Chicago's a city of neighborhoods, but where exactly those neighborhoods begin and end has always been a matter of debate. After running a visualization experiment where Chicagoans can draw the borders of where they think their neighborhood is, DNAinfo Chicago discovered that more than any other neighborhood, the South Loop has the least agreement among residents. If you've ever lived in the South Loop or tried to describe it to someone, you may have noticed a similar problem: nobody can agree where its borders actually are. As a neighborhood, the South Loop was way off most people's radars until quite recently when the early-2000s real estate boom saw tons of new condo and apartment towers sprouting up in the once-blighted area.
As the area continues to develop, the generic "South Loop" label might become less and less relevant as smaller neighborhoods establish their own identities just like how there's no no "North Loop" neighborhood. Printer's Row is already a smaller neighborhood within the South Loop, and the huge expanse of undeveloped land along the river near Roosevelt Road might soon get developed and rebranded as River South. The McCormick area is also well on its way to establishing itself as an entertainment district and could use its own name as well. When considering all of its pocket neighborhoods, it's easy to see why this particular area can be so difficult to define.
·Where Does The South Loop Start and End? Borders a Work in Progress [DNAinfo Chicago]
·Previous South Loop coverage [Curbed Chicago]
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