Get to know Wicker Park

Wicker Park is on the edge of downtown Chicago, and it’s on the cutting edge of Chicago culture. Through the ‘80s and ‘90s, it was the sort of distressed community that attracted musicians and artists with its low rents and counterculture attitude. Some of Chicago’s biggest rock bands met, rehearsed, and recorded here; artists and actors lived in the garrets and rundown apartments. Kids from the suburbs would come in over the weekends just to hang out somewhere cool. And Wicker Park was undeniably cool. Inevitably counterculture becomes culture, and Wicker Park got cleaned up. Apartment buildings were refurbished, and abandoned factories became luxury lofts. Farmers’ markets came in, along with cute coffee shops, European cafes, and on-trend clothing boutiques. While it may have lost its edge, Wicker Park has not lost its cool, and it’s still home to hip iconoclasts — they just live in nicer apartments now.