white street youth (Chicago, Lincoln, Irving: hair salon, crime, safe neighborhood)

[KevK]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

I've always thought the kids at Belmont and Clark were a bunch of suburban high school wannabes. Any bohemian artsy kid with credibility knows that this is NOT a cool scene, and that most of the real action is in Wicker Park, Ukranian Village, Pilsen, Logan Square, and Humboldt Park. Lakeview is about the most yuppie-fied neighborhood in the city after Lincoln Park. I know that corner still attracts many runaways, though. And drugs are a real problem, even if the people doing them are a bunch of phony rebels.

I love how "The Alley" ads always say "Clark and Belmont--IF YOU DARE", as if that location holds any cachet. How annoying. It's just a matter of time before the "Punkin' Donuts" is bulldozed and redeveloped into condos with a Coldstone Creamery on the ground floor.

That was Orchestra Albany territory wasn't it?

[KevK]

Also weren't the Royals operating in Logan Square and Uptown? They were a white youth organization too but they did not always see eye to eye with the Gaylords or the skinheads as I recall.

[Lookout Kid]

The counterculture keeps getting pushed out by the gentrification they help bring on! Wicker Park/Bucktown had a really good run in the 90s and really had a great energy to it. Shows at the Double Door along with a great arts scene really had a major impact there. Now that the area is morphing into Lincoln Park II, the bohemian hipster scene in Chicago is much more scattered. I'd bet on Ukranian Village or Logan Square taking the reigns soon... There just has to be a critical mass of galleries and music venues... I keep hoping Uptown becomes the next hip hood, but we'll just have to wait and see.

[Drover]

It kinda looks like Uptown is going to skip right past the "hipster" phase and go right into "martini lounge and pretentious sushi joint" territory.

Anyway, I still see a lot of the hipster element in Bucktown/Wicker Park. They haven't all been chased out; and even if they don't all live there any more (and many still do), it's still the social center of the hipster scene. The Double Door and Subterranean are still going strong, and The Note is also drawing in the indie acts. And there's always the implacable Hideout. Logan Square already acts as an adjunct to the scene with the Congress Theater and Logan Square Auditorium, though Congress Theater tends to draw in larger acts (Modest Mouse just played there, for instance).

[CarolinaBredChicagoan]

Originally Posted by Drover

It kinda looks like Uptown is going to skip right past the "hipster" phase and go right into "martini lounge and pretentious sushi joint" territory.

Anyway, I still see a lot of the hipster element in Bucktown/Wicker Park. They haven't all been chased out; and even if they don't all live there any more (and many still do), it's still the social center of the hipster scene. The Double Door and Subterranean are still going strong, and The Note is also drawing in the indie acts. And there's always the implacable Hideout. Logan Square already acts as an adjunct to the scene with the Congress Theater and Logan Square Auditorium, though Congress Theater tends to draw in larger acts (Modest Mouse just played there, for instance).

There are hipsters in Uptown as we speak. In fact, most of the guys I know who fit the bill live in Uptown.

[Lookout Kid]

I've noticed a huge hipster infusion into Uptown in the past few years. The coffee shop on my corner is becoming a hipster Mecca, and many old Wicker Park/Bucktown pioneers are now in Uptown, including Nick's, Holiday Club, Fat Kat (by the old Silver Cloud folks), etc. Uptown will remain gritty for a long time, though, because of the concentration of shelters and social services. This may add enough of a gritty backdrop to keep gentrification at a slower pace than normal.

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

I've always thought the kids at Belmont and Clark were a bunch of suburban high school wannabes. Any bohemian artsy kid with credibility knows that this is NOT a cool scene, and that most of the real action is in Wicker Park, Ukranian Village, Pilsen, Logan Square, and Humboldt Park. Lakeview is about the most yuppie-fied neighborhood in the city after Lincoln Park. I know that corner still attracts many runaways, though. And drugs are a real problem, even if the people doing them are a bunch of phony rebels.

I love how "The Alley" ads always say "Clark and Belmont--IF YOU DARE", as if that location holds any cachet. How annoying. It's just a matter of time before the "Punkin' Donuts" is bulldozed and redeveloped into condos with a Coldstone Creamery on the ground floor.

Well it's not now - but 20 years ago Lakeview was a much different place. That area was quite run down and a mess in the 60's and 70's when the gays started moving in. Now it's pretty much peaked out...

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by KevK

Uptown. It was also home to one of the 2 major skinhead groups in Chicago. They were called CASH for Chicago Area Skin Heads. They were anti racist and largely ruffian drop out types that ran the streets. Their sworn enemies were a skinhead group called SHOC for Skin Heads Of Chicago which were racist skinheads based mostly in Marquette Park. The 2 groups often clashed in places like Lincoln Park or Rush Street.

There was also a decently large faction of SHARP skinheads (SkinHeads Against Racial Predjudice) up in Wrigleyville back in the 90s. I used to see them all the time when I was hanging out at the Metro every weekend at the punk shows. They wear green laces in their combat boots, which supposedly signifies theyre not neo-Nazi and belong to SHARP. While they were not racist, they were always up for a fight and would seem to sit across the street and taunt everyone as we came out from the show (especially the mods---they always got it the worst lol).

[scottl333]

I would say Uptown was the area of poor white youth. In Uptown they had a gang called the Uptown Rebels and the Gaylords. Lots of Gaylords still live in the Uptown area but they are all inactive and older. There are still gaylords in the city around Kilbourne Park and the area I live by Harlem and Grand. I see there graffiti all the time.

Also by the old Greyhound station there would be a lot of homeless teenagers hanging around.

[KevK]

Originally Posted by scottl333

I would say Uptown was the area of poor white youth. In Uptown they had a gang called the Uptown Rebels and the Gaylords. Lots of Gaylords still live in the Uptown area but they are all inactive and older. There are still gaylords in the city around Kilbourne Park and the area I live by Harlem and Grand. I see there graffiti all the time.

Also by the old Greyhound station there would be a lot of homeless teenagers hanging around.

I used to see them too at the old Greyhound station- the big one. They used to beg around there alot. White teenage runaways would come to Chicago and join up with the Gaylords or the Royals because they could all the sudden have lots of friends, make money and have a pad to crash in. The Gaylords were a very open and accepting organization and membership had its benefits- but it could get you killed too!