CHICAGO » In his 1914 poem, an admiring Carl Sandburg called Chicago the "City of the Big Shoulders," a proud label for the working people who called it home. During the winter of the polar vortex 100 years later, as temperatures dipped below zero and bitter winds whipped off Lake Michigan, miserable Chicagoans quipped that they were living in Chiberia.

Now this city is contending with a newer, grimmer label: Chiraq.

A reference to the gun violence that has left parts of Chicago feeling like a war zone to many residents, the word is believed to have been coined by local rappers years ago. But it is taking on another life as the working title of a new Spike Lee movie that is expected to be filmed here this summer.

Local politicians have lined up against the title. Lee has been confronted by Chicago’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, who told him in a meeting last month that he was "not happy" about the name.

An alderman from the South Side, William Burns, was so perturbed by the title that he angrily suggested that Lee, the renowned director of films like "Do the Right Thing" and "Malcolm X," should not get the $3 million tax credit he is seeking for filming here.

And even on the city’s crime-plagued South and West Sides, where most of Chicago’s gang warfare occurs, some residents who are accustomed to seeing, hearing and reading about violence said they had mixed feelings about a movie starring their city called "Chiraq." (It is often pronounced "shy-rack.")

"I don’t embrace the title," Janelle Rush, a 24-year-old student, said as she walked through the Auburn Gresham neighborhood on the South Side on a recent afternoon. "But I think it’ll be good to showcase the parts of the city that the media really don’t show. I’m hoping that he can maybe flip it around and show it in a positive light as well. To show that we’re more than just Chiraq."

Lee, who declined to be interviewed, has not publicly confirmed the title of the movie, but city officials who have met with him said he had told them that he intended to call it "Chiraq." The film, Lee has said, is focused on gun violence on the South Side; some reports, unconfirmed by Lee, offer the intriguing possibility that the film is a comedic reimagining of "Lysistrata," the ancient Greek tale by Aristophanes in which women withhold sex to force the men to end the Peloponnesian War.

Gun violence is a way of life for many Chicagoans, especially in pockets of the South and West Sides. Street gangs have splintered and multiplied in recent years, complicating police efforts to tamp down crime. Every year, warm weather brings increased gunfire and gang activity, as well as a drumbeat of headlines announcing each weekend’s alarming tally: Over Memorial Day weekend, at least 56 people were shot in Chicago, 12 fatally.

As of May 17, the city had 133 murders this year, a 17 percent increase over the same period last year.

The seemingly intractable violence has tormented residents on the South Side, where Lee is planning to do most of his filming.

During a meeting with Lee and several City Council members in April, Burns, the alderman, urged Lee to reconsider the title, he said.

"I said in that meeting, ‘A lot of people take offense to the term Chiraq,’" Burns said in an interview. "These are communities where people are doing the right thing, people trying to have a decent neighborhood. Having a movie called ‘Chiraq’ will make it much more difficult for folks like me and other aldermen to bring economic development to those neighborhoods. Who wants to live in a place that people call Chiraq?"

In response, Burns said, "Spike and his people were like: ‘Oh, you shouldn’t be offended. It’s going to be fine.’"

Lee appeared in Chicago in May to try to calm the furor, holding a news conference outside St. Sabina Church on the South Side. Dozens of bystanders craned their necks for a look, snapped photos and cheered at his arrival. Lee, surrounded by parents whose children died in gun violence, wore tortoiseshell glasses, a cherry-red tie and, at times, a look of wry impatience.

"A lot of people have opinions about the so-called title of the film who again, know nothing about the film," Lee said. "Way, way back when I made ‘Do the Right Thing,’ there were people who said this film would cause riots all across America, that black people were going to run amok. They wrote a whole bunch of things.

"But those people ended up being on the wrong side of history," he continued, "And the same is going to happen in Chicago. They are going look stupid and end up on the wrong side of history. We’re here for peace."

To the people who have expressed displeasure over the movie, he said: "Wait until the movie comes out. You don’t like it, you don’t like it, but see it first."

Also at Lee’s side was John Cusack, who grew up in a Chicago suburb and will appear in the film. "I love my city of Chicago," he said, taking the microphone. "And I would never do anything to hurt it."

One fan of Lee’s who was there, Lamar Brown, 29, a marketing director, said he had recently stood in line to audition as an extra for the film.

"I’m fine with the title," said Brown, who grew up in Englewood, a South Side neighborhood. "This is not a laughing matter here, this senseless violence going on. We just need to portray the realism of this. People are losing their lives over jealousy, hatred. I understand the message he’s trying to bring to us."

The Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina, who is known for his emotional sermons and outspoken political views, has lent Lee office space to use as a home base while in Chicago, he said in an interview.

"I hope the film will face head on this violence that’s really becoming a genocide, and cause us to hold up a mirror to it," Pfleger said. "There’s been a huge amount of controversy and outrage over a movie title. Where is the outrage over the violence? It is unacceptable to me."

© 2015 The New York Times Company