Comparing NYC Neighborhoods and Chicago Neighborhoods (Oak Park: low income, renter, condo)

[Damage Control Freak]

What is it with all the thread necrophilia on here? I've never seen a forum where this is happening that much.

[mas23]

Originally Posted by Libertine

OK so I saw somebody do a comparison of neighborhoods in NYC with neighborhoods in SF and I thought it might be interesting to make the comparison between NYC and Chicago. This is a rough sketch of what I was thinking...

NYC........Chicago
Downtown and Midtown..............Loop and Streeterville/New East/Mag Mile
SoHo............River North
TriBeCa .............South Loop
DUMBO.............West Loop
NoHo...................River West
NoLIta.............Printer's Row
East Village..............Wicker Park
Lower East Side..............East Village
Williamsburg.................Ukrainian Village
Long Island City....................Pilsen
West Village..................Bucktown
Chelsea..................Lakeview (east of Racine south of Addison)
Greenwich Village...............Lincoln Park (north of Fullerton)
Park Slope.....................Lincoln Park (south of Fullerton)
Upper West Side/Columbia..........Hyde Park/U. of Chicago
Upper East Side.............Gold Coast
Brooklyn Heights...............Old Town
Chinatown...............Chinatown
Morningside Heights...............Logan Square
East Harlem................Humboldt Park
Harlem..................Bronzeville
Bed-Stuy.............Uptown
Astoria...............UIC (?-this one is iffy)

So let me know what you think, I'm also missing out on some Chicago neighborhoods that could be thrown in there like East Garfield Park, Edgewater, Ravenswood, Andersonville, Lincoln Square, Roger's Park, Kenwood, United Center, etc. I just don't know what their NYC equivalent would be.

south jamaica queens - south chicago
just my 2 cents

[chitown2pa]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

The far northwest side of Chicago is not compromised mostly of 2nd and 3rd generation Mexicans.

I read that somewhere. Thanks for correcting me. Thank you, thank you. I read it in a neighborhood guide put out by the city of Chicago. Maybe I could give you the link, and you could rewrite it for them.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by chitown2pa

I read that somewhere. Thanks for correcting me. Thank you, thank you. I read it in a neighborhood guide put out by the city of Chicago. Maybe I could give you the link, and you could rewrite it for them.

There are large numbers of Mexicans and other "hispanics" in certain parts of the Northwest side especially the Near Northwest side and Northwest side in general, but the far Northwest side there are not huge amounts.

If they paid me to rewrite it I would.

[Sbudsky]

Hi folks! I'm a life long Chicagoan planning to relocate to NYC in the next year. I'm looking for someone who is really familiar with both cities could help me get a sense of what some NYC neighborhoods are like by comparing them to Chicago hoods. I'm particularly curious what Chicago area Astoria would be comparable to.

I'd also really appreciate any recommendations you can offer about what NYC hoods I should look into. My favorite neighborhoods in Chicago are Hyde Park, Andersonville, or Lincoln Square/Ravenswood.... I've never been a fan of super trendy or night-life focused areas (e.g. River North, Wrigleyville, etc.) or ultra hipster hoods. I'm fine with neighborhoods that are a little rough around the edges and it's really important to me to be in a racially and ethnically diverse area, but I'm also not comfortable with being part of a wave of young white people taking over a neighborhood that's not theirs to take...which is why I refuse to get excited about Logan Square, Pilsen, and West Town in spite of some pretty cool stuff that's opening up there. So yeah, any comparisons you can make and suggestions for NYC areas to look into would be awesome. And btw, I'm definitely on a budget! (And just as a side note-- I see people ALL the time on the boards making assertions about a neighborhood when they haven't been there in 10 years....I know NYC hoods change even faster than here, so I'd really appreciate if you only comment on neighborhoods you've spent time in in the past 2-3 years.) Thanks in advance for your help :-)

[mikedoyleblogger]

I made the reverse move in 2003 from Park Slope, have been back several times, almost moved back (including a month a couple of years ago living in Rego Park, Queens heavily considering Astoria), and keep tabs on this question since people always ask me what you just posted. Lincoln Square might remind you of Park Slope or Forest Hills (if the two neighborhoods had a baby.) Andersonville feels somewhat like Park Slope with fewer strollers and much worse rail access. Hyde Park feels like a generic version of Brownstone Brooklyn with a lot less to do.

Trouble is, Brownstone Brooklyn and Forest Hills in Queens are very expensive. A lot of up-and-comers move to Astoria now because it's cheaper than the above neighborhoods and has great subway access. But it's also dirty, ugly, loud, with awful traffic and people who drive like they just fell off the boat from Athens, and there's a fair amount of gang activity and petty crime. But the food's good. So I would say in terms of feel: Astoria=Uptown. If you'd feel OK living within walking distance of the Green Mill or the Borders on Lawrence, you'll probably like Astoria.

