77 neighbourhoods

Lisa suggested I should take some time while living here to check out some of Chicago's many neighbourhoods beyond Hyde Park. There is no official list of neighbourhoods, but the city is divided into 77 community areas (which, on average, contain several neighbourhoods). If I visit 7 of these each month, I will cover the whole city with a month to spare.

I've hit my 7 for January without even trying.

GARFIELD RIDGE
OK, this one might be cheating: it just happens to be the location of Midway Airport. I only explored it as far as the distance from the terminal to the train station, though I did then see a very little of it from my bus. But I think any neighbourhood with an airport is likely to be dominated by the airport.

HYDE PARK
Now this one I've explored more thoroughly! Almost everything in my last several blog posts has been here. Although it is of course dominated by the university, it is more residential, less retail than I would have expected. There are various restaurants on the odd-numbered east-west streets, but elsewhere outside the couple of blocks of campus it's very much houses (some apartments, but not dominated by them).

KENWOOD
Kenwood is the first of the neighbourhoods I went through on my trip north. It's generally a wealthy area: I don't know whether that's because it's far enough from the university to be preferred by faculty with cars rather than students on foot! The Obamas' house is here (near the border with Hyde Park). There seems to be one commercial street (47th), where I occasionally shop and which I go down on the shuttle pretty frequently.

OAKLAND
Still on the lake, north of Kenwood. One thing I noticed on my walk is that the density of buildings is not that high, although there are plenty of tall apartment buildings. I imagine being close to the lake makes this area more expensive than further west.

DOUGLAS
Now the gradual transition to city becomes noticeable: more shopping, carparks, a truck depot, various businesses and still plenty of apartments. The density is still quite low.

NEAR SOUTH SIDE
Now it's properly city: big conference centers, hotels, hospitals, the stadium... The apartment blocks look much newer and more expensive: it reminded me of parts of Canberra.

THE LOOP
This is the real downtown area. Grant Park is a big feature: a large open, grassy and paved area near the lake. The museums straddle the border between the Loop and the near south. The streets look like a city should: tall buildings, a variety of shops at the lower level. One characteristic feature of Chicago is that the trains are primarily elevated instead of underground: just a couple of blocks inland, the streets are covered by train tracks. In my opinion, it makes it look a little dingy!

I have more, but I'll save them until February: I think the initial months will be easy!