One of my favorite ways to spend a Sunday afternoon in Chicago was to go to the old Maxwell Street Market.  The market was one of the best places to see Chicago at its best.  Here you were exposed to its raw, gritty underbelly- a side of the city far more real than the glitzy exteriors of Michigan Avenue.   At the market, you could wander amongst your fellow Chicagoans and buy whatever you needed at bargain prices.  Bluesmusicians set up out of the back of vans in empty lots and churned out some of the most authentic blues in the city.  Unfortunately, Maxwell Street was razed by the city and the University of Illinois because the mayor deemed it an eyesore.