The first thing to notice when walking through the halls of the warehouse that lodges the ReBuilding Exchange is the smell. It’s an unexpected scent to find in the middle of a busy city, in a building sandwiched between two storage centers. It’s the smell of sawdust. The odor is just a clue about what’s behind the doors of the Exchange. Rows of sinks line one wall, doors of all shapes and sizes lean stacked against another, and various cabinets serve as a bulky divider along the center of the room. And, of course, there is a massive amount of wood. Read the rest of this entry »

As a lover of good food and explorer of this great city, I couldn’t believe I had lived on the South Side for three years and never heard of the Great American Cheese Collection. Opened about fifteen years ago by Giles Schnierle, this warehouse and foodie destination has over 300 cheeses from around 67 different small producers. Schnierle, a former chef, stepped into gourmet food distribution after selling his catering business in 1986, and eventually found a niche in artisan North American cheeses. Aside from a few retailers in Chicago, Schnierle distributes nearly all of his cheese to chefs and restaurants across the country. Fortunately, you don’t have to be a professional gourmand to walk away with a piece of this valuable collection—the warehouse is open to the public for tastings every Saturday morning. Read the rest of this entry »

The story of Chicago’s Southwest Side is a classically American one. Immigrants—Poles, Lithuanians, Italians, Germans, Czechs—flocked to the area in the early 20th century after the extension of streetcar lines made it an easy commute. Railroads and stockyards—including the famous Union Stock Yard portrayed in Upton Sinclair’s novel “The Jungle”—brought an abundance of jobs to neighborhoods such as Brighton Park and New City. For the next half-century, the primarily residential area thrived, until the industry it relied on began to disappear. In the latter part of the 20th century, the Southwest Side experienced a decline in population and prosperity that coincided with increasingly tense race relations in neighborhoods like Gage and Marquette Parks, where school desegregation met fierce opposition from white residents who feared plummeting property values. Residents in some neighborhoods formed community associations to help cope with the conflict—often successfully, as in the case of diverse, middle-class Gage Park. Today, a growing number of Southwest Side residents are Hispanic—approximately 80 percent in Gage Park and in Little Village, where nearly half that number is foreign-born. The area appears to be on the upswing, thanks in part the construction of the Orange Line connecting Midway Airport to downtown, which has been a boon for property values and the local economy. Read the rest of this entry »

The seven young women onstage at the Zacatecano Cultural Center in Brighton Park last Sunday night were dressed to impress, wearing red tops and black skirts with coiffed hair and makeup fit for a prom night. Over the course of the evening, they strutted their stuff like runway models, and each gave a short speech. Eventually, they knew, one of them would win a crown and a sash and become the “Miss” representative of their community. But this was not your usual beauty pageant—the speeches and introductions were all in Spanish, and the true prize for the winner will be a trip to the Mexican state of Zacatecas, courtesy of the state government. Read the rest of this entry »