Is Pilsen Safe? (Chicago, Peoria, Fulton: jobs, home, university)

[jimbo13]

yeah, i hope you have some sort of mexican blood in you.

[aragx6]

For $1000 a month you could easily get a place in Wicker Park that you might like better, though may add time to your commute depending on where you are going in the morning.

[NearWestSider]

Originally Posted by aragx6

For $1000 a month you could easily get a place in Wicker Park that you might like better, though may add time to your commute depending on where you are going in the morning.

Anyone who thinks they can get more apartment for the money in Wicker Park than in Heart of Chicago (HOC) is destined to be disappointed, in my humble opinion.

But regardless, the person is asking how safe Pilsen is, not how groovy Wicker Park is. Stay on topic.

[aragx6]

Excuse me... I hardly said the OP could get more for their money. What I did say and what i meant however, was that if the opinions found here were making the OP reconsider Pilsen, there were other safer neighborhoods where housing could be had on a $1000/month budget.

[Drover]

Interesting impromptu interview of the guy who owns Ignotz's, one of the more venerated Italian restaurants in the 24th/Oakley strip: YouTube - Ignotz's and the Heart of Italy, Chicago

He talks about the neighborhood past and present.

[Drover]

Here's a good look at the neighborhood you're looking at, including great shots of 24th and Oakley:

YouTube - Heart of Italy, a walk down Oakley Ave

That "curious display of benches across the street" he talks about fills up with old-school Italian dudes during the summer, chatting the afternoon away.

[Drover]

More Heart of Italy vids:

YouTube - Saint Joseph's day in the Heart of Italy

YouTube - Cafe Duvall, Heart of Italy, Chicago

[NearWestSider]

One point of caution in dealing with people in that part of the world:

Anyone who uses the terms "Heart of Italy" or "Little Italy" to describe 24th/Oakley or the neighborhood immediately West of UIC might as well tatoo "tourist" on their forehead.

Those names were created specifically to rebrand the neighborhoods, to make them palatble to upscale whites.

There are people who resent the rebranding, and wonder why it wasn't good enough before and why somebody needs a new name just to sell gringos fifteen dollar plates of noodles.

Another problem with those names is that they disavow the fact that Italians, while a significant and in some ways dominant group in those areas, were hardly the only people living there.

So when talking to locals, particularly old-timers and Mexicans, your best bet is to use the traditional names "Heart of Chicago" and "Taylor Street", lest you antagonize them needlessly.

[Drover]

Uh, well, one of those old-timers is a family friend and has referred to his neighborhood as "Little Italy" for as long as I can remember, which goes well back into the early 80s. So the idea that "Little Italy" is some kind of brand new marketing tool is nonsense squared. And I think most people are smart enough to know that ethnic monikers like that do not in any way imply that only people of that ethnicity live there. Anyone who feels like their own ethnicity is being dissed by reference to a neighborhood name that is ethnic-specific is probably looking for opportunities to be offended and not genuinely offended. They need to get over themselves. Nobody believes that Pilsen is still a Czech/Bohemian neighborhood, and the non-Czechs who live there now don't seem to mind that it's still referred to as Pilsen.

For that matter, I've heard Heart of Italy referred to by that name for over a decade now, long before anyone thought of trying to lure upscale whites to the area.

[NearWestSider]

Do you have any idea of how many "Little Italy"s there used to be in Chicago? Please.

No, "Little Italy" in lieu of "Taylor Street" was the brainstorm of Oscar DeAngelo and the University Village Association, and it was done to make a break with Taylor Street's gangster past. You are correct that it was done during the early 90's.

UIC is also a partner in this rebranding, and one of their naming guidelines specifically states to use "Little Italy" instead of "Taylor Street". They are concerned about their reputation, and "Taylor Street" had a pretty seedy one, synonymous with political corruption and gangsterism. They adopted "UIC" as the official acronym for the school about the same time.

Overnight, "Circle Campus" on "Taylor Street" became "UIC" in "Little Italy".

Which I guess is understandable. If I were a hot-shot professor or prospective student, I'd probably be more inclined to accept an offer from "UIC" in "Little Italy" than one from "Circle Campus" on "Taylor Street". So I think is was the right decision.

Anyway, you are free to call Taylor Street "Little Italy", "Little Schaumburg" or anything you want. Its not my home turf, so I have no honor to defend. Just keep in mind that the neighborhood itself hasn't been majority Italian since the 1960's, and that includes today, so it is a historic inaccuracy to do so.

To me, it is about like calling University Village "Jew Town". I actually heard a guy on the bus call it that just the other day. Can you imagine that?