What do Shreveport and Newark have that Chicago doesn’t? Literacy, according to a survey of “America’s Most Literate Cities” produced at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (www.uww.edu/npa/cities/allrank.html). Seventy-nine American cities with populations of more than 200,000 were ranked in five different categories–educational attainment, newspaper circulation, booksellers, library resources, and periodicals published–all per capita. Minneapolis ranked first overall, Chicago 58th, and El Paso 79th. Chicago’s best ranking, 50th, was in newspaper circulation per capita; its worst, 71st, was in library facilities.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
In a sentence. Richard C. Longworth, now executive director of the Global Chicago Center of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, summarizes two generations of city politics in the recently published Global Chicago: “City government under Daley I delivered jobs; under Daley II, it delivers amenities.”
The granite pillars of a bank. The ethics of a loan shark. From an August 9 press release on the Woodstock Institute’s comments to the Federal Reserve Board about the benign-sounding “overdraft protection” offered by many banks: “Banks typically will pay for overdrafts and then charge the consumer a stiff fee, typically $25 to $35 per transaction. Many will charge an additional ‘extended’ overdraft fee, usually a $5 to $6 charge for each day the account remains overdrawn. The effective annual percentage rate (APR) for these loans can extend to 2000 percent and above.”
