Lost in the City

Departure date is nearing and I still had not toured Chicago’s ethnic neighborhoods. So today, unlimited metro pass in hand, I rode the El from Downtown to Chinatown, Pilsen, Lakewood, and finally Andersonville.

Chinatown isn’t a big neighborhood and it’s a little out of the way. It isn’t very far from downtown, but you’d better take the metro if you want to get there. It’s particularly obvious if you compare it to the location of Chinatown in NY or DC. There is another striking difference and that’s with regards to the kind of neighborhood Chinatown is. It just doesn’t mean the same thing as it does in NY or in DC. In DC, Chinatown has become a trendy neighborhood with Chinese and Thai food, that’s true, but mainly regular franchised stores and restaurants like Potbelly, Starbucks, Citysports or CVS. In NY, it’s where you find cheap electronics, souvenirs and the like. Lots and lots of little shops. In Chicago there are shops all right. Just not the same kind. You’ll find authentic (well, seemingly at least) Chinese products, from food to furniture. And on the contrary to NY and particularly DC where you’ll mostly find white people walking around, there are very few of them in Chicago’s Chinatown.

Pilsen used to be the Czech neighborhood. What I forgot is that it now is a Latino neighborhood. Well… I was reminded as soon as I stepped out of the metro. There is nothing but Hispanic stores on 18th Street. What makes Pilsen interesting is the difference between the Latino vibe and the kind of architecture you run into. On one hand, you have signs in Spanish all over, Hispanics walking around, including food vendors with carts. On the other hand, most of the buildings have a distinctive Eastern European style. The contrast is striking. The church on 18th Street looks out of place, so does the former Czech community building you find a little further east on the same side of the street. It’s odd, really, but not uncharming.

Andersonville is the neighborhood I liked the best compared to the previous two I saw. Maybe because it’s more “european” in atmosphere, more like what I’m used to. It’s the king of mix I like between stores, restaurants, cafés and resisdential buildings. It used to be the Swedish neighborhood of Chicago, and a few stores are still there to remind people, like the Swedish Bakery (which is the first I saw).

On the way from the Berwyn metro station and Andersonville is another little neighborhood usually called Lakewood-Balmoral. It reminded me of the neighborhood surounding the National Cathedral, north of DC. It’s a totally residential neighborhood, with nice houses, sometimes rowhouses, sometimes not, but always with a spot of the greenest grass in front. Kind of a suburban look within the city… but within a few blocks of Clark Street, it’s stores and restaurants, which makes the neighborhood much more appealing than the suburbs!