What neighborhoods wre very dangerous and dirty in the 80s/90s, but reletively livable today? (Chicago: for sale, buying)

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by MassVt

I didn't grow up in Illinois, and I've never lived there, but I've heard that Wrigleyville used to be quite a dump, not all that long ago..

If you define "not long ago" as 1983 or so, then maybe. This is all pure hearsay but I know a person who bought a building in Wrigleyville in the early 1980s. He told me it really started changing around the time of Harry Carey's arrival and the 1984 playoff run. He said gays and lesbians began moving north from Boystown and buying up and renovating the multi-units there, which ultimately led to what you see there today.

I'd be curious to see what it was like before the 1980s. I doubt the word "dump" would describe it. It was probably much more working class with a lot of rentals, few condos, few yuppies, and certainly no bros like you have now.

[ChicagoMeO]

Originally Posted by BRU67

If you define "not long ago" as 1983 or so, then maybe. This is all pure hearsay but I know a person who bought a building in Wrigleyville in the early 1980s. He told me it really started changing around the time of Harry Carey's arrival and the 1984 playoff run. He said gays and lesbians began moving north from Boystown and buying up and renovating the multi-units there, which ultimately led to what you see there today.

I'd be curious to see what it was like before the 1980s. I doubt the word "dump" would describe it. It was probably much more working class with a lot of rentals, few condos, few yuppies, and certainly no bros like you have now.

Bridgeport - reminds me of what Lakeview used to look like. I dont mean the newer modern buildings, but the older homes in Bridgeport. The kind of homes with the original veneer, before siding was put on homes in Lakeview to update them.

[drro]

Originally Posted by Master Jay

I remember as a kid visiting from Milwaukee in the 1980's, Cabrini Green (Halsted and Division) as well as the Maxwell Street Market (Halsted and Roosevelt) was dangerous, dirty, and decrepit. This began to change in the 1990's. Nowadays, both areas look completely different! I've walked, ridden my bike, etc. through these same streets. World's apart!

Cabrini Green was about as bad as it gets, here is a documentary(viewer discretion advised) about how they celebrate new years eve with AK47's ... To be fair, the place seems to have improved majorly.

[IrishIllini]

Originally Posted by ChicagoMeO

Bridgeport - reminds me of what Lakeview used to look like. I dont mean the newer modern buildings, but the older homes in Bridgeport. The kind of homes with the original veneer, before siding was put on homes in Lakeview to update them.

Lakeview has a lot of vintage, larger scale walk ups that you don't really find in Bridgeport.

[ToriaT]

Lakeview was not a dump back then. It was just a normal inner city neighborhood. It wasn't the gentrified gussied up place it can be in places now. It was pure old school Chicago. People seem to forget what reality was back in the day. Many people that grew up on Chicago think parts of it is a dump because its old and does not look like what they were used to growing up. The sanitized, Napervillish type of home that they are used to. That does not make it a dump or ghetto necessarily.

[Lifelong Chicagoan]

Originally Posted by Master Jay

I remember as a kid visiting from Milwaukee in the 1980's, Cabrini Green (Halsted and Division) as well as the Maxwell Street Market (Halsted and Roosevelt) was dangerous, dirty, and decrepit. This began to change in the 1990's. Nowadays, both areas look completely different! I've walked, ridden my bike, etc. through these same streets. World's apart!

I remember the old Maxwell Street Market back in the early 1990s. You also had the ABLA homes high-rise projects on Roosevelt across from St. Ignatius. I went to high school there and would sometimes take the Halsted bus south on my way home. Men would get on the bus and sell everything from socks to cassette tapes to porn.
It's like night and day today to what it was back then. In the 90s, Halsted had a safer feel once you got to 18th Street.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by ToriaT

Lakeview was not a dump back then. It was just a normal inner city neighborhood. It wasn't the gentrified gussied up place it can be in places now. It was pure old school Chicago. People seem to forget what reality was back in the day. Many people that grew up on Chicago think parts of it is a dump because its old and does not look like what they were used to growing up. The sanitized, Napervillish type of home that they are used to. That does not make it a dump or ghetto necessarily.

Agreed. Just because the people who live there aren't highly educated professionals who draw 1 coffee bistro per capita and a bunch of pretentious fusion restaurants doesn't mean their neighborhood is a dump.

I'd probably define about 6-7 out of our 77 Community Areas as actual dumps. It's an overused term, most often invoked by early to mid stage gentrifies to try to embellish their urban experience, or liberal suburbanites who want to believe there are a lot of poor urban helpless people to assist.

[MassVt]

I was making a reference to Wrigleyville, and not Lakeview. According to an old Chicago CD poster who no longer visits this site ( IrishTom), the area around Wrigley Field wasn't always a tourist attraction buzzing with nightlife. What if the Cubs have a turn for the worse, and become a cellar-dweller for years and years? The same thing might happen all over again..

[ChicagoMeO]

Originally Posted by IrishIllini

Lakeview has a lot of vintage, larger scale walk ups that you don't really find in Bridgeport.

When i was driving down Bridgeport, and took a look at the older buildings, it triggered a memory of the Lakeview area, and i thought, hey thats how i remember the north side look, just like Bridgeport. Have you seen what i saw though?

[OKParker]

Originally Posted by BRU67

Agreed. Just because the people who live there aren't highly educated professionals who draw 1 coffee bistro per capita and a bunch of pretentious fusion restaurants doesn't mean their neighborhood is a dump.

I'd probably define about 6-7 out of our 77 Community Areas as actual dumps. It's an overused term, most often invoked by early to mid stage gentrifies to try to embellish their urban experience, or liberal suburbanites who want to believe there are a lot of poor urban helpless people to assist.

interested in hearing about the dumps.