Chicago is Booming! (Highland Park, Lincoln, Highland: houses, construction, living)

[marothisu]

Really, the locals can't afford L&E? You're so out of the touch with that area. There are tons of people who live in that area that can more than afford that. There are multi million dollar condos/houses in the area now even and some yuppies are moving into the area, and not to mention many other people with "professional" jobs who can more than afford it. You have to be kidding me.

I'm sure the owners of this $1.185 million house can't afford this:
http://chicago.curbed.com/archives/2...2ea12fd00018c4

How about this $1.789 million one?
http://chicago.curbed.com/archives/2...216d672c00c379

[ChiNaan]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

Weird, I eat at L&E.

It's close to home too.

Plenty of LS residents eat there, and at the many other bars, restaurants, and cafes that have opened there in recent years. Plenty more who live in other neighborhoods take the Blue Line to these places.

He must work in some parallel universe version of Logan Square. Maybe he takes a time machine to 2004 to go to work?

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

Plenty of LS residents eat there, and at the many other bars, restaurants, and cafes that have opened there in recent years. Plenty more who live in other neighborhoods take the Blue Line to these places.

He must work in some parallel universe version of Logan Square. Maybe he takes a time machine to 2004 to go to work?

Good point, the Logan Square he/she is commenting on is long gone. And L&E is not an "outlier", the area is filled with good restaurants, shops etc.

Maybe marothisu is on to something though. Maybe all the people paying big bucks to live in the area have no money leftover for anything else.

[Chicagoist123]

Originally Posted by chuckcheese

No!!

I know the area. I work in the area. I drive Milwaukee Ave. every day.

The vacancies and lousy tenant-mix are FACTS. I'm just suggesting that the Denier-types, who like to argue, and who don't know the area, don't drive it, etc......just suggesting they look at Google street view, if they want to see before they shoot their mouths off. If anything, there's probably slightly more vacancy along there since last summer. Plus, the google street view is indeed current enough to get a feel for the area. If anything, there have been more stores closed, net, not more openings.

You get these liberal-twit types who only focus on some outlier restaurant like Longman and Eagle and think the area is booming. Who eats there? Not the locals who cannot afford it, it's people who read in-flight airline magazines, uppity tourists looking to act cool, Chicago magazine reading suburbanite sheep from places like Highland Park, and some other random foodie Chicagoans who don't live in "Logan Square" that's for sure.

So, one L & E doesn't mean the vacancies and thrift stores, empty liquor bottles and litter, graffiti, etc. don't exist. It's just that hipsters live in a false reality, one in which their minds make up fantasy imagery based on TV sitcom scripts or hipster magazines and/or websites.

Just cause you work at Chuckie Cheese and can't afford L&E doesn't meant the people that live there can't......

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by chuckcheese

No!!
You get these liberal-twit types who only focus on some outlier restaurant like Longman and Eagle and think the area is booming. Who eats there? Not the locals who cannot afford it, it's people who read in-flight airline magazines, uppity tourists looking to act cool, Chicago magazine reading suburbanite sheep from places like Highland Park, and some other random foodie Chicagoans who don't live in "Logan Square" that's for sure.

L & E is far from an outlier - Reno, Telegraph, La Boulangerie, The Owl, Rocking Horse, Jam, and the renovated Logan Theater have all opened in the last few years, and are all doing well. The older places like Lula, El Cid, and Cafe Con Leche are also doing well.

I am also a local (20 years in Chicago, the last 10 in Logan Square) who eats a L&E regularly. It's not cheap eats, but it's certainly not unreasonable. I went there with my brother in law a couple weeks ago and he noted that we spent about the same amount we did at an Olive Garden a few weeks before when I was visiting him.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by chuckcheese

No!!

I know the area. I work in the area. I drive Milwaukee Ave. every day.

The vacancies and lousy tenant-mix are FACTS. I'm just suggesting that the Denier-types, who like to argue, and who don't know the area, don't drive it, etc......just suggesting they look at Google street view, if they want to see before they shoot their mouths off. If anything, there's probably slightly more vacancy along there since last summer. Plus, the google street view is indeed current enough to get a feel for the area. If anything, there have been more stores closed, net, not more openings.

