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The street scenes in the Lakeview video look very very quiet. Is this normal? I am not expecting crowds of people, but for one of the densest neighborhoods in Chicago the pedestrian traffic seems quite weak.
In the commercial area? No, that's not normal...they probably shot this at 8am on a Sunday morning most likely. This video is at night in the Wrigleyville neighborhood of Lakeview, but it's about on par with what you'd find any weekend in that area. There are some street scenes, but unfortunately most of the video is a bar/club (which is stupid). But at least I can tell you that there's a lot of bars in this area and each one (which is many) is just as packed if not more packed than the one in the video every weekend no matter how cold it is. I can't believe how hard it is to find videos that show just a normal street life of anywhere, but that kind of makes sense.
Last edited by marothisu; 04-23-2013 at 08:55 PM..
Okay, that's fine. I just commented that Boston feels more like NYC at the street level. That has nothing to do with preference.
As a matter of preference, however, I only care for highrise living if it's acommpanied by a Manhattan-like street experience.
I was thinking about this early. The only thing that Chicago has more in common with Manhattan that Boston doesn't really produce is the linear street grid and endless rows of more overwhelming taller buildings (higher vertical density).
Chicago's taller buildings like Manhattan blocks out more sunlight than Boston with more of the wall to wall claustrophobic like effect despite having larger blocks and buildings at the base.
Chicago skyline on top of the Manhattan outline compared to a much smaller Boston just to give an idea for scale size.
Last edited by urbanologist; 04-23-2013 at 09:56 PM..
I was thinking about this early. The only thing that Chicago has more in common with Manhattan that Boston doesn't really produce is the linear street grid and endless rows of more overwhelming taller buildings (higher vertical density).
Chicago's taller buildings like Manhattan blocks out more sunlight than Boston with more of the wall to wall claustrophobic like effect despite having larger blocks and buildings at the base.
Chicago skyline on top of the Manhattan outline compared to a much smaller Boston just to give an idea for scale size.
I was talking about the two cities at the ground level. While it is true that Chicago may resemble Manhattan when looking up, the two cities have a very different feel when you're walking and looking straight ahead (as non-tourists in Manhattan tend to do). Boston, which is more mixed-use than Chicago, feels "buzzier" in its core neighborhoods than Chicago, imo.
One thing that surprised me about Chicago was the relative lack of corner stores/bodegas. Even the hoodest of hood parts of Philadelphia will have a lot of these. There seem to be larger spanses of Chicago that just don't have much retail at all.
I was talking about the two cities at the ground level. While it is true that Chicago may resemble Manhattan when looking up, the two cities have a very different feel when you're walking and looking straight ahead (as non-tourists in Manhattan tend to do).
Not in the Loop on a business day or some people who think they're absolutely gorgeous on the Near North Side. Very Manhattan-esque people, including me. I remember a few years ago I met a guy who lives near me who just moved from Manhattan and commented on the same thing, and that it pissed him off that some women on the NNS were just like girls in Manhattan.
Quote:
One thing that surprised me about Chicago was the relative lack of corner stores/bodegas. Even the hoodest of hood parts of Philadelphia will have a lot of these. There seem to be larger spanses of Chicago that just don't have much retail at all.
One thing that surprised me about Chicago was the relative lack of corner stores/bodegas. Even the hoodest of hood parts of Philadelphia will have a lot of these. There seem to be larger spanses of Chicago that just don't have much retail at all.
Maybe it's just me, but my neighborhood has these in spades.
Not in the Loop on a business day or some people who think they're absolutely gorgeous on the Near North Side. Very Manhattan-esque people, including me. I remember a few years ago I met a guy who lives near me who just moved from Manhattan and commented on the same thing, and that it pissed him off that some women on the NNS were just like girls in Manhattan.
Huh? I'm talking more or less about the layout and design. Boston is older, more compact and more mixed-use than Chicago.
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Originally Posted by marothisu
Seriously? What parts of Chicago were you in...??
