Little Toy Robot

There’s a street in Chicago called Maxwell Street. It’s not far from where I live. It has a history of being a gateway community for recent American immigrants, like Manhattan’s Lower East Side on a much smaller scale, and it was also a center for the Chicago blues scene.

And now the famous Maxwell Street Market has been relocated a few blocks away, and the whole area where Maxwell crosses Halsted, just south of Roosevelt, is being redeveloped under the name University Village Marketplace as UIC grows.

Sounds pretty interesting. Having read about it last month, I decided to hop in the robomobile and pay it a visit (it’s way too cold out to walk even to the bus stop if you don’t have to).

On-street parking looked pretty hit-or-miss but I noticed that the ticket collection mechanism wasn’t working in the parking garage, so I parked there for a few hours for free. Not sure if that was legal.

I went to Barbara’s Bookstore, which is pretty big and well stocked for an independent bookstore (it’s the flagship for the small chain). It had a nice selection of graphic novels and manga, literary fiction, and magazines, in addition to the bestsellers that independent stores are forced to carry to compete with the big chains.

Then I went to Quizno’s for a toasty sub and had a cup of coffee at Caribou. I was going to check out Hashbrowns, the breakfast place, but it was crowded. I noticed a sports bar, a swanky sushi restaurant, and a handful of other places in various states of completion. It looks like it will be a great little area for students on the fringes of the University, and a few statues and plaques pay homage to the neighborhood’s quickly vanishing history.

Understandably, for some people that isn’t enough. There’s a Preserve Maxwell Street site and one that aims to Save Maxwell Street’s Heritage (which is the source of these photos). I was intrigued enough to want to read a little more and pay a few more visits to the area. But I’ll wait until it’s a little warmer out.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 19th, 2006 at 11:16 pm and is filed under chicago.