A Granville afternoon

Granville Avenue is quite the charmer.



The westbound trek from the lake reminds me of the question in that old Sesame Street tune, "who are the people in your neighborhood?" A barista at the Metropolis Coffee Company cafe would tell me on the last leg of my own personal block party that the people of Edgewater stand for what all of Chicago could be.

There is something to be said for encountering no dominant group. No major retailer, tourist attraction, nor any famed Chicago hot spot attracts Chicagoans by the mob. But mapping a 2009 Windy City would be incomplete without lauding what's happenin' at 6200 North. As I would discover, what tugged on me has the same hold on some of its former locals - who still return to the vintage diner, Standees Coffee Shop & Fountain, decades after moving on.

Andrew Bird told his captive audience at the Civic Opera House last night that he once endured pleurisy during his lease at an "old dilapidated hotel" on Granville. Bird has flown this stretch of shore and his reverence for its unvarnished intersections remain in tact. These were the sentiments echoed a dozen times over by the neighborhood's residents every time I asked how they like their home.


So, I ditched my car and headed straight to the first place I knew I could find someone to convince my overprotective father that Granville is a safe street to wander. This Loyola campus police station wasn't always around. It was born of a CAPS effort mobilized by Edgewater residents to quell the "Granville stop" fears.

Having walked the block from the Granville CTA station to turn on Withrop toward a friend's place countless times, I'd always kept my eyes forward while moving at a brisk pace. Ducking guilt bombs month after month - I would ignore Granville's most recognized homeless person. Today would change this.

Chatting up the locals to guage their feelings about Edgewater, I had no idea that I'd passed a GLBT library and community center - a goldmine for Chicago's GLBT community and quite the new nest for my Edgewater character studies.

Of course I'm not the first to notice the news value of this stretch of road. An Indian bbq- restaurant owner told me an Israeli journalism student from Northwestern has been down to ask about the neighborhood's turn around. And a few years back, the Chicago Sun-Times featured this Granville tour in their Drop Zone feature.

The Edgewater Crime Blotter blog might be the neighborhood's most active enthusiast, and I look forward to joining the applause for Granville's comeback.


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