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West Ridge, Chicago

West Ridge
Community area
Community Area 02 - West Ridge
Location within the city of Chicago
Location within the city of Chicago
Streetmap
Streetmap
Location within the city of Chicago
Location within the city of Chicago
Coordinates: 42°00′N 87°41.4′W / 42.000°N 87.6900°W / 42.000; -87.6900Coordinates: 42°00′N 87°41.4′W / 42.000°N 87.6900°W / 42.000; -87.6900
Country United States
State Illinois
County Cook
City Chicago
Neighborhoods
Area
 • Total 3.53 sq mi (9.14 km2)
Population (2010)
 • Total 71,942
 • Density 20,000/sq mi (7,900/km2)
Demographics 2010
 • White 42.68%
 • Black 11.14%
 • Hispanic 20.43%
 • Asian 22.5%
 • Other 3.25%
Time zone CST (UTC-6)
 • Summer (DST) CDT (UTC-5)
ZIP Codes 60645 and parts of 60659
Median Household income $47,323
Source: U.S. Census, Record Information Services

West Ridge is one of 77 Chicago community areas. It is a middle-class neighborhood located on the far North Side of the City of Chicago. It is located in the 50th Ward. Also historically called North Town, and frequently referred to as West Rogers Park, it is bordered on the north by Howard Street, on the east by Ridge Boulevard, Western Avenue, and Ravenswood Avenue, the south by Bryn Mawr Avenue and Peterson Avenue, and on the west by Kedzie Avenue and the North Shore channel of the Chicago River. At one time joined with neighboring Rogers Park, it seceded to become its own village in 1890 over a conflict concerning park districts (known as the Cabbage War). West Ridge was annexed to Chicago on April 4, 1893, along with Rogers Park.

Today West Ridge is one of Chicago's better off communities, filled with thriving multi-ethnic culture lining Devon Avenue, historic mansions lining Ridge and Lunt Avenues, cultural institutions such as St. Scholastica Academy and one of the highest per capita incomes on the North Side of Chicago. It had been represented in the Chicago City Council by Alderman Bernard Stone from 1973 until May 2011. On April 5, 2011, Alderman Debra Silverstein defeated Stone in a runoff election and now represents the 50th Ward, which encompasses West Ridge.

It is home to the Midwest's largest Hasidic community, as well as other Jewish, Irish American, German-American, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Assyrian, Russian, and Korean immigrant communities.

The Golden Ghetto is bounded on the north by Warren Park and Pratt Avenue and on the south by Peterson Avenue. It acquired its name from the thriving Jewish community there from about 1930 to the mid-1970s. That community began to drift into the suburbs in the 1960s, and the neighborhood began to be home to South Asians and Russian Jews from about that time.


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