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Hyde Park - Chicago: Various photos
- Thread starter mendelman
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drucee
Cyburbian
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My old stomping grounds!
I'm in Andersonville (North Side Chicago) now, and these pictures bring back memories of a cold Winter Quarter huddled over a space heater in my apartment on 54th St. and Harper reading Marx, Freud, or Nietzsche.
I challenge anyone to think of a more typical "U of C" image than that.
I have mixed feelings about the old neighborhood. On the one hand, it was beautiful; the rows of 1920s six-flats, greystones, and Victorians really made for a great urban fabric. There were lots of great local businesses (the Medici, the Seminary Co-Op, Hyde Park Produce, the Bonjour Bakery, Powell's Books, the Valois Cafeteria, and Freehling Pot & Pan, to name a few) and one of the most beautiful spots along Lake Michigan, Promontory Point.
A lot of things sucked about the neighborhood too; there was the class segregation caused by being an enclave, for one; the parks that isolate Hyde Park from its neighbors, Washington Park and the Midway, made for tenuous relationships between Hyde Park (especially the University) and the adjacent neighborhoods of Woodlawn and Washington Park. Similarly, the University of Chicago Police Department (or "Hired Goons" as I liked to call them) doesn't have the best track record for treatment of minorities and free-speech issues. The neighborhood lacks a competent supermarket (the Co-Op is mismanaged and overpriced), a clothing store, a rapid transit link to downtown, and 24-hour food options beyond a Dunkin' Donuts notoriously frequented by prostitutes.
The 5th photo is less than 2 blocks from where I used to live, taken at the corner of 54th and Dorchester. An early attempt at "urban renewal" really did some strange things to the Hyde Park streetscape, including this Brutalist block.
I'm in Andersonville (North Side Chicago) now, and these pictures bring back memories of a cold Winter Quarter huddled over a space heater in my apartment on 54th St. and Harper reading Marx, Freud, or Nietzsche.
I challenge anyone to think of a more typical "U of C" image than that.
I have mixed feelings about the old neighborhood. On the one hand, it was beautiful; the rows of 1920s six-flats, greystones, and Victorians really made for a great urban fabric. There were lots of great local businesses (the Medici, the Seminary Co-Op, Hyde Park Produce, the Bonjour Bakery, Powell's Books, the Valois Cafeteria, and Freehling Pot & Pan, to name a few) and one of the most beautiful spots along Lake Michigan, Promontory Point.
A lot of things sucked about the neighborhood too; there was the class segregation caused by being an enclave, for one; the parks that isolate Hyde Park from its neighbors, Washington Park and the Midway, made for tenuous relationships between Hyde Park (especially the University) and the adjacent neighborhoods of Woodlawn and Washington Park. Similarly, the University of Chicago Police Department (or "Hired Goons" as I liked to call them) doesn't have the best track record for treatment of minorities and free-speech issues. The neighborhood lacks a competent supermarket (the Co-Op is mismanaged and overpriced), a clothing store, a rapid transit link to downtown, and 24-hour food options beyond a Dunkin' Donuts notoriously frequented by prostitutes.
The 5th photo is less than 2 blocks from where I used to live, taken at the corner of 54th and Dorchester. An early attempt at "urban renewal" really did some strange things to the Hyde Park streetscape, including this Brutalist block.
I was in Hyde Park for the second time ever last weekend...it really is a beautiful area, and SO quiet...though I'm sure that had something to do with all of the UofC students being gone for the summer. At any rate, I liked it there. It had that "place that time forgot" feeling.
HP has two Metra stops and several express bus routes from MS&I. My trip there was considerably shorter than my daily commute from Buena Park to Evanston. Most mornings, even as a reverse-commuter, I wouldn't call the CTA "rapid."
HP has two Metra stops and several express bus routes from MS&I. My trip there was considerably shorter than my daily commute from Buena Park to Evanston. Most mornings, even as a reverse-commuter, I wouldn't call the CTA "rapid."
drucee
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Metra is loads more reliable than the CTA, sure, but at once an hour off-peak I'd hardly call it "rapid." If the Grey Line plan (implementing high-frequency service in the Metra line through Chicago's South Side) goes through before the putative Olympics, it would completely transform Hyde Park and alleviate neighborhood residents' (not just students) concerns about isolation.
But, it's not nearly as bad as the cookie-cutter suburban developments, even those from that era.