what parts of chicago is considered a white, asian or hispanic ghetto? (Lincoln: houses, high schools)

[Drover]

Originally Posted by edsg25

Here's something to think about:

from the late 19th century to at least into the 1950's, Chicago was dominated by European ethnic groups who came here in large numbers when industry and transportation boomed after the Civil War.

A couple of questions (opinions, really) I'd like to ask here:

• I would identify the main groups based on huge numbers and very heavy influence that were part of it all throughout the era in question as the following:

Irish, Italians, Jews, Germans, Poles

Would you agree with my identification of those five, realizing that others like Swedes, Bohemians, Greeks, etc., could be included

• And if you look at Chicago in 2009, what would you identify as neighborhoods, though long past the true era of these groups that have so faded into the melting pot, still hold on to some of the old connections to the past.

I'm thinking of places like Taylor St for Italians, WRP for Jews, Lincoln Sq for Germans, Greektown for Greeks, etc.

Andersonville still has visible Swedish connections even though there's maybe 8 Swedes left in the whole neighborhood. Koreatown along Lawrence Avenue is starting to become a shell of itself as the Koreans fan out, mostly to the Northwest. Also, the Clark Street corridor just south of Wrigley used to be Japantown. A couple of the sushi joints on Clark are actually holdovers from that era as opposed to being newcomers taking advantage of the recent sushi trend.

[NearWestSider]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

The fact that the DePaul area was a Puerto Rican neighborhood has been pretty well documented. WTTW had a segment about it just a few months ago on a show about Puerto Ricans in Chicago. If you did in fact "grow up" there, you must be pretty young.

That is my feeling exactly, because my girlfriend was living on Howe right off of Armitage in '74-'76, and I was afraid to wander too far west of Halsted because of the gangs. Sound familiar?

The funniest thing about that place is that Cafe Bernard was one of the first, if not THE first, upscale joint in that area. When you look at it now, it looks so, well uh, so non-upscale. Which goes to show you how much times have changed.

[memo92]

Pilsen is hood the westside. Has alot of gangs too
La Raza, SD'z, Ambrose, Counts, Bishops, Party People

[NearWestSider]

Originally Posted by memo92

Pilsen is hood the westside. Has alot of gangs too
La Raza, SD'z, Ambrose, Counts, Bishops, Party People

Pilsen is a tough neighborhood, not a ghetto, and yes, we already know how much you hate it and wouldn't put a dime in the place.

So why don't you tell us about your daring, buck-the-trend, contrarian investments in Countryside, Woodridge, or Bolingbrook instead? Or are you bullish on Brookfield?

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

the problem for you is I actually grew up in these areas, and can state quite frankly you are full of it...

I hate to say it, but you are dead wrong about Lincoln Park. I usually do not agree with NearWestSider, but he is on the right here along with myself (Of course also the OP in this thread of the Puerto Rican Lincoln Park statement-Latikeriii) and LookoutKid, Drover,a few others.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

...Greeks? Not many is my guess. Greektown is all about the restaurants, and has been for decades/

Greektown used to be a much larger area than it is today.

Many Greeks moved on out of Greektown (or never lived in Greektown to begin with) even before UIC was relocated into Budlong Woods,Edgewater,Lincoln Square, to name a few places...

The building of the UIC campus and the expressways destroyed the homes of a large amount of Greeks and Italians that remained in the area.

There also were many Greeks that helped settle the far Northwest side as farmers before the area was annexed into the city in the late 1800's. (Some of these areas remained farm land until the 30's and 40's.)

Greeks

After they gained more wealth and a family had a generation or two born in the U.S.A. they moved on to places such as Portage Park,Norwood Park,Jefferson Park,etc or places like Arlington Heights,Palatine,Morton Grove,Niles,Oak Lawn,Palos Hills,Park Ridge,Des Plaines,etc.

There are about 100k Greeks in the Chicago Metro area.

"Greektown on the Near West Side remained the focal point of Greek life in Chicago until it was displaced by the new University of Illinois at Chicago campus in the 1960s. Residents relocated to other existing Greek settlements such as Ravenswood and Lincoln Square (Greektown North), and to older communities in Woodlawn, South Shore, and Pullman on the South Side and Austin on the West Side. By the end of the twentieth century, large concentrations of Greek Americans could be found in other Chicago neighborhoods such as Rogers Park and West Rogers Park, Edgewater, Forest Glen, Lake View, South Chicago, Hegewisch, Ashburn, and Beverly. The old Greektown business community remained intact and had even expanded through gentrification.?

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohisto...pages/548.html

[memo92]

Originally Posted by NearWestSider

Pilsen is a tough neighborhood, not a ghetto, and yes, we already know how much you hate it and wouldn't put a dime in the place.

So why don't you tell us about your daring, buck-the-trend, contrarian investments in Countryside, Woodridge, or Bolingbrook instead? Or are you bullish on Brookfield?

were you talking to me?

[NearWestSider]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

Many Greeks moved on out of Greektown even before UIC was relocated into Budlong Woods,Edgewater,Lincoln Square, to name a few places...

The building of the UIC campus and the expressways destroyed the homes of a large amount of Greeks and Italians that remained in the area.

There also were many Greeks that settled the far Northwest side as farmers before the area was annexed into the city in the late 1800's.

After they gained more wealth and a family had a generation or two born in the U.S.A. they moved on to places such as Portage Park,Norwood Park,Jefferson Park,etc or places like Arlington Heights,Palatine,Morton Grove,Niles,Oak Lawn,Palos Hills,Park Ridge,Des Plaines,etc.

There are about 100k Greeks in the Chicago Metro area.

My Greek buddies from Circle (as in from GREECE, not the Gamma-Gamma-What-the-Frucka-A kind from Champaign) always told me the Wops were full of it, it was the GREEK part of Taylor Street that actually got nuked. Of course, Greeks, being the incurable malakas that they are, have been known to overstate things from time to time!

Anyway, wasn't there, before my time, so I can't say for sure. Maybe McTom would care to chime in.....(and YES! I ALREADY KNOW I'd better stop this retro-ethnic talk or I'll get a yellow card).

[Chicagoland60426]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

We have southeast Asian gangs here in Uptown. But they rarely kill anyone. That's almost always the black Uptown gangs. Occasionally our little enclave or "Spanish Gangsta Disciples" in Buena Park will have an incident or two, but it's pretty rare.

Oh I see, basically the Southeast Asian gangs in Uptown don't kill/attack anyone unless someone try to mess with them and neutral. They must don't have affiliation with neither Folks or People Nations.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

I hate to say it, but you are dead wrong about Lincoln Park. I usually do not agree with NearWestSider, but he is on the right here along with myself (Of course also the OP in this thread of the Puerto Rican Lincoln Park statement-Latikeriii) and LookoutKid, Drover,a few others.

show me something - or are you saying my interpretation of the Chicago Encyclopedia articles is wrong? or are you saying that my standard of needing to be a majority population for it be considered an ethnic neighborhood is wrong?

I understand what you all are saying, and you can refine your definition to make a case, but isn't going to meet the standards I'm referring to.

let's try this one: in 1950, 1955, 1960, 1965, 1970, 1975, what were the demographics in the public schools in LP?

YMMV, but I still think an ethnic group needs to really do some bricks-and-mortar work to really have any claim to an area where they only had a presence for 20 years. And being in the "SW corner of LP" by definition isn't a majority.