Are hipsters moving to Uptown? (Chicago: houses, neighborhoods, buy)

[xenourtv]

Originally Posted by lenniel

Cicero, Back-of-the-Yards, I don't care. I just don't want them in or near my neighborhood.

Wow that was pretty ignorant. What makes you so much better than them? I am pretty sure that they were here first.

I was raised in Chicago and spent most of my childhood years living in Uptown. Even though uptown looks "better" I guess, the character of Uptown is practically gone. I am a recent graduate of DePaul University, and back in 2004 when I was a sophomore I met and mingled with a lot of students who were living in Lincoln Park, Wicker Park, and Lakeview. It was nice to be a part of that scene and it was a great experience, but like with most experiences sometimes you get tired of it.

I thought my neighborhood in Uptown was going to be that escape from the whole hip scene if you want to call it that, but all of a sudden within a blink of an eye, I watched my neighborhood slowly becoming a carbon copy of Wicker Park. I was too busy having fun that year and not going home as much to realize my neighborhood was gentrifying. I started seeing people, (yuppies, college students) walking in my neighborhood like they owned the place, thinking that they have been here for many years, hardly showing any respect for the original inhabitants who I knew were from Chicago.

Gentrification is good as with all things in moderation, but what I worry about most is just the character of certain neighborhoods along the lakefront being gone. As with most of the transplants I see, once they go through a huge life event they are not going to stay in the city. They are either going to relocate to the suburbs, or go back to that small town which they were originally from.

Then it just becomes a constant cycle with the same thing over and over, you have a young person from the suburbs or some small town, thinking living in the Chicago lakefront they will be experiencing the city life (I mean how is just living in a particular area like Lincoln Park, Wicker Park etc;experiencing the city life when those nieghborhoods just make up 10 to 15% of chicago???) but once they get tired, disappointed, or go through some sort of life event or they end up leaving. No one is going to be from Chicago, and a great example of this would be "wrigleyville".

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by via chicago

Like all things, its OK in moderation. But overdone, it drains the soul out of what makes neighborhoods unique. Chicago should not be defined by cookie cutter coffee shops, luxury condos, and overpriced "trendy" boutiques. When all you're left with are power brokers and lawyers inhabiting former artist lofts, the creative and eccentric spirit that makes living in a big city fun and exciting is gone. Just look at how unfordable NY has become for the average person.

I totally agree.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by xenourtv

Wow that was pretty ignorant. What makes you so much better than them? I am pretty sure that they were here first.

I was raised in Chicago and spent most of my childhood years living in Uptown. Even though uptown looks "better" I guess, the character of Uptown is practically gone. I am a recent graduate of DePaul University, and back in 2004 when I was a sophomore I met and mingled with a lot of students who were living in Lincoln Park, Wicker Park, and Lakeview. It was nice to be a part of that scene and it was a great experience, but like with most experiences sometimes you get tired of it.

I thought my neighborhood in Uptown was going to be that escape from the whole hip scene if you want to call it that, but all of a sudden within a blink of an eye, I watched my neighborhood slowly becoming a carbon copy of Wicker Park. I was too busy having fun that year and not going home as much to realize my neighborhood was gentrifying. I started seeing people, (yuppies, college students) walking in my neighborhood like they owned the place, thinking that they have been here for many years, hardly showing any respect for the original inhabitants who I knew were from Chicago.

Gentrification is good as with all things in moderation, but what I worry about most is just the character of certain neighborhoods along the lakefront being gone. As with most of the transplants I see, once they go through a huge life event they are not going to stay in the city. They are either going to relocate to the suburbs, or go back to that small town which they were originally from.

Then it just becomes a constant cycle with the same thing over and over, you have a young person from the suburbs or some small town, thinking living in the Chicago lakefront they will be experiencing the city life (I mean how is just living in a particular area like Lincoln Park, Wicker Park etc;experiencing the city life when those nieghborhoods just make up 10 to 15% of chicago???) but once they get tired, disappointed, or go through some sort of life event or they end up leaving.

Very true.

Lincoln Park and much of Lake View were holes for about 30 years. Much of Uptown has been questionable since the 40's...

The best way to experience city life is to go to the Chicago Public Schools as a child and teenager and/or grow up in the city. The real life lessions learned there are never forgotten nor are they learned in a small town or most burbs.

