Enterprise, one to beam up. There's no intelligent life down here.
Indeed. That's like saying don't vote for Palin, because you don't want to live like an Alaskan.
Chicago is a very large city. It is the home to many major companies. While the rest of the midwest is a mixed bag, and cities in Michigan and Ohio are doing quite badly (Dayton and Toledo, OH are turning into ghost towns. Detroit is largely vacant.) Chicago is growing.
Daley wants to get the 2016 Olympics. John Madden told the country last night that Chicago was the "finest city in America" and "his favorite place".
Really - you'll have to do better than the murder rate per capita, highly skewed by a violent set of neighborhoods on the south and west sides of the city.