visiting -places to stay?

newmassdad
Fri, 21 Sep 2007 09:25:29 +0000

pesto,

You just haven’t driven the right roads at the right time. Try driving from Hyde Park to the north side anytime on weekends or during rush hour.

Or try driving to Oak Park on a weekend.

Try driving anywhere on the north side east of the Kennedy Expy any evening or anytime on weekends.

The problem is that the south side of Chicago has rather depopulated over the last 15 years, as the high rises along the Ryan were taken down and Chicago continued its aggressive demolition program of abandonded buildings. That’s why to us old timers Garfield Blvd looks so spooky. While right now, the stretch east of the Ryan is mostly deserted, when I was at UofC in the very early 1980s, there was a thriving black community along the street, including a grocery store (the remains of which still stand) many small business and such. 63rd was the same way. And most of the surrounding blocks were not vacant land, but rather full of apartment buildings.

Now, much of the zone south of Bridgeport/47th st. and east of Western Ave. is depopulating still. But this will change at some point, as whole blocks are cleared and sold for re-development.

interestingly, this process is already well underway in the zone east of the Kennedy between roughly 47th north to downtown. As recently as 1999, there was little residential housing or services south of Roosevelt road, and not a whole lot north of Roosevelt to the loop. That has radically changed in just a few years. What was once a truly dangerous area (you old timers may remember the area north of 47th?) has been radically transformed into a middle class urban housing enclave.

IF anyone visits for parents weekend and has a car, please drive north on Drexel or even MLK and note the changes. You may be surprised!