I was visiting the U of C two years ago in July, and was reminded again of the level of studiousness there, assuming that (more tan) = (less studying), and vice versa--even in sunny mid-July (prime grad student time), I was hard-pressed to see more than a couple students with any visible signs of exposure to the sun. Good news--perhaps a future low incidence of skin cancer among U of C grad students!

There was a story around that time in one of the papers about the remarkable changes in Bronzeville--particularly older houses on one of the boulevards being renovated. I regret I don't recall the name of the street, though.

Good news about Bridgeport, too--perhaps Chicago's legendary neighborhood segregation (not to mention firebombings, closed housing markets, etc.), with enough time and neighborhood change, will become a thing of the past. I agree with toomanybooks' earlier comment, that one can find a sort of...evangelical cosmopolitanism in some of the places mentioned earlier, such as Hyde Park and Oak Park. Perhaps this is because in the context of Chicago, a decision to live somewhere like Hyde Park had meaning and could contrast starkly with a decision to live in other neighborhoods, as it could be understood that the person had a different view on race and class relations, for example. As new people who don't have those historical memories move into neighborhoods, and as time passes and memories fade, perhaps we can hope to see a continued loosening of these meanings within all of the city's neighborhoods.

-Hayden