Neighbourhoods 8-19

I haven't yet set out to visit more neighbourhoods on the list, but I've collected a few in my travels.

8: GRAND BOULEVARD
I walked through this neighbourhood way back on my third day in Chicago. I was mostly just walking down Martin Luther King Drive, checking whether a number 5 bus was coming (it never was, which is why I ended up walking 20 km that morning). The overall impression was very similar to the rest of that walk (at least, the section further from the city): more open than I expect for a city, and not wealthy-looking but not falling apart either.

9: WASHINGTON PARK
In the neighbourhood, I've really only followed the main streets, though I go there pretty frequently to attend Mass at Corpus Christi. I like the park after which it is named: a large expanse of what is currently white but should be green in a couple of months.

10: FULLER PARK
This one's a bit of a technicality: when I walk to the red line L station (I usually take the green line, but the first time I took the L, I didn't realise that it was convenient to change between the lines), I walk along 55th St, which is the southern boundary of Fuller Park. People say the area is dangerous, but on the main road, I don't think it is. The houses aren't as nice, and there are fewer people around, but the street is busy enough that I feel safe during daylight.

11: EDGEWATER
This contains the southern part of Loyola University: the residential part, I think. The area around Granville station feels like a university town: little shops selling cheap food to students. Kenmore Avenue is a pretty little avenue to walk along.

12: NEAR NORTH SIDE
This is where Peter, Lucas and I ended up in the evening of our day exploring the city. Many of the buildings by the river are architecturally impressive, though it was too cold for me to really appreciate them, other than the objectionable Trump sign. Navy Pier is a bit of a tourist center: I've been for Shakespeare shows and will likely return for the same reason.

13: ROGERS PARK
This is where the main part of Loyola campus lies. The campus seems relatively small to me, though it's harder to judge without a framework to understand what the buildings are. I guess much of the UC campus is a mystery to me, since I inhabit just a few key buildings. The area north of the campus is pretty normal surburbia.

14: WOODLAWN
There is a general sense that anything north and east of the UC campus is home ground (Hyde Park), but south of the Plaisance things can turn nasty. This is changing, though, as UC starts to expand its reach southwards. I walked down to Christ the King church on a cold day, and it didn't feel so different from most of Hyde Park. Perhaps if I had ventured further southwest, I would have formed a different impression.

15: ENGLEWOOD
If Fuller Park was a technicality, this is even more so: since 55th St divides the neighbourhoods, when I walk on the south side of the street, I'm in Englewood.

16: LINCOLN PARK
I made it as far north as this on my wanderings between the Scottish play and the St Olaf concert. I enjoyed looking at the lake on my right and the city on my left. The park itself is very nice - I have been through it by bus a few times - as well as popular, and I hope to do more walking there once it is warmer. There is even a free zoo: I saw just the edge of it.

17: O'HARE
Guess what: it's an airport! It looks like every other airport in the world! Perhaps there's more to the area around it, but when I went through, I was only interested in getting home after an unplanned extension to my Boston trip.

18: UPTOWN
One very cold Saturday, I walked along Broadway, an area recommended by Anna for good food. As it turned out, I chose rather poorly: I had a gyro that tasted ok but not special, and I felt rather sick the next day (I don't think these two things were connected, but it's possible).

19: LOGAN SQUARE
I went here just this weekend, part of a UC Catholic group helping the Franciscans at St Mary of the Angels at their monthly food pantry. I really only saw the church and the immediately surrounding area, but I'm told it's a poor neighbourhood (and was worse in the latter decades of the 20th century), and a difficult place to get around (especially to buy groceries) without a car.

I realise I'm not that good at describing the different neighbourhoods, but at least I'm getting a sense of the overall geography of Chicago. I've covered the central east, and as the months go on and it gets a little warmer, I'll venture further afield.