Welcome to the Neighborhood

Besides the lake, my favorite thing about Chicago is the neighborhoods. They create a smallish town feeling in the midst of a gigantic city. Let me start with mine. Eric and I live in the far northeast corner of Chicago, between Loyola University and Northwestern, in a place called Rogers Park. It's one of my favorite neighborhoods because of the little city beaches, good coffee, friendly people, cheaper real estate, and it's incredible diversity. It's actually one of the most diverse (both ethnically and economically) locales in the whole country with 63, 000 residents and over 80 languages spoken.

Rogers Park was actually its own little farming village once, independent of Chicago. In the 1800s immigrants made their home here, many to become cucumber farmers. Back then, the price of land was $1.25 an acre. Today, if you want to buy a 4x6 slab of asphalt on which to park your car, it will cost you $40, 000.