the anonymity to indulge forbidden pleasures in black and gray markets without much fear of getting caught.” (More Chicago stories.)