Argyle Street: Ethnic Neighborhood Becoming Vanilla?

By vouchey in News on Jan 24, 2005 3:25PM

The Chicago Tribune reported yesterday that while Chicago's Chinatown North, Argyle Street (between Broadway and Sheridan) is becoming surrounded by gentrification, the core Asian population is having trouble adjusting. If you're from Chicago, and you haven't been up to that part of town in a while, it's worth a look. Chicagoist hasn't really visited Argyle for six years, and since then, the vitality -- even on the snowiest of weekends -- has really increased. At the same time, the area, which is one of the last remaining semi-affordable, El-accessible North Side neighborhoods, has seen an explosion of new housing construction and gentrification.

While the Tribune is reporting underlying tensions between merchants and new neighbors, it's hard to see from the street, since there's still plenty of customers, most of them Asian. In fact, we heard very little English spoken in the area, mostly Vietnamese and Chinese (we think).

More photos after the jump. Thanks Teresa!