At first glance my most recent home, Chicago, and my most recently visited city, Delhi, have nothing in common. Chicago (yes, I am biased) is one of the greatest cities in America. It’s far cleaner than you might expect, famous for mouth-watering delights such as pizza, hot dogs and popcorn and it’s cold, damn cold. Delhi on the other side of the world is for the most-part dirty–very dirty, famous for people not having that much food and hot, damn hot. 

Yet Chicago and Delhi are sister cities. And while I’m not actually sure how sister cities are decided, after a few days in Delhi it became quite clear that these sisters share some of their less-than-great attributes. 

Historically Chicago is one of the most segregated cities. Race used to be the dividing line, and still is to some degree today. When riding the Red line from the far North boundary of the city to the farthest South the El goes you can see the separation. The majority of passengers in the north are white and by the time you get far enough South (past Chinatown) the majority passengers are Black.

You can visit Chicago and never venture to the South Side and not even know what you are missing.  In fact, on my flight to Chicago the day I moved there in September 2007 a man cautioned me, “Just don’t go down to the South Side.” Thankfully, I didn’t listen to him and proceeded to have some of the best times in the places I, as a white woman, was told to avoid. 

But the main dividing line in Chicago today seems to be based more on economics than race. As the Hyde Park neighborhood motto goes: “Black and white living together.” And, as one of my professors liked to add, “Yeah, as long as you can afford it.” 

Similarly, I think if two people went to Delhi, one staying only on the north side and the other roaming only in the south the two would have completely opposite impressions of the city. Delhi’s north is the place you might have heard about. The streets are crowded with far too many cars, rickshaws (both bicycle and auto) and people to ever have a productive flow. There is garbage everywhere. Homeless people sleeping where ever they can. Scarily thin children begging for money, food and (for some reason) pens. Dirt, lots of it. 

South Delhi represents the other side. The side that shows that India is one of the world’s fastest growing economic powers. Here you see Western stores, wide streets, lush parks, far fewer homeless people and only spots of dust. 

Both Chicago and Delhi seem to be shifting people around and forcing people out, but not actually fixing anything. 

Chicago is rapidly gentrifying, raising rents and pushing the poor further off the radar far west and to the even farther south and even to what many North side residents will tell you doesn’t exist Chicago’s East side. 

Delhi doesn’t allow bicycle rickshaws in the south. And while I’m guessing if you spoke to officials there they would say they aren’t allowed because of the added congestion that can come with them, the fact is that one job a desperately poor person can get in Delhi is to pedal a rickshaw. By prohibiting bicycle rickshaws on the south they are keeping out a whole host of the very poor and homeless. 

Much of Delhi’s “beautification” can likely be attributed to the city’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games in October 2010. Similarly, as Chicago chases it’s 2016 Olympic dreams, some residents of Bronzeville (the planned location of the Olympic village) worry more residents will be pushed from the already rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. 

Historically, the Olympics (and games of that nature) have done great things for cities by forcing them to modernize, beef up public transit systems and fix often crumbling infrastructure. The games could be a really good thing for both Chicago and Delhi, I just hope the city leaders remember that pushing a problem farther off your radar does not make it go away. Nor does covering it up and glossing over the bad points with little girls singing and fake firework shows as their not-so-distant cousin, Beijing learned the hard way.