Wicker Park (Chicago, Illinois)

 Upload a photo

By now thoroughly gentrified, "happening" Wicker Park neighborhood swarms with young professionals. The upwardly mobile among them can generally be found at the bars and nightclubs along Division Street, and the laterally mobile more towards North Avenue.

Wicker Park has gone through a number of demographic changes. For many decades it was a Polish-American community. Puerto Ricans became the most numerous by the 1970s. Art students, always the vanguard of the forces of gentrification, began filtering in in the late 1980s/early 1990s, marked by the launching of the "Around the Coyote" art festival in 1989. Bargain-seeking yuppies followed.

Wicker Park is the setting for a couple of films, including 'High Fidelity' and 'Wicker Park'. The main location for 'High Fidelity,' the used record store owned by John Cusack's character, can be found at Honore and Milwaukee. The less said about 'Wicker Park' the movie, the better.

The boundary line between Bucktown and Wicker Park is the subject of pretty evenly-divided debate, with some choosing North Avenue and some the disused train embankment a few blocks north at Bloomingdale Avenue. The city of Chicago has weighed in on the North Avenue boundary by installing decorative markers in the pavement at North, Milwaukee and Damen with goats (male goats are "bucks") on top and flowers on the bottom. If you are still not convinced, ask yourself; To which neighborhood does the little triangle between Ashland Avenue, North Avenue and the Kennedy Expressway belong?

 nightlifeneighbourhood