Devon Ave. Neighborhood Info (Chicago: real estate, apartment complexes, crime)

[saadrajabali]

One of my son's friends (not really), who apparently thinks its cool to be ghetto (yeah...i dont know either) says that he lived on Devon Ave. and life was very hard for him....(he was 5-6 by the way when that happened). By hard he meant it was like a crack neighborhood....NOW IM SURE THIS ISNT TRUE SINCE ITS A CULTURAL TOURIST TYPE NEIGHBORHOOD FROM WHAT IVE HEARD, i mean...a professor from University of Chicago told me to visit that neighborhood since it has a heavy Indian/Pakistani flavor to it and it attracts tourists because of its restaurants and sari boutiques....so im guessing its not a bad neighborhood....right?

[reppin_the_847]

Well here's the thing. Devon Avenue is basically our equivalent of the Jackson Heights neighborhood in Queens, NY. There are a lot of similarities in the sense that it is an Indian / Pakistani retail hub, and has a generally diverse, urban feel. Historically many different ethnicities have made their mark on Devon Avenue. If you drive a bit further west on Devon (west of California St), you'll notice that you're in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood. People from various Middle Eastern and African ethnicities and their establishments can be spotted on various pockets of Devon Avenue. However, the Indian & Pakistani establishments are largely located along a 1.15 mile stretch that spans (from west to east) from about California Ave to Ridge Blvd. And you'll also notice some retail up & down Western Avenue. Western Avenue is a north-south street that basically cuts the desi (slang term referring to Indian/Pakistani/Southasian people for the uninitiated) section of Devon Ave. in half. The rest of the north-south streets intersecting Devon Ave are primarily residential streets. A lot of the desi visitors tend to park along these streets. Most of the time Devon Ave should be fairly safe and you shouldn't run into too many problems. Now.....the Rogers Park neighborhood DOES have some criminal elements lurking around so I would still exercise caution. One time I parked a car a bit further east on Devon Ave (near some kind of shipping store similar to The UPS store). I was with a friend of mine who accidentally left the windows open in my car as we went into the mailing / shipping store to buy supplies. Not even five minutes later there was an African-American male (a bit older person, probably late 30's). He reached into the vehicle and started stealing some CD's (music), and coins that had been sitting the car. Luckily I managed to recover most of it. Turns out the guy was a known drug dealer and hung out with a prostitute in one of the shady apartment complexes next to the mailing store.

Originally Posted by saadrajabali

One of my son's friends (not really), who apparently thinks its cool to be ghetto (yeah...i dont know either) says that he lived on Devon Ave. and life was very hard for him....(he was 5-6 by the way when that happened). By hard he meant it was like a crack neighborhood....NOW IM SURE THIS ISNT TRUE SINCE ITS A CULTURAL TOURIST TYPE NEIGHBORHOOD FROM WHAT IVE HEARD, i mean...a professor from University of Chicago told me to visit that neighborhood since it has a heavy Indian/Pakistani flavor to it and it attracts tourists because of its restaurants and sari boutiques....so im guessing its not a bad neighborhood....right?

[saadrajabali]

Oh i see. If Devon Ave. is ANYTHING like the Little India in Jackson Heights, i think it would be my favorite hangout spot in all of Chicago. Surprisingly, I've noticed that Orthodox Jewish people make the community feel safer and raise real estate values since most are highly educated

[reppin_the_847]

Yeah.....basically Devon Avenue is a very long east-west street that sits at the southern border of Rogers Park, and at the north end of the Edgewater neighborhood. Here are a couple links that describe these neighborhoods:

West Ridge (also known as West Rogers Park): West Ridge, Chicago - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rogers Park: Rogers Park, Chicago - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Edgewater: Edgewater, Chicago - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A lot of the rougher areas seem to be in northeast Rogers Park from my experience. Pockets of high-crime areas can be found in areas such as Morse Ave & for sure Howard St (both these areas are heavily low-income African-American neighborhoods). The Clark Street area within the Rogers Park neighborhood limits is primarily Mexican / Latino area. Gangs can be found in all of these areas to a certain extent so use caution. Now......it appears that the ethnic section of Devon Ave is considered to be within the "West Ridge" section of West Rogers Park. Check out this excerpt from the first Wikipedia link that I pasted above:

"Today West Ridge is one of Chicago's better off communities, filled with thriving multi-ethnic culture lining Devon Avenue, historic mansions lining Ridge and Lunt Avenues, cultural institutions such as St. Scholastica Acadaemy and one of the highest per capita incomes on the Northside of Chicago. It is represented in City Council by Alderman Bernard Stone.