[via chicago]

I think this short video sums why why overdone gentrification can in the process drain a city of its sense of place. There are 4 vids, but specifically watch the Carol Anshaw one, where shes reminisces about the old gas station that is being knocked down. Its not the type of thing that gets classified as a landmark, but they're the small things that give a city its identity. And as we slowly lose them, we lose what makes our city different as well.
Chicago's literary all-stars reflect on their city -- chicagotribune.com

[neonwattagelimit]

Originally Posted by xenourtv

Wow that was pretty ignorant. What makes you so much better than them? I am pretty sure that they were here first.

I was raised in Chicago and spent most of my childhood years living in Uptown. Even though uptown looks "better" I guess, the character of Uptown is practically gone. I am a recent graduate of DePaul University, and back in 2004 when I was a sophomore I met and mingled with a lot of students who were living in Lincoln Park, Wicker Park, and Lakeview. It was nice to be a part of that scene and it was a great experience, but like with most experiences sometimes you get tired of it.

I thought my neighborhood in Uptown was going to be that escape from the whole hip scene if you want to call it that, but all of a sudden within a blink of an eye, I watched my neighborhood slowly becoming a carbon copy of Wicker Park. I was too busy having fun that year and not going home as much to realize my neighborhood was gentrifying. I started seeing people, (yuppies, college students) walking in my neighborhood like they owned the place, thinking that they have been here for many years, hardly showing any respect for the original inhabitants who I knew were from Chicago.

Gentrification is good as with all things in moderation, but what I worry about most is just the character of certain neighborhoods along the lakefront being gone. As with most of the transplants I see, once they go through a huge life event they are not going to stay in the city. They are either going to relocate to the suburbs, or go back to that small town which they were originally from.

Then it just becomes a constant cycle with the same thing over and over, you have a young person from the suburbs or some small town, thinking living in the Chicago lakefront they will be experiencing the city life (I mean how is just living in a particular area like Lincoln Park, Wicker Park etc;experiencing the city life when those nieghborhoods just make up 10 to 15% of chicago???) but once they get tired, disappointed, or go through some sort of life event or they end up leaving. No one is going to be from Chicago, and a great example of this would be "wrigleyville".

I think gentrification is more good than bad, but I see your point. I'm moving from NYC, my hometown, to Chicago tomorrow (yes, tomorrow, feels weird to say that) and while I'll likely dabble in the yuppie lifestyle if I become a prototype of it, seriously, someone should just punch me in the damn face.

The thing is that people who move to places like Chicago or NYC from small towns think that big city life is all about carousing and being trendy and dating lots of people. Or something like that. I'm not necessarily against those things, per se, but there's just so much more to places like Chicago and New York that these people do not even see. Moreover, they do not want to see them. To be perfectly honest with you, most of the biggest NYC-centric snobs I've met are people who moved here from like Nebraska or something and now think there is no life outside Manhattan. I've suggested to people that they go check out some place in Brooklyn or Queens and gotten quizzical "why would I want to go to Brooklyn or Queens responses?" I usually make a joke out of it, but I really want to say "if you think you are such a f*ing urbanite, get out of your yuppie/hipster high castle and experience the REAL city, why don't you?"

Of course not all yuppies and hipsters are like this, and many are actually happy to hear about off-the-beaten-path parts of town. And, on the whole, they are good for the city. But it still gets on my nerves, which is why I plan to venture into as many of Chicago's lesser-known 'hoods as I can.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by via chicago

I think this short video sums why why overdone gentrification can in the process drain a city of its sense of place. There are 4 vids, but specifically watch the Carol Anshaw one, where shes reminisces about the old gas station that is being knocked down. Its not the type of thing that gets classified as a landmark, but they're the small things that give a city its identity. And as we slowly lose them, we lose what makes our city different as well.
Chicago's literary all-stars reflect on their city -- chicagotribune.com

Like the old gas stations on Lincoln or the one on Lawrence in Lincoln Square.
It is too bad more buildings like this could not have found a new life like the Pontiac in Wicker Park did.

Things like the Toots hot dog stand at Montrose and Central,the Milford Theatre on Pulaski,"the rocks" that were on the lakefront and are mostly gone on the northside now,our old green buses and trains, arcades like the Chicago Game Company and the Fun Zone on Western and much more will all be missed and are missed. Hopefully we can preserve what is left of the real Chicago before it is too late.

