Are hipsters moving to Uptown?

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Mr.Montrose

I dont hate anyone, however I think its the greedy developers who dont care about the existing residents of areas, and also mislead the newcomers who dont know any better about the area of Albany or Humboldt park they just bought a condo in..

I'm curious, are there any developers out there who are not "greedy" or is greed simply inherent in being a developer? Because it seems developers can't ever build anything anywhere without having the adjective "greedy" thrown in front of them so casually that I halfway expect to see "developer" be replaced by "greedydeveloper" in the American Heritage Dictionary in my lifetime. If they contribute to suburban sprawl, they're called "greedy." If they infill existing neighborhoods instead, they're called "greedy." If they build high-rises, they're called "greedy." What and where can they build so that they are not considered "greedy"? And what about largely middle-class people who sell their property to these developers so they can improve their station in life? Are they greedy too? Should they be expected to sell at something less than market value just so people won't judge them to be greedy? Or should they just sit on their property so they don't enable greedy developers? How should all of this work so that nobody is "greedy"?

[Chicago60614]

Interesting. I remember reading this thread last January when I had a limited knowledge of Uptown. Since then I bought a condo (baby's first real estate) right in the middle of Buena Park (moved from Lincoln Park), and have become very involved in what's happening in the community.

I generally agree with everything everyone stated, and over the past 4 months I've been googling my *** off and reading tons of message boards, uptown update, trying to bring myself up to speed on my new neighborhood.

It's a very interesting place, and I LOVE THE NEIGHBORHOOD. It's so much more interesting than powder white Lincoln Park, and the architecture, the languages I hear, the old people, the children, it's just such a diverse and alive community. Of course the one area I've had a few reservations about is what 98% of the conversations have dealt with. I think it's interesting that this area between Montrose and Lawrence and Broadway and the lake is "just ready to take off", but has so many outside influences that are driving Uptown to the beat of a different drummer compared to places nearby.

I had a friend in from Iowa, and we were walking all over Uptown, he thought it was beautiful. Well, we were walking all over Buena Park. I suppose that makes a huge difference. We walked up north of Montrose on Broadway, chatting about god knows what. All the sudden he kinda registers the area around him and the people, and stops and goes "dude....what the f*** is going on!?!?". We'd gotten up near Broadway and Wilson, where the three-ring-circus-of-the-mentally-impared takes place. He was actually getting kinda scared, so we got on the train and I told him to chillax.

I've gotten pretty upset at the randoms who walk around Buena Park, greatly interrupting the flow of the 99% of people down there who are just trying to go about their business and live their lives. Broken windows, fights, shootings, cops, crazy people SCREAMING. It's a huge distraction, and seems to be SO MUCH more concentrated in Uptown than other neighborhoods. Today I was walking to the bus at 8am down Buena. Maybe 30 people out walking to work, walking dogs, walking their kids to school. There's a guy at Buena and Broadway, screaming at the absolute top of his lungs at people walking by "I FU**ING HATE YOU!! I WANT YOU TO FU**ING DIE RIGHT NOW!!!! WHY WON'T YOU JUST FU**ING DIE!!!!!" And on and on and on, following anyone who gets near him down the street swearing about how specifically he would like to see them die. Shot in the head, stabbed, choking them to death, etc. People just kinda igonred it like "welcome to the neighborhood!".

It was disturbing though. I don't do well when people walk up to me staring me in the eye screaming at me about nothing. It's happened more than once. I kinda freak out. So here for 30 people their random nice Tuesday morning started off with a crazy guy on their street corner screaming at the top of his lungs the he hoped they died and he wanted to slit their throat. Really? I mean come on.....no.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by Chicago60614

Today I was walking to the bus at 8am down Buena. Maybe 30 people out walking to work, walking dogs, walking their kids to school. There's a guy at Buena and Broadway, screaming at the absolute top of his lungs at people walking by "I FU**ING HATE YOU!! I WANT YOU TO FU**ING DIE RIGHT NOW!!!! WHY WON'T YOU JUST FU**ING DIE!!!!!" And on and on and on, following anyone who gets near him down the street swearing about how specifically he would like to see them die. Shot in the head, stabbed, choking them to death, etc. People just kinda igonred it like "welcome to the neighborhood!".

I tend to see this type of thing on Broadway from time to time. Broadway in Buena Park connects a lot of Uptown nastiness to the Hotel Chateau nastiness in Lakeview, so it has more than its fair share of vagrants and mentally ill.

[Lookout Kid]

By the way, you should change your handle to Chicago60613!