Chicago Community Area #42 - Woodlawn

Yesterday was a beautiful mostly-sunny day and a great day for a ride on the Lakefront Trail. At the south end of the trail, I passed along the edge of Jackson Park, in the Woodlawn neighborhood. Riders who stick to the trail and drivers who pass by on Lake Shore Drive come amazingly close to one of the most spectacular of all public art works in Chicago.

Tucked behind a bend in the road and not visible from the main thoroughfaire, it's the beautiful statue of The Republic on Hayes Drive. The 24-foot statue is a replica of the original statue which was created for the Worlds Fair in 1893. The original was almost three times as large and stood 65 feet tall!

Chicago Community Area #26 - West Garfield Park

I headed out to West Garfield Park yesterday. It's one of the smaller community areas on the far west side of the city. On a warm summer day around noon, the Madison St commercial district, between Hamlin and Pulaski, was bustling. Not particularly inviting, but it was bustling with people. This intersection of Madison and Pulaski was the site of urban riots in the 1960s, particularly in 1968, and although there are many shops on this strip today, it has never fully recovered.

According to the Encyclopedia of Chicago, this commercial district started developing after 1914. At that time, Pulaski Ave was known as Crawford Street. In 1933, Mayor Ed Kelly tried to have Crawford renamed after Casimir Pulaski, a Polish-born American Revolutionary War Hero, in order to gain favor with Chicago's large Polish community. Business owners in the area protested the name change. The protests continued, lawsuits were filed, and injunctions were issued until the Illinois Supreme Court finally ruled in favor of the name change in 1952. As you can see from the photo, some owners still refuse to change their signage.

Chicago Community Area #2 - West Ridge

Although West Ridge is my home 'hood, I haven't taken the opportunity to officially document it until this week. There's nothing more iconic in West Ridge, known as West Rogers Park to natives, as Thillens baseball field at Kedzie and Devon. Thillens and its major league sized baseball signage have been around since I was a kid. When my parents would drive by Thillens with us in the car, the kids would dream of playing in the "big leagues" at a game at Thillens.

I don't think I ever got the chance to play there, but my kids have played at Thillens. Thillens opens the park for charity organizations who collect the gate fees for the organization. I don't know if Thillens themselves takes a cut at all. I don't think so. Yesterday, the Oriole Park Baseball League was charity of the day. Kids and parents were all very excited to play on a "real" baseball diamond with a real scoreboard and have the kids' names announced on the loudspeaker when they came up to bat. It doesn't get better than that!

Chicago Community Area #55 - Hegewisch

Hegewisch (pronounced "heg-wish") is the furthest southeast neighborhood in Chicago. The Burnham bike trail runs through the northern section of Hegewisch which also includes Eggers Grove forest preserve and the William Powers State Fish and Wildlife Area.

Powers SFWA is on the peaceful Wolf Lake. On the day I rode there, there were lots of families enjoying the nice weather and picnicing in the park. There was once a Nike missile battery in this park and there is now a monument to that installation in the park. The "missile" on this monument is actually just the warhead (neutralized) of the missile. The actual booster rocket of the missile was much larger.

Warning to all bikers! Do NOT ride on Ave O! It is full of potholes and just before I got to Powers SFWA, I got not one, but two flat tires! I didn't even realize that I had blown both tubes until I had finished changing my back tube and got back on to ride. To get into Powers SFWA, take the turn-off on the left side of Burnham Trail as you go south from Eggers Grove, about 200 yards before you get to Ave O.

Chicago Community Area #52 - East Side

I didn't see much of the neighborhood as I passed through the East Side community area. They have a nice bike path along Indianapolis Blvd under the east end of the skyway.

The community is very residential and has a very suburban feel to it.

State Line Rd runs along the Illinois-Indiana border. The streets to the west (the Illinois side) are named Ave B, Ave C, Ave D, etc. Before I came to down here the first time a few years ago, I didn't know that Chicago had letter-named streets. I thought that was something unique to New York.

Chicago Community Area #46 - South Chicago

After detouring from my usual route south of the South Shore Cultural Center to visit several former synagogues in the South Shore area, I ended up riding diagonally south-east on South Chicago Ave, along the edge of the South Chicago neighborhood. At the 3-way intersection of South Chicago, 92nd and Exchange, there's a little triangle formed by the intersecting streets. A small monument to Christopher Columbus stands on that triangle. It looked like something I would expect to see in Grant Park or Lincoln Park, not on a relatively forsaken strip in South Chicago. As it turns out, according to a Museology web site, this monument was originally in the downtown area, but was moved to its current location in 1909.

The fountain was a donation of John B Drake in 1892, apparently to commemorate the 400 year anniversary of Columbus coming to America. The artist was R. H Frank and it is fashioned in the Victorian Gothic style. According to this web site, the foundation has a recepticle holding two tons of ice and has ten faucets, each provided with a bronze drinking cup.

I rode east on 92nd and crossed the Calumet River there. As I approached the bridge, it was just closing after letting through a huge barge.

Chicago Community Area #43 - South Shore

On yesterday's long ride, I went all the way south along the lakefront path and further to the Indiana state line. My first stop was at the South Shore Cultural Center. This building was originally built in 1916 in the Mediterranean Revival style as an exclusive country club. The club had a well-known policy of excluding Jews, Catholics and African-Americans.

In the 1970s, the club closed and the building was sold to the Chicago Park District and was renovated. It's really beautiful, both inside and outside. Now, of course, the center is open to people of all races, religions and nationalities. The wedding reception for Barack and Michelle Obama was held here in 1992.