West Ridge, Chicago
West Ridge | |
|---|---|
| Community Area 02 - West Ridge | |
 Streetmap | |
 Location within the city of Chicago | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Illinois |
| County | Cook |
| City | Chicago |
| Neighborhoods | List |
| Area | |
| • Total | 3.53 sq mi (9.14 km2) |
| Population (2000) | |
| • Total | 73,199 |
| • Density | 21,000/sq mi (8,000/km2) |
| population up 11.97% from 1990 | |
| Demographics | |
| • White | 49.7% |
| • Black | 6.78% |
| • Hispanic | 15.5% |
| • Asian | 22.3% |
| • Other | 5.65% |
| Time zone | UTC-6 (CST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
| ZIP Codes | 60645 and parts of 60659 |
| Median income | $41,144 |
| Source: U.S. Census, Record Information Services | |
West Ridge is one of 77 Chicago community areas. It is a middle class neighborhood located on the far North Side of the City of Chicago. It is located in the 50th Ward. Also historically called North Town, it is bordered on the north by Howard Street, on the east by Ridge Boulevard, Western Avenue, and Ravenswood Avenue, the south by Bryn Mawr Avenue and Peterson Avenue, and on the west by Kedzie Avenue and the North Shore channel of the Chicago River. At one time joined with neighboring Rogers Park, it separated in the 1890's over a conflict concerning park districts (known as the Cabbage War.)
Today West Ridge is one of Chicago's better off communities, filled with thriving multi-ethnic culture lining Devon Avenue, historic mansions lining Ridge and Lunt Avenues, cultural institutions such as St. Scholastica Academy and one of the highest per capita incomes on the Northside of Chicago. It is represented in City Council by Alderman Bernard Stone.
It is home to the Midwest's largest Hasidic community, as well as other Jewish, Irish American, German-American, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Assyrian, Russian, and Korean immigrant communities.
Golden Ghetto
The Golden Ghetto is bounded on the north by Warren Park and Pratt Avenue and on the south by Peterson Avenue. It acquired its name from the thriving Jewish community there from about 1930 to the mid-1970s. That community began to drift into the suburbs in the 1960s, and the neighborhood began to be home to South Asians and Russian Jews from about that time.
The heyday of the area is the topic of Adam Langer's Crossing California, told from the perspective of the second-generation residents during their middle school and teenage years.
Schools
- ABC Academy
- Bethesda Evangelical Lutheran School
- Bnos Rabbeinu High School
- Cheder Lubavitch Girls High School
- Clinton Elementary School
- Daniel Boone Elementary School
- Stephen Decatur Classical School
- George Armstrong Elementary School
- Hanna Sacks Bais Yaakov High School
- Ida Crown Jewish Academy
- Jamieson Elementary School
- Joan Dachs Bais Yaakov High School
- Keshet High School
- Mather High School
- NAES College
- Philip Rogers Elementary School
- St. Hilary Elementary School
- St. Margaret Mary School
- St. Philips Evangelical Lutheran School
- St. Scholastica Academy
- Stone Elementary Academy
- Tzemach Tzedek Elementary School
- Vicytor C. Neumann School
- Yeshivas Brisk
- Yeshiva Migdal Torah School
- Yeshiva Shearis Yisroel-Veitzner Chedder
External links
- Official City of Chicago West Ridge Community Map
- Chicago Park District: Indian Boundary Park
- Lakeside Community Development Corporation
- Photographs of Devon Avenue by Jordan Bettis
- Rogers Park West Ridge Historical Society
Places adjacent to West Ridge, Chicago | |
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