Dennis Rodkin

Over the past decade, an influx of artists and bargain-hunting homeowners has been adding a new layer to Bridgeport’s old-line ethnic working class. The newcomers are drawn by the neighborhood’s proximity to the Loop and public transportation, as well as by the mix of old ethnic restaurants and younger, artier places, such as the Zhou B. Art Center (and café) on 35th Street. Read more

Bucktown has been popular for so long that it’s hard to remember when there were no new, look-at-me contemporary homes, none of the hipsters and their restaurants—just a working-class district of dusty antique brick or frame homes. Read more

Where rail yards, and later a golf course, once lay, a high-rise neighborhood has sprouted in the past decade, and it has quickly become a model of 21st-century urban life. Lakeshore East, the master-planned area just south of the Chicago River and west of Lake Shore Drive, counts among its distinctions the new Aqua tower—the 82-story Jeanne Gang–designed apartment-and-condo building that appears to be eroded from water running down its sides—direct access to the lakefront, and, immediately south of the neighborhood, a little place called Millennium Park. Read more

Over the course of 31 years, the South Side Irish Parade in Beverly evolved from a charming tradition into a magnet for drunken misbehavior. This year the event went back to its roots, becoming a family-oriented festival of Irish culture, sans parade. Read more

Whenever I get off the Brown Line at Rockwell, I think I should be carrying a lunch pail instead of a laptop. That’s because the neighborhood known as Rockwell Crossing feels like a quaint throwback to a time when a tired blue-collar worker would have happily returned home to this cozy community where the CTA trains clatter along at ground level. Read more