But a quick aside … I just saw that Edna’s is closed. I had wanted to stop in there when I went to East Garfield Park, but it was closed that day. I’ve been wanting to get back and see if the biscuits really are the best on earth, but it seems my chance to do just that is gone now.

Recollection

We toyed with buying a condo in Woodlawn when we were first relocating. Selling the townhouse we owned in Wisconsin was an arduous process, though (this was 2007-2008) and after the place had been on the market a few months, we nixed the idea of trying to buy here in the city. We’ve been happily renting since.

And other than that, I’m not sure I’ve been back here.

Rambling

I took the Jackson Park Express (route 6) down to the Midway Plaisance, the northern border of the neighborhood. I hadn’t been the express since I left Hyde Park. I was early getting there and wandered around UC a bit before heading to Backstory Cafe.

As you appoach Backstory Cafe

I met up with S. at Backstory mid-morning for a bite to eat. I met S. at the Mac ‘n’ Cheese Mingler I went to back in March. She’s a writer, from Chicago, and recently back in the city — she blogs here.

Anyway, the cafe is aptly named, tucked away, easy to miss at the edge of the UC campus on a backstreet behind a construction site. It doesn’t look like much as you approach, but it’s bright and sunny, warm, and staff are cheerful and helpful. Great coffee and cheap brunch — in sum, a cozy spot to begin from.

From here we headed to Jackson Park. And we saw quite a bit of it — the Wooded Island, Osaka Gardens, soccer fields, the big gold Lady. It was a gorgeous day.

Poor S. wasn’t prepared for the epic wandering. I enjoy my rambles, but they can be *very* tiring, particularly when you’re not expecting them.

We discovered a golf course at the end of the park — or I did. knew it was there, but I was delighted to discover that you can golf in the city limits. Even though I don’t golf. I just like surprises.

S. knew the golf course — and in fact was a veritable fountain of knowledge about the neighborhood, game and enthusiastic … fantastic company.

The day was beautiful — I really could not get enough of being outside in the park, despite the geese following us around and the lack of paths and signs at the south end (I got a bit turned around). But no matter.

When we had our fill and S.’s feet were thoroughly beaten up, we headed back toward the cafe & her car where we parted ways (S., we walked over 5 miles!) and headed down 63rd Street toward the Green Line. Walking west, the neighborhood gradually gives way from very new single family homes to apartment buildings, empty lots and low-end retail. Though I have to say, for the number of empty lots you pass as you near the Green line, it really feels well-kept. Less littered. It’s a much more comfortable feeling place than East Garfield Park was. At least on this particular day with the sun shining and several miles of walking on my legs.

* * *

Woodlawn is what I’m really starting to think of as a truly Chicago neighborhood — there isn’t one thing that characterizes it: it’s a mishmash of upper class, middle class, working class, largely, but not entirely black in racial makeup, spread out in the spanse between a golf course and a dollar store, an active community, friendly … I love those neighborhoods.

The whole set of pictures

Rundown

Useful Links

City of Chicago’s map of the area (.pdf file)

Woodlawn on Wikipedia

on The Chicago Tribune

on EveryBlock

on WikiTravel

Woodlawn photos from neighborhoods.chicago.il.us

Know what I should visit when I come to your neighborhood?

Email me at pirateblogs[at]gmail[dot]com or leave a comment. Or if I missed something on a past visit, I want to know!

Le sigh.

Recollection:

I lived in Hyde Park for a while when I first moved to the city. I frequently took the Metra Electric Line home from work and would see what I did not at the time know was Stephen Douglas’s monument as I rode south. And several times I took the Green Line south to Garfield, rolling through the tunnel over the McCormick Tribune Campus Center at IIT.

I’ve been looking forward to this neighborhood and I’m glad I let the weather lure me down here today.

