The Curbed Cup, our annual award to the Chicago neighborhood of the year, is kicking off with 16 neighborhoods vying for the prestigious victory. For this week, we'll introduce two matchups per day, and on Friday, the results from the tournament bracket will be revealed. Voting for each pairing ends 24 hours after it begins. Let the eliminations commence!
More and more people are calling The Loop home, and the population of Chicago's city center continued to boom in 2014. The trend is very likely to continue well into the next couple of years as hundreds of apartment units are currently under construction and slated for delivery in the following years. And as the area becomes more residential, new parks and shopping centers continue to spring up. The Chicago Loop Alliance has made a big effort this year to ensure that underutilized spaces saw more action and the city has even proposed a major plan to add new lighting installations to some of the Loop's most popular attractions and iconic structures.
Morgan Park earned national and international media attention this year, thanks to its Jackie Robinson West Little League team that made it all the way to Little League World Series finals in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Though JRW was unable to defeat a team from Seoul, South Korea to take home the big victory, the team from the far South Side of Chicago unified the city and became a powerful symbol of pride for the entire city. Upon their return to Chicago, the Jackie Robinson West team received a warm welcome home and a parade from their Morgan Park home base up through the Loop. The team helped put their neighborhood on the map, and brought all of Chicago together during their epic run at the Little League World Series, but will Morgan Park be able to defeat the Loop for a chance at the Curbed Cup?
·Previous Loop coverage [Curbed Chicago]
·Previous Morgan Park coverage [Curbed Chicago]
·Curbed Cup 2014 archives [Curbed Chicago]
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