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Visit Chicago's neighborhoods without leaving the house
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A street in The Gap neighborhood/courtesy of dreamtown.com
Think virtual tours are limited to condo sales and tourist attractions? True, most online resources of this nature are trying to sell you something, but if you dig deeper, you can find a handful of sites that will help you scout out Chicago neighborhoods from the comfort of your home.
ChicagoBusiness.com: Lincoln Square
Crain’s Chicago Business reports on neighborhood news better than most local publications—I think largely due to its substantial real estate coverage. Its website features what appears to be a one-off virtual map of Lincoln Square (I searched for maps of other communities but had no luck), which has points of interests that the reader can click on. Some of the highlights include a video of the Old Town School of Folk Music and charts with stats about neighborhood schools and demographics.
Centerstage Chicago: Virtual L Map
This online city guide has a map of all the L stops in the city, followed by a list of all the businesses within walking distance of the stations. The places are divided by categories (i.e. restaurant, bar, art gallery) and can also be filtered by neighborhood or suburb. You can click on the links for details. Definitely could come in handy when you’re looking for a quick bite on your way home from work or want to map out at neighborhood bar crawl.
Chicago Tribune: Obama’s Chicago
While technically this isn’t a neighborhood tour since it covers Obama’s widespread stomping grounds, mostly the Loop, Hyde Park and far South Side, this map provides an interesting glimpse into the presidential candidate’s Chicago past. I could see Obama-maniacs taking a tour of each of the stops, including where he and his wife had their first kiss.
Dreamtown.com: 183 Chicago neighborhoods/regions
Did you know there’s a neighborhood called The Gap—and no it doesn’t exist to sell khakis and striped Ts? I didn’t either. Only real estate agents (or, more specifically, a real estate search engine) could dream up 182 areas from Chicago’s main 77 neighborhoods. And while I’m sure the end goal of dreamtown.com’s virtual tours is to sell more condos, that doesn’t make them any less helpful to the mortgage-adverse. Each community area has a short summary of what it’s all about, along with info on the ‘hood’s history, parks, dining, shopping, nightlife and, of course, real estate facts, including the average home price.
This video starts off with “Welcome to downtown Chicago, also known as the Loop,” so it’s definitely narrated for that family of four from Minneapolis who came in town to shop. It highlights some questionable “attractions,” like L stops, but does a decent job showcasing some of the Loop’s famed buildings. The site also has a video about Wrigleyville, but just when it was starting to talk about how there’s more to the Cubs-fanatic ‘hood than partying, the video broke. Maybe it’s trying to tell us something?
Want to actually see a neighborhood for yourself? Sign up for one of these tours of Chicago neighborhoods.
A look at the city's top-5 most diverse 'hoods.
Map out on your neighborhood tour with Google Map's Street View function.
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