PopcornMegaphone wrote:I think Argyle is less sketchy than it was 10-15 years ago.

This isn't even a question to me. I thought it was fine 10 years ago, but go back 20-ish, and I could understand being skeeved out at the neighborhood. It's definitely been on an upward trajectory since then.

Wow, I frequent Argyle a lot and never found it particularly dangerous or skeevy. The density of loud crazies is maybe slightly higher here than other more reputable areas of Chicago, but you can do a lot worse than Argyle in this city.

I lived on Argyle twenty years ago. This is back when certain Vietnamese joints were more facades for vast karaoke halls guarded by conspicuously-armed security. The only time I ever felt my hackles rise was walking to a night at Big Chicks when that intersection ran rife with mentally-ill recently-disgorged from deregulated government hospices and random hoodlums. I wasn't fearful then and I certainly don't imagine I'd be now. Hasn't that area gentrified yet?

Christopher Gordon wrote:I lived on Argyle twenty years ago. This is back when certain Vietnamese joints were more facades for vast karaoke halls guarded by conspicuously-armed security. The only time I ever felt my hackles rise was walking to a night at Big Chicks when that intersection ran rife with mentally-ill recently-disgorged from deregulated government hospices and random hoodlums. I wasn't fearful then and I certainly don't imagine I'd be now. Hasn't that area gentrified yet?

I bought a condo on Carmen 30 years ago with the expectation that the only way the neighborhood could go was up. When I sold 15 years later, admittedly at a decent profit, the neighborhood had barely inched forward. There's some weird gentrification force field surrounding it because Andersonville and Lakeview took major steps forward, but Uptown more or less stayed teh same. Now that the Somerset property has stabilized, maybe things will pick up.

Unless someone knocks down high rises or the government stops paying for the "care" of the patients who occupy them, I don't think the City can pull a Maxwell Street move on Uptown. Thank God. Otherwise, look for a Jamba Juice in the old Green Mill space, with the Green Mill reopening in a Glenview mall.....

JeffB wrote:Unless someone knocks down high rises or the government stops paying for the "care" of the patients who occupy them, I don't think the City can pull a Maxwell Street move on Uptown. Thank God. Otherwise, look for a Jamba Juice in the old Green Mill space, with the Green Mill reopening in a Glenview mall.....

Emptying the Somerset was a huge move. I have no idea if they're going to get to 100% occupancy on the now-gentrified building but it will do a lot for the neighborhood. Although given the horrific parking situation in that area, maybe nothing will help.

Can't wait to see this. It would be wonderful to see it completely car-free, but this is still great.