

My neighborhood is called Pilsen, located on the southwest side of Chicago. It has a rich and fantastic history as a place that was once home to poor European immigrants and is now almost entirely Mexican—another kind of poor immigrant. You can tell that Pilsen has a diverse history just from looking around at the buildings. Many are from the turn of the century and still have Polish or Czech words on them, which is a striking difference to the modern signage which is almost exclusively in Spanish. 
Pilsen has a smattering of big, amazing churches. One by my house is called St. Aldabert’s. Schools and public buildings are also quite large and monumental, like the elementary school I live across the street from, which must be at least 80 years old. There is also a nice post office and some old bank buildings. One of the neatest things to see in Pilsen are the street murals. Maybe some people would consider it graffiti, but there is quite a bit of very fancy, excruciatingly made murals all over the walls in Pilsen, and it is famous for the arts.
Along with having a lot of galleries, Pilsen also features a number of good restaurants, like Nuevo Leon and La Cebollita (both Mexican restaurants). The Jumping Bean Café is also a great stop. There are also a few good thrift stores around the neighborhood, like Pilsen Vantage and Thirft and Knee Deep. One other great thing about Pilsen is Harrison Park, which is a large park with sports facilities, that is always full of people having fun. Harrison park sits right next to the National Mexican Art museum, which features paintings from Mexican artists. 
Just like Pilsen has changed so much in the past, since it changed from being mostly white to being mostly Hispanic, the neighborhood is still changing today. Especially in the east part of Pilsen, which is closer to downtown and the University of Illinois at Chicago, young urban professionals, many of them white, are moving in. These people bring their own flavor to the neighborhood and create an eclectic mix of young urban professionals, hipsters, and mostly low-income Mexican-Americans and Mexican immigrants.  The new residents come with all of the other features of gentrification, like more services, as well as higher prices and property values. Local residents don’t all agree whether the “gentrifiers” are more of a force for good or ill, with some appreciating the neighborhood becoming cleaner and safer, and others distrusting the new residents and not liking the increased prices, which often mean higher rents or high property taxes. Nevertheless, there is a sizeable population of young and trendy, often white, people in Pilsen. I have to say that I belong to this subset, and that I appreciate the increasing diversity. Just a few years ago you wouldn’t see many African- or Asian-Americans, here but now you see all kinds of people on the street. Pilsen is still changing.


