ARam

If any neighborhood in Chicago deserves a mixed review, it’s Garfield Park. It’s actually divided into east and west sections on the community board, and one side of the divide differs slightly from the other. Whereas the West Garfield Park area is clearly being gentrified as the area around the Loop becomes more expensive and drives more residents further from the lake, East Garfield Park hasn’t yet seen this action.

So the western half of Garfield Park as earned a reputation as a hipster magnet and an “up-and-coming” spot, but it has yet to completely overcome its working class roots.

The local conservatory is, in a word, inspiring. If you go to Garfield Park for any reason, make sure you stop by this, one of my favorite Chicago attractions. (Currently the conservatory is hosting a tropical flower show and honey bee presentations.)

Even if there are hipsters moving in, Garfield Park remains a pretty rough neighborhood, so I wouldn’t recommend that anyone unfamiliar with the area go alone. I always recommend to city visitors that they keep to more established neighborhoods, as the “up-and-coming” ones aren’t always what you would imagine.

Chicago Lawn: this South Side park may see the occasional crime statistic, but for many it’s a source of fond memories of sledding, fishing and jogging. On the east side of the park you can find every outdoor activity you can imagine – softball diamonds, basketball courts, tennis courts, a running track and soccer fields are there for residents’ use, and the west side of the park is the side where you could take your book and just relax in the greenery or by the lagoon. (There is also a nine-hole golf course on this side, which I hear is not the most clear-cut of courses.) Summer sees a lot of roadside BBQs going on in the area.

On the down side, gang signs can be found tagged on nearby buildings and there is a strange lack of parking signs around. But: in recent years Mayer Daley really did a number on this park, cleaning up a place that used to have too much garbage, homelessness and prostitution in its midst.

People are always fishing in this park – though I’m not sure what exactly they are catching or if they actually can eat the fish.

The Near West Side is a pretty okay slice of Chicago life – it’s near the Loop and it’s full of historical spots like the Hull House neighborhood, Little Italy and Greektown. There are endless places to eat in the area – especially in Little Italy and Greektown – and it’s also home to quite a few towering office buildings.

The neighborhood is one of those being gentrified – and of course the closer you get to the lakeside, the more gentrified, safe, and “up-and-coming” it becomes. It’s not a bad area at the moment, but it’s not very high end, either. There are some interesting-looking restaurants on Ashland, and you can check out live music at the Cobra Lounge just about every night.

I am always hearing about good deals on condos in the area, because many were recently built by developers who ended up with a negative cash flow. Keep in mind that this neighborhood does vary quite a bit – the further you move west, the less in-transition it is.

There’s a farmers market on Sundays in Ellen Gates Starr Park, the only one of its kind in the neighborhood. And the area is definitely not without culture – the Chicago-style hot dog, deep dish pizza, Chicago blues and the Blues Brothers all have ties to the Near West Side.

This is a nice area in the upscale Lincoln Square area – a North Side neighborhood with a reputation for affluence. There are a lot of shops and courtyard-style apartment housing (a staple of the community), and the area enjoys a lot of transportation access (the Brown Line, Metra, and a whole lot of buses) and it’s a quick ride to the Loop.

The area is beautiful – tree-lined streets, parks, cleanliness, the whole bit – and Lincoln Avenue hosts a range of trendy and upscale restaurants. Recent years have made sure that Ravenswood enjoyed something of a real estate renaissance – it is practically overflowing with (high priced) bungalows, flats and condos. Some of the neighborhood is only recently gentrified, but don’t let that deter you from visiting – this neighborhood is doing very well for itself at the moment.

One of my favorite stops in Ravenswood is Ravenswood Used Books on North Lincoln Ave. It’s a chaotic-seeming cubby-hole of books – but I (and many other neighborhood dwellers) love it. The guy who runs it generally knows what is in there and where it is, so if you are doing more than browsing you need not worry!

As a resident of the city, I’m not sure I would ever consider living in the Loop – the place is just too busy for my residential tastes. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t recommend the Loop to anyone who was briefly visiting Chicago, had just arrived to the city, or just needed something to do on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

The Loop is likely the best place to feel that you are in the midst of the city skyline – architecture towers over you, including the Sears Tower (FYI: much of this area was leveled by 1871’s Great Chicago Fire, making room for much of what is here today). This is also the home of the Art Institute and Millennium Park – home of that shiny silver sculpture better known as Cloud Gate (you know the one, just about everyone who has ever been here takes a self-photo of their own distorted reflection in it.)

Even the streets in the Loop are tourist-friendly – they are laid out on a grid, making it easy to understand which way you are headed, even if you aren’t very familiar with the area. Many hotels are to be found in the area, and if you can afford to stay here then I recommend that you do – you’ll be close to many of the best tourist attractions Chicago has to offer.

Today’s Hyde Park hosts just about something for everyone. You probably know that this is the neighborhood where the University of Chicago is located, and subsequently you will understand why there are so many student-types milling about and living in the area. There are also the usual bars and diners that cater to the college types – but there is something of a well-to-do vibe here as well. Hyde Park is also home to some of the city’s upper crust, who live in sprawling lakeside homes here.

