"The Panic in Wicker Park" - A fascinating look back at old(er) Chicago
Chicago Reader's official Twitter feed recently linked to an article it published back in August of 1994. Called "The Panic in Wicker Park," it depicts a Wicker Park that most of its recent residents wouldn't recognize - a Wicker Park where young artists lived side by side with working class Polish, Puerto Rican, Mexican and African-American families. There days, the Wicker Park is solidly middle-class, a mix of now-established artists, young professionals and young families with kids. It's still a "hip" neighborhood, full of galleries and boutiques, but the neighborhood described in the article has been fading away since the late 1990s.
It's something I've touched on in " Still My Ward," but there was only so much I could mention (since it wasn't exactly plot-relevant). When I was writing it, I only knew general events and a few details. The Reader article went along way toward fleshing that history out, filling in details I knew absolutely nothing about. And, most impressively, the article tries not to pick sides and give everybody a voice. Sure, the article reads differently now that we know how it all ends, but, if anything, that makes it even more compelling.
And, in an interesting side note - Lumpin Times, an left-wing newspaper that plays a prominent role in the events recounted in the article, is still around as Lumpen magazine. But it's no longer based in Logan Square, and would be hard-pressed to find it anywhere in Wicker Park (other then, perhaps, Quimby's bookstore). A few years ago, it relocated to Bridgeport, a South Side working-class neighborhood that reminds me an awful lot of Wicker Park the Reader article described.
Funny how those things work out.
It's something I've touched on in " Still My Ward," but there was only so much I could mention (since it wasn't exactly plot-relevant). When I was writing it, I only knew general events and a few details. The Reader article went along way toward fleshing that history out, filling in details I knew absolutely nothing about. And, most impressively, the article tries not to pick sides and give everybody a voice. Sure, the article reads differently now that we know how it all ends, but, if anything, that makes it even more compelling.
And, in an interesting side note - Lumpin Times, an left-wing newspaper that plays a prominent role in the events recounted in the article, is still around as Lumpen magazine. But it's no longer based in Logan Square, and would be hard-pressed to find it anywhere in Wicker Park (other then, perhaps, Quimby's bookstore). A few years ago, it relocated to Bridgeport, a South Side working-class neighborhood that reminds me an awful lot of Wicker Park the Reader article described.
Funny how those things work out.