Chicago Guide
Bucktown, Wicker Park and Ukrainian Village
Located about three miles northwest of the Loop, the Bucktown and Wicker Park neighbourhoods are home to a lively alternative music scene, numerous thrift stores and a thriving bohemian culture of cafés and clubs. Ukrainian Village, the area's younger sibling further south, is grittier and less affected, but not by much: though still dominated by the Eastern European immigrants who settled here a hundred years ago, it is also in the midst of a massive gentrification process by young hipsters and condo dwellers.
While there are no big-ticket sights in any of these locales, you'll find a couple of rewarding pockets of historic nuance, such as the quiet streets of the Wicker Park historic district (especially Hoyne and Pierce aves), lined with some of the city's finest examples of Victorian-era architecture and a striking contrast with the modern, concrete low-rises on the neighbourhood's main drags; many of these old houses have been superbly, if a little self-consciously, restored.
The best way to see these neighbourhoods, however, is after dark; the nightlife here is, hands down, the best in the city, centred on the boisterous "six corners" intersection of Milwaukee, North, and Damen avenues. The other commercial hubs – North Avenue, Division Street and Chicago Avenue – run east– west and serve as the informal dividing lines for Bucktown, Wicker Park and the Ukrainian Village, respectively. While there are some dicey areas west of Western Avenue, the main thoroughfares are well travelled, and are safe. If you keep an eye out as you walk around, you should be fine.