Yes, like, seriously. Wicker Park, Logan Square, Bucktown, Pilsen, Humboldt Park, Brownsville, Hyde Park, River North. You just don't see that many corner stores. In West or Southwest Philly, you would see one every few blocks.
Yes, like, seriously. Wicker Park, Logan Square, Bucktown, Pilsen, Humboldt Park, Brownsville, Hyde Park, River North. You just don't see that many corner stores. In West or Southwest Philly, you would see one every few blocks.
1) No idea what Brownsville is. I'm guessing you meant Bronzeville.
2) You didn't go to any of the actual densest neighborhoods of Chicago. While River North is dense, it is in no way that of a neighborhood. The densest neighborhoods in Chicago are on the north side, and with the exception of River North, you touched on 0 of them. Wicker Park, Bucktown, Logan Square, and PIlsen? Only exists in a few areas there. Hyde Park, while a good neighborhood too, is a pretty boring neighborhood at that with the things to do.
Furthermore, much of Wicker Park, Bucktown, Humboldt Park, Hyde Park, and Bronzeville (especially Humboldt Park, Hyde Park, and Bronzeville) is pretty residential in comparison to other neighborhoods.
Next time you're out here, go to Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Uptown, Lincoln Square, etc. It's quite a bit different than anything you visited, you barely saw any of the city and Hyde Park, Humboldt Park, and Bronzeville are hardly the neighborhoods to go to when one wants to experience a more urban Chicago.
Last edited by marothisu; 04-24-2013 at 09:03 AM..
Douglas (where Bronzeville is) - 11,000/sq mi
Lower West Side (where Pilsen is) - 13,000/sq mi
Humboldt Park - 15,000/sq mi
Hyde Park - 16,000/sq mi
West Town (where Wicker Park is) - 18,000/sq mi
Logan Square (technically, Bucktown is part of Logan Square) - 23,000/sq mi
By comparison:
Avondale - 20,000/sq mi
Lincoln Park - 20,000/sq mi
West Ridge - 20,000/sq mi
Uptown - 24,000/sq mi
Albany Park - 27,000/sq mi
Rogers Park - 30,000/sq mi
Lakeview - 30,000/sq mi
Edgewater - 33,000/sq mi
Actually, there are a small handful of neighborhoods on the South/SW Side people don't even take "seriously" that are just as dense, if not more dense even, than Wicker Park area. Even South Lawndale is just as dense as Wicker Park.
1) No idea what Brownsville is. I'm guessing you meant Bronzeville.
Yeah, sorry, that's the Brooklyn in me
Quote:
Originally Posted by marothisu
2) You didn't go to any of the actual densest neighborhoods of Chicago. While River North is dense, it is in no way that of a neighborhood. The densest neighborhoods in Chicago are on the north side, and with the exception of River North, you touched on 0 of them. Wicker Park, Bucktown, Logan Square, and PIlsen? Only exists in a few areas there. Hyde Park, while a good neighborhood too, is a pretty boring neighborhood at that with the things to do.
I pointed those neighborhoods out specifically because I was comparing them to more regular areas of Philadelphia. Overbrook, for example, is a very regular area of Philly, as I imagine an area like Bronzeville is in Chicago. You could obviously go to Center City or South Philly and find neighborhoods that are substantially more mixed-use, but the general model in much of Philadelphia is rowhomes with corner stores every few blocks or so.
Quote:
Originally Posted by marothisu
Next time you're out here, go to Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Uptown, Lincoln Square, etc. It's quite a bit different than anything you visited, you barely saw any of the city and Hyde Park, Humboldt Park, and Bronzeville are hardly the neighborhoods to go to when one wants to experience a more urban Chicago.
I've been to all of those neighborhoods before. When I go to Chicago, I do tend to spend more time on the South Side because my friends there are black (Whitney Young alums), but I have seen the densest areas of Chicago. Those areas still aren't as mixed-use as Boston or Philly.
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