Description of the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Photo uploaded to Flickr by teofilo.
Lincoln Park Now is a neighborhood blog, which seems straightforward enough. But now, in our appointed roles as community bloggers, Molly and I are left with the tough, philosophical task of defining what exactly the Lincoln Park neighborhood is.
The great thing about neighborhoods is that they are dynamic. They are subject to the flux of residents, businesses, real estate, tourists, and anything else that might pass right through or stay a while.
Neighborhood boundaries are even more fluid. People who live in certain areas identify with particular neighborhoods regardless of where we draw lines on a map. Neighborhoods are constantly being shaped and defined by the people who occupy them, but even these definitions rely on the individuals who produce them. The difficult thing about neighborhoods, then, is that they are so subjective.
If everyone's opinion is valid, then who gets to be right? How can we define Lincoln Park?
One of the goals of Lincoln Park Now is to help our readers analyze and interpret neighborhood-specific information on the internet. Luckily for us, there are plenty of websites that attempt to delineate and define the Lincoln Park community. By examining the content of these websites and opening up a forum for discussion among Lincoln Park residents, I think we will be able to come up with a working definition.
According to the EveryBlock website, an incredible resource that aggregates data about crime, business, real estate, restaurant reviews, media features, and other online content and packages it for consumption on the extremely local level, Lincoln Park's boundaries look a little something like this:
EveryBlock's delineation of the Lincoln Park neighborhood.
As you can see, EveryBlock's interpretation of Lincoln Park is bounded on the west by Halsted Street, on the east by North Stockton Drive, on the north by Fullerton Avenue, and on the South by North Avenue. This completely excludes DePaul University and the surrounding community, an area that is considered by many to be an integral part of the Lincoln Park community.
EveryBlock gives us Sheffield Neighbors as another neighborhood option, which includes the DePaul community:
EveryBlock's delineation of the Sheffield Neighbors neighborhood.
But even if we combine these two neighborhood areas, some might argue that their neck of the Lincoln Park neighborhood is excluded. Yet, if you expand the EveryBlock search to include the entire 43rd ward, then it encompasses way too much:
EveryBlock's delineation of the 43rd ward.
It's easy to see how tricky defining neighborhood boundaries becomes! Recently, EveryBlock incorporated a new feature where users can
custom draw their own neighborhood boundaries and generate a report for whichever area they designate.
This comes closest to the philosophy of defining a neighborhood that I would like to embrace on Lincoln Park Now. A neighborhood should be defined by the people who live in it and experience it every day, and it should be defined on their own subjective terms. Neighborhood boundaries should be flexible and open to interpretation and discussion.
Similarly, the contents and characteristics of a neighborhood are extremely subjective. Wikipedia offers an interesting and somewhat comprehensive
overview of the Lincoln Park neighborhood, but how well can it be trusted? In reality, someone must experience the Lincoln Park neighborhood firsthand in order to get a sense of its flavor.
Although the internet offers a lot of resources that point toward a definition for the Lincoln Park neighborhood, it can only ever be a working definition. It is up to the community members to ultimately negotiate and define their own community, and a blog like Lincoln Park Now can help to facilitate that conversation.
So, Lincoln Park Now readers, I pose the question to you:
How do
you define the Lincoln Park community?
23 Comments
Alex Parker said:
I'm surprised to see most definitions of Lincoln Park give the northern-most boundary as Fullerton. I would have guessed Diversey or even Barry/Clark/Halsted. So now I have no idea what neighborhood I live in. This is an identity crisis.
My definition would be North Avenue on the south to Diversey on the north, with the lake as the eastern boundary, extending west to Southport.
jennkloc said:
Hi, Alex! I'm so glad you found Lincoln Park Now, and that you decided to comment on this post!
I wouldn't signal the identity crisis quite yet. Like I said in this post, I think that neighborhoods are subjective, at least on the experiential level. If you identify where you live as Lincoln Park, then you are helping to shape the characteristic of the neighborhood.
So, what do you think that characteristic might be?
Timmay said:
Diversey Parkway on the north, Lake Michigan on the east, the Chicago River (north branch) on the west and North Avenue on the south are the official city boundaries of the Lincoln Park Commuity Area. This includes 8 neighborhoods
Sheffield
Park West
Wrightwood Neighbors
Old Town Triangle
Mid-North
RANCH Triangle
West DePaul
Timmay said:
also Lincoln Central
Timmay said:
The West DePaul Neighborhood, while officially part of Lincoln Park is governed by one of the Lakeview associations due to it being far less affluent, having a CHA housing project and being minority majority, unlike the rest of prodomantly European American Lincoln Park.
jennkloc said:
Thanks for all the information, and for reading! Do you live in Lincoln Park? I hope to see you on here often.
