Wicker Park, CHI, Hipster Town

[urbanlife]

Or as I always like to joke whenever I am in this neighborhood, that it is Little Portland...or basically the place you will find me when I am missing Portland if I ever end up living in Chicago. All of these photos have had some Photoshop touches added to them, but for the most part I like to keep my editing limited, though a couple shots were bad, quick snap shots that turned out to look much cooler with extra editing.

These photos were taken in mid May of 2010....I have just be that lazy and haven't gotten around to posting them in here till now...which I have much more coming of Chicago, Seattle, Denver, and San Francisco...and maybe a few Portland ones too. Which all of them and more can be found on my flickr page.


I have heard suggestions and rumors that this building would make the perfect location for an Ace Hotel...not sure if that is true or not, but I would be in heaven having Stumptown Coffee on the first floor of this building.


This photo was a happy accident, It was extremely cloudy when I took these photos and while I knew the sun was in this shot, I wasn't expecting the camera to pick it up through the clouds.




Here is one of those photos that looked like crap until I played around with it a little bit.




This is another one of those crappy photos, but I really loved the car action that I accidentally got in it and needed to play with it to make it decent enough to enjoy.


This is really one of my most favorite buildings in Chicago...I just wish I wouldn't get turned around every damn time I am in that neighborhood...even with Google Maps on my phone, I still get screwed up in this area.











Well that is all I took while I was in Wicker Park, we were hunting out a bar that served micro brews and had an all organic neighborhood...when we walked into the bar, I seriously felt like I was entering a place in Portland...the place's hipster pretentiousness made me feel at home.

[ChiTownCity]

lol I like that last pic with the boy on the billboard... these weren't as bad as you was making it sound...

[Centropolis]

For years I've felt like the blue line neighbes of chicago resembled a similar zeitgeist as felt in Portland, and there has been some cross pollination from what I have seen and been told. Did you make it up to Logan Square or Pilsen? I'm a cranky late twenty something now who gets annoyed when there is too high of a density of people posturing in one place - at one time Wicker Park was pretty thick but it's transitioning (i'm an aging hipster bigot "I dressed like that 10 years ago" ).

[tallboy66]

Never been to Portland and WPB doesn't seem that pretentious though I don't hang out much either, not to mention my Hipster days were in the 90's

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by tallboy66

Never been to Portland and WPB doesn't seem that pretentious though I don't hang out much either, not to mention my Hipster days were in the 90's

I believe that was when Wicker Park was at it's height of true hipsterdom. The Crotch is so desirable, though, that a lot of folks don't want to retreat, which is cool. The side streets are loaded with hip stroller pushin' baby daddys, hehe, yupster heaven.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

For years I've felt like the blue line neighbes of chicago resembled a similar zeitgeist as felt in Portland, and there has been some cross pollination from what I have seen and been told. Did you make it up to Logan Square or Pilsen? I'm a cranky late twenty something now who gets annoyed when there is too high of a density of people posturing in one place - at one time Wicker Park was pretty thick but it's transitioning (i'm an aging hipster bigot "I dressed like that 10 years ago" ).

I have yet to get over to Pilsen or Logan Square yet, I do joke about the pretentiousness, especially seeing we are talking about Chicago and it is mostly good people. I just like that I would feel at home riding my blue single speed in a neighborhood like that.

I didn't take a photo of it while I was there, and I really should of, but there were these very hot looking fix gear bikes that were lifted up and locked up against this chain link fence. It was pretty funny and something I would expect to see in Portland.

Oh no, the photos aren't bad, I actually love them, I just had to overly edit some of them more than I would like because when it is overcast out it sometimes makes it hard to pick up building detail without burning out the clouds, or the opposite of picking up the clouds and blackening out the building detail...I remember it being a constant back and forth when I was trying to take pictures there last time. Sunny in Chicago is so much easier because the shadows cast are so crisp, we rarely get such crisp shadows in Portland.