I do disagree that DuSable
"founded Chicago"...He was not a permanent resident. He was a trader and there were others before him. He is a great story not to be dismissed, but I do not think he should be proped up as much as has been.

[Drover]

I think there's a little conceit involved in the belief that there's such a thing as a "real" Chicago. This has been one of the most rapidly-changing cities in the country ever since it grew out of a fort in the middle of a swamp. Sometimes that change is going to take on forms that you don't like. If you can't handle that, you live in the wrong place.

As for complaints that suburbanites are coming in and changing the character of the city, well, turnabout is fair play. Many of those suburbs were small, sleepy communities until they got mowed down by Chicagoans fleeing colored people. Many of those suburbanites you complain about would have been born here had their parents not run for the hills in the first place.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by Drover

I think there's a little conceit involved in the belief that there's such a thing as a "real" Chicago. This has been one of the most rapidly-changing cities in the country ever since it grew out of a fort in the middle of a swamp. Sometimes that change is going to take on forms that you don't like. If you can't handle that, you live in the wrong place.

As for complaints that suburbanites are coming in and changing the character of the city, well, turnabout is fair play. Many of those suburbs were small, sleepy communities until they got mowed down by Chicagoans fleeing colored people. Many of those suburbanites you complain about would have been born here had their parents not run for the hills in the first place.

You are trying to give me lessons on the city I was born in? Dont act like you know everything about this city and area, just because you like to read and google stuff.

I am not trying to pick a fight here, but you are defending whom with your rant? Yourself? I made a statement about native Chicagoans favorite places being demolished and you attack me? I did not attack anyone in specific and I was not trying to state I dislike all outsiders. When people react like you do, it makes me rethink my tolerance.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

You are trying to give me lessons on the city I was born in? Dont act like you know everything about this city and area just because you like to read and google stuff.

I am not trying to pick a fight here, but you are defending whom with your rant? Yourself? I made a statement about native Chicagoans favorite places being demolished and you attack me? I did not attack anyone in specific and I was not trying to state I dislike all outsiders. When people react like you do, it makes me rethink my tolerance.

Slow down there, killer. For starters, I know about the area from 30+ years of living here, not just from Googling. Though forgive me if wanting to know about the area I live in also involves reading about it. If that makes my knowledge less "genuine" or less "street-cred" or whatever, so be it.

Second, You're entitled to your nostalgia, which is not what I attacked. I attacked the idea that there is such a thing as "real" Chicago or that any snapshot of Chicago in the past is more or less authentic than the Chicago of today or tomorrow.

Just as your patience is tested by reactions like mine, so is mine tested by people who believe they have a fix on what the "real" Chicago is, and those of us who don't embrace the same vision are ruining your city. Well, tough. Get over it, because the constant changing of the city isn't going to grind to a halt to accommodate your sense of what the "real" Chicago is.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by Drover

Slow down there, killer. For starters, I know about the area from 30+ years of living here, not just from Googling. Though forgive me if wanting to know about the area I live in also involves reading about it. If that makes my knowledge less "genuine" or less "street-cred" or whatever, so be it.
Second, You're entitled to your nostalgia, which is not what I attacked. I attacked the idea that there is such a thing as "real" Chicago or that any snapshot of Chicago in the past is more or less authentic than the Chicago of today or tomorrow.
Just as your patience is tested by reactions like mine, so is mine tested by people who believe they have a fix on what the "real" Chicago is, and those of us who don't embrace the same vision are ruining your city. Well, tough. Get over it, because the constant changing of the city isn't going to grind to a halt to accommodate your childhood memories.

Not everything you read on the net or in books is true. We know it is skewed towards the writers heart,political,or ecomomic interests. I doubt many writers can be impartial. I have no problem with change as long as the past is not obliterated and thrown out like it has been many times in the past. Many places that Chicagoans miss were around for decades-no flashes in the pan. Many of Chicagos neighborhood institutions deserve to be saved.

All I am saying is do not dismiss the past as something that did not deserve to live in the present and future. Many mistakes and tragedies have happened in Chicago in terms of razing worthwhile, historical, and architecturally significant buildings and businesses unnecessarily in the name of "progress."

As I have stated before, Chicago is losing its uniqueness,history,culture, and affordability.

There was/is the real Chicago. It does not involve hipsters and overpriced sterile establishments. If that is the future of Chicago, so be it.









"Great architecture has only two natural enemies: water and stupid men."