Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
cluster of women-owned businesses,
and a burgeoning colony of gays and
lesbians.
Lincoln Square
West of Anderson-
ville and slightly to the south, where
Lincoln, Western, and Lawrence
avenues intersect, is Lincoln Square,
the only identifiable remains of
Chicago's once-vast German-Ameri-
can community. The surrounding
leafy residential streets are now
experiencing an influx of white mid-
dle-class families, who flock to the
Old Town School of Folk Music's
theater and education center, a
beautiful restoration of a former
library building.
Rogers Park
Rogers Park, which
begins at Devon Avenue, is located
on the northern fringes of the city
bordering suburban Evanston. Its
western half has been a Jewish
neighborhood for decades. The
eastern half, dominated by Loyola
University's lakefront campus, has
become the most cosmopolitan
enclave in the entire city: African
Americans, Asians, East Indians,
German Americans, and Russian
Jews live side by side with the eth-
nically mixed student population
drawn to the Catholic university.
Much of Rogers Park has a neohip-
pie ambience, but the western
stretch of Devon Avenue is a Mid-
western slice of Calcutta, colonized
by Indians who've transformed the
street into a veritable restaurant row
serving tandoori chicken and curry-
flavored dishes.
The West Side
West Loop
Also known as the Near
West Side, the neighborhood just
across the Chicago River from the
Loop is the city's newest gentrifica-
tion target, as old warehouses and
once-vacant lots are transformed
into trendy condos. The stretch of
Randolph Street just west of High-
way 90/94 and the surrounding
blocks are known as “Restaurant
Row” for the many dining spots that
cluster there. Chicago's old Greek-
town, still the Greek culinary center
of the city, runs along Halsted Street
between Adams and Monroe streets.
Much of the old Italian neighbor-
hood in this vicinity was the victim
of urban renewal, but remnants still
survive on Taylor Street; the same is
true for a few old delis and shops on
Maxwell Street, dating from the turn
of the 20th century when a large Jew-
ish community lived in the area.
Bucktown/Wicker Park
Centered
near the confluence of North,
Damen, and Milwaukee avenues,
where the Art Deco Northwest
Tower is the tallest thing for miles,
this resurgent area is said to be
home to the third-largest concen-
tration of artists in the country.
Over the past century, the area has
hosted waves of German, Polish,
and, most recently, Spanish-speak-
ing immigrants (not to mention
writer Nelson Algren). In recent
years, it has morphed into a bastion
of hot new restaurants, alternative
culture, and loft-dwelling yuppies
surfing the gentrification wave
that's washing over this still-some-
what-gritty neighborhood.
The South Side
South Loop
The generically rechris-
tened South Loop area was Chicago's
original “Gold Coast” in the late
19th century, with Prairie Avenue
(now a historic district) as its most
exclusive address. But in the wake of
the 1893 World's Columbian Expo-
sition in Hyde Park, and continuing
through the Prohibition era of the
1920s, the area was infamous for its
Levee vice district, home to gambling
and prostitution, some of the most
corrupt politicians in Chicago his-
tory, and Al Capone's headquarters
at the old Lexington Hotel. How-
ever, in recent years, its prospects
