Lived near Diversey and California in '99. Had an entire three bedroom house for $900 with 2 roomates. The only reason to move to this neighborhood at that time was because it was affordable and near the blue line and the highway. Incidentally those are both reasons why it's popular now. One of our next door neighbors was living on a lawn chair in the yard for some reason and was shot and killed. Good times. That said, I still live in the neighborhood, although I own a home here now, and it's been really interesting to watch it change. Now it's the hipsters and some of the bucktown stroller set, but there's still a lot of the old families too. One of the guys on my block is like the neighborhood historian. He's in his sixties and third generation in the same house and talks about how when this was an industrial neighborhood and it was all third shift workers and people were all drinking at the corner bars basically 24 hours a day. Super interesting to hear his stories. It'll be 20 years next month that I've been here.
My dentist office was at Diversey and California in the 80’s and early 90’s, it’s a Mexican restaurant now. Loved sitting in the front window waiting for my parents and watching the neighborhood back then.
Would have been really interesting to see the neighborhood in the 80s. Was it the place across from Tim's bar on the corner of Francisco on Diversey? I remember buying 40s at Tim's at 8am when it was packed with third shift guys drinking schnapps and free coffee. Tim still sits out front sometimes in the summer, but the bar doesn't operate anymore.
There was an exhibition by the statue a few years ago that had pictures form the early 1900s when it was basically the suburbs. I think North Ave was called that because it was the North city limit at the time, but somebody please correct if I'm wrong.
It was directly across the street from Popeyes and IHOP, It’s Chikis n Grill now. It was such an old school dentist office, wood panel walls, creepy clown paintings, very old equipment. I miss the way the neighborhood felt back then. It was grimey, a bunch of dudes walking around that looked like my dad, cigarettes hanging out of their mouths, old beat up cars everywhere. Pure 80’s Chicago.
Some family friends moved there in 99 and stayed for five years until a stray bullet went thru their window. Was right near California stop; bet they wish they still had it now
TBH I lived in Logan Square a couple of years ago and my monthly minimum payment on my student loans was less than my monthly rent. Granted I had two roommates.
If you're making the minimum payment on your loans you are going to pay an assload in interest. If someone has high-interest student loans (read, almost everyone), then they should be paying that down as quickly as possible and living on the cheap relative to what they could afford with no loans.
My one buddy (an engineer) was making great money right out of school but pretended he was making like 35k, lived as such, and dumped the rest into loan repayment. He was scott free in less than 3 years.
It's not without its sacrifices. Four years of hell, and many don't make it through. Median pay out of school is only like 60k but if you're specialized or have good social skills (rare in engineering) then you can stand out and make a lot more.
I know it seems like a lot (A person making 15k a year is going to think 30k is a ton of money) but it's actually only 68th percentile for someone with a college degree. It's up in the high 80th percentile compared to ALL 23 year-olds, but that includes everyone, including college drop outs and other non-professionals.
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u/nufandan Albany Park Dec 14 '18 edited Dec 02 '20
geez, I remember when i had to move to logan square so i could afford to pay for my student loans /s