That's how Fast Company celebrates Chicago, named U.S. City of the Year by the magazine. Mayor Daley marked the achievement with a lunch for civic leaders and young entrepreneurs (a very nice touch) staged by World Business Chicago on the stage of Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park. Although he had a script in hand, the Mayor chose to speak from the heart in his own words. I was struck by what he said and how it so defines this global city situated in the American Midwest. "Cities are about change," Mayor Daley told his audience. "We have to respect the past, but move to the future. The future is always brighter." "As a young man growing up on Chicago's South Side, I remember the move of the stockyards. It was a clear demonstration of how industries change, and cities must change along with them." He spoke emotionally about the contribution artists make to the city. "They look at things differently," he said. "Artists see the city in ways government and business leaders just can't and in ways that are more enduring." This Chicago insider still passionately identifies with outsiders. "Immigrants helped build this city, and they will always be welcomed here." Outsiders may have been fresh on his mind, as he had just met with Senators McCain and Lieberman about the problems created for the tourism industry by making it so difficult to get visitors into the U.S. (He singled out Koreans for special mention.) His remarks hit the big issues where there is work to be done -- schools and mass transit, in particular (where he noted the receipt of $150 million from the Federal government to relieve congestion in downtown with BRTs, reduced parking, and more expensive parking). And, of course, he talked about the 2016 Olympics. "The Olympics are an opportunity to get people to dream big things and get them done quickly," said the man who once told me with frustration that China could build a dozen airports by the time he got one runway extension approved and built in Chicago. Fast Company's choice is a good one. (And for you who noticed the photo taken at Cloud Gate that accompanies the article and wondered, as I did, if it was staged, the answer is it was and it wasn't. It was, in the sense that the photographer pulled the people together and "arranged" them in place. It wasn't, in the sense that all of the people in the photo -- who look like a United Nations -- were actually in the park at the time.)