Wicker Park's growing pains

Wicker Park has been Chicago's Mecca for art, music, urban culture and night life for over a decade, but some say it is becoming a victim of its own success - it has become "Lincolnparkfied." Others disagree. Still, this neighborhood offers a lot.

Wicker Park and Bucktown run roughly from Armitage to just before Chicago Ave. and from Ashland to just before Western. It is near the Ukrainian Village and Logan Square neighborhoods.

Wicker Park is known for its music scene and its galleries. Music and art permeate the neighborhood in many ways.

In addition to traditional galleries, neighborhood artists, sculptors and photographers have their works on display at clubs throughout the neighborhood. Subterranean (on North Ave. just west of Damen) displays so much it assigned one of its staff members to manage the installations.

The largest center of gravity is the six-corner intersection of North Milwaukee and Damen. There is another slightly less-developed strip on Division between Ashland and Damen.

Wicker Park's list of notables over the last decade have included rock royalty of no less than the Rolling Stones playing the Double Door, The National Poetry Slam, hosted by many venues in Wicker Park, and the annual Around the Coyote art festival.

Wicker Park is teeming with bars, clubs, restaurants and galleries, but neighborhood economics is changing the very fabric that gave Wicker Park its reputation in the first place.

In 1993, Nick Novich bought a punk bar called Dreamerz on Milwaukee Ave. Out went the skeleton murals; Rob, the tattooed DJ who looked like Johnny Winter with orange hair; and bartender who answered to Rat. Up went a surfboard, a large painting and pop jukebox.

This change was a sign of things to come. "In '93 you could fire a cannon down this street and no one would notice," said Novich reflecting on how the neighborhood has changed. "In '93, customers, would park their cars around the corner, and if they left a jacket, the windows would get smashed. Now [with] 20, 30 people on the street, all this nightlife has reduced crime immensely." Novich also owns the Note on Milwaukee Ave., a 4-a.m. bar featuring DJs and live music.

Punk and indie rock remain mainstays in Wicker Park at places like the Double Door. One of Wicker Park's anchors at the corner of North Milwaukee and Damen, Double Door has a partner in Joe Shanahan owner the Metro and enjoys a strong relationship with Midwest powerhouse promoters Jam Productions. They bring in the next big thing on a weekly basis. Vinyl and all manner of rare CDs can also be found at Reckless Records on Milwaukee.

A very diverse music scene thrives in Wicker Park at other venues like the little Phyllis's Musical Inn on Division where many rockers, comics and poets in the neighborhood get their first gigs.

There is Subterranean, where DJs spin in the lounge downstairs while guitars rock out upstairs. Also in Wicker Park is Pontiac, with its large outdoor patio and DJs or occasionally Hillbilly Bingo (Rockabilly and bingo).

Jazz, funk, hip hop, DJs and even some rock thrive at places like the Note on Milwaukee, which has featured everything from regular weeknight appearances by jazz luminaries like Von Freeman, Kurt Elling, Barrett Deems (who drummed for Frank Sinatra) and Ken Vandermark, to a weekly dose of Chicago samba, to hip hop and reggae nights, and even a recent rock show by the Beer Nuts.

The musical diversity is still there but less integrated than now than it was "back in the day" (early to mid '90s) before the gentrification started in earnest, according to professional musician and DJ RB Green, who spins every Thursday at the Note.

Green has been living or hanging around Wicker Park since the early '90s, and he has seen some subtle but unmistakable changes.

"Everybody's iPod has so many different styles of music that it should work, but it doesn't like it did before," said Green. He believes that the diversity is there but the integration is not. "I wish it could be more diverse. Now you have a rock show or a hip hop show, and they don't mix."

Green thinks gentrification is partially to blame. Artists cannot afford the sky-high rents, and many have moved out of the neighborhood. He said that the sharing-artist mentality has been replaced "Now its 'what do I get out of it.'"

Though Wicker Park is undergoing some change, it is still one of the most diverse, vibrant neighborhoods in the city for art, culture and a nightlife like no other. Said Novich, "It's not like this neighborhood is going to turn into Wilmette, and that's a good thing."