Rambling:

I hopped off the Green Line at IIT and headed north on State to take a gander at the S.R. Crown Hall. I’ve never found Mies van der Rohe’s buildings particularly inspiring, but I could see from the outside how it might be nice to be inside with all that open space and natural light.

The day and the neighborhood invited a long stroll. Up to 28th, east to Michigan, south to 31st and then east again at the southern edge of Dunbar Park, where a couple high school teams were playing baseball. It wasn’t going well for the team in the field, so I didn’t watch long. Continued east out to Burnham Park.

You can love Lake Michigan on the south side. The parks and beaches aren’t crowded, the views of downtown are phenomenal, and people on the lakeshore bike path are generally very courteous.

I strolled out to the beach on a boardwalk that had seen better days and crossed back over at 35th. I stopped to see Stephen Douglas’s tomb – something I’d seen from the train countless times and never known what it was.

I was starving – really really starving – by this time and stopped near 35th and MLK at Mississippi Rick’s for chicken. You have to look pretty hard to find it – it’s tucked back behind the other shops and there’s a wide open plaza just outside its front door.

I took my dinner outside to eat there in the sunshine. Delicious. It was enough food for a small family; I brought most of it home and have been nibbling at it all afternoon. The vegetables were nice and crisp and I don’t know what they did to that rice but … amazing.

I headed south down MLK then through the historic district. I’m always astounded at how extensive the boulevards are in Chicago. The boulevards were probably the one thing I loved best about Logan Square when we lived there. The big stone and brick mansions lining all of them … and MLK’s through this stretch from 35th down to 40th are almost universally immaculate and beautifully cared-for (the condition of those old homes on Garfield and Sacramento Boulevards on the west side makes me sad sometimes). I loved this part of my walk.

I cut over to Indiana and hopped the Green Line headed home.

* * *

The neighborhood is a smidge short on racial diversity but runs the gamut on economic diversity – public housing next to the college campus next to the historic mansions of Bronzeville. I can’t believe I was going to stay home.

More pictures of Douglas

Rundown:

Useful Links

City of Chicago’s map of the area (.pdf file)

Douglas on Wikipedia

on The Chicago Tribune

Bronzeville on WikiTravel

Bronzeville photos from neighborhoods.chicago.il.us

Know what I should visit when I come to your neighborhood?

Email me at pirateblogs[at]gmail[dot]com or leave a comment. Or if I missed something on a past visit, I want to know!

You may have noticed that the year is 1/4 over and I’m not anywhere close to 1/4 done with the city. I suspect this is going to be a 2-year project at this rate; and I decided at least a month ago that that was fine, since I would rather take my time and get all I can out of my visits than sprint through them and not feel like I saw much of anything at the end.

Easter weekend is looking like another quiet one here in my little virtual home, but I’ll be back out next weekend …

I was feeling awfully blue after my trip down south yesterday, but the evening was light and fun and a really nice, bright cap on an otherwise dreary day.

And one of the other guests told a story about Glade plug-ins – seems worth mentioning in a post with this title.

So go – or at least subscribe to her newsletter – you’ll find some really cool stuff to do.

Recollection:

No recollections – only what I’ve seen on Google street view.

Rambling:

I did not go to Altgeld, and neither did I go to Cal-Harbor. I rode the Metra down to 137th/Riverdale – debarking in the suburbs.

I set out down 137th to Indiana. Welcome to Chicago. At the corner, I was greeted with the remains of a car accident – bits and pieces of a car’s front end still on the sidewalk, gathering rain, and a splintered electric pole.

You notice a pervasive funk, growing stronger, as you walk up 137th, and when you get to Indiana and look north and see the bridge over the Calumet, you understand why. And today, that area was downwind from the brownfields that cut this part of the city off from everything else.

I crossed the bridge, crossed Indiana and 133rd and by the time I got to Calumet, I was so dishearted by the place that I turned south and headed back. Empty lots and empty bottles, trash everywhere – I stepped over a dirty diaper near Prairie Avenue – and boarded up houses one after another. I didn’t feel threatened in the neighborhood, but I felt intrusive – a gawking interloper come to stare.