It is home to the Midwest's largest Hasidic community, as well as other Jewish, Irish-American, German-American, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Assyrian, and Korean immigrant communities."

Originally Posted by saadrajabali

Oh i see. If Devon Ave. is ANYTHING like the Little India in Jackson Heights, i think it would be my favorite hangout spot in all of Chicago. Surprisingly, I've noticed that Orthodox Jewish people make the community feel safer and raise real estate values since most are highly educated

[saadrajabali]

Thank you VERY VERY MUCH for the information...I'll be using this, but I would prefer to live in Downtown, then the safe areas of Devon would me my second choice

[reppin_the_847]

Here's a Wikipedia entry that is dedicated to Devon Avenue. It describes the street real well!:

Devon Avenue (Chicago) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here's an excerpt from it:

"[The] street has been settled by many other immigrant groups, which is perhaps most evident between Kedzie and Ridge Avenues in West Ridge, Chicago. Here, one travelling eastward will encounter, in succession, an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, a Russian-American neighborhood, an Indian neighborhood, a Pakistani neighborhood, and a Bangladeshi neighborhood. Indeed, portions of Devon in this area have been renamed in honor of Golda Meir, Mahatma Gandhi, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman."

"Devon's Desi corridor is one of the best-known and largest communities of its kind in North America. It exists mainly on Devon between Ravenswood Ave. and California Ave. South Asian shops, restaurants and grocery stores abound along this strip, and it has become a popular tourist destination. Vivek Mukherjee of Rediff.com writes, "There are similar desi markets in New Jersey, at the famous Oak Tree Road or in the Bay Area, but nothing like Devon Street. [...] Devon Street's sidewalks are even speckled with the paan stains"

[saadrajabali]

Thanks a lot again friend. Haha, I find the reference to the "paan stains" to be very amusing since it reminds me of back home. So in short, some areas of Devon are good, some are bad and Rogers Park is fairly bad. I'll keep on researching then.

[Drover]

A few comments/observations here:

1. The Devon Avenue corridor is not a "tourist destination" in the classic sense. For starters, it doesn't have the drawing power of other ethnic neighborhoods such as (and especially) Chinatown. The Devon corridor is more of a local attraction than a tourist attraction. Moreover, the Devon Avenue corridor is not like, say, Greektown, which today serves as a dining & nightlife destination for outsiders more than an actual hub for the Greek community. By contrast, the Devon business corridor exists in its current form to serve the local community first, and that it attracts outsiders into the neighborhood is a secondary bonus.
   
   
2. While Rogers Park has its issues, the portion of RP along Devon Avenue is fine.
   
   
3. I don't know how old your son's "friend" is, but as recently as 15 years ago the neighborhood around the Devon Avenue corridor was not very nice. Same goes for many parts of the city that have since cleaned up. It would not have been uncommon to witness drug dealing in the area back then. It still wouldn't shock me to see it today every once in a great while. But the Devon corridor has benefited from the clean-up that has taken place throughout a lot of the city, particularly on the North side. It is not a gentrified neighborhood so it still has a little bit of a "rough edge" urban feel, but it has become quieter and safer over the years.
   
   
4. Even still, that area was NEVER "the ghetto." Even at its lowest point it was never anywhere near as bad as the ACTUAL ghettos of the city like Englewood, Lawndale, Garfield Park, Austin and the like. I'd bet most people living in those places wish their neighborhoods were as nice today as the Devon corridor was when it was at its worst. So while it may not have been the most ideal place for a kid to grow up in the 70s or 80s, and while it's still not idyllic like suburbia, I'd guess your son's "friend" is exaggerating just how "tough" his neighborhood was and/or he doesn't have a good perspective on what an actual tough neighborhood is like.

[saadrajabali]

i see thanks

[lazy1]

Originally Posted by saadrajabali

One of my son's friends (not really), who apparently thinks its cool to be ghetto (yeah...i dont know either) says that he lived on Devon Ave. and life was very hard for him....(he was 5-6 by the way when that happened). By hard he meant it was like a crack neighborhood....NOW IM SURE THIS ISNT TRUE SINCE ITS A CULTURAL TOURIST TYPE NEIGHBORHOOD FROM WHAT IVE HEARD, i mean...a professor from University of Chicago told me to visit that neighborhood since it has a heavy Indian/Pakistani flavor to it and it attracts tourists because of its restaurants and sari boutiques....so im guessing its not a bad neighborhood....right?

This area of Devon Ave. is not bad! Certainly not even close to being a ghetto.