Chicago Neighborhood Map

I'm looking for a good reliable Chicago Neighborhood Map, that gets into the nitty gritty boundaries of places such as Peterson Park, Ravenswood Manor, etc. What would people recommend? The Big Stick hand drawn is the one I can think of. Another one is the NFT Guide. Any thoughts?

While it's not what you're looking for, you might enjoy Chicago Mile X Mile:
http://www.fakeisthenewreal.org/milexmi ... ayout.html

The NFT guide is good, but their boundaries are a little different than what I'm used to. (They claim in the 2003 edition that I grew up in a different neighborhood than I actually did.)

The Big Stick version is the best I've ever seen by far.

I belive that our neighborhood boundaries are fixed, but I have met many who belive that they are more fluid. These people are usually involved in real estate and like to change parts of Humboldt to "West Bucktown" or the edge of Rogers Park to "North Andersonville"

Try contacting the City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development. I used to work for the city, and had a neighborhood map on my wall--nothing fancy, just a black and white map. A good map, though. The only problem is that it was last done in the 1970s, and there have obviously been a few changes since then--neighborhoods arising, others getting absorbed, etc. I did read that a new map is in the works, though, so you might get that one. FYI, you should be able to get this map for free, or a minimal charge. If you have problems getting access to the map (and while the City has many wonderful employees, there are some who can be less than helpful), file a Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA) and they have to give it to you.

You could also supplement your neighborhood map with another map I've seen which pinpoints all the current and former Catholic parishes in Chicago. For a west side narrowback like myself, a parish is often a more useful frame of reference than a neighborhood.

I typically use the Picturing Chicago website. Click on any of the colored blocks and it gives you a description of most neighborhood boundaries that fall within the area.

I've seen this one. It looks great, until I look at the definition of Roscoe Village. According to this website, Roscoe Village extends out to Racine, which is incorrect. Ravenswood is the easternmost boundary. I may sound like I'm splitting hairs, but the task before me requires such detailed parsing.

That's like trying to determine which mediterranean appetizers were originally Greek, Turkish, Lebanese, or Syrian. You'll find correct, but conflicting sources, and ultimately you'll have to either decide or live with the blurring of boundaries.

Certainly true, particularly in the softer areas e.g. Wicker Park/Bucktown. It's going to be a matter of selecting boundaries and keeping them consistent.

There is an "official" Chicago community area map, which you can find, among other places, at http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Chicag ... nity_areas
If you click on a particular community area you'll get its boundaries.


As the note at the top of the map points out, however, many of these names have "fallen out of use." What's even more conspicuous, is that many community names we take for granted do not appear at all. There's no Pilsen, no Wicker Park, no Andersonville, not to mention no Bucktown, no Roscoe Village, etc. The Tribune has a decoder guide for these neighborhoods, and many others, at http://www.chicagotribune.com/classifie ... tory#neigh

The official map is also a pain to use because the numbering appearns to be random and the community names that correspond the the numbering are not in alphabetical order. You'd think they could have done one or the other! But I'm sure I'm not the only one who uses it almost every day. Lots of funders, including the United Way, require reporting on how many clients are served in each community area. Not surprisingly, in light of the problems noted above, our clients often don't have a clue what community they're in and we have to look it up ourselves. Fortunately we have a cheat sheet (also included in the Tribune link above) that's based on zip codes and that usually narrows it down to no more than three or four possibilties.

Good luck!

There are 77 numbered, official Community Areas, designated by the city; 75 of these were delineated in the 1920s by the Social Science Research Committee at the University of Chicago. No. 76, O'Hare, was designated when the city annexed that land; and no. 77, Edgewater, was split from Uptown in the 1980s.

You can find good maps on the city web site.

However, these are mainly wide tracts of land within which are many individual neighborhoods, designated by local use, dreamed up by neighborhood associations, bestowed by Realtors and developers, etc. They have no official standing and their boundaries are often in flux. Where is New Town these days? Gone. And whether a residence is in Andersonville or Edgewater, Buena Park or Uptown may depend on whether you're buying or selling.

