Improving Hyde Park (Chicago, Lincoln, Washington: transplants, house, neighborhoods)

[Dream Chaser]

Hyde Park always been a nice area and unique in it's own way, but is the most underrated neighborhood in Chicago.Being near the lake and nicely dense area and diversity.President Obama having his house there and Museum of S&I.Lately UChicago made big investments like the currently under-construction Harper Courts. Other proposed developments are under way. Neighboring communities are the blame for Hyde Park prospering or is it race. Hyde Park has concentration
highly educated and high income blacks so that can't be the problem.Lincoln Park,Wicker Park,Bucktown, are all nice areas but at least they get allot of recognition why doesn't Hyde Park ?

[rparz]

I have done a lot of work at UofC and LOVE Hyde Park. I call it the 'best kept secret in the City.' If I hit the lotto, 50th and Ellis wold be a bad ass place to live. Like, make the Gold Coast look like a bargain basement caliber.

[Kevin J]

Hyde Park would be a better neighborhood if some of the things missing from it were there: a first-run movie theater; more bars and more variation among them; anything beyond the university and the Museum to attract people to the neighborhood or retain people who come to the neighborhood to visit or work at one or the other of the big institutions.

Both institutions are very insular: the university doesn't offer many attractions to people unconnected with it and the physical isolation and size of the Museum mean that no one who visits it does anything else in the neighborhood, not even lunch. It would help a lot if the neighborhood were known for something in particular like antiques, or a concentration of store front theaters, or art galleries, or a particular kind of ethnic restaurant. All of these are just examples; any kind of distinctive specialization would do. An attraction like this, along with more of the basic amusements I mentioned above (bars, movie theater) would go a long way to making it more of a destination neighborhood rather than the suburbanesque neighborhood that it is, where residents like living there, but all go somewhere else in their spare time and no one from the outside comes into the neighborhood strictly to enjoy themselves.

All of this is easier said than done, though. The deficits in amusements and night life are definitely connected to the isolation of the neighborhood amidst low-income areas. Many businesses depend on getting customers from much further than a mile radius. Until incomes in some of the nearby areas improve so that those residents can come to Hyde Park and spend significant amounts of money, change will be an uphill battle.

[xavier xerxes]

I know for one thing Kevin J, that a new movie theatre is in the works
on 53rd street and that U of C is investing alot in the surrounding area.

There are alot of cool projects in the wingsfor Hyde Park. If you follow Chicago Curbed or any development thread like SSP or SSC you would know this.

[Manigault]

Originally Posted by Dream Chaser

Hyde Park always been a nice area and unique in it's own way, but is the most underrated neighborhood in Chicago.... Hyde Park has concentration highly educated and high income blacks so that can't be the problem.Lincoln Park,Wicker Park,Bucktown, are all nice areas but at least they get allot of recognition why doesn't Hyde Park ?

Is recognition the problem? Well, than the only way to solve that is for more folks outside of Hyde Park to become familiar with the area. There's a whole 'nother world south of 23rd street.

[Aleking]

I think it's pretty simple. The 'hoods that get talked about the most are places where recent grads, transplants go to live the hip, young nightlife…they have buzz. Hyde Park is nice, but it isn't going to appel to someone who wants to hit hot spots every night and those are precisely the type of people who drone on about Lincoln Park, Wicker Park, etc.

Weak El access connecting it to other hot spots hurts as well.

[jahk]

Hyde Park also isn't on an el line. You either take buses, and run the risk of getting stuck in traffic, or you take the green line and then walk or bus through Washington Park. I know there's the South Shore train, but it doesn't run every 10 minutes like the el.

I think that contributes to Hyde Park being more attractive to people who work in Hyde Park than people who work in the loop.

[valpoguy]

Maybe it's my particular age and social circles (approaching middle age, mostly friends with highly educated liberal people who value diversity), but it's hard for me to think of Hyde Park as underrated, because I hear great things about it all the time. I think of it as quite possibly the nicest neighborhood on the South Side, and one of the nicest in the entire city, and others I know seem to view it similarly.

I agree that it would be nice if it had more nightlife and El access, but no neighborhood has everything. I like the bookstores, some of the restaurants, the genuine racial diversity (which is rare in this highly segregated city), lake access, and the beautiful U of C campus. Its geographic isolation from most of the other "nice" neighborhoods of the city is probably why it isn't completely overrun, but that's also why you can still find parking there, which I view as a plus.

[Dream Chaser]

Originally Posted by valpoguy

I agree that it would be nice if it had more nightlife and El access, but no neighborhood has everything. I like the bookstores, some of the restaurants, the genuine racial diversity (which is rare in this highly segregated city), lake access, and the beautiful U of C campus. Its geographic isolation from most of the other "nice" neighborhoods of the city is probably why it isn't completely overrun, but that's also why you can still find parking there, which I view as a plus.

So pretty much Hyde Park is going to remain a hidden gem of the city.

[jsk1983]

Originally Posted by jahk

Hyde Park also isn't on an el line. You either take buses, and run the risk of getting stuck in traffic, or you take the green line and then walk or bus through Washington Park. I know there's the South Shore train, but it doesn't run every 10 minutes like the el.

I think that contributes to Hyde Park being more attractive to people who work in Hyde Park than people who work in the loop.

Metra Electric is about 16 minutes to the loop. But outside of rush hour you don't just walk to the train and wait a few minutes. The bus isn't all that bad I think it takes about half an hour which is about the same time as the L from where I live. On the other hand getting from Hyde Park to the north side can take well over an hour.