Days after abruptly losing the G-8 global economic summit, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel reminded reporters that the loss should not reflect poorly on the city.
“It is the greatest city in the greatest country. It is the most American of American cities. We have everything that New York has — except for one thing we got that they don’t: really nice people,” Emanuel told reporters, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The comments came after Emanuel spent several days with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for an international gathering of mayors at Chicago's Cultural Center.
During a Thursday press conference, Bloomberg said New York should have had both the G-8 and NATO summits. Chicago will still host the NATO summit in May.
“Neither are coming to New York. What’s wrong here? We [in New York] should have both," Bloomberg said.
Emanuel reportedly received one hour's notice before the White House notified the media that the G-8 summit would be held at Camp David in Maryland instead of Chicago. President Obama announced last summer that both summits would be held in his hometown.
The idea of moving the G-8 to Camp David was raised to the president a few weeks ago, a senior administration official told the Associated Press, adding that the president was intrigued by the novelty of the idea and asked staff whether they could pull off the change. Obama told reporters Tuesday that world leaders would enjoy being in "a more casual backdrop" for the G-8 summit.
Emanuel on Friday said he loved New York and Mayor Bloomberg, but "Chicago has something special.”