[Kingofthehill]

The "real" hipsters have moved into Logan Square, E. Humboldt Park/UK Village, and (East) Pilsen. A few into Bridgeport, too. WP has become increasingly upscale in the past 10 years, something of which has priced-out many of the said hipsters (who, in turn, priced out the old-school Puerto Ricans), and has provided for an influx of yuppies; the same trend is visible in Los Angeles' Silverlake, and Brooklyn's Williamsburg.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by Kingofthehill

The "real" hipsters have moved into Logan Square, E. Humboldt Park/UK Village, and (East) Pilsen. A few into Bridgeport, too. WP has become increasingly upscale in the past 10 years, something of which has priced-out many of the said hipsters (who, in turn, priced out the old-school Puerto Ricans), and has provided for an influx of yuppies; the same trend is visible in Los Angeles' Silverlake, and Brooklyn's Williamsburg.

I am sure that is where the hipsters have all moved to, which makes sense, always migrating towards the cheap rent. But that is where they are living, but where are they hanging out? Wicker Park still feels like it attracts plenty of them when they are out and about...and by hipsters, I mean Portland's definition which are the ones in the tight jeans, riding the fix gear bikes, messenger bags, the ironic tshirts, and such.

[CRE8IVEDESTRUCTION]

I'd agree with King Of The Hill to a certain degree. On the weekends there's just a mix of people out and about. But during the week there are still A LOT of hipsters out and about. Earwax cafe & The Wormhole cafe are my favorite places in Wicker Park btw.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by CRE8IVEDESTRUCTION

I'd agree with King Of The Hill to a certain degree. On the weekends there's just a mix of people out and about. But during the week there are still A LOT of hipsters out and about. Earwax cafe & The Wormhole cafe are my favorite places in Wicker Park btw.

I have been to one of those two cafes, can't remember which one now, but I remember the food was fantastic.

[Xing]

That's my hood, pretty much. Great work!

I have some pictures. I'll post them sometime between now, and the year when Back to the Future Part II took place.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by Xing

That's my hood, pretty much. Great work!

I have some pictures. I'll post them sometime between now, and the year when Back to the Future Part II took place.

I know the feeling, I am so lazy with posting my pictures. I still have to go through all the ones I took in Seattle, Denver, and San Francisco last year...which I really should do that before I take a trip to anywhere else or I will be even more backed up.

[tallboy66]

Originally Posted by Kingofthehill

The "real" hipsters have moved into Logan Square, E. Humboldt Park/UK Village, and (East) Pilsen. A few into Bridgeport, too. WP has become increasingly upscale in the past 10 years, something of which has priced-out many of the said hipsters (who, in turn, priced out the old-school Puerto Ricans), and has provided for an influx of yuppies; the same trend is visible in Los Angeles' Silverlake, and Brooklyn's Williamsburg.

You mean East Humboldt or West Bucktown

As far as upscale or gentrifying, Humboldt is a lot like China Town and Pilsen where you'll get a certain number of people who can tolerate living there but I don't see gentrification happening for a long time. I could be wrong though.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by tallboy66

You mean East Humboldt or West Bucktown

As far as upscale or gentrifying, Humboldt is a lot like China Town and Pilsen where you'll get a certain number of people who can tolerate living there but I don't see gentrification happening for a long time. I could be wrong though.

seems like G-fication follows the L. I'd guess that it will follow all of the lines out where it hasn't already, into neighborhoods with good bones - that are not so far from the loop. I don't now how far that can go on the blue line. My guess is Pilsen is going to figuratively blow up someday. Speaking as an outsider, I don't know if parts of Humboldt Park are too far from L lines to be skipped over for a while. I do know that it's sick how quickly Logan Square has heated up - both in an awesome way and a not so awesome way. But yeah - L+bones+proximity to loop = Pilsen.

[urbanlife]

Figured I would do a little self bumping.

[the pope]

i don't know if you really cared, but you can get stumptown coffee in WP at Bagel on Damen.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by the pope

i don't know if you really cared, but you can get stumptown coffee in WP at Bagel on Damen.

Actually that brings up a new question, if they boil their bagels, then that would be the best place in all of Chicago for coffee and bagels.

[LSyd]

cool series of pics

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[lawfin]

Its a damn shame that the CTA tore down the Humbolt Park lin back in the 1950's.....it would help Humboldt really speed toward gentrification

God the boulevard system in this city is so gorgeous its a shame that much if it lies in neighborhoods with too many knuckleheads

[Segun]

Great pics, did you get a chance to hit up Division?