The Community Area called the Near North Side encompasses River North, Streeterville, the Gold Coast, Goose Island and several lesser known neighborhoods. But their boundaries don't match up neatly. By usage and custom, Streeterville runs from Michigan Avenue east to Lake Michigan (not exactly the area Capt. Streeter laid claim to, but close enough). River North, meanwhile, runs west from Wabash, according to the River North Association. So what do you call the area between Michigan and Wabash? Some call it the Magnificent Mile, a phrase coined by a developer, but technically that only refers to Michigan Avenue itself (although I have seen so-called neighborhood maps that made it a mile wide as well as a mile long).

Moreover, sometimes the Community Areas have the same names as smaller neighborhoods within them. The Loop Community Area, for example extends from the Chicago River south to Roosevelt Road, a far larger area than the original Loop as bounded by the L tracks over Wabash, Van Buren, Wells and Lake, or the somewhat wider neighborhood many people mean when they say "The Loop," which is bounded by the river on the north and west, the lake on the east and Congress Parkway on the south.

Also, the names don't always mean what you think they might. Peterson Park the neighborhood is nowhere near Peterson Park the park.

In the 1970s, the city compiled the map that John M refers to by sending out researchers who asked "What neighborhood is this?"

My suggestion would be to do something similar. Start with the Community Areas. In smaller neighborhoods, where you need a specific designation, call a neighborhood associaton or chamber of commerce for that area and ask them what boundaries they use. But there's plenty of disagreement and you'll have to come up with your own decisions. For example, many people seem to use North Avenue as the boundary between Bucktown and Wicker Park, but if you look at the maps on kiosks in the neighborhood, the dividing line is Wabansia. And I've seen the same restaurant described in different media as being in North Center, Ravenswood and Lake View.

The people at Thrillist need a neighborhood map. Zebda is in Irving Park. Nowhere does Albany Park go south of Montrose, which is the southern boundary for a fair stretch. The boundary moves northward along Elston from Montrose, so anything on the west side of Elston is not in Albany Park except for a short stretch north of Lawrence.

Some other activity in Irving Park: Alps, as noted by Angry Sarah, is going into the space they were pushed out of for a Washington Mutual branch.

Practically across the street on the north side of Irving is a sign in the former Quenca Bakery space that says Chicken Wings, Salads and something else coming soon. The sign was hard to read while I was stuck in traffic heading east. This space has been vacant since Cuenca Bakery moved to a larger space on Montrose. Considering all the other chicken places now or coming soon nearby, I have to wonder if someone is courting financial failure. This is just around the corner from the coming El Llano storefront.

Another piece of gall or stupidity is the new live poultry store on Lawrence Avenue in Lincoln Square. This is about 100 feet east of Lawrence Poultry, which had a sandwich board out front on Sunday afternoon. In between are the space where Con Sabor Cubano was, a tattoo parlor, a small car repair shop and a tiny tofu factory.

ekreider wrote:The people at Thrillist need a neighborhood map. Zebda is in Irving Park. Nowhere does Albany Park go south of Montrose, which is the southern boundary for a fair stretch. The boundary moves northward along Elston from Montrose, so anything on the west side of Elston is not in Albany Park except for a short stretch north of Lawrence.

Some other activity in Irving Park: Alps, as noted by Angry Sarah, is going into the space they were pushed out of for a Washington Mutual branch.

Practically across the street on the north side of Irving is a sign in the former Quenca Bakery space that says Chicken Wings, Salads and something else coming soon. The sign was hard to read while I was stuck in traffic heading east. This space has been vacant since Cuenca Bakery moved to a larger space on Montrose. Considering all the other chicken places now or coming soon nearby, I have to wonder if someone is courting financial failure. This is just around the corner from the coming El Llano storefront.

Another piece of gall or stupidity is the new live poultry store on Lawrence Avenue in Lincoln Square. This is about 100 feet east of Lawrence Poultry, which had a sandwich board out front on Sunday afternoon. In between are the space where Con Sabor Cubano was, a tattoo parlor, a small car repair shop and a tiny tofu factory.

