The Ongoing Reinvention of Bridgeport (Chicago, Humboldt: 2014, hotel, neighborhoods)

[sfchi]

"The Ongoing Reinvention of Chicago's Bridgeport Neighborhood"

The Ongoing Reinvention of Chicago's Bridgeport Neighborhood

[chet everett]

There are lots of cute "yeah Chicago" articles in ChicagoNow, some are a bit more informative than the sorts of free tourist magazines that you find in hotel rooms.

The downside of all the "recycled bicycle assemblers and artist studios" is that if counted up the wages of every last one of those places you would still not have as big a payroll as one shift of folks filling up Teamster run trucks from the Speigal catalog or HoneyBee when it was making money ...

[chiMT]

Immediately the article defines "diversity" by racial mixture. This is a common but flawed idea. In reality, there's not a whole lot of "different" in Bridgeport.

I don't doubt it's better than before, but Bridgeport has a long, long way to go before it's a truly diverse and bustling area.

[BRU67]

Some good things are happening in Bridgeport and it's certainly come a long way from even 10 years ago. Problem is that unless you live in east Bridgeport or on the northern edge, you're going to be pretty far from an L stop and you will need to depend on the bus, which yuppies generally won't do, at least yet when there's still bargains in neighborhoods better served by the L. And there's really no concentrated business district. The cool stuff's kind of spread out all over the place.

"A swell of young families moving in" is a bit of wishful thinking. Pricing and market times show it's a bit less desirable than neighborhoods which are still changing like Tri-Taylor, west West Town (aka Humboldt Park) and Pilsen. I think it's a good long term bet but I wouldn't buy there expecting to flip and double my money in 5 years.

[jonnynonos]

A bunch of rah rah garbage.

[chiMT]

Originally Posted by BRU67

Problem is that unless you live in east Bridgeport or on the northern edge, you're going to be pretty far from an L stop and you will need to depend on the bus, which yuppies generally won't do, at least yet when there's still bargains in neighborhoods better served by the L.

Yeah, and what really makes this a problem is that west Bridgeport happens to be a much better place for 20 and 30 somethings (not that it's great, but it's far beyond east Bridgeport which is basically only families and isolated students). So you get to choose between better CTA access OR having any bit of a local life.

[CCrest182]

Originally Posted by chiMT

Immediately the article defines "diversity" by racial mixture. This is a common but flawed idea. In reality, there's not a whole lot of "different" in Bridgeport.

I don't doubt it's better than before, but Bridgeport has a long, long way to go before it's a truly diverse and bustling area.

If there was a larger black population, it would be very diverse. Then you've got Asians, Hispanics, Whites, Blacks. You got everybody there.

[chiMT]

My point was, you could have an abundance of different "ethnicities" in a neighborhood, but that alone doesn't give it a feeling of variety. Even though there is a combination of Hispanics, Asians, and Whites in Bridgeport... it's a pretty bland place. I doubt adding Blacks or even Eskimos would change that.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by chiMT

Yeah, and what really makes this a problem is that west Bridgeport happens to be a much better place for 20 and 30 somethings (not that it's great, but it's far beyond east Bridgeport which is basically only families and isolated students). So you get to choose between better CTA access OR having any bit of a local life.

I know I find that a little odd myself! Seems like most of the hipsterism is located between Halsted and the river and 35th and 31st Street. But if you live in that area you'd better like the bus. A lot. Fortunately, the Halsted bus is one of the better ones. And east Pilsen is not really L friendly either, and that's where all the stuff is going on in that neighborhood.

[Freefall18]

Soxlyville. SoSox. Coming soon.