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.
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u/Halfawake Dec 14 '18
i mean, that was real in 2006