The 15 Sub-Cities of Chicago

[Steely Dan]

The 15 Sub-Cities of Chicago
These cities within the city boast distinct foodways, ethnic makeups, political outlooks, and locals-only bars.

BY EDWARD ROBERT MCCLELLAND
AUGUST 19, 2022, 11:01 AM

Over the past year or so, I have visited all 77 of Chicago’s community areas by bus, train, bicycle, or gym shoe. Much has been written, much has been broadcast, about how Chicagoans talk, or how Chicagoans like their pizza, or what Chicagoans like to drink, or how Chicago’s woke prosecutors have made the city as dystopically anarchic as Somalia, circa 1992, or what constitutes a real Italian beef sandwich. Yet Chicago is too vast and contains too many multitudes for such generalizations. It’s been said that Chicago is a city of neighborhoods. Having traveled from Rogers Park to Mount Greenwood, from Edison Park to Hegewisch, and all the way down Ogden Avenue, until it turns into Cicero, I prefer to think of it as a city of sub-cities, each with distinct foodways, ethnic makeups, political outlooks, and bars you probably shouldn’t go into if you don’t look like you’re from around there. I’ve identified 15, and will proceed to make generalizations about them, rather than Chicago as a whole. (There is one hard and fast rule I can offer about life in Chicago: Don’t ride a bicycle on 130th Street. There’s no bike lane, and you may get sideswiped by a truck under the viaduct near the Ford plant.)

click this link to read the author's descriptions of the 15 sub-cities of Chicago as he sees them:

https://www.chicagomag.com/city-life/the-15-sub-cities-of-chicago/


A fairly interesting take. Lots of very general truths in the piece.

A few immediate quibbles I might make:

- I'd put armour square (34) with Bridgeport, together they are now the Asian powerbase in Chicago.

- I'd put Ashburn (70) in with el sur as it's now plurality Latino.

- I'd put Avondale (21) in with wicker square because the Milwaukee Ave gentrification train is still rolling hard.

- I don't share the author's faith that clear ridge will remain an independent thing. It's absorption into el sur seems pretty inevitable to me. Both CA's completely flipped from white majority to Latino majority last decade.

[Yuri]

Why the Loop, the Near North Side are called The Green Zone?

[glowrock]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

click this link to read the author's descriptions of the 15 sub-cities of Chicago as he sees them:

https://www.chicagomag.com/city-life/the-15-sub-cities-of-chicago/


A fairly interesting take. Lots of very general truths in the piece.

A few immediate quibbles I might make:

- I'd put armour square (34) with Bridgeport, together they are now the Asian powerbase in Chicago.

- I'd put Ashburn (70) in with el sur as it's now plurality Latino.

- I'd put Avondale (21) in with wicker square because the Milwaukee Ave gentrification train is still rolling hard.

- I don't share the author's faith that clear ridge will remain an independent thing. It's absorption into el sur seems pretty inevitable to me. Both CA's completely flipped from white majority to Latino majority last decade.

Avondale is definitely on the cusp, especially east of about Kedzie but the western section is still clearly El Norte. I'm right at the border of Avondale and Belmont Gardens, it's still clearly Latino majority here.

Aaron (Glowrock)

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Yuri

Why the Loop, the Near North Side are called The Green Zone?

It's a reference to "the green zone" of Baghdad that was set up after the invasion of Iraq.

Originally Posted by glowrock

Avondale is definitely on the cusp, especially east of about Kedzie but the western section is still clearly El Norte. I'm right at the border of Avondale and Belmont Gardens, it's still clearly Latino majority here.

Yeah, I should have more accurately stated that Avondale is heading in the "wicker square" direction. What happened to Logan over the past two decades is currently happening to Avondale, especially in the eastern half as you noted.

[iheartthed]

I prefer to think of it as a city of sub-cities, each with distinct foodways, ethnic makeups, political outlooks, and bars you probably shouldn’t go into if you don’t look like you’re from around there.

Sorry, what exactly does he think a city is? lol.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Sorry, what exactly does he think a city is?

He was saying that as a counterpoint to the oft repeated epithet of Chicago being "a city of neighborhoods" (yes, a pretty dumb epithet as all cities are obviously made up of neighborhoods, but it's always stuck on Chicago for some reason).

He was merely expressing an opinion that he thinks it's better to look at Chicago at a scale a bit larger than the officially-designated 77 Community Areas of the city, but smaller than the usual "3 sides" of the city. He came up with his own grouping of 15 "sub-cities" within Chicago and hence the color coded map he made that i posted in the first post of this thread.

[Chisouthside]

Garfield Ridge/Clearing turning from an enclave of white cops, firefighters, city workers into an enclave of Latino cops, firefighters, city workers and latino white collar workers who didnt move up north/suburbs.

[Crawford]

I was at a Lou Malnati's on Cicero (Midway area) right before the pandemic, and that area seemed pretty Latino these days. Drove all around for a bit, and seemed a bit more El Sur to me, or at least transitional.

[Steely Dan]

^ that's because the mexican take-over of the southwest side is now nearly complete. all of the tracts surrounding MDW are now majority latino* (they were all majority white 20 years ago).

it's still a work in progress in the western end of clearing/garfield ridge, but as the old white ethnics still left there continue to move out/pass on, expect all of those tracts there to turn orange/red by the end of this decade.


(*) the yellow tract of MDW itself is only home to a grand total of 18 people (who are they? homeless people? people with REALLY long layovers?), so the yellow there is deceiving as virtually no one actually lives on the airport property itself.

[twister244]

I would expect a slow melting of "Upper Caucasia" (lol) too..... If Avondale continues it's gentrification, poorer folks will probably keep moving up along the Blue Line into this region. There also really isn't anything to spur major investment here (aside from it's proximity to O'Hare).

I also see East Garfield Park turning quickly at some point. it's too close to the West Loop to stay the way it is. I toured a couple new construction condos back In January near Western on the United Center side, so the change is coming there sooner than later I suspect. Personally, I would love to see eventual transition all the way into Garfield Park. It's a large green park that could be good terminus for a cool urban landscape that stretches from the park to the eastern terminus of the West Loop. It also has the benefit of Green Line and Metra access too.

Speaking of the West Loop.... I don't like the author's designation of the "Green Zone". There is enough difference between small neighborhoods in here to split them out. I feel like the West loop is nothing like River North. Just like the South Loop is nothing like Lakeview/Lincoln Park.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by twister244

I would expect a slow melting of "Upper Caucasia" (lol) too..... If Avondale continues it's gentrification, poorer folks will probably keep moving up along the Blue Line into this region.

it's already happening.

compare the 2020 racial map with 2000. as logan/avondale/irving have gotten whiter with gentrification, portage/dunning/jeff park have simultaneously gotten less white.

in fact, in 2000 just about all of the tracts in dunning and jeff park, and about half in portage park were >75% white, and now there's not a single tract left in any of them that is that heavily white anymore.

and in the SE corner of portage there are now even 5 tracts that are outright majority latino.

the shift is definitely on.

Originally Posted by twister244

Speaking of the West Loop.... I don't like the author's designation of the "Green Zone". There is enough difference between small neighborhoods in here to split them out. I feel like the West loop is nothing like River North. Just like the South Loop is nothing like Lakeview/Lincoln Park.

one of the issues is that the "near west side" is just too damn big to be a single community area. those UofC professors dropped the ball a century ago by not splitting it in two along ashland. and then compounded by the eisenhower scar decades later giving the CA a very strong N/S divide as well.