Bridgeport

The typical visitor to Chicago would drive right by Bridgeport. It's not a place that ordinarily attracts visitors as they parachute in. It's a place where people actually live, actually work, and actually live their lives.

It's a neighborhood with a long history - perhaps dating back before the incorporation of Chicago itself. The lots are long and narrow - about 30 feet wide - and the homes are mainly row houses. They're well kept. Judging by the asking prices for real estate in the neighborhood,  it would appear to have become a desirable place to live.

 Kissy Missy and I felt perfectly safe walking through the neighborhood during daylight hours, and even after dark. That sense of security in a residential area is something I've grown used to in small-town Michigan, but not anything I'd ever felt in a large Michigan city.

Even the back alleys were clean.  Perhaps that's a remnant of the days when the Daleys ruled Chicago. The Daley family came from Bridgeport.

Bridgeport once was one of the areas most resistant to racial integration, and it's still got that reputation. That's changed, obviously, as seen in the faces of the riders of the No. 62 CTA bus that serves the neighborhood. 

In fact, Bridgeport is seen as Chicago's most diverse neighborhood. It's a place I wouldn't mind living.