Flickr user mister_scantastic discovered this in an abandoned factory recently and thought it was worth snapping a photo of. Personally we wouldn't be entirely surprised if this flyer was seeded by one the same hipsters it purports to be railing against, primarily because of the Knee Deep Vintage reference, and not an actual longtime resident of the neighborhood. Either way, discuss. Politely, please. more ›

Interesting conversation over at Everyblock Chicago from a man with the screen name "Ron Tough." Seems Mr. "Tough" has watched the increase in crime in his home neighborhood of Old Irving Park, is mad as hell and isn't going to take it anymore. In fact, "Ron Tough" is so angry about it he's thinking of taking a stand and moving to the northwest suburbs, like his parents and grandparents before him. more ›

Hey, once upon a time, Wicker Park didn't look exactly like Lincoln Park. Just 15 years ago, artists and students were just beginning to push most of the families that had lived there for years out of the area, people did drugs involving needles in bathroom stalls, and if you stumbled home after last call from The Blue Note -- then located on Armitage -- you stood a good chance of getting mugged. Good times, indeed. more ›

Ah, Pilsen. We've lost count of how many of our friends have moved to the South Side neighborhood over the last six months and it's certainly had us curious to learn more about the intriguing neighborhood. We're not alone. In a new feature, our friends at Time Out Chicago have examined Pilsen front-to-back and come away with some interesting features. more ›

Two separate arts festivals will be taking place in Wicker Park this weekend. While poking around for information, we got the distinct impression that Wicker Park is fighting hard to keep an artistic community and these types of festivals in the neighborhood, despite creeping gentrification. Come on out and support your local artists. more ›

The dirty side of gentrification finally raises its head in East Pilsen. Residents and business owners in the neighborhood (aka "The Podmajersky area") are incensed that the owners of longtime polish sausage stand mainstay Express Grill are building a second location at 18th and Halsted. Business owners are touting the double parking and other traffic congestion, noise, overflowing dumpsters, drunkenness of its customers in the wee small hours and alleged illicit and criminal behavior going on around the stands. But their main points of contention against having Express Grill set up shop seem to be the smell of grilled onions and the eyesore that is a polish sausage stand. more ›

An article in the upcoming issue of The New Republic looks at Chicago's demographics and declares "In the past three decades, Chicago has undergone changes that are routinely described as gentrification, but are in fact more complicated and more profound than the process that term suggests. A better description would be 'demographic inversion,'" meaning rich people live "near the center" and poor people live on the outskirts. more ›

A new study from the Chaddick Institute at DePaul examines Chicago's diversity by neighborhood by creating a "composite diversity index." The study measured ethnic diversity, income diversity and age diversity. According to their findings, more ›

There have now been four murders in Logan Square this year, as in the past ten days, even though violent crime has been going down lately in the area and Chicago as a whole. more ›

Of all the egregious things the city can do to property owners, from jacking property taxes to the current favorite, the misuse of TIFs, none seems more unfair and ripe for abuse as eminent domain. For the uninitiated, eminent domain allows the city government to seize ownership of private property, paying the owner whatever the city deems as "market value". It's supposed to be used for the "greater public good", such as the expansion... more ›

These days, when you’re loathe to drag your ass too far from home, Theater in Chicago has your back. The Chicago theater info source already sorts city and suburban productions by company, neighborhood, production date, and strength of review. Today we got word they’ve just rolled out a nifty Google Map mashup, plotting hundreds of area venues—institution and storefront alike—in one place. The navigation looks familiar enough and the Big G’s search engine allows easy... more ›

Just yesterday, we told you that the cicadas were terrorizing the suburbs. Funny that, because some people haven't seen a one. We're in that camp, and lord-a-mighty, we are so happy. We were talking about these babies way back in April, and they were actually making it sort of okay when the temperatures would dip back down into winter mode, because we thought it would delay the onslaught of the plague. more ›

Last month we wrote that all of the June "BotW" selections will be based upon reader suggestions, and encouraged your input. We've sifted through the e-mails, wrote back to many of you (with apologies for those to whom we didn't reply; we received a lot of recommendations). If there's anything we've learned in our time at Chicagoist, it's that you readers take your beer seriously. Not quite as seriously as debating whether the tapas restaurant that opened three doors from your apartment is a foreboding sign of gentrification, but still quite serious. more ›

It's hard not to love Chicago's MacArthur Foundation because even when they cut funds for something you cherish, they continue to support tons of other amazing services, community programs, and on and on. The newest rabbit with a hat up its sleeve is a boatload of money for sixteen ailing Chicago neighborhoods the Local Initiatives Support Corporation* is concentrating on with its New Communities Program. In what someone (but who?!) calls "the nation's largest community... more ›

Outside.in, the aggregator of all things in neighborhoods across the country, recently tallied their numbers of neighborhood specific blogging and released the top 10 "bloggiest" neighborhoods in the country. Coming in at number 5 was Rogers Park/North Howard. Outside.in describes the neighborhood as, "Located in one of the last remaining pockets of poverty in Chicago's North Side, it‘s home to a culturally diverse group of residents that have very mixed feelings about the rapid gentrification."... more ›

No witty introduction this week. Our fault for trying to impress the new staffers with barleywine ale and Dalmore. Thank God for French-pressed coffee. The buffet is now open. A Good German to the End: The closing of Delicatessen Meyer should have been a story we weighed in on earlier in the week and not relegated to the Buffet. To that end, Chicagoist extends a sincere mea culpa. Anyhoo, for those who haven't heard, the... more ›

