Community Areas / Neighborhoods

From Wikapedia


Community areas in Chicago refers to the work of the Social Science Research Committee at the University of Chicago, which has unofficially divided the city of Chicago into 77 community areas.[1] These areas are well-defined and static. Census data are tied to the community areas, and they serve as the basis for a variety ofurban planning initiatives on both the local and regional levels.

The Social Science Research Committee at University of Chicago defined seventy-five community areas during the late 1920s. At the time, these community areas corresponded roughly to neighborhoods within the city. In the 1950s, with the city's annexations for O'Hare airport, a seventy-sixth community area was added. Other than the creation of the seventy-seventh community area in 1980 (by separating #77 Edgewater from #3 Uptown), boundaries have never been revised to reflect change but instead have been kept relatively stable to allow comparisons of these areas over time.

Although many community areas contain more than one neighborhood, they may also share the same name, or parts of the name, of some of their individual neighborhoods. Community areas often encompass groups of neighborhoods. In some cases, the character of the community area is independent of that of the individual neighborhoods it comprises.



Central


The center city area covers about 3 square miles (7.8 km2), lying roughly between Chicago Avenue (800 North) on the north, Lake Michigan on the east, Roosevelt Road (1200 South) on the south and Halsted (800 West) on the west. This area is city's commercial hub.

The area known as the Loop is a section within downtown, surrounded by elevated tracks of the rapid transit network. Many of downtown's commercial, cultural, and financial institutions are located in the Loop. Today, the Loop is also used to identify the larger downtown area.

River North contains the Magnificent Mile, a concentration of high-end retail. The central area is home to Grant and Millennium Parks, skyscrapers, museums, and shopping; and is the site of the city's largest parades: the annual Christmas, Thanksgiving and Saint Patrick's Day parades. The Chicago Bears play in Soldier Field on the Near South Side.