As I neared Indiana on 134th on my way back, a tiny voice called out “Hiiii!” and I turned to see a toddler in a raincoat waving from the porch of the house I was passing, his father smiling. I smiled and waved back, but even a little neighborhood friendliness didn’t inspire me to want to see any more.

* * *

This feels like a fail. I’ve found something to love in every neighborhood I’ve visited – except this one (though the kid was awfully cute). A cold rainy day in a broken-down neighborhood clinging to the edges of the city – a place where the median household income is less than what the government gave me in unemployment last year. This one wasn’t fun and I feel badly that I can’t find anything to recommend a visit. I’d like to say I’ll go back some day, but it’s not likely.

I didn’t take many pictures, either.

Rundown:

Useful Links

City of Chicago’s map of the area (.pdf file) – you’ll notice the large tract of nothing in the middle.

Wikipedia’s acknowledgement that the area exists

on WikiTravel

photos from neighborhoods.chicago.il.us

Know what I should visit when I come to your neighborhood?

Email me at pirateblogs[at]gmail[dot]com or leave a comment.

I decided to check out my route on Google Maps street view to make sure there was nothing in those pictures that I’d need to be overly concerned about.

In addition to stretches of street with heavy brush that scream “hide bodies here!”, I discovered that Doty has no sidewalks. There is no pedestrian route between the north and south ends of the community, unless you want to leave the community entirely and venture to the north end through West Pullman.

As of this writing, I’ve not yet decided 100% what I’m going to do, but I suspect I’ll be skipping Altgeld and instead having a meal at Cal-Harbor before getting right back on the train home. I’ve been on the verge of chickening out for a week and this may be what finally pushes me. I’ve soundly defeated myself on this one.

Recollection:

I’ve never been to Ashburn before. In fact, I’d never heard of it before. It’s the former dumping site for the city’s fireplace ashes.

In researching, the only “attraction” I was able to find was a 24 hour porn shop situated at the very edge of the neighborhood. I was explaining about this trip and this project to a coworker, who then began referring to Ashburn as “the porn neighborhood.” I wasn’t really in any position to argue that nomenclature.

Rambling:

Dan joined me for this one – we drove down (public transit in this part of the city really stinks – the Metra services the neighborhood, but trains only run every couple hours on Sunday). Off we went. On the way down Western, we passed S & M Auto Sales. I note this because 1) we saw it on our way to “the porn neighborhood” and 2) obviously, I am going to need to remember this for when I visit that neighborhood.

We hung a right at 79th and stopped for lunch at Dan’s Soul Food.

It’s a bit disconcerting when you first walk in – you order at the bakery counter, where plexiglass or some kind of glass partition with a crudely cut slot at about face level separates the customers from the employees. It’s odd. But the service is not. The owner, Randall (or Randolph – our minds couldn’t remember anything but food after a while) came out and introduced himself. Water was brought and our food was out quickly. We tucked into it like Mr. Fox.

Dan ordered meatloaf, mashed potatoes, red beans and rice, and cornbread stuffing. I got baked chicken, cornbread stuffing, black-eyed peas, and collard greens. The black-eyed peas were good though they do not come close to Wallace’s, but the collards won a best-ever distinction here. I usually don’t order collard greens when I go for soul food – I find they’re often overcooked and either mushy or tough. But these were perfect. I sampled Dan’s red beans & rice, too, and I’ll swap the black-eyed peas for that when we go back (when, not if).

Afterward, we drove over to Pulaski and parked the car. Then we walked. Ashburn is surprising. The big main streets – Western, Pulaski, Cicero – are dumpy, commercial, not terribly attractive affairs. But the second you step off of them into the neighborhood … lovely. Lots of low brick houses built in the ’50s, and largely unchanged. It’s adorable, really, and the neighborhood has very little of the housing decay associated with foreclosures that I’m seeing in other places right now. Almost every home we saw appeared to be occupied and well-kept.