You get these liberal-twit types who only focus on some outlier restaurant like Longman and Eagle and think the area is booming. Who eats there? Not the locals who cannot afford it, it's people who read in-flight airline magazines, uppity tourists looking to act cool, Chicago magazine reading suburbanite sheep from places like Highland Park, and some other random foodie Chicagoans who don't live in "Logan Square" that's for sure.

So, one L & E doesn't mean the vacancies and thrift stores, empty liquor bottles and litter, graffiti, etc. don't exist. It's just that hipsters live in a false reality, one in which their minds make up fantasy imagery based on TV sitcom scripts or hipster magazines and/or websites.

It's true there are still a lot of vacancies on Milwaukee, but it's not because the area is a ghetto.

It's because the entrenched landlords are reluctant to offer long-term leases (or to sell) when it seems like the big bucks, which they clearly see heading their way from Wicker Park/Bucktown, will be here any day.

So they are either sitting tight and likely writing off the depreciation, or they are pricing their rents at levels that are currently above-market rate.

Regardless, if you think L&E is an "outlier" restaurant when it's across the street from the Logan Blue Line stop, you are beyond reason.

IMO once you get to 3600 W, you start to seriously lose Blue Line accessibility for shoppers/night life, Central Park to Pulaski is the gray area right now, due in no small degree as the Blue Line departs from Milwaukee at Kimball.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by Attrill

I am also a local (20 years in Chicago, the last 10 in Logan Square) who eats a L&E regularly. It's not cheap eats, but it's certainly not unreasonable. I went there with my brother in law a couple weeks ago and he noted that we spent about the same amount we did at an Olive Garden a few weeks before when I was visiting him.

Speaking of Olive Garden, I don't dislike it/have much of an opinion about it whatsoever. But am I the only one finding it moderately amusing that one opening on Addison in the K-Mart lot is getting so much press?

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

Speaking of Olive Garden, I don't dislike it/have much of an opinion about it whatsoever. But am I the only one finding it moderately amusing that one opening on Addison in the K-Mart lot is getting so much press?

Anytime an Olive Garden opens it gets loads of press.

If I'm stuck somewhere choosing between chain places Olive Garden is my go to place. Not great, but not awful by any means.

[Link N. Parker]

Originally Posted by chuckcheese

No!!

I know the area. I work in the area. I drive Milwaukee Ave. every day.

The vacancies and lousy tenant-mix are FACTS. I'm just suggesting that the Denier-types, who like to argue, and who don't know the area, don't drive it, etc......just suggesting they look at Google street view, if they want to see before they shoot their mouths off. If anything, there's probably slightly more vacancy along there since last summer. Plus, the google street view is indeed current enough to get a feel for the area. If anything, there have been more stores closed, net, not more openings.

You get these liberal-twit types who only focus on some outlier restaurant like Longman and Eagle and think the area is booming. Who eats there? Not the locals who cannot afford it, it's people who read in-flight airline magazines, uppity tourists looking to act cool, Chicago magazine reading suburbanite sheep from places like Highland Park, and some other random foodie Chicagoans who don't live in "Logan Square" that's for sure.

So, one L & E doesn't mean the vacancies and thrift stores, empty liquor bottles and litter, graffiti, etc. don't exist. It's just that hipsters live in a false reality, one in which their minds make up fantasy imagery based on TV sitcom scripts or hipster magazines and/or websites.

Gentrification (hipsterization??) takes years; its an evolutionary process that unfolds slowly at first, before it hits a big momentum. Just because the area is still "transitionary" does not mean that it is not getting ready to really boom.

I would say, that the "Milwaukee Avenue Corridor" thru Logan Square (especially the area from Western to the square) is booming right now, and is going to continue to improve. I used to date a girl who lived right there at the square back in 2007, and there is no question that the area has improved since then. Now, does that mean that the whole area has improved? No, but this portion of Logan Square has improved, no question.

Here is a comment today about the Logan Square dining scene:

La Farine Bakery on Chicago Avenue is moving from one coffee hotspot to another. Owners cleared out the location earlier in the year but have a new home on 2909 N. Milwaukee in Logan Square, an area that is continuing to blow up. When it reopens in June it will be three-times as large and serve an expanded menu.

Source: Eater Chicago : The Chicago Restaurant, Bar, and Nightlife Blog

[marothisu]

Local construction forecast to rise 7.4 percent this year -

http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.co...cent-this-year