Timmay said:
Yes, I do live in Lincoln Park (Mid-North)
Timmay said:
The CAN (Concerned Allied Neighbors) prevented the gentrification of West DePaul. and it is governed by the LVCC (Lakeview Citizens Council) despite being in Lincoln Park. West DePaul also overlaps Wrightwood Neighbors by 2 blocks. These are the only to LP neighborhoods that overlap at all.
Timmay said:
There is also a CHA (Chicago Housing Authority) project in the West DePaul neighborhood called the Lathrop Homes which also does a lot to prevent the affluent from gentrifying the area.
Timmay said:
The Lathrop Homes have been slated for redevlopment to mixed income by the CHA, but they have been dragging their feet on this for years due to the predominantly Latino residents of this project resisting this change with meetings and protests.
Timmay said:
Actually I found out West DePaul Neighborhood Association's borders are Lakewood, Diversey and the River. This does not overlap Wrightwood Neighbors, but overlaps RANCH Triangle section South of Cortland and west of the bend.
TT said:
Lincoln Park is bounded by Diversey on the north, North Ave. on the south, Lake Michigan on the east and the Chicago River on the west.
Lucid Realty said:
Actually all 77 official Chicago neighborhoods have precise definitions based upon groupings of census tracts. Lincoln Park is comprised of all the census tracts that begin with a 7 in the 5th digit. You can see an official map here: http://lucidrealty.com/lincoln_park.htm
jennkloc said:
Hmm, that's very interesting. Thank you for sharing! Still, though, I think that whether or not the census or anyone lays out precise neighborhood definitions, people will identify differently with particular areas. Some Lincoln Park residents might feel strongly that certain sections of what's technically Lincoln Park aren't actually a part of their community, while other people who live outside the lines on the map might strongly identify with Lincoln Park.
I don't want any discussions on ChicagoNow to make people feel excluded because of which side of a certain line they may or may not live on.
Erin Keane said:
I agree with Alex's boundaries. As a residential leasing agent, watching the price of rent go up and the size of the apartments go down once you get over Diversey is how I would characterize it.
Timmay said:
Lincoln Park's official Chicago boundaries are Diversey on the north, The River on the West, the lake on the east and North Ave. on the south.
Timmay said:
Barry/Clark/Halsted is in the Lake View Community Area in the neighborhood of West Lakeview.
Timmay said:
The Sheffield Neighborhood Association boundaries are Halsted, Fullerton, Lakewood, Cortland, Racine (for a very short section) and Armitage.
uchicago said:
The Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce map can be seen here: http://www.lincolnparkchamber.com/assets/LincolnParkMap.pdf
TT said:
West DePaul is the only Lincoln Park neighborhood that overlaps others and it overlaps Sheffield west of Lakewood and a small part of RANCH Triangle west of Lakewood as it s boundaries are Diversey, Lakewood and the river.
TT said:
Old Town Triangle Association was established in 1948.
Mid-North Association in 1950
Lincoln Central Association in 1957
Sheffield Neighborhood Association in 1959
Wrightwood Neighbors Association in 1962
RANCH Triangle Community Conservation Association in 1963
Park West Community Association was founded sometime in the 60's or early 70's
Concerned Allied Neighbors was founded in 1975 as a organization to keep people employed in the industial area of Linocoln Park. When this neighborhood gentrified it changed its name to the West DePaul Neighborhood Association and now focuses on primarily housing and improvement.
TT said:
Old Town was originally established with the borders of Ogden Ave., Clark St. and North Ave. This is fully within the borders of Lincoln Park. When civil rights and gentrification came to the area the boundary was extended to the Near North side with the new area of Old Town bordered by Larrabee, Division St. Clark, and North. This area still remains diverse to this day and is a mixture of rich and poor. It is strange that the name "Old Town" is applied to an area where most buildings are less than 50 years old. The original area of Old Town was originally called North Town by the original German settlers as it was originally outside of Chicago's city limits with North Ave. as the northern border. There are many web sites with erroneus borders for Old Town esp. Wikipedia. Larrabee is the western border, Division the southern, Clark the northeastern and eastern and the Ogden right-of-way the northwestern. Old Town does not have Armitage as its northern border as this is Lincoln Central's northern border.
TT said:
The industral nature of the West DePaul area is why it overlaps parts of the already established Sheffield Neighborhood Association and RANCH Triangle Community Conservation Association.
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