Tell me about your 'hood!

Much of the western portion of Lincoln Square (west of Western and from Montrose north to Argyle or so) is a great place to live and has better amenities than the eastern portion. One amenity issue is the Brown Line station renovation project. Rockwell and Kedzie are scheduled for reopening in August. Francisco and Kimball will close once Rockwell and Kedzie are open. Western, which is already wheel-chair accessible, will not be closed as the construction is at the ends of platforms. Damen and Montrose will be closed for up to 10-12 months but not at the same time. The CTA recently rejected bids for that portion, so when (if?) these stations as well as Irving Park and Addison will be rebuilt is an open question. Anyone planning to rent in Lincoln Square, Albany Park, North Center or the eastern part of Irving Park should keep this construction in mind.

One issue for the western part of Lincoln Square is the limited supply of rental housing. Fairly substantial areas are mostly or exclusively single family or two-flats. Many of the better three-story walkups have been converted to condos leaving few decent rentals in this class. There seem to be a moderate number of for rent signs on two-flats. I doubt if many of these rentals have any other advertising.

Local shopping is weak east of Lincoln Avenue. HarvesTime (2632 W. Lawrence) is a great resource, particularly since the major expansion last year. The Cermak Produce store that occupies most of the 4200 block of Kedzie is even better. There are a lot of restaurant and shopping options along Lincoln, Lawrence west of Lincoln, Montrose west of Lincoln and Kedzie from Irving Park to about 4900 north. Even better is that there are lot of good but inexpensive restaurants if you stay off Lincoln.

There have been a lot of changes over the 30 years I have lived in the same house in one of the single-family enclaves. I haven't found anywhere else in Chicago that tempts me to move. There are only a few vestiges left from when Greektown North was centered on Lincoln-Lawrence-Western, but so many great options have replaced them that I can't be too sad. On balance things are better now.