Chicago Neighbourhoods/ El Help Please
 

Hello!

Firstly, thanks to everybody for their chicago trip suggestions for me a month back. I've been having a great time on this trip and luckily this trip was extended for a couple of more weeks to my delight! Been exploring Maxwell Street, Astor Street, Hyde Park (and bookshops, robie house, U of C), Navy Pier, love the cultural center!

I have a few more spots I'd like to explore but not sure where they are or which El stops to take to get there. Perhaps somebody could help me with these: Or even give me an idea of cross streets so I could 'trip planner' it on chicago transit authority. These are the areas:

Lincoln Park
Bucktown
Wicker Park
Ukranian village

Thanks very much!

gtrekker

Regarding "West of Western" In the Wicker Park area the neighborhood west of western is called Humboldt Park which indeed has some rough parts, but I do have friends who live there and enjoy themselves quite a bit (although will admit to still hearing gunfire occaisionally, but that is the case in a lot of neighborhoods unfortunately, including some I've lived in over the years), and I house sat for a friend over there a few years back (If fact I was a party in Humboldt Park just this Halloween and left with a friend at 2am without incident ... although I probably wouln't have alone). Additionally, there is a fun little Bar over called Black Beetle (2532 W. Chicago) that I've been to several times, and of course Puerto Rican Pride festival in september, whether Puerto Rican or not guarantees you'll get little sleep and have great food for a few days in September (I'll never forget waking up on saturday morning to the sound a huge parade of motorcycles gearing up for the festivities caravaning down my street).

Take a look at the "chicago neighborhoods" thread for my post on Ukranian Village/East Village bounded by Ashland on the east, Grand or Lake (the southern boundary is debated I prefer Grand as south of that gets to the Fulton Market and the West Loop areas) to the south, Western to the West, and Division to the North.

no kidding there about gentrification, I have a love/hate relationship with it in my current local (having already been chased out of Roscoe Village and Lincoln Square due to raising rents, I work in academia, I'm poor ;). Granted I was very happy that they tore down the crackhouse around the corner from my house as it as a haven for crime, and I'm not going to apologize for being happy to finally getting a branch of my bank nearby (I wish they'd get rid of a few more flophouses by where I live that some dealers have taken there 'business' too), but they replaced it with condos that very few people could afford.

I love living in chicago, and have for many years, but I feel like a gentrification nomad sometimes. That being said, I know what it is like to live in totally ungentrified areas (edgewater/uptown in 1991 was a bit rough, I'll never miss that, that and I grew up in the south suburbs and watched the downward economical spiral happen first hand outside my front door, neighbors getting evicted stores vacating, etc) so I can see both sides of the gentrification coin.

I reckon that Chicago will be Trixie-ized into one big Lincoln Park.

Hehe, perish the thought (to think that just 25 or so years again that was an undesireable neighborhood)! However, a dog grooming place just opened up around the corner from my house, so I soon expect an onslaught of petite blonde trixies and their big dogs to be coming around fairly soon.

Vittrad and Chicgal,

I was attempting to read up on info on Ukranian Village and came across your posts. I live in Lincoln Park and I hope you'll catch the sarcasm in the screen name I created it just so that I could respond to you. I definitely agree with your debate about the ups and downs of gentrification on the city and can see the positives as well as the down sides. I think all chicago neighborhoods are richer with diversity, thats why we all choose to live in this really great city. However, it is close minded to think that all people living in Lincoln Park and Lakeview are Trixie's and that they are somehow going to take over your "ultra-cool and non conformist" parts of the city just by moving next to you. I know you were concerned about being rude or offensive and I think you should look more closely at your final comments than the first and ask if they might be just a bit stereotypical. I honestly am sure you both will laugh at this post and disregard it and I'll never check this site again to see your response. I actually never even respond to these sort of things, but as a non petite blond dog owning resident of Lincoln Park I'd like to say give us a break there's a reason so many people want to live here, its one of the best neighborhoods in Chicago!

While, being that you are 'never going to check the response' I should probably not bother. I don't have a problem with Lincoln Park the neighborhood, it is a great area of town with a nice feel and interesting architecture nor would I write of the entire population as a bunch of blonde trixies anymore than I'd write off Wicker Park as a bunch of wannabe artists (as everyone know all the 'real artists' live in Pilsn now ;), or Humboldt Park as all gangsters. I am well aware of the history and the nicer aspects of Lincoln Park, and can see why someone would chose to live there, and of course I wouldn’t write off an entire neighborhood, I'm just poking fun at a significant portion of the population that you have to admit is a huge presence in that part of the city, trust me, I am equally capable of poking fun of my own hipster central of East Village (which is just as ridiculous at times) and even my own south-side and south suburban childhood stomping grounds (I've got plenty of jokes about the residents places like of Beverly (my Godfather lives there and jokes that the neighborhood is getting better in that it doesn’t matter what part of Ireland your family comes from these days ;), Chicago Heights, and Joliet. Making neighborhood potshots is just something that sort of happens, I wouldn’t take it too seriously, if you like where you life then screw what the rest of us think ;)