Favorite ethnic neighborhood (Chicago, Cicero, Irving: buy, shop, market)

[noid_1985]

I love Greektown

[mas23]

devon ave.
chinatown
pilsen
logan sqaure(non gentrified part)

..and uptown

[JoeyPants]

Originally Posted by noid_1985

I love Greektown

Greektown is ethnic?

[noid_1985]

Originally Posted by JoeyPants

Greektown is ethnic?

Im sure it is with the restaurants and all, but if if isn't it's all Greek to me

[koolshundle]

Devon Ave for sure.

I just wish it wasn't so far from where I lived.

[scarletneon]

Originally Posted by noid_1985

I love Greektown

I liked the idea of going to UIC and having Greek food so close by ... for about two weeks. when that's all the options within a suitable walking distance from where I work (and when I usually have to hop to the other side of campus for class at night), it gets really old really fast. I guess i'm sort of spoiled because just at the Bryn Mawr L stop there's Chinese (not the best, but it's there), Thai, a deli, a place selling gyros, Indian, Japanese, Mexican and even a bakery... and that's not even going further than a block away from the L stop.

[NorCal Dude]

Yea I remember driving through chicago with a polish friend of mine kamil who is more or less my defacto guide around the city and he was like "this is jew town", and there were jewish people walking around, maybe to a synagogue or local shops. Not a lot of them, but they had the whole orthodox thing going on. I thought it was really neat.

[otters21]

The Polish area. I love Polish cuisine and vodka based mixed drinks -yum. Too bad that it is not the best for you if your trying to watch your weight. However an occasional splurge will not hurt.

[NearWestSider]

Originally Posted by NorCal Dude

Yea I remember driving through chicago with a polish friend of mine kamil who is more or less my defacto guide around the city and he was like "this is jew town", and there were jewish people walking around, maybe to a synagogue or local shops. Not a lot of them, but they had the whole orthodox thing going on. I thought it was really neat.

Jew Town was the nickname for the Maxwell Street neighborhood, which became University Village in 2000 when the entire block, southwest of Maxwell/Halsted, all the way back to Newberry was torn down and Marie Robinson Hall put in its place. The rest of it was restored/replaced from 2001-2006.

In its heyday it was Chicago's jewish ghetto (thus the origin of the nick), but it ceased to be primarily jewish in the late 40's/early 50's.

The folllowing article will give you some sense for what it is/was:

Maxwell Street - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Just take the article with a MAJOR grain of salt. It completely glosses over the fact that the neighborhood had crumbled to the ground, and by the early 90's consisted primarily of empty lots. The "community" trying to save it consisted of a commie professor, a group of blues aficionados, and, apparently, a third-tier film maker who is now using wikipedia to shill his own product. Which is totally appropriate, I should add, because maxwell street was always about pitchmen and hustlers selling stuff to the unsuspecting. It warms my heart to see the tradition continues, even ten years after its demise.

If you want to see what it looked like, click here:

Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection >> Keyword Search

enter maxwell street, and you will be treated to gems like this:

http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/coll...ull/P04906.jpg

or this:

http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/coll...ull/P04884.jpg

From 1950 showing what Jim's Original was before it was Jim's Original (ie Leavitt's).

[Venom]

Belmont ave west of Cicero has a bunch of Polish feel.