Any cool and up-coming neighborhoods in the south side (Chicago: lease, condos)

[Hkhan21]

Hello, I'm just wondering if there are south side hoods that have hip and cool restaurants and bars, good el access, a big young population, and a cool vibe. My lease agreement is up in 3 months and I just wanted to know if there are cool neighborhoods in the midst of all the violence, I know about bronzeville, Bridgeport, and chatham, but they seem more family friendly then hip and young

[jsk1983]

Pilsen?

[Alacran]

No.

[Mr. Kaloxander]

No, none.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by jsk1983

Pilsen?

Definitely

[doodlemagic]

Originally Posted by jsk1983

Pilsen?

I love Pilsen and I know Pilsen isn't Ukranian Village or Bucktown but Pilsen IMHO is already fairly expensive.Still a bargain compared to other neighborhoods but getting pricy

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by doodlemagic

I love Pilsen and I know Pilsen isn't Ukranian Village or Bucktown but Pilsen IMHO is already fairly expensive.Still a bargain compared to other neighborhoods but getting pricy

How do you define expensive? Curious what rents are in Pilsen.

[lepoisson]

I live in Bridgeport. Parts of it feel up and coming, especially the parts closer to Chinatown.

I can see Bronzeville taking off during the next 20yr.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by lepoisson

I live in Bridgeport. Parts of it feel up and coming, especially the parts closer to Chinatown.

I can see Bronzeville taking off during the next 20yr.

The real barrier to Bronzeville is the transit situation -- walking to the stop that is now called "Bronzeville", Green line at 35th St on the IIT campus, is not particularly convenient for much of the residential areas in Bronzeville. It is not just "pure distance" but the "street feel" that is quite barren and psychologically isolating. Truth be told, though I personally like the visual impact of the overall campus configuration of IIT, the specifics of not just the modernist style of Mies van der Rohe but really ANY college campus is hard to integrate into the broader community. No matter if you are talking about UofC in Hyde Park, Loyola in Rogers Park, or DePaul in Lincoln Park, the sorts of spaces that without the college might have street level shops and restaurants that are active at all times of the day are instead notably vacant except for "peak student times". While this is not too big a deal for Lincoln Park, as it has so many other things going on along Fullerton, Sheffield, Halsted, Webster, and Lincoln Ave, the net effect of desolate buildings and parking lots at IIT is much more pronounced due to the overall scope of vacant lots and width of S. State St. { I'd also say that Walter Netsch's brutalist UIC campus was better suited to fending off attacks from space aliens than providing a welcoming environment for humans, though at least those Buck Roger elevated walkways have been eliminated so one does not fear the "Arachnids" being a threat to one's survival...}

In a funny way the lack of success that my favorite South Side sports venue has had makes it somewhat easier for the businesses of Bridgeport to find their niche -- instead of sky high rents that make for mostly specific kind of high profit beer bars to dominate the throughfares of Lakeview neighborhood, the much more low key spots in Bridgeport survive with a wider range of patrons. The sorts of spots like the Duck Inn & Nana would easily have to charge at least 50% higher prices if not more to cover their costs in more hip area -- Duck Inn Brunch menus - Nana .

Of course the range of spots that one can stroll to from Wrigley Field is about 1000 more diverse, and it especially worth noting that the ability of the Southport corridor to maintain a more "neighborhood friendly" scale compared to the spots along Clark that cater to the sloppy beer swillers should be a model for future development in either Bronzeville or Bridgeport to consider, though you can't reconfigure the Red line to be more line the Brown line unless you have a few trillion dollar to rebuild multiple rail lines and expressways ...

[doodlemagic]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

How do you define expensive? Curious what rents are in Pilsen.

I guess I'm not really sure about renting, renting is probably still pretty reasonable, I was talking about purchasing. 5-7 years ago and everything was a steal.

This particular building below a few years back I was seeing places for 100k to 150k now nothing is less than 250k. Even condos in general there used to be a lot of decent stuff under 250k even if only 1 bedrooms, but today if I pull a search on Realtor or Redfin or whatever and put the cap at 250k or 300k either no results are returned or maybe 1 result where as it used to be a lot more.

https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...67_rect/14_zm/

I think Pilsen is a steal even at current prices. I think it's going to continue getting nicer, your already starting to see more hipsters and parents with babies in the neighborhood, close proximity to the loop and expressways so it's definitely a bargain compared to other neighborhoods but I've noticed prices have really risen there