In my opinion, Hyde Park is one of Chicago’s more attractive neighborhoods – and there are some very random things to take note of here. The parakeet population, for one: for some reason both Harold Washington Park and Jackson Park are home to the colorful tropical birds, which are both out of place and something of an anomaly. No one is sure how they survive the cold weather Chicago is known for. Chicago University itself is a place to be seen – many of the buildings resemble the stately buildings of Oxford. (And it’s of no small consideration that Rockefeller himself contributed much to the early days of the University.)

Wicker Park has a reputation for attracting a young-ish, artist-type crowd, and naturally that vibe has brought in the trendy bars and restaurants in its wake. Along the southern side of Wicker Park – in and around Division Street – a number of boutiques, bars and restaurants are in constant motion. This action makes it one of the more trendy places to be in Chicago (along with Bucktown), and it’s not to be missed by the twenty-something set.

This amount of entertainment is not without its costs, however, and the rents continue to rise in Wicker Park. The working class – who had been here before the trendy set moved in on them – has been pretty much driven out, and the area is now looking more and more attractive to hungry real estate agents.

Residents enjoy farmer’s markets in addition to the diverse range of boutique businesses, and it should be no surprise to find a decent amount of organic shops catering to the environmentally-conscious types that inhabit the area (Crust, an organic pizza place, is among these and waaaay decent).

Generally, the neighborhoods that are both situated on the North Side of Chicago as well as on Lake Michigan are upstanding, accessible and affluent – and Lincoln Park fits this description to a T. Architecture fans will love it here, because Lincoln Park is where a lot of Chicago’s oldest (and priciest) residential dwellings sit. As far as visuals go, Lincoln Park is spectacular. But when it comes to restaurants and shops, the crowd can be on the snobby side.

Yuppie is another image that comes to mind when the words “Lincoln Park” spring up, and it’s also home to the higher-end American business chains – so it doesn’t have as cool a vibe as someplace like Wicker Park or Bucktown. It may not be my scene, but I can’t really deny how beautiful it can be in the actual park (of the same name as the neighborhood), and some of the streets in the neighborhood have hardly any rivals in Chicago.

It may be expensive, but, okay, Lincoln Park does offer some great things – if your tastes are on the fancier side.

Real estate developers have descended on this, the only island in the Chicago River, as there were somehow a number of empty lots still here during the 80s. The island also has a number of industrial things going on, like the production of beer, which for some reason - to me, at least - seems to clash with the upper class residencies that have gone up here in recent years.

There continues to be some argument over whether new industries or new condos should be put up on Goose Island– but in the meantime visitors can check out some pretty decent places to dine out. Goose Island Shrimp House has awesome takeout shrimp dishes – maybe the best in the entire city. And since the island is home to breweries, you can stop into places like the well-named gastropub Goose Island and leave very happy. Goose Island Wrigleyville offers a much better sampling of pub food than competitors like Buffalo Wild Wings – and there is no way to overstate how outstanding the beer is. If you like beer, you’ll enjoy Goose Island immensely.

Residents of the island are lucky enough to enjoy a slice of Chicago that is near enough to the tourist action of the Near North Side and the epic area that is the Loop. (And if you ask me, the closeness to the brewery action makes this one of the best Chicago neighborhoods.)

This is an area that includes the famous neighborhood of Bronzeville, and whose Burnham Park is an incredible place to be all year round. If you can stand the icy wind, you will be impressed with the icy mounds that form on Lake Michigan during the winter. During the summer, the park’s lawns burst into greens once again and the view across the lake of the city skyline is an extra breath of fresh air. There is a skate park as well as bike paths here – making the recreational experience that much more enjoyable.
Then again, don’t hang around here at night – Douglas is not known for being the safest place in the city, and a certain amount of propriety and back-watching is required. In any case, it’s generally not a good idea to be hanging around city parks after dark anyway.
The residential homes in the neighborhood (of which there are many) tend to be charming and often vary greatly from their neighbors, making for an interesting architectural sight. The neighborhood is an appealing one, even if you hear varying opinions on just how safe it is.

Albany Park has been undergoing some growth lately- since the recent past has seen the crime rates go down some – but it’s still a pretty sketchy area. It’s what you would expect from a city neighborhood that is both residential and commercial and incredibly ethnically diverse – it’s a neighborhood that is in constant flux, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s also a working class neighborhood that doesn’t offer a whole lot in the way of tourist attractions, but is has been expanding quite a bit in terms of residency.

The scenery is not always the most pleasant – I’ve seen garbage on lawns and drunks wandering the streets – and the area east of Pulaski is not known for being incredibly safe. Most residents say that though the area is not the greatest in terms of crime, it is also not the most dangerous. Like I mentioned earlier, crime rates are in fact on the decline, and gentrification of the area is currently going on. You can definitely see that in the amount of condos popping up in the neighborhood – in a few more years Albany Park may be quite a different place.

My advice on being in the area is to play it safe – don’t be walking around with your headphones on late at night or anything, and be aware of your surroundings, like you should be in any urban neighborhood. I don’t feel more or less safe here than in other neighborhoods, but I wouldn’t be wandering around Albany Park late at night, either.