The story of hope and redemption on the South Side continued Friday, as the news that the Illinois State Supreme Court had ruled that both Ambrosio Medrano and Virgil Jones are ineligible to run for alderman. Even more bizarre is that because the court's ruling makes no mention of Wallace Davis, a former 27th Ward alderman and candidate in the 2nd Ward, and Percy Giles in the 37th Ward, the city election board has no... more ›

We heart Club Foot. We might be a little biased since, years and years ago, you could find us checking IDs and slinging the occasional drink there, but we’re reasonably sure that the bar is pretty easy for anyone to fall in love with. We don’t know if it’s the walls festooned with equal parts toys and rock and/or roll memorabilia, or the crowds hungry to have fun, or the kick ass tunes the rotating cast of DJs always seem to sling, that make the place such a personal hit, but we do know there’s no other place like it in the city. more ›

Before we begin, we'd like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family of James Kim. We are not, by any means, trying to discount that tragedy by juxtaposing posts about the Kims with more light-hearted posts. It's the nature of doing a compilation such as this one: we're trying to give a full slice of the goings-on in the Ist-a-Verse: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Londonist wants you to know where to... more ›

In an effort to be your one-stop McDonald's shop, Chicagoist has the following sad news to report: A unique, historic Crystal Lake branch of the mighty empire is shutting down. Granted, that's not as tragic as the overall fast food gentrification trend, but there's something special about this particular Mickey D's: it's housed in a piece of Chicago. Four years after the very first McDonald's opened in Des Plaines, Crystal Lake became home to the... more ›

If you’re nostalgic for the caravan of moving trucks tooling around the city in late September—and really, who isn’t?—John Song and Ries Productions have an event for you. “Mobile Exhibitions” is a Humboldt Park art show on wheels, a commentary on urban evolution, and an excuse to play with balloons and piñatas. The one true sign of neighborhood gentrification is constantly debated. The new Starbucks on the corner? The Urban Outfitters next to American Apparel?... more ›

Now that we’re finished with school, Chicagoist gets a little nostalgic this time of year. We’re always a little jealous of the kiddies we see shopping for their pencils, notebooks and Trapper Keepers, or whatever it is they’re buying these days. We would have hated that stupid Easy Button, by the way, because the shopping was one of the best parts about going back to school. We also liked catching up on all the gossip... more ›

Frankly, Chicagoist has grown sick of the whole yuppie versus hipster versus Gamera versus Donkey Kong debate so we decided to investigate whether or not it was even possible for all of these groups to coexist peacefully. We found our answer in the most unlikely location. Liar’s Club. Chicagoist has hung out at Liar’s Club pretty much since it opened and we can even be found in the DJ booth from time to time. Amongst... more ›

The Chicago Improv Festival kicks off tonight at the Gallery Cabaret in Bucktown with Schadenfreude’s first Chicago stage performance since…probably last year’s fest. The “Schadenfreude Rent Party” is an evening of all new material from a group that routinely packed the house at past CIFs, their late night revues, and the national college circuit until Chicago Public Radio got a hold of them. Then they were too busy hobnobbing with, and making fun of,... more ›

The easy story told about the artists opening galleries in Pilsen is: white north side art students are forcing Latino and Latina residents out of the neighborhood. There might be some truth to that, but gentrification, like art, is rarely so simple. That story assumes Latinos have no interest in new galleries, and vice versa, and that Important Art requires the approval of rich white folks. Thankfully, those assumptions are way, way off. more ›

We've talked more about Chicago's endangered buildings than those sparkling new ones. Consider the sturdy construction, fine craftsmanship, and sentimental value, it’s not hard to see why. But don’t believe today’s architects lack imagination. They’re working around rising material and labor costs, risk-averse patrons and mounting pressure to deliver on time and under budget. more ›

Seven days into the month is the perfect time to mention that October is Chicago Artists’ Month. Much like the Bike Chicago festival, CAM is one part examination of a local subculture and one part showcase for events that would’ve happened anyway. The Department of Cultural Affairs arranges this series of free events and “A-game” exhibitions as a reminder that no matter which corner of the city you live in, you’re never too far from... more ›

As possibly the last act of gentrification in the Gold Coast, on Thursday the city moved to vacate residents from an apartment building at 930 N. Rush St. above the old Gino's Pizzeria (no, not this one). Building inspectors found 57 code violations in the "eyesore," all of which constitute safety risks to the tenants. The owners of the building say they want to rehab it, but now they face fines of up to $28,500... more ›

Despite its red-hot housing market the Bridgeport neighborhood so far is free of the retail chains that epitomize the march of gentrification, if not modern urban living altogether. Chicagoist understands that many of its readers enjoy a piping hot cup of Starbucks- we can’t get through a morning without a mocha or a caramel macchiato ourselves. Between Intelligentsia’s downtown location and the handful of independent coffee shops we’ve long championed- like Kopi in Andersonville,... more ›

Some of our readers think we don’t pay enough attention to the world of news and entertainment on the south side. Point taken. It’s nothing personal. We love the south side and would get down there more often if it wasn’t such a trek. So for our readers looking to explore south of the South Loop, we’ve put together a late summer art gallery crawl for your enjoyment. In Pilsen, the alternative art space Polvo... more ›