First, it's still Albany Park in my mind, and probably the minds of most people. Second, you cannot have enough live poultry, never ever. I mean that. I want to see chickens getting they heads chopped everywhere I go.

Habibi wrote:

ekreider wrote:The people at Thrillist need a neighborhood map. Zebda is in Irving Park. Nowhere does Albany Park go south of Montrose, which is the southern boundary for a fair stretch. The boundary moves northward along Elston from Montrose, so anything on the west side of Elston is not in Albany Park except for a short stretch north of Lawrence.

Some other activity in Irving Park: Alps, as noted by Angry Sarah, is going into the space they were pushed out of for a Washington Mutual branch.

Practically across the street on the north side of Irving is a sign in the former Quenca Bakery space that says Chicken Wings, Salads and something else coming soon. The sign was hard to read while I was stuck in traffic heading east. This space has been vacant since Cuenca Bakery moved to a larger space on Montrose. Considering all the other chicken places now or coming soon nearby, I have to wonder if someone is courting financial failure. This is just around the corner from the coming El Llano storefront.

Another piece of gall or stupidity is the new live poultry store on Lawrence Avenue in Lincoln Square. This is about 100 feet east of Lawrence Poultry, which had a sandwich board out front on Sunday afternoon. In between are the space where Con Sabor Cubano was, a tattoo parlor, a small car repair shop and a tiny tofu factory.

First, it's still Albany Park in my mind, and probably the minds of most people. Second, you cannot have enough live poultry, never ever. I mean that. I want to see chickens getting they heads chopped everywhere I go.

I live around this area. We have a name for our neighborhood and it is West Walker. We are in Irving Park Township. West Walker is bounded by Central Park on the east, Irving on the south, Pulaski on the west and Montrose on the north.

Is there a Walker or East Walker? Not that I have heard of. And why is it called Walker where we have the highest concentration of car wash places known to man? Again, a neighborhood mystery.

I'm just trying to figure out how to get some fancy street signs like Ravenswood Manor so our real estate values go up. And trying to get Tony's to sell to the folks who run the Family Fruit Market.

AngrySarah wrote:I live around this area. We have a name for our neighborhood and it is West Walker. We are in Irving Park Township. West Walker is bounded by Central Park on the east, Irving on the south, Pulaski on the west and Montrose on the north.

Is there a Walker or East Walker? Not that I have heard of. And why is it called Walker where we have the highest concentration of car wash places known to man? Again, a neighborhood mystery.

I'm just trying to figure out how to get some fancy street signs like Ravenswood Manor so our real estate values go up. And trying to get Tony's to sell to the folks who run the Family Fruit Market.

Sorry to delve too far into neighborhood boundaries, but I can help clarify.

I live in West Walker. It is a neighborhood in the Irving Park community area. Irving Park's north boundary is Montrose, which is the south boundary of the Albany Park community area. West Walker's boundaries are Montrose, Irving Park, Central Park, and Pulaski.

ekreider is correct. Albany Park does not extend south of Montrose.

It was originally developed by a guy named William(?) Walker in the early 20th century (most of the area was annexed by the city in the 1890s). I was told Walker had a different development in the city and this was his "western" holding. Hence, "West Walker".

EDIT: For reference, Wikipedia keeps a good index of Chicago Community Area information, complete with sub-neighborhoods: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_areas_of_Chicago

Best,
Michael

Just to update LAZ's map link above as there are problems with that old link to the city's web site.

The Chicago Commuity map can be found on the Encyclopedia of Chicago web site

Community Map

The City of Chicago has a bad habit of moving things around on their web site. Currently the page with links to the official community maps is here but who knows for how long. This is a direct update of LAZ's link up the thread.

eatchicago wrote:I belive that our neighborhood boundaries are fixed, but I have met many who belive that they are more fluid. These people are usually involved in real estate and like to change parts of Humboldt to "West Bucktown" or the edge of Rogers Park to "North Andersonville"

More commonly, I hear Rogers Park's southern edges called "Edgewater". Which I guess has more cache?

The Office of Tourism clearly needs a map.