We reached Cicero and trudged north. The west side of the street is the suburb of Burbank, and the east side Chicago, though they look just the same. Chain shops, mostly, and the sidewalk disappears for a while as you walk along in front of the strip malls. We ducked into an auto parts shop to pick up some new windshield wipers (no sense making a separate trip) and walked largely in silence because it was difficult to hear over the traffic noise on Cicero.

We finally reached Southwest Book and Video. It’s bright, it’s clean, it has a separate room for most of its books and videos that we didn’t bother with. It boasts a large collection of exceptionally tacky bachelorette party supplies. And you can find titles such as Prevention and Easy Casseroles among the racier fare in the magazine rack. And this was in the bin of sale videos near the door:

Excellent.

We walked back to the car. We’d parked near Vito & Nick’s Pizza, thinking we might have room for more food by the time we got back, but even as I type now I’m full and wanting to lie down for a nap.

* * *

“The porn neighborhood” has little else in the way of diversions on a Sunday afternoon but is surprisingly charming. Considering its proximity to the airport and a huge shopping mall, it’s retained its character and dignity remarkably well. If there’s a tour-de-soul food at the end of this, Dan’s is on the list.

See more …

Rundown:

Useful Links

City of Chicago’s map of the area (.pdf file)

Wikipedia’s run-down on the area

Ashburn on EveryBlock

on WikiTravel

on The Chicago Tribune

neighborhoods.chicago.il.us does not have photos of this neighborhood yet

Know what I should visit when I come to your neighborhood?

Email me at pirateblogs[at]gmail[dot]com or leave a comment.

Recollection:

Nothing. I got nothing. I’ve never been to the neighborhood before; through it a few times but never stopping. Generally speaking, it’s not a place you drive through and think “I bet this would be a lovely place to park the car and explore.” Tina suggested this little romp for today, though, and I think it was perfect.

Rambling:

We met up at the Garfield Park Conservatory, a place I’ve often thought I should visit and just never have. It might now become a necessary February stop – everything is snow and mud outside, but inside …

It’s a relief to wander around in here during what I always think of as the worst month of winter. We wandered for a good hour in here; my camera lens fogged as soon as we entered the humid Palm Room but it worked for capturing Tina doing her Tarzan.

We headed out through the park, past the fieldhouse … it was closed, but I’d like to see it sometime. I liked what I saw through the windows … down to Madison and then east. We saw Edna’s Restaurant, whose sign proclaims “Best Biscuits On Earth” and were disappointed to find it closed.

Further along, we found Wallace’s Catfish Corner – Don King, the late Harold Washington, and even the current President have dined here, evidenced by photos on the walls. Tina and I split baked chicken, macaroni and cheese and probably the best black-eyed peas I’ve had. And a couple sodas. Cheap, delicious and filling.

Then we headed back and I caught a lift home with her. Not the biggest neighborhood day I’ve had, but a good one nonetheless. Relaxing.

* * *

The West Side of the city has a bad rep; East Garfield has seen better days. Gentrification didn’t make it too far into the neighborhood before the economy took a tumble; and to me, at least along the little strip we walked today, the neighborhood felt more at ease than other places where new development is fighting with affordability. I really want to go back and see if Edna’s has the best biscuits on earth, and if so, if the black-eyed peas can beat Wallace’s … it’s not a neighborhood that (to borrow a term from Tina) is a one-and-done. I want more.

And more pictures …

Rundown:

Useful Links

City of Chicago’s map of the area (.pdf file)

Wikipedia’s run-down on the area

East Garfield Park on EveryBlock

on WikiTravel

on The Chicago Tribune

Photos on neighborhoods.chicago.il.us

Know what I should visit when I come to your neighborhood?

Email me at pirateblogs[at]gmail[dot]com or leave a comment.