Conscious Choice: A Sense of Home

June 2002 | Editor’s Note

A Sense of Home

I lived with my wife in a very tony part of Lincoln Park for seventeen years, first in a tiny one-bedroom courtyard apartment, then in a more spacious two-bedroom in a beautiful, vine-covered three-flat. We were insulated from the rising housing prices in the area by a generous landlady who, in thirteen years, never raised the already low rent. In exchange, we maintained the building. We shoveled snow in the winter, gardened and swept in the summer, bled the boiler, relit the pilot in the water heater after very windy days, and did a variety of repairs and remodeling projects.

The neighborhood was ripe with amenities. There were many restaurants, shops, theaters, parks, even grocery stores and Sherwyn’s Health Foods within walking distance. Everything we needed was close to home. It was pretty idyllic.

The low cost of housing allowed us to pursue work that was more meaningful than wealth-producing. This magazine, which we ran from that apartment in its early years, was a direct beneficiary of our landlady’s largesse. I could not have worked at it for peanuts had I been paying market rent.

Finally, fearing the bubble would someday burst and leave us on the sidewalk in a neighborhood we couldn’t afford, we made plans to become homeowners. All the responsibilities our rental arrangement required had trained us well for the role. So, with just enough money saved for a down payment, we began our search.

To find something we could afford in Chicago’s late-twentieth century housing market we had to move farther west than we at first expected. A serviceable brick two-flat is now home for us, made affordable by the rental income it provides. It’s a comfortable place with enough of a yard for substantial gardening, and it’s ours. All the maintenance and repairs and remodeling we now do are investments in our future instead of chores to make the rent.

Yet we lost the larger sense of home that was our old Lincoln Park neighborhood. We told ourselves at the time we decided to buy that Lincoln Park had become too congested, that we were tired of the noise and the late night revelers in the nearby bars. And we don’t miss those things. But there is very little in our new neighborhood to walk to. Most outings require a trip in the car. It’s almost like living in a suburb.

Someday, that’s bound to change. Gentrification will come to this neighborhood as it has to so many. Already we are seeing condo and townhome infill and larger new constructions just to the east and south. We watch the approaching development with hope and trepidation. We’d like a few nice restaurants and shops we could walk to. But what will happen to the character of the neighborhood in the process? Will it lose its diversity? Will it get noisier, more congested? Will developers have learned from past mistakes or continue the same patterns?

These are questions one can ask about many Chicago neighborhoods. Mark Harris explores the house/home conundrum in our cover story. — Ross Thompson

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