Back of the Yards
Sticking Up for Lacrosse
Paul looked on appreciatively from the sidelines as his son came off the bench for the first time in the game. Two years younger and a head shorter than the other players around him, Paul Jr. chased down stray balls with his netted stick and an outsized passion that more than compensated for his... »
Breakdown
The communal dining room and kitchen at Northwest Mental Health Center has long been a fixture of programming at the clinic. Rosa Torres, who has worked as a clinical therapist at Northwest for 21 years, recalls how busy the kitchen used to be. Many of the clinic’s Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Support (PSR) programs were... »
Redistricting Fault Lines
On October 25, the assembly hall of the Hyde Park Union Church was nearly empty. This gathering was a preliminary informational meeting concerning a process that Chicago undergoes every decade—aldermanic ward redistricting. »
Back of the Yards
Just southwest of the former Union Stockyards, there’s a neighborhood that, for better or for worse, will always be defined by them. While the area is still heavily blue-collar, the grim realities of stockyard life immortalized in Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” have drifted off into history. »
New Brews
Started by Samuel and his brother Jesse, the New Chicago Brewing Company, which is currently under construction, will soon occupy 13,000 sq. ft. of the Peer Foods Building in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. In this post-Goose Island buyout world, the brewery aims to utilize innovative and sustainable brewing practices to create a... »
Swap ’til You Drop: A look inside a South Side flea market
Buyers beware: at the Ashland Avenue Swap-O-Rama, you can buy everything and the kitchen sink. Set just north of the once-booming Chicago stockyards, the flea market is a sea of vendors, shoppers, and products on a sunny Thursday; by noon, there’s a long line of bargain hunters waiting to pay the $1 admission fee.... »
