Wicker Park has been cycling through gentrification since the early 1990s, when artists moved into cheap apartments above the commercial strip on Milwaukee Avenue and the creative energy attracted the bars, restaurants, and boutiques that eventually priced the artists out. The cycle has not stopped, but the neighbourhood retains a creative charge that distinguishes it from Lincoln Park's comfortable affluence. The Violet Hour set the cocktail standard from behind its unmarked facade.
Dove's Luncheonette serves Tex-Mex on vinyl. The six-corners intersection where Damen, Milwaukee, and North avenues cross generates a particular Friday-night chaos that is equal parts electric and exhausting. Bucktown, to the north, is Wicker Park's quieter sibling — more residential, more families, the Ipsento coffee shop and the boutiques along Armitage providing the neighbourhood commerce.
The 606 elevated trail connects both to Logan Square, and the Blue Line at Damen station puts the Loop fifteen minutes away. The creative energy is not gone — it has just gotten more expensive.