The Breakdown
 |
| Six Corners: The Heart of Wicker Park |
An
overview: Your opinion of Wicker Park likely hinges upon your opinion
of hipsters. Perhaps you think
they’re great because they bring unique shops and eateries to the community,
embrace ethnic diversity, and are extremely fun to look at. Or, you might just think they’re just
PBR-drinking, excessive hair gel-wearing, “hey look at me” kind of folk who
don’t have real jobs. You can
debate the merit of hipsters all you want (although we happen to be in the
former category), but you cannot debate the impact they’ve had on Wicker Park.
Wicker Park has
gone in the past 25 years from being considered a relatively seedy (if not
dangerous) ‘hood to one of Chicago’s premiere destinations for the arts,
entertainment, and nightlife. The
beating heart is at the intersection of Damen, North, and Milwaukee. The Flatiron building overlooks
galleries, taverns, indie shops, and people on top of people. The energy is 24/7.
Wicker Park
continues to grow as a destination not only for hipsters, but the young
professional community as a whole.
Its access to the Blue Line makes it
very easy to get downtown and vice-versa.
This blog entry, to this point, may be our longest. We haven’t even scratched the surface. Wicker Park has just too many
destinations, too much historic architecture, and too many eccentric
individuals to be confined by one entry.
Unquestionably we’ll be back again at some point.
A Couple Notes: Wicker Park and Bucktown often get
lumped together as one neighborhood.
They certainly have similarities and share a border at Bloomingdale
Avenue. However, they also have
their own personalities and vibes as well. We visited Bucktown back in March of 2011. For that entry, please click here. Also, this is the entry where we’re
going to introduce a rotation of guest writers to give their take as well. So thanks Tom and Dana for being our
guinea pigs, if our page views drop dramatically we’ll know where to find you!