.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} If you’d like to see Des Moines as it sees itself in its happiest dreams, go to the Near North Side and lakefront of Chicago.

If you want to see the long-night, can’t-sleep version of our fair city, head for Springfield, Ill.

I hadn’t been in Chicago for a while, and a Central Iowan can forget what it feels like to walk on bustling sidewalks, surrounded by great architecture and constant surprises.

At an intersection, an extremely intense pedestrian narrowly escaped being struck by a cab and rewarded the driver with the time-honored gesture and comment. A hundred feet down the street, we encountered a quintet of young ladies playing classical music on their stringed instruments. That’s the essence of a big city – big contrasts.

We emerged from the Art Institute to find three young men drumming frantically on five-gallon plastic buckets. Twenty hours later, we walked out of Wrigley Field a few miles away, and there they were again. Same guys, same driving beat and an even more appreciative audience.

That evening in front of the Wrigley Building, it was drummers, dancers and a clarinet player with world-class improvisation skills, playing in hopes of a dollar from every 10th tourist or so.

You gotta love that stuff. Will it ever happen here? Well … maybe we can at least climb a little closer to that level.

We drove up Lake Shore Drive on a sunny Saturday afternoon, and enough people to fill West Des Moines were out strolling, biking and playing along Lake Michigan. We had lunch at the original Billy Goat Tavern, made famous long ago on “Saturday Night Live,” and the guy behind the counter proved that he knows why the tourists show up. Big voice, big accent, big cheeseburgers.

Tough to match a lakefront like that one, and we probably can’t expect to get famous in a TV comedy skit. But there must be lots of ideas we can swipe.

Then we drove down to Springfield for some history.

As a Midwestern state capital, it should be a lot like Des Moines. But something’s missing. Sure, it has the requisite new malls along the highways at the edge of town. However, the town itself has a worn-out look, as if everybody with ambition moved to the real capital of Illinois up north.

Wells Fargo & Co. occupies a sleek building outside town, which certainly is reminiscent of Des Moines, but nobody else seems to have anything going on. Apparently, state government is not the key to a vibrant city. The town would be nothing at all if John Wilkes Booth’s gun had jammed.

But the city’s latest tourist-grabbing effort, the Abraham Lincoln museum that opened two years ago, is terrific. As nice as our State Historical Building is, and as nice as our Science Center is, they seem old-fashioned in comparison.

Some critics may question whether the museum is an unacceptable blurring of the line between history and entertainment, but they’re wasting their worry. This is the kind of engaging presentation we’ll need to imprint the slightest bit of history on young people from now on.

Even in a town that lags behind us, we can pilfer some inspiration.

But that’s just one point for Springfield. Chicago is our role model, with its emphasis on “what can we do next?” rather than what happened way back when.

Our local leaders travel a lot. I wonder what ideas they’ll bring home to us next.