BUT...Astoria IS the wave of gentrifiers taking over a formerly scrappy neighborhood, which you say you want to avoid. Trouble is, there really aren't any affordable 'hoods in New York where this isn't happening, since the only affordable neighborhoods anymore are the challenged ones. (Unlike here, New York has absolutely zero affordable middle-class neighborhoods.)

Equally affordable and multicultural but without as much of that gentrification vibe might be Jackson Heights or Woodside, both in Queens, or anywhere along the R train (Fourth Avenue subway) in Brooklyn, south of Park Slope. You might want to look in these places. I also know friends back home who would suggest Washington Heights, but it's a pretty boring 'hood half an hour away from anything fun to do.

As you consider neighborhoods and read through advice on here, it would also help to keep in mind that in NYC it's not "white" gentrification--that's a Chicago phenomenon. It's gentrification by people of ALL colors and races who have money vs. everyone else. People there talk about poor and working-class New Yorkers getting pushed out, regardless of race.

Finally, don't get too wrapped up in finding a perfect translation of a Chicago neighborhood in New York--you will drive yourself crazy, like I almost did when I moved here looking for Park Slope or Forest Hills in Chicago. The cities don't match up neatly like that at all, so be prepared to be flexible and you'll save a lot of antacid.

[smallvillejane]

washington heights, inwood, flushing, east 100s, south bronx, possibly LES

Originally Posted by Sbudsky

Hi folks! I'm a life long Chicagoan planning to relocate to NYC in the next year. I'm looking for someone who is really familiar with both cities could help me get a sense of what some NYC neighborhoods are like by comparing them to Chicago hoods. I'm particularly curious what Chicago area Astoria would be comparable to.

I'd also really appreciate any recommendations you can offer about what NYC hoods I should look into. My favorite neighborhoods in Chicago are Hyde Park, Andersonville, or Lincoln Square/Ravenswood.... I've never been a fan of super trendy or night-life focused areas (e.g. River North, Wrigleyville, etc.) or ultra hipster hoods. I'm fine with neighborhoods that are a little rough around the edges and it's really important to me to be in a racially and ethnically diverse area, but I'm also not comfortable with being part of a wave of young white people taking over a neighborhood that's not theirs to take...which is why I refuse to get excited about Logan Square, Pilsen, and West Town in spite of some pretty cool stuff that's opening up there. So yeah, any comparisons you can make and suggestions for NYC areas to look into would be awesome. And btw, I'm definitely on a budget! (And just as a side note-- I see people ALL the time on the boards making assertions about a neighborhood when they haven't been there in 10 years....I know NYC hoods change even faster than here, so I'd really appreciate if you only comment on neighborhoods you've spent time in in the past 2-3 years.) Thanks in advance for your help :-)

[Chiguy1957]

"...but I'm also not comfortable with being part of a wave of young white people taking over a neighborhood that's not theirs to take..."

Please explain what you mean by "not theirs to take."

[xavier xerxes]

Originally Posted by Chiguy1957

"...but I'm also not comfortable with being part of a wave of young white people taking over a neighborhood that's not theirs to take..."

Please explain what you mean by "not theirs to take."

Hmmm.
Yeah thats really quite a way to try to nonchalantly
put social commentary in there that really makes no sense.

Did the previous inhabitants of said neighborhood
welcome the new and current citizens of that hood
with open arms?
Like East Garfield Park?
Or Humbodlt Park?
Or whatever?
Nope.

That is what is interesting about gentrification,
Is there some now inborn law that an area
cant be improved? Or that certain people cant move into
an area? Like Pilsen?

Its just the reverse of what happened.
So an area can slide down but cant rise up?
Or after a certain year the neigborhood
should be put in a trophy case and should
not change? Im wondering what year that would
be 1973, 1985?
Its confusing.
What is the accepted year of nonchange of neigborhoods?
Or what year is the total ownership of
each neigborhood proclaimed by a certain ethnicity?

Pretty sure the Native Americans wouldnt mind having their land back.

[Sbudsky]

Thanks Mikedoyleblogger, really appreciate the info. Will do more research about those hoods!

Everyone else-- I'm sorry, I put my foot in my mouth. I didn't mean to make it overly political and there's probably a better way I could've said what I said without making it about race. I am all for neighborhoods becoming safer and improving... I just have a hard time when neighborhoods become too hip and expensive for long time locals to be able to stay there. I work with low income children and families on the west side in Chicago and I'm seeing a lot of my families getting forced out of Logan Square, Humbolt Park, and West Town because they can't keep up with the climbing rents or because their landlords sold their building to a developer who will knock it down and build condos...There's getting to be fewer and fewer places where lower income people can live in Chicago and that doesn't seem fair to me. Many of these families have belonged to a church in their neighborhood for years, send their kids to the school they went to, and have their extended family all within a few blocks-- they now have to move out to the distant suburbs and are cut off from all of their supports, which sucks. I realize, though, that New York is a different city and being part of gentrification is, to some extent, inevitable...