white family moving to Humboldt park. advice?

[sarahdeanne]

Yes we are looking forward to this project. Though we've heard it has been a start and stop long time in the works deal, I am hopeful and we will attend the event listed on the link! Thanks for posting.

[ToriaT]

Great. Good luck to you. My son lives on the corner of Kimball and Altgeld and he loves it. The places with the boulevards are truely a gem and I think they are underrated. I think that whole area is coming up.

[humboldtwriter]

Lived in the SW corner of the park for almost 10 years, and love it. The corner I think that you talk about (Division/Kedzie) is not bad. The neighbors are fairly intolerant of gang-banging and drug-dealing, evidenced by their "Vote Dry" in February 2011 to shut down a non-compliant liquor store (3251 W. Division) where gang-bangers hung out and intimidated residents. Almost 80% of the voters voted to shut this place down, and the area has already experienced great changes in just 2 years.

I walk a dog almost every day in the park, and walk there. There are a LOT of creepy people that you have to stare-down. If you like to walk around holding some expensive electronic device in your hand you will probably be donating it to the cause. If you are smart and alert, you will be a good fit.

Make sure you get off-street parking if you can. Otherwise, drive a beater and don't leave anything in it. Same rules apply elsewhere.

Keep in mind that RiotFest 2012 introduced 30,000 to 60,000 new faces to the Park, and I have already seen houses bought and apartments rented as a result. So, if you are afraid of hipster grit, beware!

Fun diverse neighborhood, but you have to drive to spend your money. Very few grocery store options, and the restaurants are minimal, unless you are OK infusing your body with deep fried whatevers.

Good luck!

[ChiNaan]

I composed a semi-lengthy response before realizing this is a zombie thread, but I'd say the previous poster's description is pretty accurate from what I know of HP now. It was funny on the first page of this thread to see that Chet was doing his exact same anti-urban routine nearly two years ago, though. I'm rather familiar with Tulsa, and if I'm correct in my assumption of the part of it the OP was referring to, they'd have found Humboldt Park to be more familiar to them than Beverly or Hyde Park.

I wonder what they ended up doing?

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by aragx6

^And I'm sure you realized as you read through this thread, the OP didn't end up looking in the more dangerous areas she'd initially been talking about.

Regulars of this forum certainly have a tendency towards the brusque, but she listened to the concerns and adjusted her plans accordingly. I bet she ends up really happy in any of those places she looked.

If you skipped over the middle part the recommendations of any of us to consider places like Wicker Park or Ukranian Village was in fact the course the OP followed...

(btw it ain't "anti-" anything. It's about helping folks understand that Chicago and the whole region have an awful lot of places that may, on paper, seem very close in cost or distance but in reality are not well suited to the needs of people relocating. There are almost certainly as many folks like the OP in this thread that decide to choose a neighbor inside Chicago where they can find the kind of things they are looking with their relocation as their folks that find those things outside the boundaries of the city. Those of us who've lived / worked in different parts of the region enjoy helping other find what they'll need...)

[tribecavsbrowns]

Originally Posted by humboldtwriter

Lived in the SW corner of the park for almost 10 years, and love it. The corner I think that you talk about (Division/Kedzie) is not bad. The neighbors are fairly intolerant of gang-banging and drug-dealing, evidenced by their "Vote Dry" in February 2011 to shut down a non-compliant liquor store (3251 W. Division) where gang-bangers hung out and intimidated residents. Almost 80% of the voters voted to shut this place down, and the area has already experienced great changes in just 2 years.

I walk a dog almost every day in the park, and walk there. There are a LOT of creepy people that you have to stare-down. If you like to walk around holding some expensive electronic device in your hand you will probably be donating it to the cause. If you are smart and alert, you will be a good fit.

Make sure you get off-street parking if you can. Otherwise, drive a beater and don't leave anything in it. Same rules apply elsewhere.

Keep in mind that RiotFest 2012 introduced 30,000 to 60,000 new faces to the Park, and I have already seen houses bought and apartments rented as a result. So, if you are afraid of hipster grit, beware!

Fun diverse neighborhood, but you have to drive to spend your money. Very few grocery store options, and the restaurants are minimal, unless you are OK infusing your body with deep fried whatevers.

Good luck!

I can almost -- almost -- see why a native Chicagoan would want to live in that area, but as a native Clevelander, there are plenty of areas in Cleveland where you can't carry a smartphone or drive a decent car, where there are "a lot of creepy people" in the parks, where you're poorly served by public transportation, where your neighbors are loafers, and where there's nothing to eat except fried food. And they cost a lot less.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by tribecavsbrowns

I can almost -- almost -- see why a native Chicagoan would want to live in that area, but as a native Clevelander, there are plenty of areas in Cleveland where you can't carry a smartphone or drive a decent car, where there are "a lot of creepy people" in the parks, where you're poorly served by public transportation, where your neighbors are loafers, and where there's nothing to eat except fried food. And they cost a lot less.

But are they gentrifying? That's really what the thread is about and what the OP is asking. It's not that they want to live in a neighborhood like that per se. They want to get into an area while it's inexpensive and have it change around them.

To this, I don't know. Very possible but that would be better perceived by someone who lives there now. I don't think any area is going to change very much in this economy but once it improves some will I'm sure.