Sunday, February 8, 2009

Has Uptown Moved?

Google Maps has a big "thhmppptt!" raspberry for those who say that Uptown's northern border is now Argyle, and that the SoFo (South of Foster) neighborhood is actually part of Andersonville. Google Maps has moved Uptown's border wayyyy north. The reader who alerted UU of this, ahem, redistricting says: "I could have sworn Uptown's always stopped at Foster. At this rate, Uptown will soon be 'Rogers Park near'."

11 comments:

  1. If they are going by the official Chicago community areas, this is correct. Andersonville is not a community area.

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  2. How do you know what google maps designates as the border? It looks to me like they just put the neighborhood name in the center of the general area. It would be nice if they had some sort of overlay similar to hotpads.com.

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  3. Apparently you haven't seen the Chicago Realtors' neighborhood maps (which have been out for years).

    They have reduced Uptown to any area that doesn't have a "Park" designation (i.e. Buena Park, Clarendon Park, Sheridan Park, Margate Park), even though they all fall under Uptown.

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  4. I had seen those, I just thought there might be something built into google maps that I missed. Apparently you can just make neighborhoods up willy-nilly. I think I'll just have some street-pole banners made that say "thunderville" and start my own. Uptown is about to shrink a little more!

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  5. J.P., i think on the North Side, it needs to have "Park" in the name...hmm..."Thunderville Park" - that actually sounds exciting!

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  6. On second thought, maybe living in uptown is already dangerous enough. I think my new neighborhood should cannibalize a safer part of town... one without a new cabrini green going up.

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  7. I don't know about you, but I live in Uptown Square Park.

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  8. I just love all these yuppie transplants from the burbs or out of state. You all fall for the real estate agents who make up their own neighborhood to sell a condo. Sheridan Park? Buena Park? Please. I have been a life long resident of Chicago, yes in the city limits. My father grew up by Wrigley Field no it was not called Wrigelyville. My grandparents lived in and around Uptown after the war. Uptown is Uptown. It goes to Lawrence to the Lake to Ashland to Irving Park. That is the real boundaries of Uptown that are known to true chicagoans

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  9. I do hope the green fairie makes an appearance to set the enforcer straight.

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  10. From the Reader...

    When University of Chicago sociologists divided the city into “community areas” in the 1920s, Uptown was community area number three, running along the lakefront from Irving Park to Devon, its jagged western boundary defined, as it ran north, by Clark, Montrose, Ravenswood, and the railroad. As Uptown’s reputation declined after World War II, various components tried to bail out, redefining themselves as, for instance, Sheridan Park or Buena Park. Edgewater—that part of community area number three north of Foster—made a complete break and was named a separate community area in 1980.

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  11. Those darn yuppies, I hate when they move into a neighborhood and raise land values. Who wants to live in a safe community anyway? And whoever made them think they could expect clean streets and parks? Drugs and Trash are what defines chicago! They should all go back to Michigan or Wisconsin, we don't want higher standards and starbucks!

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